Flowers, Pictures, and Crosses: Criticisms of Priscilla Lydia Sellon's Care of Young Girls

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2004 by Kollar, Rene

Like other women of this nature and outlook, Sellon sought a life outside the domestic setting. When she read an appeal from the bishop of Exeter, Henry Phillpotts, in the January 5, 1848 edition of The Guardian for help in Plymouth and Devonport, she quickly gave up her plans to travel to Italy for reasons of health because "the spiritual destitution of thousands of poor people had a strong claim on the nation at large.6 "6 6 Sellons arrival in this area of the country and the establishment of a sisterhood to work among the destitute and the sick would ignite a religious war of words between her supporters and antagonists. The identification of her project with the bishop of Exeter contributed in part to the animosity.

Henry Phillpotts (1778-1869), appointed bishop of Exeter in 1830, became involved in several controversies involving issues of discipline within the Anglican Church. High Church by tradition, he was, however, no friend of the extreme Tractarian theologians. In Exeter, Phillpotts worked to reduce incidents of pluralism and nonresidence, sought to employ only educated and well-trained clergymen who would receive a fair salary, encouraged the development of new parishes and the construction of needed churches to meet the growing number of the faithful, and enforced the letter and spirit of approved rubric of the Church of England7 .7 Some of his disputes attracted national attention, such as his opposition to the appointment in 1847 of R. D. Hampden as bishop of Hereford, but it was the socalled Gorham judgment which caused Phillpotts much heartache and marked him as an enemy of the Evangelical wing of the Anglican Church. G. C. Gorham refused to subscribe to baptismal regeneration, and in 1847, after an examination of nine days, Bishop Phillpotts refused to institute him to the living of Brampford Speke.8 Gorham then appealed to the Court of Arches, which upheld Phillpotts's decision. A later appeal to the judicial Committee of the Privy Council, however, found in favor of Gorham.9 In another case, which some interpreted as tolerance in matters liturgical, the bishop refused to censure strongly a number of questionable liturgical practices of some of his clergy, and his treatment of G. R. Prynne, a ritualist and supporter of Sellon's sisterhood, seemed too lenient.10 In the eyes of some Evangelical clergymen, therefore, Bishop Phillpotts appeared as a champion of Tractarian views, and his strong support and encouragement of Lydia Sellon's sisterhood tended to confirm this suspicion.

In April 1848, Sellon arrived in Devonport and began her work among the poor. Soon afterwards, Bishop Phillpotts extended his episcopal approval to this experiment. "On the 27th October the bishop officially sanctioned the formation of The Church of England Sisterhood in Devonport and Plymouth' and gave Sellon and her companion, Miss Catherine Chambers, his blessing and benediction."11 The bishop's acceptance of her sisterhood, also known as the Sisters of Mercy because of the work these women undertook, helped to put it in a recognized but shaky position. Commenting in 1852 about Phillpotts's patronage of Sellon, The Christian Observer, an Evangelical publication critical of the bishop and the sisterhood, stated: "From the first, the Bishop gave Miss Sellon the broadest and distinguishing support. he flattered her in public and stimulated her in private."12 The bishop's High Church sympathies and his support of Sellon's sisterhood, a Romish institution in the eyes of many, helped to increase the suspicions of this small sisterhood and its work.