Childhood and family

The Barony Church, Glasgow, to which Lang's father was appointed minister in 1873

Cosmo Gordon Lang was born in 1864 at the manse in Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, the third son of the local Church of Scotland minister, John Marshall Lang, and his wife Hannah Agnes Lang.^[1] Cosmo was baptised at Fyvie church by a neighbouring minister, the name "William" being added inadvertently to his given names, perhaps because the local laird was called William Cosmo Gordon. The additional name was rarely used subsequently.^[2] In January 1865 the family moved to Glasgow on John Lang's appointment as a minister in the Anderston district. Subsequent moves followed: in 1868 to Morningside, Edinburgh and, in 1873, back to Glasgow when John Lang was appointed minister to the historic Barony Church.^[2]

Among Cosmo's brothers were Marshall Buchanan Lang, who followed his father into the Church of Scotland, eventually serving as its Moderator in 1935;^[3] and Norman Macleod Lang, who served the Church of England as Bishop suffragan of Leicester.

In Glasgow, Lang attended the Park School, a day establishment where he won a prize for an essay on English literature and played the occasional game of football; otherwise, he recorded, "I was never greatly interested in [the school's] proceedings."^[2] Holidays were spent in different parts of Scotland, most notably in Argyll to which, later in life, Lang would frequently return. In 1878, at the age of 14, Lang sat and passed his matriculation examinations. Despite his youth, he began his studies at the University of Glasgow later that year.^[2]

University of Glasgow

At the university Lang's tutors included some of Scotland's leading academics: the Greek scholar Richard Claverhouse Jebb, the physicist William Thomson (who was later created Lord Kelvin) and the philosopher Edward Caird. Long afterwards Lang commented on the inability of some of these eminent figures to handle "the Scottish boors who formed a large part of their classes". Lang was most strongly influenced by Caird, who gave the boy's mind "its first real awakening". Lang recalled how, in a revelation as he was passing through Kelvingrove Park, he expressed aloud his sudden conviction that: "The Universe is one and its Unity and Ultimate Reality is God!"^[4] He acknowledged that his greatest failure at the university was his inability to make any progress in his understanding of mathematics, "to me, then and always, unintelligible".^[4]

In 1881 Lang made his first trip outside Scotland, to London where he heard the theologian and orator Henry Parry Liddon preach in St Paul's Cathedral.^[5] He also heard William Ewart Gladstone and Joseph Chamberlain debating in the House of Commons.^[5] Later that year he travelled to Cambridge to stay with a friend who was studying there. A visit to King's College Chapel persuaded Lang that he should study at the college; the following January he sat and passed the entrance examination. When he discovered that as part of his degree studies he would be examined in mathematics, his enthusiasm disappeared. Instead, he applied to Balliol College, Oxford, and was accepted.^[5] In mid-1882 he ended his studies at Glasgow with a Master of Arts degree, and was awarded prizes for essays on politics and church history.^[6]

Oxford

Balliol College, Oxford, where Lang was an undergraduate between 1882 and 1886

Lang started at Balliol in October 1882. In his first term he successfully sat for the Brackenbury Scholarship, described by his biographer John Gilbert Lockhart as "the Blue Ribbon of history scholarship at any University of the British Isles".^[7] In February 1883 his first speech at the Oxford Union, against the disestablishment of the Church of Scotland, was warmly received; the chairman likened his oratory to that of the Ancient Greek statesman, Demosthenes.^[8] He became the Union's president in the Trinity term of 1883,^[1] and the following year was a co-founder of the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS).^[8]

Although Lang considered himself forward-thinking, he joined and became secretary of the Canning Club, the university's principal Conservative society. His contemporary Robert Cecil recorded that Lang's "progressive" opinions were somewhat frowned upon by traditional Tories, who nevertheless respected his ability.^[8] Lang later assisted in the founding of the University settlement of Toynbee Hall, a mission to help the poor in the East End of London.^[9] He had been first drawn to this work in 1883, after listening to a sermon in St Mary's Church, Oxford, by Samuel Augustus Barnett, Vicar of St Jude's, Whitechapel.^[9] Barnett became the settlement's first leader,^[10] while Lang became one of its first undergraduate secretaries. He spent so much time on these duties that he was chided by the Master of Balliol, Benjamin Jowett, for neglecting his studies.^[9] In 1886 Lang graduated with first-class honours in History;^[1] in October he failed to secure a Fellowship of All Souls College, blaming his poor early scholastic training in Glasgow.^[9]

