Cosmo Gordon Lang

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William Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth, GCVO,

The Most Reverend and Right
PC (31 October 1864 5 December 1945), known as Cosmo Gordon
Lang, was a Scottish Anglican prelate who served as the Archbishop of Honourable
York (19081928) and Archbishop of Canterbury (19281942). His The Lord Lang of Lambeth
rapid elevation to Archbishop of York, within 18 years of his GCVO PC
ordination, is unprecedented in modern Church of England history. As Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury during the abdication crisis of 1936, he took
a strong moral stance, his comments in a subsequent broadcast being
widely condemned as uncharitable towards the departed king.

The son of a Scots Presbyterian minister, Lang abandoned the prospect

of a legal and political career to train for the Anglican priesthood.
Beginning in 1890, his early ministry was served in slum parishes in
Leeds and Portsmouth, except for brief service as an Oxford college
chaplain. In 1901 he was appointed suffragan Bishop of Stepney in
London, where he continued his work among the poor. He also served
as a canon of St Paul's Cathedral, London.

In 1908 Lang was nominated as Archbishop of York, despite his

relatively junior status as a suffragan rather than a diocesan bishop. His
religious stance was broadly Anglo-Catholic, tempered by the liberal Archbishop Lang by Philip de Lszl
Anglo-Catholicism advocated in the Lux Mundi essays. He Province Canterbury
consequently entered the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual and caused
consternation in traditionalist circles by speaking and voting against the Diocese Canterbury
Lords' proposal to reject David Lloyd George's 1909 "People's Budget". Installed 4 December 1928
This radicalism was not maintained in subsequent years. At the start of
Term ended 31 May 1942
the First World War, Lang was heavily criticised for a speech in which
he spoke sympathetically of the German Emperor. This troubled him Predecessor Randall Davidson
greatly and may have contributed to the rapid ageing which affected his Successor William Temple
appearance during the war years. After the war he began to promote
Other posts Bishop of Stepney
church unity and at the 1920 Lambeth Conference was responsible for
the Church's Appeal to All Christian People. As Archbishop of York he (19011909)
supported controversial proposals for the attempted 1928 revision of the Archbishop of York
Book of Common Prayer but, after acceding to Canterbury, he took no (19091928)
practical steps to resolve this issue. Orders

Lang became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1928. He presided over the Ordination 1890 (deacon)
1930 Lambeth Conference, which gave limited church approval to the 24 May 1891 (priest)
use of contraception. After denouncing the Italian invasion of Abyssinia Consecration 1 May 1901
in 1935 and strongly condemning European anti-semitism, Lang later
supported the appeasement policies of the British government. In May Personal details
1937 he presided over the coronation of King George VI and Queen Birth name William Cosmo
Elizabeth. On retirement in 1942 Lang was raised to the peerage as Gordon Lang
Baron Lang of Lambeth and continued to attend and speak in House of
Born 31 October 1864
Lords debates until his death in 1945. Lang himself believed that he had
Fyvie Manse,
not lived up to his own high standards. Others have praised his qualities
of industry, his efficiency and his commitment to his calling. Aberdeenshire,
Scotland
Died 5 December 1945
Contents (aged 81)
Near Kew Gardens
 1 Early life station,
1.1 Childhood and family Richmond, Surrey
1.2 University of Glasgow England
1.3 Oxford
1.4 Towards ordination Buried Chapel of St Stephen
2 Early ministry Martyr, Canterbury
2.1 Leeds Cathedral
2.2 Magdalen College
2.3 Portsea Denomination Anglican
3 Bishop and canon Residence Lambeth Palace (while
3.1 Stepney in office)
3.2 St Paul's Cathedral
4 Archbishop of York Alma mater University of Glasgow
4.1 Appointment Balliol College, Oxford
4.2 First years
4.3 First World War
4.4 Post-war years
5 Archbishop of Canterbury
5.1 In office
5.2 International and domestic politics
5.3 Abdication crisis
5.4 War
6 Retirement and death
7 Legacy
8 Bibliography
9 References
9.1 Citations
9.2 Sources
9.2.1 Books
10 External links

Early life
Childhood and family

Cosmo Gordon Lang was born in 1864 at the manse in Fyvie,

Aberdeenshire, the third son of the local Church of Scotland minister,
the Reverend 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] The Barony Church, Glasgow, to which
Lang's father was appointed minister in
In Glasgow, Lang attended the Park School, a day establishment where 1873
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!"[3] 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".[3]

