CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO
4. Against this proceeding I appealed to the Queen in Council, and Her Majesty was pleased to declare that the proceedings of the Bishop of Cape Town in my case, and bis (so-called) judgment and sentence, were " null and void at law," and to direct all persons concerned to take notice of this Her decision, and to govern themselves accordingly.
5. The Bishop of Cape Town, notwithstanding, has persisted in his course of proceeding, in defiance of Her Majesty's authority, and has appointed the Very Reverend James Green to act as his "Vicar General" in this Colony, for the carrying out of his unlawful measures.
6. In the discharge of this office, which he has accepted, Mr. Green published in my cathedral church, on Sunday, January 7th, a sentence of excommunication which had been issued by the Bishop of Cape Town, a copy which I have the honour to enclose to your Excellency.
7. I beg also to enclose a copy of a letter addressed by Mr. Green to one of the clergy of this Diocese, who read prayers in my presence and by my direction, on Sunday the 28th of January, in the said cathedral church.
8. I think it my duty also to inform your Excellency that Mr. Green has altogether refused to recognize the Episcopal office and authority which I hold, by Her Majesty's Letters Patent, as Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in this Colony; and further that he is not license by me to act as a clergyman of the said church in this Diocese.
9. Under the above circumstances I feel it to be my duty to say that I do not consider Mr. Green to be a fit person to receive a grant from the Colonial Treasury as a chaplain of the said church.
10. And I beg to recommend that the allowance of 100% per annum now paid to him as such may be withdrawn, and appropriated otherwise for the support of a clergyman of the said church in Pietermaritzburg, as your Excellency may see fit to order.
His Excellency J. J. Bisset, Col,
Administrator of the Government,
&c.
&c.
&c.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
J. W. NATAL.
COLONIAL BISHOPRICS.
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my painful duty to inform you that I have to-day written to the Society for Propagating the Gospel to announce to them what you have dene, and undertaken to notily to you that you must consider your engagement with the Society at an end from this date, and that you must draw no further billa upon them beyond what are necessary to meet your salary for this month.
I remain, &c.
To the Rev. A. Tönnesen.
(Signed)
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
NATA
JAMES GREEN,
Vicar-General.
Encl. 2. in No. 1.
Letter from the
Lord Bishop of Natal, dated
Government House, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, February 12, 1866.
6th Feb. 1866. page 1.
REFERRED to the Very Reverend the Dean of Pietermaritzburg, with reference to Govern- Notarial copy ment Notice, No. 105, 1865, dated 10th August, and published in the Government Gazette of the of an Act of 15th August 1865, and the Order of the Queen in Council, for any observations he may wish ton against the Excommunica to offer.
Lo,d Bishop of The enclosures are requested to be returned.
Natal, purport-
The Very Reverend
the Dean of Pietermaritzburg,
(Signed)
JOHN J. BISSET, Col., Acting Lieutenant-Governor.
ing to be
signed by the Lord I!ishop of Cene Town. Cony of a letter addressed by you to the Rer. Mr. Tonnesen, dated 29th Jan.
sign yourself
in which you
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
Pietermaritzburg, February 14, 1866.
- Vicar- General," page 2.
Encl. 3. in No. 1.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
ת! ן !
Reference ...
C.O.885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
(18)
I, Theophilus Shepstone, junior, of the city of Pietermaritzburg, in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, notary public, by the authority of Government duly admitted and sworn, do hereby certify and attest unto all whom it may concern, that I have this day collated and compared with the original the copy hereunto annexed of the sentence of the greater excommunication by Robert Gray, Lord Bishop of Capetown, passed upon John William Colenso, D.D., Lord Bishop of Natal, dated the 16th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1865, and affixed to the door of the cathedral church in this city on the 7th day of January instant.
And I the said notary do further certify and attest that the same is a true and faithful copy of the said original, and agrees therewith in every respect.
An act whereof being required, I have granted these presents under my notarial form, to serve and avail as occasion shall or may require.
Thus done and passed at the city of Pietermaritzburg aforesaid, this 23rd day of January, in the year of our Lord 1866.
(Signed) THEO. SHEPSTONE, junt.
As witnesses-
(Signed) (Signed)
J. MELVILLE
SAML. BUTTON.
In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notary Public.