Towards ordination

The Church of All Saints, Cuddesdon, scene of Lang's call to ordination in 1889

Lang's career ambition from early in life was to practise law, enter politics and then take office in some future Conservative administration.^[9] In 1887 he began his studies for the English Bar, working in the London chambers of W.S. Robson, a future Attorney-General, whose "vehement radicalism was an admirable stimulus and corrective to [Lang's] liberal Conservatism".^[11] During these years Lang was largely aloof from religion, but continued churchgoing out of what he termed "hereditary respect". He attended services at the nonconformist City Temple church and sometimes went to St Paul's Cathedral. Of his life at that time he said: "I must confess that I played sometimes with those external temptations that our Christian London flaunts in the face of its young men."^[11]

In October 1888 Lang was elected to an All Souls Fellowship, and began to divide his time between London and Oxford.^[12] Some of his Oxford friends were training for ordination and Lang was often drawn into their discussions. Eventually the question entered Lang's mind: "Why shouldn't you be ordained?"^[13] The thought persisted, and one Sunday evening in early 1889, after a visit to the theological college at Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire, Lang attended evening service at Cuddesdon parish church. By his own account, during the sermon he was gripped by "a masterful inward voice" which told him "You are wanted. You are called. You must obey."^[13] He immediately severed his connection with the Bar, renounced his political ambitions and applied for a place at Cuddesdon College. With the help of an All Souls contact, the essential step of his confirmation into the Church of England was supervised by the Bishop of Lincoln.^[13] Lang's decision to become an Anglican and seek ordination disappointed his Presbyterian father, who nevertheless wrote to his son: "What you think, prayerfully and solemnly, you ought to do – you must do – we will accept."^[14]

Leeds

After a year's study at Cuddesdon, Lang was ordained as deacon. He rejected an offer of the chaplaincy of All Souls as he wanted to be "up and doing" in a tough parish.^[15] Lang identified with the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England, in part, he admitted, as a reaction against his evangelical upbringing in the Church of Scotland.^[13] His sympathies lay with the progressive wing of Anglo-Catholicism represented by the Lux Mundi essays, published in 1888 by a group of forward-looking Oxford theologians. Among these was Edward Stuart Talbot, Warden of Keble, who in 1888 had become Vicar of Leeds Parish Church. Talbot had contributed the essay entitled "The Preparation for History in Christ" in Lux Mundi.^[16] On ordination Lang eagerly accepted the offer of a curacy under Talbot, and arrived in Leeds in late 1890.^[15]

Leeds Parish Church, rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1841 after an elaborate ceremony,^[17] was of almost cathedral size, the centre of a huge parish ministered by many curates. Lang's district was the Kirkgate, one of the poorest areas, many of whose 2,000 inhabitants were prostitutes.^[18] Lang and his fellow curates fashioned a clergy house from a derelict public house. He later moved next door, into a condemned property which became his home for his remaining service in Leeds.^[19] In addition to his normal parish duties, Lang acted temporarily as Principal of the Clergy School, was chaplain to Leeds Infirmary, and took charge of a men's club of around a hundred members. On 24 May 1891 he was ordained to full priesthood.^[18]

Lang continued to visit Oxford when time allowed and on a visit to All Souls in June 1893 he was offered the post of Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College. Other offers were open to him; the Bishop of Newcastle wished to appoint him vicar of the cathedral church in Newcastle and Benjamin Jowett wished him to return to Balliol as a tutor in theology. Lang chose Magdalen; the idea of being in charge of young men who might in the future achieve positions of responsibility was attractive to him and, in October 1893, with many regrets, he left Leeds.^[20]

Magdalen College

As Magdalen's Dean of Divinity (college chaplain),^[21] Lang had pastoral duties with the college's undergraduates and responsibility for the chapel and its choir. Lang was delighted with this latter obligation; his concern for the purity of the choir's sound led him to request that visitors "join in the service silently".^[20] In 1894 Lang was asked to add to his workload by acting as Vicar of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, where John Henry Newman had begun his Oxford ministry in 1828.^[22] The church had almost ceased to function when Lang took it over, but he revived regular services, chose preachers with care and slowly rebuilt the congregation.^[23] In December 1895 he was offered the post of Vicar of Portsea, a large parish within Portsmouth on the south coast, but he was not ready to leave Oxford and refused. Some months later he had further thoughts; the strain of his dual appointment in Oxford was beginning to tell and, he claimed, "the thought of this great parish [of Portsea] and work going a-begging troubled my conscience." After discovering that the Portsea offer was still open, he decided to accept, though with some misgiving.^[24]