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.[4] He also heard William Ewart Gladstone and Joseph Chamberlain
debating in the House of Commons.[4] 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.[4] 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.[5]

Oxford

Lang started at Balliol in October 1882. In his first term he successfully

sat for the Brakenbury Scholarship, described by his biographer John
Gilbert Lockhart as "the Blue Ribbon of history scholarship at any
University of the British Isles".[6] 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.[7] He became the
Union's president in the Trinity term of 1883,[1] and the following year
Balliol College, Oxford, where Lang was was a co-founder of the Oxford University Dramatic Society
an undergraduate between 1882 and (OUDS).[7]
1886
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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[8] Barnett became the settlement's first
leader,[9] 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.[8] 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.[8]

Towards ordination

Lang's career ambition from early in life was to practise law, enter politics and then take office in some future
Conservative administration.[8] 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".[10] 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."[10]

In October 1888 Lang was elected to an All Souls Fellowship, and

began to divide his time between London and Oxford.[11] 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?"[12] The thought persisted, and one
Cuddesdon Parish Church, scene of
Sunday evening in early 1889, after a visit to the theological college at Lang's call to ordination in 1889
Cuddesdon, Lang attended evening service at the 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."[12] 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.[12] 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."[13]

Early ministry
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.[14] 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.[12] 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.[15] On ordination Lang eagerly accepted
the offer of a curacy under Talbot, and arrived in Leeds in late 1890.[14]

Leeds Parish Church, rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1841 after an elaborate ceremony,[16] 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.[17] 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.[18] 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.[17]

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.[19]

Magdalen College

As Magdalen's Dean of Divinity ("college chaplain" in ordinary parlance),[20] 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".[19] In 1894 Lang was asked to add to his workload by acting as Vicar of the University Church of St
silently".[19] 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.[21] 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.[22] 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.[23]

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.[24] The large, recently rebuilt church held more
than 2,000 people.[24] 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.[25] He also pioneered the establishment of parochial church
councils long before they were given legal status in 1919.[26] Outside his normal parish duties, Lang served as
chaplain to the local prison,[25] and became acting chaplain to the 2nd Hampshire Royal Artillery Volunteer
Corps.[27]

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.[24] The Church historian Adrian Hastings singles out
Portsea under Lang as an example of "extremely disciplined pastoral professionalism".[28] 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).[29] 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."[30] He was summoned on several more occasions and in the following January
was appointed an Honorary Chaplain to the Queen.[31] These visits to Osborne were the start of a close
association with the Royal Family which lasted for the rest of Lang's life.[26] As one of the Queen's chaplains,
he assisted in the funeral arrangements after her death in January 1901.[32]

Bishop and canon

In March 1901 Lang was appointed suffragan Bishop of Stepney and a canon of St Paul's Cathedral.[33] These
appointments reflected his growing reputation and recognised his successful ministry in working-class
parishes.[34] He was consecrated bishop by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Frederick Temple, in St Paul's
Cathedral, on 1 May;[35] his time would subsequently be divided between his work in the Stepney region and
his duties at St Paul's.[35] The University of Oxford honoured him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity in late
May 1901.[36]

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.[26] 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]

Lang as Bishop of Stepney, Much of the work in the district was supported by the East London Church
caricature by Leslie Ward, Fund, established in 1880 to provide for additional clergy and lay workers in
1906 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]

Archbishop of York
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 Herbert 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 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.[51] 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.[52] 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
Lang in 1910, a youthful-
Budget, advising the Lords against their intention to reject this measure. He cast
looking archbishop 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.[53][54]

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.[55] 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".[56] His love of ceremony, and concern for how an archbishop should look
and live, began to obscure other aspects of his ministry;[57] rather than assuming
the role of the people's prelate he began, in the words of his biographer Alan
Lang after World War I. Wilkinson, to act as a "prince of the church".[58]
The alteration to his
appearance was caused by First World War
alopecia and stress.
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.[59] 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.[60] These remarks, perceived as
pro-German, produced what Lang termed "a perfect hail of denunciation".[61]
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.[60] His friends were shocked; the king, meeting him on the
Royal train, apparently burst into guffaws of laughter.[61] Lang on 11 January 1918,
celebrating the outcome of the
Public hostility against Lang was slow to subside, re-emerging from time to Battle of Jerusalem
time throughout the war.[61] Lang continued his contribution to the war effort,
paying visits to the Grand Fleet and to the Western Front.[60] He applied all
his organisational skills to the Archbishop of Canterbury's National Mission of Repentance and Hope,[62] an
initiative designed to renew Christian faith nationwide, but it failed to make a significant impact.[63]
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."[64]

