Cosmo Gordon Lang

Archbishop Lang

Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth (born October 31, 1864 in Fyvie, Aberdeenshire , Scotland , † December 5, 1945 in London ) was an Anglican clergyman and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1928 to 1942 . His role in Edward VIII's abdication was controversial .

Beginnings

Lang was like his predecessor as Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson , and originally a Presbyterian . He was born in the rectory at Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, the third son of Rev John Marshall Lang (1834-1909), Parish Pastor of the Church of Scotland , and his wife, Hannah Agnes (1840-1921), daughter of Rev Peter Hay Keith of Hamilton . He first studied law at the University of Glasgow and Balliol College , Oxford, and planned a career as a lawyer and possibly later progressive conservative politician. Due to a religious calling experience, he changed his plans in 1889 and entered the seminary at Ripon College in Cuddesdon. In 1891 he was ordained an Anglican priest .

Lang's belief was that of an Anglo-Catholic but liberal church. In the course of his ecclesiastical career he gradually promoted the "Catholic" trend in the Church of England in the succession of so-called "normalization". He was the first archbishop since the Reformation to wear a miter , previously considered a "Catholic" symbol, although all bishops of the Church of England had it as part of their coat of arms.

In his first years he worked in slums and lived under difficult conditions in a half-ruined building. In 1901 he was suffragan bishop of Stepney in London and at the age of 43 years in 1908 for Archbishop of York appointed.

Archbishop of York

As Archbishop of York, Lang began to behave as a "prince of the church". It was said of him very unkindly: "He could choose between Saint Francis of Assisi and Cardinal Wolsey , and he chose Cardinal Wolsey". But those who knew him personally were more impressed by his kindness and wise decision.

During the First World War , Lang criticized the excesses of British propaganda against Germany. Among other things, he called for the kneeling of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Edward VII on Queen Victoria's bier to be kept in “sacred memory” a few years earlier. As a result of his criticism, Lang became a target of public insults and smear campaigns, which apparently caused him a shock, the visible effect of which was acute hair loss, which turned a young dark-haired man into an old, almost bald man with residual white hair, so too Friends didn't recognize him. In contrast to his public appearance, Lang was more of a man with little self-confidence.

In 1923 he was awarded the Royal Victorian Chain .

Archbishop of Canterbury

In 1928, Randall Davidson retired as Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lang succeeded him. Davidson's retirement was not related to Parliament's rejection of the proposed new prayer book, but Lang was immediately confronted with the question of whether this problem could be resolved by resubmitting it to Parliament. He looked for a compromise by only publishing the new book in an unofficial version.

By the time he took office as representative of the Anglican Church, Lang was already weakened. He was still an excellent preacher, but his energy was rapidly deteriorating. His appearance was now seen as "proud, pompous and prelate-like". Soon after his appointment, he became seriously ill, further weakening his energy and effectiveness.

Lang was nonetheless present in the churches and public affairs in the 1930s. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he chaired the Lambeth Conference of 1930. This conference is best known for its declaration on contraception. Previously, the Anglican Church essentially took the same positions as the Roman Catholic Church ; she was against all artificial contraception. However, the 1930 Declaration agreed that contraception was warranted in certain circumstances. Archbishop Lang does not seem to have had an opinion of his own on the subject; Obviously his main concern was to achieve a common result.

In 1936 he remained neutral in the revision of English divorce law, arguing that, although the Church as a whole disapproved of it, a simple divorce would be accepted if it was politically desirable.

Lang was politically close to Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain , whose peace and compromise policy towards Hitler's Germany he publicly represented.

In 1937 a committee was formed under his leadership and that of the Archbishop of York to investigate " spiritual media ." In 1939 the deliberations were concluded but not published and shelved by the Bishops' Conference of the Church of England .

Edward VIII's abdication

In 1936 Edward VIII abdicated in order to be able to marry a divorced woman, which would not have been possible for him as head of the Anglican Church. The general public believed that Lang had a leading role in the forced abdication of the king. The King and Prime Minister Baldwin knew his views. Lang had publicly stated in a film that he had serious doubts about the sanctity of a marriage between the monarch and Wallis Simpson , which indicated that a resignation was an option. Even after the abdication, Lang spoke on the radio on the subject, which was widely perceived as a condemnation of the former king. This likely helped cement public opinion that he played a central role in the abdication. Events like this contributed to Lang's rather negative reputation.

As Robert Beaken's research has shown, Lang's role in Edward VIII's abdication was underestimated rather than overestimated, and he actually played the central role that the public had ascribed to him. The decisive factor was Lang's handwritten letter (handwritten so that none of the secretaries heard of it) of November 13, 1936, to Prime Minister Baldwin, in which Lang wrote that the king was insane and could therefore not be crowned. There was no evidence of this, but Beaken notes that Lang was upset that Edward VIII did not include him in politics like his predecessor George V.

Its historical role is seen in a more nuanced way today. Recent research has shown its support for refugees. He stood behind George Kennedy Allen Bell , who supported the Nazi-critical clergy in Germany. He later spoke out several times against the British bombing of German cities and civilians.

Late years

Lang announced his resignation on January 21, 1942 to pave the way for William Temple . On April 2, 1942, Lang was raised to hereditary nobility as Baron Lang of Lambeth , of Lambeth in the County of Surrey, and received a seat in the House of Lords . Lang's successor, Temple, was marked by strong Christian social doctrine, and his position, both in the Church and in public, suggested great changes in the post-war period. It seemed that Temple's hour had come. However, Temple died in 1944. Lang remained active in the House of Lords. Lang died suddenly of a heart attack on December 5, 1945 on his way to the Natural History Museum . On December 10, 1945, the funeral took place in Westminster Abbey ; at the same time a requiem was being sung in Canterbury Cathedral . After the cremation, his urn was buried on December 11, 1945 in St. Stephen's Chapel in the northeast transept of Canterbury Cathedral.

memory

Cosmo Lang baptized Princess Elizabeth, now Queen Elizabeth II , in 1926 when he was Archbishop of York, and in 1937 crowned her father George VI as Archbishop of Canterbury . and her mother Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey .

Lang was consistently seen as a man of grand gestures. In contrast to his proud and haughty appearance in public, he was privately determined by feelings of guilt and the feeling of eternal failure. He was never married. It has been suggested that Lang was homosexual.

literature

• Rober Beaken: Cosmo Gordon Lang. Archbishop in War and Crisis. London / New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-78076-355-2
• John G. Lockhart: Cosmo Gordon Lang. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1949.

Web links

Commons : Cosmo Lang  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Newspaper article about Cosmo Gordon Lang in the press kit 20th Century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ The London Gazette : No. 32819, p. 3135 , May 1, 1923.
2. ^ The London Gazette: No. 35511, p. 1508 , April 3, 1942.
3. ^ Times , "When the Straight and Narrow is the Wrong Path," July 1, 2003

predecessor	Office	successor
William Maclagan	Archbishop of York 1909–1928	William Temple
Randall Davidson	Archbishop of Canterbury 1928–1942	William Temple