But Bishop Wilson set about his task with a strong heart, and a resolute
hand. He found himself in a twofold trust. Since the Reformation, the
monasteries and nunneries had been dispersed, and all the baronies had
been broken up, save one, the barony of the Bishop. Thus Bishop Wilson
was the head of the court of his barony. This was a civil court with
power, of jurisdiction over felonies. Its separate criminal control came
to an end in 1777, Such was Bishop Wilson's position as last and sole
Baron of Man. Then as head of the Church he had powers over offences
which were once called offences against common law. Irregular behaviour,
cursing, quarrelling, and drinking, as well as transgressions of the
moral code, adultery, seduction, prostitution, and the like, were
punishable by the Church and the Church courts. The censures of Bishop
Wilson on such offences did not err on the side of clemency. He was
the enemy of sin, and no "gentle foe of sinners." He was a believer
in witchcraft, and for suspicion of commerce with evil spirits and
possession of the evil eye he punished many a blameless old body. For
open and convicted adultery he caused the offenders to stand for an hour
at high fair at each of the market-places of Douglas, Peel, Ramsey, and
Castletown, bearing labels on their breasts calling on all people
to take warning lest they came under the same Church censure. Common
unchastity he punished by exposure in church at full congregation, when
the guilty man or the poor victimised girl stepped up from the west
porch to the altar, covered from neck to heels in a white sheet.
Slanderers and evil speakers he clapped into the Peel, or perhaps the
whipping-stocks, with tongue in a noose of leather, and when after a
lapse of time the gag was removed the liberated tongue was obliged to
denounce itself by saying thrice, clearly, boldly, probably with good
accent and discretion, "False tongue, thou hast lied."
It is perhaps as well that some of us did not live in Bishop Wilson's
time. We might not have lived long. If the Church still held and
exercised the same powers over evil speakers we should never hear our
own ears in the streets for the din of the voices of the penitents; and
if it still punished unchastity in a white sheet the trade of the linen
weaver would be brisk.
You will say that I have justified my statement that Bishop Wilson was
the bitterest of tyrants. Let me now establish my opinion that he was
also the serenest of saints. I have told you how low was the condition
of the Church, how lax its rule, how deep its clergy lay in sloth and
ignorance, and perhaps also in vice, when Bishop Wilson came to Man in
1698. Well, in 1703, only five years later, the Lord Chancellor King
said this: "If the ancient discipline of the Church were lost elsewhere
it might be found in all its force in the Isle of Man." This points
first to force and vigour on the Bishop's part, but surely it also
points to purity of character and nobility of aim. Bishop Wilson began
by putting his own house in order. His clergy ceased to gamble and to
drink, and they were obliged to collect their tithes with mercy. He once
suspended a clergyman for an opinion on a minor point, but many times he
punished his clergy for offences against the moral law and the material
welfare of the poor. In a stiff fight for integrity of life and purity
of thought, he spared none. I truly believe that if he had caught
himself in an act of gross injustice he would have clambered up into
the pillory. He was a brave, strong-hearted creature, of the build of
a great man. Yes! In spite of all his contradictions, he _was_ a great
man. We Manxmen shall never look upon his like again!