Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/217

Rh done, partly as a result of the Tractarian Movement, for the cultivation of theology.

Within the period under discussion many theological colleges have been started for the education of the clergy. It was a saying fifty years ago that a gentleman made the fool of his family a clergyman, but such a state of things is not possible now, even if it were true then. It is true that before the Oxford Movement the majority of the unbeneficed clergy were chiefly distinguished for their theological ignorance. The general training they received was a University education, and the standard of education then at the Universities was nothing like as high as the standard is now. The lack of theological knowledge on the part of the clergy was for a long time deplored. It was rightly thought that no man should take Holy Orders who had not made a special study of the subjects on which he was expected to be an authority. It was to meet this deficiency that theological Colleges were started, and many of the clergy of the present generation have had a course of training at them after they had taken their degrees at the University. Some clergy have gone to them who have had no University training, and they are far better equipped for their work of life than some of the old clergy who took an old degree without any theological training. Among the Colleges, whose work is what I have now referred to, we must mention S. David's Lampeter, Wells Theological College, S. Aidan's, Lichfield, Salisbury, Gloucester, Ely, and Truro. There is a splendid clergy school at Leeds. Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, were started to teach theology. Colleges have also been formed for the education of foreign