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The Election and Inthronization of William Wake as Archbishop of Canterbury
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
Extract
‘A gentleman having said that a congé d'élire has not, perhaps, the force of a command, but may be considered only as a strong recommendation: “Sir,” replied Johnson, who overheard him, “it is such a recommendation as if I should throw you out of a two pair of stairs window, and recommend you to fall soft”.’ The vigour of Dr Johnson's forthright observation is evident; but not uncommonly in constitutional history the preservation of outward forms, from which the living spirit seems long to have departed, may be of great value in continuing a tradition, which unexpected changes in circumstances may restore to influence. The good doctor himself declared his readiness to ‘stand before a battery of cannon to restore the Convocation to its full powers’; and it was the careful maintenance of the external forms of convocational procedure during its protracted hibernation between 1717 and 1852 which enabled its restoration to its full powers during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Thus it might not be unexpected that when so learned a scholar and stickler for traditional forms as William Wake was nominated to the see of Canterbury, he should take especial pains to ensure that all the customary stages were most carefully followed and fulfilled.
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References
page 96 note 1 Dean of Canterbury to Wake. 21 Dec. 1715. Arch. W. Epist. VI. Canterbury I.
page 97 note 1 Dr E. Sydall to Wake. 1 January 1715–16. Ibid.
page 97 note 2 Cathedral Library, Canterbury, Register 33, f. 176, verso. Also Box ‘K’.
page 97 note 3 ibid., f. 177; and in Box ‘K’.
page 98 note 1 ibid., f. 177, and in Box ‘K’.
page 98 note 2 ibid., f. 177 verso, and Box ‘K’.
page 98 note 3 ibid., f. 177 verso, and Box ‘K’.
page 98 note 4 Dr E. Sydall to Wake, 5 January 1715–16, 3 p.m. Arch. W. Epist. VI. Canterbury I.
page 98 note 5 Register of Abp Wake, vol. i. f. 1a, Lambeth Palace Library.
page 99 note 1 Dean of Canterbury to Wake 16 January 1715–16. Arch. W. Epist. VI, Canterbury I.
page 99 note 2 Chapter Library Canterbury: Memoranda Book of Thomas Greene, archdeacon of Canterbury, f. 55 verso for the oath taken by Tenison.
page 99 note 3 Dean of Canterbury to Wake 28 May 1716. Arch. W. Epist. VI, Canterbury I.
page 100 note 1 Archdeacon of Canterbury to Wake 28 May 1716. Ibid.
page 100 note 2 For the inthronization: Arch. W. Epist. VI, Canterbury I. Instrumentum sive Processus Installations et Inthronizationis Reverendissimi in Christo Patris in Domino Domini Gulielmi, Providentia Divina Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, totius Angliae Primatis et Metropolitani. Also Chapter Act Book 1711–1726; in which between ff. 44 and 45 is inserted a copy of the same Instrumentum.