William Temple

William Temple (15 October 1881 – 26 October 1944) was an English Anglican priest who served as Bishop of Manchester (1921–1929), Archbishop of York (1929–1942) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1942–1944).

The son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, Temple had a traditional education after which he was briefly a lecturer at the University of Oxford before becoming headmaster of Repton School from 1910 to 1914. After serving as a parish priest in London from 1914 to 1917 and as a canon of Westminster Abbey, he was appointed Bishop of Manchester in 1921. He worked for improved social conditions for workers and for closer ties with other Christian churches. Despite being a socialist, he was nominated by the Conservative government for the archbishopric of York in 1928 and took office the following year. In 1942 he was translated to the see of Canterbury, and died in post after two and a half years, aged 63.

Temple was admired and respected for his scholarly writing, his inspirational teaching and preaching, for his constant concern for those in need or under persecution, and for his willingness to stand up on their behalf to governments at home and abroad.

Early years Temple was born on 15 October 1881 in Exeter, Devon, the second son of Frederick Temple and his wife Beatrice, née Lascelles. Frederick Temple was Bishop of Exeter, and later (1896–1902) Archbishop of Canterbury. Despite the considerable age gap – the bishop was 59 years old when Temple was born (Beatrice Temple was 35) – they had a close relationship. Sixty years later Temple referred to his father as "among men the chief inspiration of my life". | After a preparatory school, Colet Court, Temple went to Rugby School (1894–1900), where his godfather, John Percival, was headmaster. Temple later wrote a biography of him. At Rugby, Temple began lifelong friendships with the future historian R. H. Tawney and J. L. Stocks, who became a philosopher and academic.

In 1900 Temple went up to Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a double first in classics and served as president of the Oxford Union. In Dillistone's view, Temple did not make "any radical distinction between Christianity and the World, the Church and the State, Theology and Philosophy, Religion and Culture". In 1910 he published his first book, The Faith and Modern Thought. The Athenaeum took issue with some of his contentions, but considered that writers like him demonstrated that "a fresh presentation of doctrine may be helpful to religion, and not injurious". The Saturday Review enjoyed the book's "vigorous and exuberant healthiness" and predicted, "Matured experience will enable the author to give the world some remarkable work".

In June 1910 Lionel Ford, the headmaster of Repton School, moved to the headship of Harrow, and Temple was appointed to succeed him at Repton. The biographer George Bell quotes a Repton colleague on Temple:

Temple shared his colleague's reservations about his suitability for the post; in late 1910, during his first term at Repton, he wrote "I doubt whether headmastering is really my line". Temple remained at Repton for another 18 months, and then accepted the benefice of St James's, Piccadilly in the West End of London. He was happy to be succeeded as headmaster by Geoffrey Fisher.

Piccadilly and Westminster Abbey: 1914–1920 The Piccadilly parish was undemanding, and left Temple free to write and to work on national issues during the early part of the First World War, especially for the National Mission of Repentance and Hope, an initiative designed to renew Christian faith nationwide. In the same year he completed his largest philosophical work, Mens Creatrix (The Creative Mind). In 1918 he joined the Labour Party, and remained a member for eight years. The Church Times later commented, "None of his friends doubted that if he would stick to his new job, and not be lured into a hundred-and-one other activities, he would make a big success". In the view of the same writer': He had support from all sections of the Church although there was some concern that the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, a Conservative, would not nominate a prominent Labour supporter. Temple was appointed, and was enthroned at York Minster on 10 January 1929.

Hastings writes that Temple's thirteen years at York were "by far the most important and effective in his life".

Temple's contributions in the social field during his time as Archbishop of York included working with a specialist committee and the Pilgrim Trust to produce a report on unemployment, Men without Work (1938), and convening and chairing the Malvern conference (1941) on church and society. The latter proposed six requisites for a society based on Christianity: every child should find itself a member of a family housed with decency and dignity; every child should have an opportunity for education up to maturity; every citizen should have sufficient income to make a home and bring up his children properly; every worker should have a voice in the conduct of the business or industry in which he works; every citizen should have sufficient leisure – two days' rest in seven and annual holiday with pay; every citizen should be guaranteed freedom of worship, speech, assembly, and association.

