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Abstract

Born the son of the militant Vicar of Hull, Bromby's protected
childhood was fostered in an atmosphere of urban development and ecclesiastical
and political reform. He inherited his father's apprehensiveness
of inflexible ecclesiastical and social traditions in a changing
and expanding world. Bromby was prepared for the service of God and
humanity in an age of revolution; he was educated at Uppingham and Cambridge,
and remained greatly influenced by his family life in Hull. He
determined to teach the poor and enhance their welfare in a rapidly developing
industrial society.
Bromby's great opportunity came when he was appointed Principal
of the Cheltenham Normal College in Gloucestershire. There he introduced
increasing numbers of men and women into the art of Christian teaching of
the poor. His influence spread throughout the Kingdom and to distant
parts of the world. Soon, however, he became opposed to frivolous bigotry
in matters ecclesiastical and doctrinal, intellectual and governmental.
He could not row in the same boat as the stringent Evangelicals nor with
"free-trade educationalists". His incipient doctrine of tolerant comprehensiveness
in both educational and ecclesiastical affairs led to disagreements
with Cheltenham Church authorities and his preferment to work in a
Colonial Bishopric.
The See to which he went, Tasmania, was a penal See struggling
for life in an environment of government interference. Nixon had left a
legacy of indiscipline, personal animosity and diocesan indifference. The Church expressed itself in terms of personalities and colonial ownership.
There was little intellectual appreciation of Anglicanism, but a predilection for partisanship and improvisation. The See was poor and unendowed.
Bromby wanted to free the Tasmanian Church from bonds of ignorance
and intolerance. He sought "disestablishment", the Church's release
from the government's ministerial, financial and property control. His
struggle was the more noteworthy in that it took place at a time when
colonial episcopacy was legally uncertain and when important changes
were taking place in Home and Colonial Church relations. Bromby won,
using diocesan and provincial Synods as his aids.
To encourage freedom, toleration and moderation, Bromby consolidated
clerical discipline within the Tasmanian Church. Further, he
preached Anglican "comprehensiveness" in doctrinal and ritualistic
matters. He did not easily convince colonists of his altruistic intentions.
In ecclesiastical affairs, as in political, colonists arrayed
themselves with particular personalities, as partisans. The Bishop's
doctrine seemed both vacillating and insipid. Colonists argued with
Bromby's son, a violent partisan and sacramentalist and treacherous to
the Bishop's cause. Bromby's aim to liberate the Tasmanian Church from
inhibiting colonialism into a free, tolerant comprehensiveness was
distorted by his own nepotism and paternal devotion. Even the new cathedral,
which was to have been the centre of Bromby's golden age of unified
Anglicanism and diocesan inter-dependence, provided instead an impetus
to arid parochialism.
Disappointed, Bromby returned to England. He died in 1907.
Bromby saw more clearly than his contemporaries the needs of the Tasmanian
Church and of Education in an age of transition. Only now are many of his plans being implemented.

Item Type:	Thesis - Unspecified
Authors/Creators:	Condon, Herbert Henry
Keywords:	Bromby, Charles Henry, Bp. of Tasmania, 1814-1907
Copyright Holders:	The Author
Copyright Information:	Copyright 1964 the Author - The University is continuing to endeavour to trace the copyright owner(s) and in the meantime this item has been reproduced here in good faith. We would be pleased to hear from the copyright owner(s).
Additional Information:	Thesis (M.A.) - University of Tasmania, 1964. Includes bibliography
Item Statistics:	View statistics for this item

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