The Election and Inthronization of William Wake as Archbishop of Canterbury

Extract

‘A gentleman having said that a congé d'élire has not, perhaps, the force of a command, but may be considered only as a strong recommendation: “Sir,” replied Johnson, who overheard him, “it is such a recommendation as if I should throw you out of a two pair of stairs window, and recommend you to fall soft”.’ The vigour of Dr Johnson's forthright observation is evident; but not uncommonly in constitutional history the preservation of outward forms, from which the living spirit seems long to have departed, may be of great value in continuing a tradition, which unexpected changes in circumstances may restore to influence. The good doctor himself declared his readiness to ‘stand before a battery of cannon to restore the Convocation to its full powers’; and it was the careful maintenance of the external forms of convocational procedure during its protracted hibernation between 1717 and 1852 which enabled its restoration to its full powers during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Thus it might not be unexpected that when so learned a scholar and stickler for traditional forms as William Wake was nominated to the see of Canterbury, he should take especial pains to ensure that all the customary stages were most carefully followed and fulfilled.