Portsea

Portsea, covering much of the town of Portsmouth, was a dockside parish of around 40,000 inhabitants with a mixture of housing ranging from neat terraces to squalid slums.^[25] The large, recently rebuilt church held more than 2,000 people.^[25] Lang arrived in June 1896 to lead a team of more than a dozen curates serving the five districts of the parish. He quickly resumed the kind of urban parish work he had carried out in Leeds; he founded a Sunday afternoon men's conference with 300 men, and supervised the construction of a large conference hall as a centre for parish activities.^[26] He also pioneered the establishment of parochial church councils long before they were given legal status in 1919.^[27] Outside his normal parish duties, Lang served as chaplain to the local prison,^[26] and became acting chaplain to the 2nd Hampshire Royal Artillery Volunteer Corps.^[28]

Lang's relationship with his curates was generally formal. They were aware of his ambition and felt that he sometimes spent too much time on his outside interests such as his All Souls Fellowship, but were nevertheless impressed by his efficiency and his powers of oratory.^[25] The Church historian Adrian Hastings singles out Portsea under Lang as an example of "extremely disciplined pastoral professionalism".^[29] Lang may have realised that he was destined for high office; he is reported to have practised the signature "Cosmo Cantuar" during a relaxed discussion with his curates ("Cantuar" is part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's formal signature).^[30] In January 1898 he was invited by Queen Victoria to preach at Osborne House, her Isle of Wight home. Afterwards he talked with the Queen who, Lang records, suggested that he should marry. Lang replied that he could not afford to as his curates cost too much. He added: "If a curate proves unsatisfactory I can get rid of him. A wife is a fixture."^[31] He was summoned on several more occasions and in the following January was appointed an Honorary Chaplain to the Queen.^[32] These visits to Osborne were the start of a close association with the Royal Family which lasted for the rest of Lang's life.^[27] As one of the Queen's chaplains, he assisted in the funeral arrangements after her death in January 1901.^[33]

Stepney

Lang's region of Stepney within the Diocese of London extended over the whole area generally known as London's East End, with two million people in more than 200 parishes. Almost all were poor, and housed in overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Lang knew something of the area from his undergraduate activities at Toynbee Hall, and his conscience was troubled by the squalor that he saw as he travelled around the district, usually by bus and tram.^[37]

Lang's liberal conservatism enabled him to associate easily with Socialist leaders such as Will Crooks and George Lansbury, successive mayors of Poplar; he was responsible for bringing the latter back to regular communion in the Church.^[27] In 1905 he and Lansbury joined the Central London Unemployed Body, set up by the government to tackle the region's unemployment problems.^[38] That same year Lang took as his personal assistant a young Cambridge graduate and clergyman's son, Dick Sheppard, who became a close friend and confidante. Sheppard was eventually ordained, becoming a radical clergyman and founder of the Peace Pledge Union.^[39] Lang believed that socialism was a growing force in British life, and at a Church Congress in Great Yarmouth in 1907 he speculated on how the Church should respond to this. His remarks reached The New York Times, which warned that modern socialism was often equated with unrest, that "the cry of the demagogue is in the air" and that the Church should not heed this cry.^[40]

Much of the work in the district was supported by the East London Church Fund, established in 1880 to provide for additional clergy and lay workers in the poorest districts.^[41] Lang preached in wealthier parishes throughout Southern England, and urged his listeners to contribute to the Fund.^[42] He resumed his ministry to the army when, in 1907, he was appointed Honorary Chaplain to the City of London Imperial Yeomanry (Rough Riders).^[43] He became chairman of the Church of England Men's Society (CEMS), which had been founded in 1899 by the merger of numerous organisations doing the same work. Initially he found it "a very sickly infant", but under his leadership it expanded rapidly, and soon had over 20,000 members in 600 branches. Later he became critical of the Church's failure to use this movement effectively, calling it one of the Church's lost opportunities.^[42]

