So far from "flattering princes in the temple of God," Bishop Wilson was
even morbidly jealous of the authority of the Church, and he resisted
that of the State when the civil powers seemed to encroach upon it. More
than once he came into collision with the State's highest functionary,
the Lieutenant-Governor, representative of the Lord of Man himself. One
day the Governor's wife falsely defamed a lady, and the lady appealed
to the Bishop. Thereupon the Bishop interdicted the Governor's wife
from receiving the communion. But the Governor's chaplain admitted
her. Straightway the Bishop suspended the Governor's chaplain. Then the
Governor fined the Bishop in the sum of fifty pounds. The Bishop refused
to pay, and was committed to Castle Rushen, and lay there two months.
They show us his cell, a poor, dingy little box, so damp in his day that
he lost the use of some of his fingers. After that the Bishop appealed
to the Lord, who declared the imprisonment illegal. The Bishop was
liberated, and half the island went to the prison gate to fetch him
forth in triumph. The only result was that the Bishop lost £500, whereof
£300 were subscribed by the people. One hardly knows whether to laugh
or cry at it all. It is a sorry and silly farce. Of course it made
a tremendous hurly-burly in its day, but it is gone now, and doesn't
matter a ha'porth to anybody. Nevertheless because Gessler's cap goes up
so often nowadays, and so many of us are kneeling to it, it is good and
wholesome to hear of a poor Bishop who was brave enough to take a shot
at it instead.