FURTHER 199 JORRESFONDENCE IN THE MATTER BETWEEN THE BISHOP OF BATH and WELLS VICAR and CURATE of FROME. LONDON ; PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, HEES, ORME, AND BROWNE, PATKRNOSTER-ROW ; AND SOLD BY CROCKER, FROME; VFHAM, BARRATT, MEYLERS', AND BINN3 AND ROBINSON, BATH. MEYLERS, PRINTERS, BATH. 1820. Ex Litiris C. K. OGDEN j J THE LIBRARY .OTrjr.^ ~.T7 i" A T TT7r^T>T>>TT USJuL X wi/ UAljijL' *>i*ri*-*J S.55S AN^T.ES No. 1. The Curate of Frame to the Bishop of Bath and Wells. " Frame, June 1st, 1820. " MY LORD, " THE injurious treatment to which I have been exposed has now for some time been before the public, whose sentiments on the subject can not, I presume, be un- known to your Lordship. " Since I have been Curate of Frome, I have laboured, and I thank God, not un- successfully, in defence of our Apostolic and Episcopal Church. The Bishop of Bath and Wells has applauded my labors.* The Bishop of Bath and Wells, has, as it should seem, on account of those labours, " sanctioned and authorized" the Vicar of Frome to adopt measures for my ejection from my Curacy !-|- This assertion, my See the Bishop of Bath and Wells' letter to the Curate of Frome in the Correspondence annexed to a Sermon entituled " The Sin of Schitm demonstrated." Page 135, 3d edition. f See the Vicar of Frame's letter in the same publication. Page 149, 3d edition. 1C9; Lord, I ground on the Vicar's own words, under his own hand-writing. If the Vicar speaks truth, then doubtless your Lordship has deeply injured me, more especially as you acted on a partial statement, and never called on me for my defence, nor even com- municated with me on the subject : and if the Vicar does not speak truth, then it is scarcely credible that your Lordship should not, as an obvious act of justice to your- self, no less than to me, by this time have publicly contradicted his assertion. " My Lord, there is an uncourtliness in my nature that but ill adapts me to ask favours. It is true that I am but a Curate, but I cannot stoop to supplicate prefer- ment from any man. This I premise lest you should imagine, that in what I am about to say, I am seeking ecclesiastical advancement at your hands. I ask no- thing.- I seek nothing. My clerical cha- racter has been wounded ; whether inten- tionally or unintentionally I neither know nor care. To me the consequences are alike injurious. I look to you to heal it. Assured of the goodness of my cause I have indeed stood firm to the Curacy of Frome,* and will stand. But this is my own act. This does not heal the wound that you have occasioned. Towards this your Lordship has, as yet, done nothing. It is for you to obliterate the past. It is for you to restore me to the eyes of the world unimpeached and unstigmatized as I was before you consented to Mr. Phil- lott's adopting measures for my ejection. " Most deeply do I lament to utter a syllable that might in the slightest degree hurt the feelings of a venerable man like your Lordship, who has passecV with credit through a long life, and is now lingering on the borders of time about to wing his way to eternity ; but, my respected Lord, I can not forbear uttering what I so ac- cutely feel. Be it remembered that if you are retiring from the sta^e of life, J am o o * young, and just commencing my clerical career, in which all my hopes, all my pros- pects, and all my dependence are centred ; The term of the notice which was given me by Mr. C. Phillott, the Vicar of Frome, as he says under the " sanction and with authority from the Bishop of Bath and Wells," expired on the 17th of May: since which time I have persevered in acting on my License. 6 and that I am commencing it stigmatized by you. "Ami rny Lord, to stay in Frome amidst the taunts of the enemies of the Church who are triumphing in the know- ledge that my continued exertions in de- fence of its constitution and doctrines, against the prevailing prejudices and lax notions of the times, have nearly lost me the situation I fill, and involved me in the severest infliction with which my Diocesan could visit me :-~-or am I to relinquish that situation, and, both stigmatized and baf- fled renounce the cause of truth? AND IS IT THUS, MY LORD, THAT THE CHURCH IS AT LAST TO SUCCUMB TO THE CoN- VENT1CLE. " I plead not, my Lord, for mysrlf alone. For myself, were 1 alone con- cerned, I should but little care. I plead for the honor of the Church for the ho- nour of the sacred cause I have espoused a cause which at my Ordination I was solemnly pledged to uphold. '* In writing thus J seek not to have the matter confined between ourselves. No! my conduct shall ever be