By the Rev. Canon A.C. Deane, M.A.

Loyalty played a big part in the natures and sacrifices of these 'Pillars of the Church'. We have had an instance of loyalty to a king and another of loyalty to conscience. Perhaps loyalty both to conscience and to a friend was the governing influence in the life of Richard William Church.

In 1839 he was a young man with the world at his feet. He had taken First Class honours at Oxford; he had been elected Fellow of Oriel; he was appointed tutor and ordained. But two years later, out of friendship for another brilliant graduate and his own sympathy with a movement, Church threw up his means of livelihood and the rich promise of his career. For the Oxford Movement had set England smouldering, and Newman's 'Tract Ninety' turned the smoke into flames, and Church, his friend, acting as proctor, vetoed its condemnation. Seven years went by and Church was an obscure country parson.

When he was over fifty he refused a canonry at Worcester; when he was nearly sixty he reluctantly accepted the Deanery of St. Paul's. He will always be remembered for these two things: he was one of the few churchmen to keep his head over the controversy aroused by Darwin's 'Origin of Species', and Cardinal Newman always went to see him on his occasional visits to London in his last years. For, through all the divisions and storms of life, they remained old friends.