St Paul's Cathedral

Lang's appointment as a canon of St Paul's Cathedral required him to spend three months annually as the canon in residence, with administrative and preaching duties.^[44] Following his appointment as canon, he was also appointed treasurer of the cathedral.^[45] His preaching on Sunday afternoons caught the attention of William Temple, Lang's future successor at both York and Canterbury, who was then an undergraduate at Oxford. Temple observed that, in contrast to the Bishop of London's sermons, listening to Lang brought on an intellectual rather than emotional pleasure: "I can remember all his points, just because their connexion is inevitable.... And for me, there is no doubt that this is the more edifying by far."^[46] Lang was a member of the cathedral's governing body, the Dean and Chapter, and was responsible for the organisation of special occasions, such as the service of thanksgiving for King Edward VII's recovery from appendicitis in July 1902.^[44]

Appointment

In late 1908 Lang was informed of his election as Bishop of Montreal. Letters from the Governor General of Canada and the Canadian High Commissioner urged him to accept, but the Archbishop of Canterbury asked him to refuse.^[47][48] A few weeks later a letter from H. H. Asquith, the prime minister, informed Lang that he had been nominated Archbishop of York.^[47] Lang was only 44 years old, and had no experience as a diocesan bishop. On the issue of age, the Church Times believed that Asquith deliberately recommended the youngest bishop available, after strong political lobbying for the appointment of the elderly Bishop of Hereford, John Percival.^[49] Such a promotion for a suffragan, and within so short a period after ordination, was without recent precedent in the Church of England. Lang's friend Hensley Henson, a future Bishop of Durham, wrote: "I am, of course, surprised that you go straight to an archbishopric ... But you are too meteoric for precedent."^[47] The appointment was generally well received, although the Protestant Truth Society sought in vain to prevent its confirmation. Strong opponents of Anglo-Catholic practices, they maintained that as Bishop of Stepney Lang had "connived at and encouraged flagrant breaking of the law relating to church ritual".^[50]

First years

Lang's election to York was confirmed on 20 January^[51] and he was enthroned at York Minster on 25 January 1909. In 18 years since ordination he had risen to the second-highest position in the Church of England.^[52] In addition to his diocesan responsibilities for York itself, he became head of the entire Northern Province, and a member of the House of Lords. Believing that the Diocese of York was too large, he proposed reducing it by forming a new Diocese of Sheffield, which after several years' work was inaugurated in 1914.^[53] In the years following his appointment, Lang spoke out on a range of social and economic issues, and in support of improved working conditions. After taking his seat in the House of Lords in February 1909, he made his maiden speech in November in the debate on the controversial People's Budget, advising the Lords against their intention to reject this measure. He cast his first Lords vote against rejection, because he was "deeply convinced of the unwisdom of the course the Lords proposed to take". Although his speech was received with respect, Lang's stance was politely reproved by the leading Conservative peer Lord Curzon.^[54][55]

Despite this socially progressive stance, Lang's political instincts remained conservative. He voted against the 1914 Irish Home Rule Bill and opposed liberalisation of the divorce laws.^[56] After playing a prominent role in King George V's coronation in 1911, Lang became increasingly close to the Royal Family, an association which drew the comment that he was "more courtier than cleric".^[57] His love of ceremony, and concern for how an archbishop should look and live, began to obscure other aspects of his ministry;^[58] rather than assuming the role of the people's prelate he began, in the words of his biographer Alan Wilkinson, to act as a "prince of the church".^[59]

First World War

Lang on 11 January 1918, celebrating the outcome of the Battle of Jerusalem

When war broke out in August 1914, Lang concluded that the conflict was righteous, and that younger clergy should be encouraged to serve as military chaplains, although it was not their duty to fight. He thereafter was active in recruiting campaigns throughout his province.^[60] At a meeting in York in November 1914 he caused offence when he spoke out against excessive anti-German propaganda, and recalled a "sacred memory" of the Kaiser kneeling with King Edward VII at the bier of Queen Victoria.^[61] These remarks, perceived as pro-German, produced what Lang termed "a perfect hail of denunciation".^[62] The strain of this period, coupled with the onset of alopecia, drastically altered Lang's relatively youthful appearance to that of a bald and elderly-looking man.^[61] His friends were shocked; the king, meeting him on the Royal train, apparently burst into guffaws of laughter.^[62]