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.[65] The Westminster Gazette
called this "one of the most moving and memorable visits ever paid by an Englishman to the United States".[66]

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".[67] 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."[68]
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.[60][69]

Lang was supportive of the Malines Conversations of 192126, though not directly involved.[70] 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.[71] 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.[72][73] Lang was
deeply disappointed, writing that "the gusts of Protestant convictions, suspicions, fears [and] prejudices swept
through the House, and ultimately prevailed."[74]

On 26 April 1923 King George V awarded Lang the Royal Victorian Chain, an honour in the personal gift of
the Sovereign[75] After the marriage of the Duke of York in 1923, Lang formed a friendship with the Duchess
which lasted for the rest of Lang's life. In 1926 he baptised Princess Elizabeth, the future Elizabeth II, in the
private chapel of Buckingham Palace.[76] In January 1927 Lang took centre-stage in the elaborate ceremonies
which marked the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of York Minster.[77]

Archbishop of Canterbury
In office

Archbishop Davidson resigned in July 1928 (he is believed to have been the first Archbishop of Canterbury
ever to retire voluntarily).[78] 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.[79] Lang was enthroned as the new
Archbishop of Canterbury on 4 December 1928, 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".[78] Lang's first three years at Canterbury were marked by intermittent illnesses, which required
Washington".[78] Lang's first three years at Canterbury were marked by intermittent illnesses, which required
periods of convalescence away from his duties.[80] After 1932, he enjoyed good health for the rest of his
life.[81]

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.[82] He led the 1930 Lambeth
Conference, where further progress was made in improving relations
with the Orthodox Churches and the Old Catholics,[80] although again
no agreement could be reached with the non-episcopal Free
Churches.[83] On an issue of greater concern to ordinary people, the
Lambeth Palace, the official residence of Conference gave limited approval, for the first time, to the use of
the Archbishop of Canterbury in London contraceptive devices, an issue in which Lang had no interest.[84]
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.[80] George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, maintained that no
one in the Anglican Communion did more than Lang to promote the unity movement.[80]

In 1937 the Oxford Conference on Church and Society, which later gave birth to the World Council of
Churches,[85] 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",[86] 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.[87] 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".[88]
Lang got on well with Hewlett Johnson, the pro-communist priest who was appointed Dean of Canterbury in
1931.[80]

International and domestic politics

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.[89][90] 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.[91].

In 1933, having commented on the "noble task" of assisting India

towards independence, he was appointed to the Joint Committee on
the Indian Constitution.[90] He condemned the Italian invasion of The signatories to the Munich Agreement,
Abyssinia in 1935, appealing for medical supplies to be sent to the September 1938. Lang hailed the Agreement,
and called for a day of thanksgiving to God.
Abyssinian troops.[89] 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".[89]
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.[92] 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.[87] He described the bombing of
Guernica by the Germans, on 26 April 1937, as "deplorable and shocking".[93] 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.[94]

On the domestic front, Lang supported campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty.[95] He upheld the right
of the Church to refuse the remarriage of divorced persons within its buildings,[96] 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."[55]
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.[96][97] 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.[98]

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.[99] 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.[99][100] Lang now found Edward 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".[101]

The former King Edward VIII,
photographed after his
abdication
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".[102] 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.[100] Lang kept
close contact with the king's mother, Queen Mary, the prime minister and the
king's private secretary.[99] 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.[103]

The matter became public knowledge on 2 December 1936 when the Bishop of Bradford made an indirect
comment on the king's "need for Divine Grace".[104] 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.[105] 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".[106] The speech was widely condemned for its lack of charity towards the
departed king[107] and provoked the writer Gerald Bullett to publish a satirical punning rhyme:[108]

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".[109]

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."[110] 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."[111] 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."[112]
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."[113]

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.[114] 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.[115] Lang was sympathetic to the Sword of
the Spirit campaign, founded by Cardinal Hinsley in 1940 to combat anti-democratic tendencies among
Catholics.[115] In May 1941 Lambeth Palace, Lang's London home, was hit by bombs and made
uninhabitable.[116]

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.[114] 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]".[117]