manly and open : and I accordingly apprize your Lordship that this letter must, together with its re- sults, be they what they may, be shortly laid before the world. I disclaim every parti- cle of animosity and disrespect. I act solely in defence of myself and the cause of the Church. " I have the honor, to be, " MY LORD, " Your Lordship's most obedient, " And most humble Servant, " STEPHEN HYDE CASSAN, ** Cvrale of Frame." No. 11. The Curate of Frome to the Ri$hop of Bath and Wells. " Frome, June 27th 1820. " MY LORD, " NOT having had the honour of hearing from your Lordship, in reply to my letter of the 1st instant, I am under the necessity of troubling you again on the subject of your having, as Mr. Phi Holt states, given your " sanction and autho- 8 rity" to his adopting means for my ejection from the Curacy of Frome. " I know not if there be any persons to whom, in consequence of your Lordship's weak state of health, the management of matters of this sort may be intrusted ; but if there be, and those persons should not have brought the business in question under your immediate consideration, such ill-judged suppression is much to be la- mented, as it widens the breach already existing, and adds to the detriment of all parties. " At present I have only to add that it is impossible for me to lose sight of a sub- ject of such importance, not only to myself but to the interests of the Church, and that I feel myself compelled to bring forward this letter together with that of the 1st inst. in the public papers, as the only means left me of justifying myself to the world. " I have the honor to be " MY LORD, " Your Lordship's most obedient Servant, " STEPHEN H. CASSAN/' JVo. ///. Copy of a Letter from the Bishop of Bath and Wells to the Rev. J. Algar, Minister of tlui Free Church, Frame. Wells, July 4,th, 1820. " REV. SIR, " I AM desired by the Bishop of Bath and Wells to inform you that the Bishop of Gloucester will confirm for him at Frome, on Monday 17th July instant, and to request the favour of you to attend his Lordship at the Altar as his Chaplain on that occasion, provided the Rev. Mr. Phillott, the Vicar of Frome, be not then present. " lam, REVEREND SIR, " Your very obedient servant, " WM. PARFITT." I HAVE felt myself called upon to publish the letter immediately preceding, in order to shew that so far from any satis- faction having been afforded me for the 10 injuries I have sustained, the breach so unhappily existing has now been widened by excluding me, in the face of my parish, from the altar of my own Church, at the Confirmation about to be held by the Bishop of Gloucester. Were the Bishop who officiates at the Confirmation to bring one of his own Chaplains, of course I should have nothing to say : but when my Dio- cesan directs another clergyman in my parish, attached to a different Church, and wholly unconnected with mine, which is the Parish Church, to officiate at the altar there, in the absence of the Vicar \ knowing that I am the licensed Curate, and conse- quently, the legal representative of the Vicar , I conceive J am entitled to ask the reason of this want of courtesy. An advocate for the divine origin, of o Episcopal authority, I shall never dis- pute its exercise ; nor shall I offer any comment on the present proceeding. But my respect for my clerical character, and the cause in which I am engaged, will not permit rny passing over the matter in si- lence. I have accordingly determined, as A 000 098 755 2 j.1 the Bishop does not answer my letters, to lay the whole matter before the public, and the public will judge between all parties ; nor has this step been taken without affording the Bishop the fullest opportu- nity of correcting what I had hoped might have been done through inadvertency, as a letter was written to his Lordship by Mr. Algar, at my express desire, respectfully reminding him of the situation which I filled in the parish. The answer to that letter only contained a perseverance in the former requisition. S. H. CASSAN. Frotue, July 10*/t, 1820. FINIS. METLER AND SON, PRINTERS, ABBEY CHURCH-YARD, BATH. foilotoing THE REV. STEPHEN HYDE CASSAN, May be had of the same Publishers : 1. The CHURCH DEFINED. Second Edition. Price Is. 6d. 2. The SIN of SCHISM DEMONSTRATED and the Protestant Episcopal Church proved to be the only safe means of Salvation ; with an Appendix of Notes and Authorities, and some Correspondence between the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the Vicar and Curate of Frome.- Third Edition. Price 5s. 3. The ATHANASIAN CREED DEFENDED. Price Is. 6d. 4. OBEDIENCE to the GOVERNMENT a Religious Duty. Price Is.