Frederick Temple - Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury

As archbishop he presided in 1897 over the decennial Lambeth Conference. In the same year Dr Temple and Archbishop of York William Maclagan issued a joint response to Apostolicae Curae, an encyclical of the pope which denied the validity of Anglican orders. In 1899 the archbishops again acted together, when an appeal was addressed to them by the united episcopate, to rule on the use of incense in divine service and on the carrying of lights in liturgical processions. After hearing the arguments the two archbishops decided against both practices. During his archbishopric Dr Temple was deeply distressed by the divisions which were weakening the Anglican Church, and many of his most memorable sermons were calls for unity.

His first charge as primate on "Disputes in the Church" was felt to be a most powerful plea for a more catholic and a more charitable temper, and again and again during the closing years of his life he came back to this same theme. He was zealous also in the cause of foreign missions, and in a sermon preached at the opening of the new century he urged that a supreme obligation rested upon Britain at this epoch in the world's history to seek to evangelise all nations. In 1900 he presided over the World Temperance Congress in London, and on one occasion preached in the interests of women's education.

In 1902 he discharged the important duties of his office at the coronation of King Edward VII, but the strain at his advanced age told upon his health. During a speech which he delivered in the House of Lords on 2 December 1902 on the Education Bill of that year, he was taken ill, and, though he revived sufficiently to finish his speech, he never fully recovered, and died on 23 December 1902. He was interred in Canterbury Cathedral four days later. His second son, William Temple, became Archbishop of Canterbury some years later.