Retirement and death

During 1941 Lang considered retirement. His main concern was that a
Lambeth Conference "perhaps the most fateful Lambeth Conference
ever held" would need to be called soon after the war. Lang felt that
he would be too old to lead it and that he should make way for a
younger man, preferably William Temple. On 27 November he
informed the prime minister, Winston Churchill, of his decision to retire Lang's formal signature as Archbishop of
on 31 March 1942. His last official act in office, on 28 March, was the Canterbury, "Cosmo Cantuar"
confirmation of Princess Elizabeth.[114]

On his retirement Lang was raised to the peerage as Baron Lang, of Lambeth in the County of Surrey.[118] He
thus remained in the House of Lords, where he attended regularly and contributed to debates. He worried about
money, despite a pension, a large grace and favour house at Kew, and some generous cash gifts from well-
wishers.[116] In 1943 he spoke in the House of Lords in support of the Beveridge Report on social
insurance,[119] and on 9 February 1944 he reiterated his earlier opposition to obliteration bombing.[116] In
October 1944 Lang was greatly distressed by the sudden death of William Temple, his successor at Canterbury,
writing: "I don't like to think of the loss to the Church and Nation ... But 'God knows and God reigns'."[120]
On 5 December 1945 Lang was due to speak in a Lords debate on
conditions in Central Europe. On his way to Kew Gardens station to
catch the London train, he collapsed and was taken to hospital, but was
found to be dead on arrival. A post-mortem attributed the death to heart
failure.[120] In paying tribute the following day, Lord Addison said that
Lang was "not only a great cleric but a great man ... we have lost in him
a Father in God."[121] His body was cremated and the ashes taken to the
Chapel of St Stephen Martyr, a side chapel at Canterbury
Cathedral.[120]
Chapel of St Stephen Martyr, Canterbury
The probate value of Lang's estate was 29,541 (approximately Cathedral, restored in Lang's memory in
1,150,000 in 2017).[122][123] 1950

Legacy
Although Lang was a bishop in England for longer than anyone else in the twentieth century, Hastings says that
"of no other is it so hard to address his true significance".[124] Biographer George Moyser says:

His lasting significance is questionable. He was immensely industrious, and exceptional administrator,
and was well-connected to leading politicians and aristocrats. But his accomplishments as Archbishop of
Canterbury were modest.[125]

According to biographer Lockhart he was a complex character in whom "a jangle of warring personalities ...
never reached agreement among themselves."[126] Lockhart writes that while Lang's many years of high office
saw progress in the cause of Christian reunion, the mark he left on the Church was relatively small; many
believed it could have been larger and deeper.[127] While Lang's oratorical and administrative gifts were
beyond doubt, Hastings nevertheless claims that as Archbishop of Canterbury, Lang displayed no effective
leadership or guidance, turning away from reform and content to be the "final sentinel to the ancien
rgime".[128] Wilkinson says that Lang dealt conscientiously with problems as they arose, but without any
overall strategy.[129]

In Hastings's view, Lang was probably more sympathetic to Rome than any other Church of England
archbishop of modern times, responsible for a discreet catholicisation of the Church of England's practices.[130]
A small outward indication of this was his decision to use a cassock as everyday dress and to wear a mitre on
formal occasions, the first archbishop since the English Reformation to do so.[80] Lang believed that in relation
to the supreme truths of the church, rituals and dress were of small account, but that if people's worship was
assisted by such customs they should be allowed.[131]

Despite Lang's long involvement with the poorest of society, after becoming Archbishop of York he
increasingly detached himself from everyday life. The historian Tom Buchanan wrote that Lang's sympathy
with ordinary people was replaced by "an upper class affectation and a delight in the high society in which his
office allowed him to move".[87] No archbishop has been as close as Lang to the Royal Family; a Channel Four
television history of the British monarchy maintained that Lang "held a view of Christianity in which the
monarchy, rather than the cross, stood centre stage as the symbol of the nation's faith".[56] Successive
generations of the Royal Family considered him their friend and honoured him. King George V appointed him
to the largely ceremonial post of Lord High Almoner, and after the 1937 Coronation George VI created him a
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), a rare honour which, like the Royal Victorian
Chain, lay in the private gift of the Sovereign.[132] A friend, commenting on the transformation of Lang's
perspective, said of him: "He might have been Cardinal Wolsey or St Francis of Assisi, and he chose to be
Cardinal Wolsey."[133]

Lang also received numerous honorary doctorates from British universities.[129] His portrait was painted many
times; after sitting for Sir William Orpen in 1924, Lang reportedly remarked to Bishop Hensley Henson of
Durham that the portrait showed him as "proud, prelatical and pompous". Henson's recorded reply was "To

which of these epithets does Your Grace take exception?"[134]

which of these epithets does Your Grace take exception?"[134]