Public hostility against Lang was slow to subside, re-emerging from time to time throughout the war.^[62] Lang continued his contribution to the war effort, paying visits to the Grand Fleet and to the Western Front.^[61] He applied all his organisational skills to the Archbishop of Canterbury's National Mission of Repentance and Hope,^[63] an initiative designed to renew Christian faith nationwide, but it failed to make a significant impact.^[64]

As a result of the Battle of Jerusalem of December 1917, the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force captured the Holy City, bringing it under Christian control for the first time since the Crusades. As Prelate of the Venerable Order of Saint John, Lang led a service of celebration on 11 January 1918 at the Order's Grand Priory Church, Clerkenwell. He explained that it was 917 years since the Order's hospital had been founded in Jerusalem, and 730 years since they were driven out by Saladin. "London is the city of the Empire's commerce, but Jerusalem is the city of the soul, and it is particularly fitting that British Armies should have delivered it out of the hands of the infidel."^[65]

Early in 1918, at the invitation of the Episcopal Church of the United States, he made a goodwill visit to America, praising the extent and willingness of America's participation in the war.^[66] The Westminster Gazette called this "one of the most moving and memorable visits ever paid by an Englishman [sic] to the United States".^[67]

Post-war years

After the war, Lang's primary cause was that of church unity. In 1920, as chairman of the Reunion Committee at the Sixth Lambeth Conference, he promoted an "Appeal to all Christian People", described by Hastings as "one of the rare historical documents that does not get forgotten with the years".^[68] It was unanimously adopted as the Conference's Resolution 9, and ended: "We ... ask that all should unite in a new and great endeavour to recover and to manifest to the world the unity of the Body of Christ for which He prayed."^[69] Despite initial warmth from the English Free Churches, little could be achieved in terms of practical union between episcopal and non-episcopal churches, and the initiative was allowed to lapse. Historically, the Appeal is considered the starting-point for the more successful ecumenical efforts of later generations.^[61][70]

Lang was supportive of the Malines Conversations of 1921–26, though not directly involved.^[71] These were informal meetings between leading British Anglo-Catholics and reform-minded European Roman Catholics, exploring the possibility of reuniting the Anglican and Roman communions. Although the discussions had the blessing of Randall Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, many Anglican evangelicals were alarmed by them. Ultimately, the talks foundered on the entrenched opposition of the Catholic ultramontanes.^[72] A by-product of these conversations may have been the awakening of opposition to the revision of the Anglican Prayer Book. The focus of this revision, which Lang supported, was to make concessions to Anglo-Catholic rituals and practices in the Anglican service. The new Prayer Book was overwhelmingly approved by the Church's main legislative body, the Church Assembly, and by the House of Lords. Partly through the advocacy of the fervently evangelical Home Secretary, Sir William Joynson-Hicks, the revision was twice defeated in the House of Commons, in December 1927 by 238 votes to 205 and, in June 1928, by 266 to 220.^[73][74] Lang was deeply disappointed, writing that "the gusts of Protestant convictions, suspicions, fears [and] prejudices swept through the House, and ultimately prevailed."^[75]

On 26 April 1923, George V awarded Lang the Royal Victorian Chain, an honour in the personal gift of the Sovereign^[76] After the marriage of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI) in 1923, Lang formed a friendship with his Duchess (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) which lasted for the rest of Lang's life. In 1926, he baptised Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace.^[77] In January 1927, Lang took centre-stage in the elaborate ceremonies which marked the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of York Minster.^[78]

In office

Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury in London

Archbishop Davidson resigned in July 1928, believed to have been the first Archbishop of Canterbury ever to retire voluntarily.^[79] On 26 July Lang was notified by the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, that he would be the successor; William Temple would succeed Lang at York.^[80] Lang was enthroned as the new Archbishop of Canterbury on 4 December 1928,^[1] the first bachelor to hold the appointment in 150 years. A contemporary Time magazine article described Lang as "forthright and voluble" and as looking "like George Washington".^[79] Lang's first three years at Canterbury were marked by intermittent illnesses, which required periods of convalescence away from his duties.^[81] After 1932, he enjoyed good health for the rest of his life.^[82]

