Quest for an Archbishop

My excitement grew as we walked into York Minster because it dawned on me that this building contained the tombs of past Archbishops of York. On the whole, I manage to contain my excitement when it comes to Archbishops of York, whether they be dead or alive, but there is one notable exception to this: Thomas Musgrave. I discovered him while doing some master's research work recently. He was Archbishop of York from the late 1840's to 1860 and his time there overlapped with Sumner's time as Archbishop of Canterbury. These are the two highest posts in the hierarchy of the Anglican church.

Why is this interesting to me? It's one of the few times (it may be the only time) when two Evangelicals held those posts. And its one of the few times where Anglican Evangelicals were possibly going to leave the church in droves because of a strange, long legal battle between a clergyman called Gorham and his boss, the Bishop of Exeter. Enter Musgrave and Sumner. They had the unenviable task of being part of the final court of appeal on the case.

Both Musgrave and Sumner were widely assumed to be obviously going to give in to Gorham because he was of their 'party' but it seems that neither went into the final meetings with any such presupposition. This meant that the court case dragged on as they went over everything again, and led to the criticism that they were 'weak'. In the end, they found more against the Bishop of Exeter rather than for Gorham, but were (of course) accused of being partisan anyway. If they were trying to please anyone, they only succeeded in annoying everyone. But this did mean that Anglican Evangelicals could (in good conscience) stay in the Anglican church because of this finding. And Musgrave was part of this, which I think was fairly momentous in the history of Evangelical Anglicans.

So when I realised that I might find the place where Musgrave was buried, I was excited. Excited, not because I know huge amounts about the man, (I haven't been able to find out much really), but I think he did a difficult job, received a lot of criticism for doing it and seems not to be the kind of man who thrived on conflict or who really enjoyed being in the public eye. It takes a particular kind of courage to carry the weight of that kind of role in those circumstances. I admire him for it. I was looking forward to paying my respects to him.

But I couldn't find him.

I found lots of elaborate tombs belonging to Important People.

Some even seemed to have had a strong sense that when you meet God you don't pretend to be self-sufficient; you ask him to save you.

Others thought it was all about them. And there are a collection of Archbishops who seem to have gotten carried away with their roles and seem as pompous as the most arrogant of the Renaissance popes. Of course, it could just be that they employed the wrong sculptor.


Others were odd. Like this man without hands. I don't know what happened to him (it was all in latin), but it doesn't look like he is comfortable.

And then, after trawling through all the tombs, looking at the faded lettering on worn down stones, trying to decipher latin, eventually... I found Musgrave!

I was pretty sure it was Musgrave, even before I saw the inscription, because I realised what I had not noticed until then: the various Archbishops' tombs had objects they valued symbolically carved onto them. So, here for example, we see this man's best friend:

Others obviously really, really liked their crooks and mitres.

I remember one holding what I thought looked like a prayer book, but Musgrave is the only one I can recall who held what looked very much like a Bible. Which isn't too surprising: it's one of the distinguishing features of an Evangelical after all. We don't have much to commend us. Most of us aren't particularly attractive or charismatic. And pretty much the entire ethos of Evangelicalism can be summed up as a desire to be ruled by Christ through his Word, the Bible. So, it isn't surprising that Musgrave is carved holding his Bible, which some people would sneer at (then and now).



And, as much as you can tell from someone's face, he looked like the kind of guy I thought he might be: gentle, retiring, given to kindness. Yet, he took on a role which would make him unpopular and conspicuous, and used it for the good of other people. So, I maintain my admiration for him.



I was glad to find Musgrave's tomb. It was more than art. JMB

*I think Musgrave is actually buried in a London cemetery, so technically this isn't his tomb as such, more a memorial...but that is a small detail included only for those who care deeply for small details.