Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/458

 would gladly have changed his professorship for that of ecclesiastical history. In 1869 he spent much labour in preparing for the press Cardinal J. de Torquemada's treatise on the 'Immaculate Conception,' a fifteenth-century treatise reissued at Pusey's instigation to influence the Vatican council. Between 1875 and 1879 he was rector of the Oriel living of Cholderton on Salisbury Plain, and spent his summers there until his resignation in 1879. After 1876 he acted as chaplain to Balliol College, and in 1878 he was sorely tempted by the offer of the living of the university church of St. Mary's. In April 1879 he accepted a canonry at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, vacated by the promotion of Joseph Barber Lightfoot [q. v.] to the bishopric of Durham. He appreciated this preferment very much ; it was the first tangible recognition in his own country of his great work ; it gave him an ecclesiastical position in which he could urge his opinions with authority, a residence in London which was helpful to his historical work, and emoluments which put him in easy circumstances. His friendship with the dean, Richard William Church [q. v. Suppl. I], and other members of the chapter made his personal relations pleasant. During his periods of residence he worked on the muniments and chronicles of St. Paul's, and took immense pains with his Sunday afternoon sermons, though he humorously quoted the newspapers which said 'the sermons in the morning and evening were preached by Mr. A. and Mr. B., in the afternoon the pulpit was occupied by the canon in residence' (, p. 131). In fact his sermons became exceedingly weighty, valuable, and strong, though he made too great demands on the attention of his hearers ever to attract the immense congregations which flocked to hear Liddon.

In 1881 Stubbs was appointed a member of the royal commission on ecclesiastical courts, and was present at every one of the seventy-five sessions which that body held between May 1881 and July 1883. Church called him 'the hero of the commission' ( Life, p. 312). He took a leading part in its debates, waged fierce war against 'lawyers' and the 'Erastians' among his colleagues, and presented suggestions for a final court of appeal which left to ecclesiastical tribunals the sole determination of points of ritual and doctrine. He drew up five historical appendices to the report in which he discussed the nature of the courts which exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England at various times, the trials for heresy up to 1533, the acts by which the clergy recognised the royal supremacy, and some aspects of the power and functions of convocation. There can be no doubt of the permanent value of the great bulk of the very careful and detailed research contained in these appendices. Nevertheless some of the main positions maintained by Stubbs were subjected to damaging criticism from Professor Frederic William Maitland [q. v. Suppl. II], in articles published in the 'English Historical Review' of 1896 and 1897, and soon afterwards in book form as 'Roman Canon Law in the Church of England' (1898). It may be recognised that Stubbs minimised unduly the authority of the Pope as 'universal ordinary' and suggested the unhistorical view that the English church might, and did, accept or reject canonical legislation emanating from the Papacy, and that without such acceptance Roman canon law was not held to be binding in the English ecclesiastical courts. Stubbs himself never dealt with Maitland's arguments, but contented himself with affirming that his appendices contained 'true history and the result of hard work' (preface to third edit, of Seventeen Lectures).

In Feb. 1884 Stubbs was offered by Gladstone the bishopric of Chester. Accepting the post he was consecrated on 25 April in York Minster by Archbishop Thomson. Bidding adieu to the university on 8 May in the characteristic last statutory public lecture (published in his ' Seventeen Lectures,' 1886), he was enthroned in Chester Cathedral on 24 June. For a time he cherished the hope of carrying on his historical work, but his edition for the Rolls Series of the 'Gesta regum Anglorum' and the 'Historia novella' of William of Malmesbury, published in two volumes in 1887 and 1889, mark the practical conclusion of his historical labours. He maintained to the last his interest in his subject, and was never weary in aiding his friends and disciples with advice and substantial assistance. He kept up with the best work done in his subject in England and Germany, though somewhat blind to the new school of mediæval historians growing up in France. He had, however, little sympathy now for historical novelties. The conservative note sounded in the new preface to the last edition of the 'Select Charters' published in his life-time is characteristic of his later attitude (preface to eighth edit. 1895).

As bishop, Stubbs was at his best when