The Last of the Prince Bishops 4 - Toil and tribulation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
Summary
In March 1819 John Parsons, the reforming Master of Balliol, personal friend of Van Mildert and Bishop of Peterborough, died. Marsh, who had become Bishop of Llandaff in 1816, was translated to Peterborough. Liverpool offered Van Mildert Llandaff.
Van Mildert hesitated over the financial implications:
Until, by your Lordship's unexpected patronage & recommendation, I was brought to my present station, my preferments had been very inconsiderable in point of emolument, & my private means scarcely sufficient to my station. Consequently, I am now but just beginning to reap the fruits of my improved condition: & I feel it incumbent upon me to weigh well the possibility of involving myself in any pecuniary difficulties by accepting a higher station.
This was entirely reasonable; it was the poorest diocese, with net revenues averaging £924 per annum. Herbert Marsh, congratulated by a friend on his elevation to Llandaff in 1816, replied, ‘You had better call me the Bishop of' Aff, for the land is gone.’
As a temporary measure, Liverpool agreed to Van Mildert's keeping Bow, Ewelme and the Regius Professorship in commendam. In January 1820 Liverpool offered him the Archbishopric of Dublin, assuring him he ‘need make no scruple about accepting it upon the ground that not being an Irishman your appointment might be unpopular in Ireland’.
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- The Last of the Prince BishopsWilliam Van Mildert and the High Church Movement of the Early Nineteenth Century, pp. 89 - 122Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992