As a bishop-pastor, he was outstandingly effective. One writer
of his day called him "the most loved man in Lincolnshire." The private letters
of his contemporaries contain many testimonies to his personal holiness and to
his loving concern for others. He sought out those whom the Church had failed to
reach, and spoke with them about the Good News of God's love declared in Jesus
Christ. Whenever possible, he did the work of a prison chaplain, speaking with
everyone from pickpockets to murderers...
Different parties within the Church had come to regard various ceremonial
usages as a mark of where the user stood theologically, and in 1887 Bishop
King was denounced as celebrating the Liturgy with practices not permitted by
the directives in the
Book of Common
Prayer and elsewhere governing Anglican worship. Specifically, the charges
were
(1) having lighted candles on the altar;
(2) facing "eastward" (that is, toward the altar and with his back to the
congregation) during most prayers;
(3) mixing a little water with the wine in the chalice (done chiefly because
the ancients--Jews, Greeks, and Romans alike--regularly diluted their wine
with water just before drinking it, but also understood by many as a symbol
of human nature being incorporated into the Divine Nature as we are united
with Christ through the Sacrament);
4) using the Agnus Dei ("O Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of
the world, have mercy upon us") as a hymn just before the receiving of the
Holy Communion (this hymn is traditional, but had been omitted from the
Book of Common
Prayer in 1549 because
Cranmer
transferred the Gloria to a position at the end of the service, and the
words of the Agnus Dei are included in the Gloria, so that it seemed
repetitious to have them both within a few minutes of each other);
(5) making the sign of the Cross when blessing the congregation; and
(6) making a ceremony of cleansing the Communion vessels after the service.
None of these practices is particularly controversial today, but they were
then thought by some to be signs of inclination to the views--and the
company--of the Pope. King was tried by a Church Court presided over by the
Archbishop of Canterbury. The decision of the Court forbade some of these
practices, but permitted others while specifying that they had no theological
significance. Thus, lighted candles were to be permitted on the altar, but
only when needed for purposes of illumination. The Times wrote of the
judgement:
The Ritualists are to have their way in the chief practices Impugned--the
other party are diligently assured that there is no such significance as has
hitherto been supposed in such practices. The Ritualists...are given the
shells they have been fighting for, and the Evangelicals are consoled with
the gravest assurances that there were no kernels inside them.
It is ironic that King appears in reference works chiefly as the defendent
in the Lincoln Trial, since most of those who knew him would have regarded
this as a brief and peripheral episode in a life devoted chiefly to preaching
and exemplifying the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
He has a fine presence, a striking figure, and an engaging manner which is
natural, and not clerically assumed...Men listen to him; women adore him; and
children love him. His is a power, not a fashion.