Portrait of Archbishop Lang by Philip de László, 1932

Lang avoided continuation of the Prayer Book controversy of 1928 by allowing the parliamentary process to lapse. He then authorised a statement permitting use of the rejected Book locally if the parochial church council gave approval. The issue remained dormant for the rest of Lang's tenure at Canterbury.^[83] He led the 1930 Lambeth Conference, where further progress was made in improving relations with the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Old Catholics,^[81] although again no agreement could be reached with the non-episcopal Free Churches.^[84] On an issue of greater concern to ordinary people, the Conference gave limited approval, for the first time, to the use of contraceptive devices, an issue in which Lang had no interest.^[85] Through the 1930s Lang continued to work for Church unity. In 1933 the Church of England assembly formed a Council on Foreign Relations and, in the following years, numerous exchange visits with Orthodox delegations took place, a process only halted by the outbreak of war. Lang's 1939 visit to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is regarded as the high point of his ecumenical record.^[81] George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, maintained that no one in the Anglican Communion did more than Lang to promote the unity movement.^[81]

In 1937 the Oxford Conference on Church and Society, which later gave birth to the World Council of Churches,^[86] produced what was according to the church historian Adrian Hastings "the most serious approach to the problems of society that the Church had yet managed",^[87] but without Lang's close involvement. By this time Lang's identification with the poor had largely vanished, as had his interest in social reform.^[88] In the Church Assembly his closest ally was the aristocratic Lord Hugh Cecil; Hastings maintains that the Church of England in the 1930s was controlled "less by Lang and Temple in tandem than by Lang and Hugh Cecil".^[89] Lang got on well with Hewlett Johnson, the pro-communist priest who was appointed Dean of Canterbury in 1931.^[81]

International and domestic politics

The signatories to the Munich Agreement, September 1938. Lang hailed the Agreement, and called for a day of thanksgiving to God.

Lang often spoke in the House of Lords about the treatment of Russian Christians in the Soviet Union. He also denounced the anti-semitic policies of the German government, and he took private steps to help European Jews.^[90][91] In 1938 he was instrumental in saving 60 rabbis from Burgenland, who would have been murdered by the Nazis had the archbishop not obtained them entry visas to England.^[92]

In 1933, having commented on the "noble task" of assisting India towards independence, he was appointed to the Joint Committee on the Indian Constitution.^[91] He condemned the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1935, appealing for medical supplies to be sent to the Abyssinian troops.^[90] As the threat of war increased later in the decade, Lang became a strong supporter of the government's policy of appeasing the European dictators, declaring the Sunday after the Munich Agreement of September 1938 to be a day of thanksgivings for the "sudden lifting of this cloud".^[90] Earlier that year, contrary to his former stance, he had supported the Anglo-Italian agreement to recognise the conquest of Abyssinia, because he believed that "an increase of appeasement" was necessary to avoid the threat of war.^[93] Lang also backed the government's non-intervention policy in regard to the Spanish Civil War, saying that there were no clear issues that required the taking of sides.^[88] He described the bombing of Guernica by the Germans and the Italians, on 26 April 1937, as "deplorable and shocking".^[94] In October 1937 Lang's condemnation of Imperial Japanese Army actions in China provoked hostile scrutiny by the Japanese authorities of the Anglican Church in Japan, and caused some in that church's leadership to publicly disassociate themselves from the Church of England.^[95]

On the domestic front, Lang supported campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty.^[96] He upheld the right of the Church to refuse the remarriage of divorced persons within its buildings,^[97] but he did not directly oppose A.P. Herbert's Matrimonial Causes Bill of 1937, which liberalised the divorce laws – Lang believed "it was no longer possible to impose the full Christian standard by law on a largely non-Christian population."^[56] He drew criticism for his opposition to the reform of the ancient tithe system, whereby many farmers paid a proportion of their income to the Church; in the subsequent "Tithe Wars", demonstrators at Ashford, Kent ceremonially burned his effigy.^[97][98] Near the end of his term in office Lang led a deputation from several church groups to the Ministry of Education, to present a five-point plan for the teaching of religion in state schools. These points were eventually embodied in the 1944 Education Act.^[99]

Abdication crisis

Lang was responsible for drafting King George V's silver jubilee broadcast message in 1935, and the King's last two Christmas messages.^[100] This closeness to the throne was not maintained when the king died in January 1936 and was succeeded by his son, Edward VIII. The new king was wary of Lang, whom he had once admired.^[100][101] Edward now found Lang to be "rather ... accustomed to the company of princes and statesmen, more interested in the pursuit of prestige and power than the abstractions of the human soul".^[102]