At an early stage in his priesthood Lang decided to lead a celibate life. He had no objection to the institution of
marriage, but felt that his own work would be hindered by domesticity. Years after Lang's death, his sexual
orientation was questioned; journalist Michael Gove and historian David Starkey suggested that Lang was a
repressed homosexual.[56][135] He had close friendships with colleagues such as Dick Sheppard, and with
Wilfrid Parker, his one-time domestic chaplain to whom he wrote admitting his personal loneliness, and of his
need for "someone in daily nearness to love".[136] He enjoyed the company of women and confessed in 1928,
after a visit to the Rowntree's chocolate factory, that the sight of the girls there had "stirred up all the instincts
of my youth ... very little subdued by the passage of years".[111]

George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester who had earlier praised Lang's work for church unity, said that Lang's
failure to take a lead after the Prayer Book rejection of 1928 meant that the Church of England had been unable
to revise its forms of worship or take any effective control of its own affairs.[127] Others have argued that
Lang's laissez-faire approach to the Prayer Book controversy helped to defuse a potentially explosive situation
and contributed to an eventual solution.[126] Lang himself was gloomy about his legacy; he believed that since
he had not led his country back into an Age of Faith, or marked his primacy with a great historical act, he had
failed to live up to his own high standard. Others have judged him more charitably, praising his industry, his
administrative ability and his devotion to duty.[126]

Bibliography
Lang wrote several books, including a novel of the Jacobite rising of 1745. This had its origins in stories told
by Lang to the Magdalen College choirboys during his tenure as Magdalen's Dean of Divinity.[137]

The Young Clanroy. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1897. (novel)
The Miracles of Jesus. London: Ibister & Co. 1901.
The Opportunity of the Church of England. London: Longmans. 1905.
The Principles of Religious Education. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1906.
Thoughts on Some of the Parables of Jesus. London: Pitman. 1909.
The Parables of Jesus. London: E. P. Dutton & Company. 1918.
The Unity of the Church of England. London: SPCK. 1925.
The Oppression of Religion in Russia. London: Hodder & Stoughton. 1930. (based on a speech to the
House of Lords)

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ISBN 978-0-7425-3222-9.
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Fuchs, Abraham (1986). The Unheeded Cry: The Gripping Story of Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov
Weissmandl. New York: Mesorah Publications. ISBN 978-0-89906-468-0.
Hastings, Adrian (1986). A History of English Christianity 19201985. London: William Collins.
ISBN 0-00-215211-8.
Hefling, Charles C. and Shattock, Cynthia (2008). The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-529762-8.
Inglis, Kenneth (2007). Churches and the Working Classes in Victorian England. London: Routledge.
ISBN 978-1-134-52894-3.
Iremonger, F.A. (1948). William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury. London: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, Thomas Costello (1920). The Irish Tangle and A Way Out. New York: Edwin S. Gorham.
Lockhart, J.G. (1949). Cosmo Gordon Lang. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Mackenzie, Compton (1952). The Windsor Tapestry. London: Chatto and Windus.
Manwaring, Randle (1985). From Controversy to Co-Existence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-30380-X.
McKibbin, Ross (2000). Classes and Cultures 191851. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820672-0.
McLeod, Hugh (2007). The Religious Crisis of the 1960s. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-
929825-4.
Rowse, A.L. (1953). The Coronation Book of Queen Elizabeth II. London: Odhams.
Teale, W.H. (ed.) (1841). The Seven Sermons Preached at the Consecration and Re-opening of the Parish
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Thatcher, Adrian (1999). Marriage after modernity. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 0-8147-8251-5.
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Windsor, HRH the Duke of (1951). A King's Story. London: Cassell & Co.

External links
"Archival material relating to Cosmo Gordon Lang". UK National Archives.
 Bibliographic directory from Project Canterbury
Archives of Cosmo Gordon Lang at Lambeth Palace Library

Church of England titles

Preceded by Bishop of Stepney Succeeded by

Arthur Winnington-Ingram 19011909 Luke Paget

Preceded by Archbishop of York

William Maclagan 19091928 Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple
Randall Davidson 19281942

Peerage of the United Kingdom

Baron Lang of Lambeth

New creation Extinct
19421945

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This page was last edited on 5 October 2017, at 21:45.

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