We, Robert, by Divine permission Metropolitan of the Church in the Province of Capetown, in accordance with the decision of the Bishops of the Province in Synod assembled, do hereby, it being our office and our grief to do so, by the authority of Christ committed unto us, pass upon Jehu William Colenso, D.D., the sentence of the greater excommunication, thereby separating him from the communion of the Church of Christ so long as he shall obstinately and impenitently persist in his heresy, and claim to exercise the office of a Bishop within the Province of Capetown. And we do hereby make known to the faithful in Christ, that, being thus excluded from all communion with the Church, he is, according to our Lord's command, and in conformity with the provision of the 33rd of the "Articles of Religion," "to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful ne an heathen man and publican." (Matt. xviii. 17, 18.)
Given under our hand and seal this 16th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1865.
(Signed) R. CAPE TOWN.
COPY of LETTER from the Very Reverend JAMES GREEN, M.A., to the Rev. A. TONNESEN. REVEREND SIR,
Pietermaritzburg, January 29, 1866.
I HAVE been credibly informed that yesterday you joined with Dr. Colenso in saying the Common Prayers of the Church in the Cathedral, notwithstanding that he is excommunicated, and that the fu tlful are thereby forbidden from holding such communion with him. It becomes, the efore,
SIB,
I HAVE given my careful consideration to the letter of the Bishop of Natal, referred to me by your Excellency, and also to Her Majesty's Order in Council, to which you at the same time directed my attention.
2. In the second paragraph of his letter his Lordship states that he appointed me to be Dean; but as no argument is based thereon, I have no comment to make.
3. The third, fourth, and half of the fifth paragraph relate entirely to the Bishop of Cape Town not to myself.
4. The latter half of the fifth states, that the Bishop of Cape Town appointed me his Vicar- General "for the carrying out of his unlawful measures." It is admitted that the Bishop of Cape Town "is appointed by Her Majesty's Letters Patent Metropolitan Bishop within the Queen's dominions " in South Africa." To be assistant, therefore, to the Metropolitan in the discharge of the functions of his office, must, under such circumstances, be consistent with the deepest loyalty to the Throne; accordingly the Bishop of Natal does not assert that it was incompetent for me to accept the appoint- ment of Vicar-General. A charge, however, is brought against the Metropolitan with regard to the purpose he had in view in making the appointment. I am not responsible for his intentions, nor indeed am I accused of being privy to them. On referring to my commission, which I may remark the Bishop of Natal has not seen, I discover nothing to lead me to suspect that which he accuses the Metropolitan of
5. The sixth and seventh paragraphs report two nets of mine, but I do not perceive any complaint or charge founded upon them. In the sixth it is stated that Mr. Green published a sentence of excommunication; but it is not shown in what capacity, whether as Vicar-General, or Dean, or Colonial Chaplain, nor that the act was more than ministerial, or that I had any option. The rubric in the Prayer Book requires that after the rehearsal of the Nicene Creed," Brief Citations, Excom- munications," be read. Excommunications, therefore, are known to the Church; and further the Bishop of Natal, to my knowledge, on one occasion excommunicated a native layman. Whatever, therefore, be the object of paragraph 6, I cannot think it is intended to found a charge against me. Para- graph refers to a letter of mine, in which I inform Mr. Tönnesen that the effect of an act of his is to sever his connexion with the Society for Propagating the Gospel. I believe it to be as I have stated to him.
10
6. The eighth paragraph states that I have refused to recognize "the Episcopal office and authority
which the writer holds by Her Majesty's Letters Patent as Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in this Colony." I have two remarks to make upon this.
(a) That in a letter to the Bishop of Cape Town, written and published by the Bishop of Natal, dated 1st January 1866, he observes as follows: "We are now but voluntary associations. "must henceforth take our stand like the other religious bodies, and labour to extend our influence, We not by asserting any fancied power or privileges which the Church of England has by virtue of "the Royal Supremacy,' the Apostolje Descent, the Episcopal Authority,' but by exhibiting the "intrinsic excellence of our syetem." Ile, therefore, regards the episcopal authority, which he considers I refuse to recognize, as only a fancied power or privilege.
(b) The late Lord Chancellor of England has pronounced certain clauses in the Letters Patent to which the Bishop of Natal refers as simply void in law;" and doubts exist in men's minds as to how much of the said Letters me valid in law. Her Majesty's Attorney General, in his place in
A 2
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