from Bishop
Wilberforce; but perhaps the most valuable judgment on the whole
matter was rendered by Bishop Tait, who declared, "These things have
so effectually frightened the clergy that I think there is scarcely a
bishop on the bench, unless it be the Bishop of St. David's (Thirlwall),
that is not useless for the purpose of preventing the widespread
alienation of intelligent men."

During the whole controversy, and for some time afterward, the press was
burdened with replies, ponderous and pithy, lurid and vapid, vitriolic
and unctuous, but in the main bearing the inevitable characteristics of
pleas for inherited opinions stimulated by ample endowments.

The authors of the book seemed for a time likely to be swept out of
the Church. One of the least daring but most eminent, finding himself
apparently forsaken, seemed, though a man of very tough fibre, about to
die of a broken heart; but sturdy English sense at last prevailed. The
storm passed, and afterward came the still, small voice. Really sound
thinkers throughout England, especially those who held no briefs for
conventional orthodoxy, recognised the service rendered by the book. It
was found that, after all, there existed even among churchmen a great
mass of public opinion in favour of giving a full hearing to the
reverent expression of honest thought, and inclined to distrust any
cause which subjected fair play to zeal.

The authors of the work not only remained in the Church of England, but
some of them have since represented the broader views, though not always
with their early courage, in the highest and most influential positions
in the Anglican Church.(481)

(481) For the origin of Essays and Reviews, see Edinburgh Review, April,
1861, p. 463. For the reception of the book, see the Westminster Review,
October, 1860. For the attack on it by Bishop Wilberforce, see his
article in the Quarterly Review, January, 1861; for additional facts,
Edinburgh Review, April, 1861, pp. 461 et seq. For action on the book
by Convocation, see Dublin Review, May, 1861, citing Jelf et al.;
also Davidson's Life of Archbishop Tate, vol. i, chap. xii. For the
Archepiscopal Letter, see Dublin Review, as above; also Life of Bishop
Wilberforce, by his son, London, 1882, vol. iii, pp. 4,5; it is there
stated that Wilberforce drew upon the letter. For curious inside views
of the Essays and Reviews controversy, including the course of Bishop
Hampden, Tait, et al., see Life o