Former King Edward VIII in 1945

Lang believed that, as Prince of Wales, Edward had not always been wise in his choice of friends and acquaintances, whose standards Lang was later to condemn as "alien to all the best instincts and traditions of his people".^[103] The archbishop had been aware for some time of the King's relationship with the American Wallis Simpson, then married to her second husband Ernest Simpson. In mid-1936 it became clear that the King intended to marry Simpson either before or shortly after his impending coronation, depending on the timing of her divorce from her husband. Lang agonised over whether he could, with good conscience, administer the Coronation Oath to the king in such circumstances, bearing in mind the Church's teaching on marriage. He confided to his diary his hopes that circumstances might change, or that he might be able to persuade the King to reconsider his actions, but the King refused to meet him.^[101] Lang kept close contact with Queen Mary (the queen mother), Stanley Baldwin (the Prime Minister) and Alec Hardinge (the King's Private Secretary).^[100] The king believed that Lang's influence was strong, later recalling how from beginning to end he felt the archbishop's "shadowy, hovering presence" in the background.^[104]

The matter became public knowledge on 2 December 1936 when Alfred Blunt, Bishop of Bradford, made an indirect comment on the King's "need for Divine Grace".^[105] By then the king had unalterably decided that he would abdicate rather than give up Wallis Simpson. All attempts to dissuade him failed, and on 11 December he gave up his throne in favour of his brother, George VI.^[106] Two days later Lang broadcast a speech, in which he said: "From God he received a high and sacred trust. Yet by his own will he has ... surrendered the trust." The king's motive had been "a craving for private happiness" that he had sought "in a manner inconsistent with the Christian principles of marriage".^[107] The speech was widely condemned for its lack of charity towards the departed king^[108] and provoked the writer Gerald Bullett to publish a satirical punning rhyme:^[109]

My Lord Archbishop, what a scold you are!
And when your man is down, how bold you are!
Of charity how oddly scant you are!
How Lang O Lord, how full of Cantuar!

According to the writer Compton Mackenzie, Lang's broadcast "dealt a disastrous blow to religious feeling throughout the country".^[110]

Lang did not disguise his relief that the crisis was over. He wrote of George VI: "I was now sure that to the solemn words of the Coronation there would now be a sincere response."^[111] On 12 May 1937, Lang crowned George VI with full pomp in Westminster Abbey. It was the first coronation to be broadcast. Time magazine recorded: "All through the three-hour ceremony, the most important person there was not the King, his nobles or his ministers, but a hawk-nosed old gentleman with a cream-&-gold cope who stood on a dais as King George approached: The Rt. Hon. and Most Reverend Cosmo Gordon Lang, D.D.. Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England."^[112] Supposedly the archbishop fumbled with the Crown but Lang himself was fully satisfied: "I can only be thankful to God's over-ruling Providence and trust that the Coronation may not be a mere dream of the past, but that its memories and lessons will not be forgotten."^[113] He also said of the Coronation: "It was in a sense the culminating day of my official life. Once I saw it was going well, I enjoyed every minute." "Thank God that is over!" said his chaplain, as they got into the car to leave. "Lumley, how can you say such a thing!" cried the archbishop. "I only wish it was beginning over again."^[114]

War

When the Second World War began in September 1939, Lang saw his main duty as the preservation of spiritual values during what he deemed to be an honourable conflict.^[115] He opposed strategies such as indiscriminate bombing, and on 21 December 1940, in a letter to The Times signed jointly with Temple and Cardinal Hinsley, Lang expressed support for the pope's Five Peace Points initiative.^[116] Lang was sympathetic to the Sword of the Spirit campaign, founded by Cardinal Hinsley in 1940 to combat anti-democratic tendencies among Catholics.^[116] In May 1941 Lambeth Palace, Lang's London home, was hit by bombs and made uninhabitable.^[117]

After Germany's attack on Russia in June 1941, Lang said that the Russians must now be regarded as allies, without forgetting or condoning the excesses of the past.^[115] His relations with Winston Churchill, prime minister since May 1940, were difficult because "he [Churchill] knows nothing about the Church, its life, its needs or its personnel". There was therefore "uncertainty as to what motives or how much knowledge may determine his decisions [on Church matters]".^[118]

Citations

Sources