Archbishop of Canterbury: 1942–1944

Lang retired as archbishop in March 1942. There had been right-wing political attempts to block Temple's succession; he was well aware of this: "some of my recent utterances have not been liked in political circles". |group=n But the overwhelming expectation and desire that Temple should succeed Lang prevailed. His biographer Frederic Iremonger cites Lang's strong recommendation together with Temple's "reputation at home, in the Anglican communion overseas, and in the continental Churches; his prophetic leadership; his wide and massive knowledge … his immense powers of concentration; the personal devotion of his life". (Iremonger quotes Bernard Shaw: "To a man of my generation an archbishop of Temple's enlightenment was a realized impossibility".) He drew criticism in 1944 from his numerous Quaker connections for writing an introduction to Stephen Hobhouse's book Christ and our Enemies that did not condemn the Allied carpet bombing of Germany; he said that he was "not only non-pacifist but anti-pacifist". He did not deny pacifists' right to refuse to fight, but maintained that they must take responsibility for their renunciation of the use of force. He said that people are responsible not only for what they intend, but for the foreseen results of their activity: if Adolf Hitler remained unopposed and conquered Europe, pacifists had to be willing to accept responsibility for this, in that they had not opposed him.

Temple was able to complete the work of Davidson, who had striven unsuccessfully for reform of Britain's fragmented and inadequate primary education systems (known as "elementary schools" until 1944). The Education Act 1902 had been impeded by nonconformist objections to spending taxpayers' money on Anglican schools, but by the 1940s the sectarian divide was less rigid, and the Church of England was more ready to accept nationalisation of Anglican schools as their financial position had become dire. Nonconformist leaders trusted Temple's sense of justice and honesty so that he was able to help negotiate the place of most church schools within the system agreed in the Education Act 1944, with some retaining a degree of autonomy over teacher appointments and religious teaching. His funeral service was held in Canterbury Cathedral on 31 October and was led by Lang, together with Cyril Garbett, Archbishop of York, and Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury. Temple was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to be cremated. His ashes were buried in the cloister at Canterbury Cathedral, next to the grave of his father.

Reputation and legacy Temple's death was followed by tributes not only from within the Church of England but also from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Bernard Griffin, from nonconformist leaders, and from the Chief Rabbi, Joseph Hertz, who said, "Dr Temple was a great power for good far beyond the borders of the national church. Israel has lost a true friend and humanity a valiant champion. We shall all bitterly miss him." Lang was greatly distressed by his successor's death. He wrote, "I don't like to think of the loss to the Church and Nation... But 'God knows and God reigns'".

In a biographical essay, Bishop George Bell wrote: quote|William Temple was not only one of the greatest men of his day, but also one of the greatest teachers who have ever filled the Archbishopric of Canterbury. His tenure of the see was for no more than two and a half years, yet his influence on the British people, in the field of social justice, on the Christian Church as a whole, and in international relations, was of a kind to which it would be very difficult to find a parallel in the history of England.

William Temple is honoured in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Church on 6 November.

Works The Faith and Modern Thought (1910) The Nature of Personality (1911) Foundations: A Statement of Christian Belief in Terms of Modern Thought: By Seven Oxford Men, contributor (1912) The Kingdom of God (1914) Studies In The Spirit And Truth Of Christianity: Being University And School Sermons (1914) Church and Nation (1915) Plato and Christianity, three lectures (1916) Mens Creatrix (1917) Fellowship with God (1920) Life of Bishop Percival (1921) Christus Veritas (1924) Personal Religion and the Life of Fellowship (1926) Christianity and the State (1928) Christian Faith and life (1931) Nature, Man and God Gifford Lectures (1934) Men Without Work (1938) Readings in St John's Gospel (1939/1940. Complete edition 1945) Christianity and Social Order (1942) The Church Looks Forward (1944)

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