Carpenter Turner , Rector of Overton , and Rural Dean of Basingstoke , the present Archdeacon .sx Shortly after-wards the Archdeacon of Winchester , who had succeeded Bishop Lovett at St. Mary's , Southampton , in 1925 , was appointed as Master of the ancient Hospital of St. Cross , Winchester , and so exchanged the heavy burden of the parochial charge of St. Mary's for a post less difficult to combine with the work of his archdeaconry .sx This is the record of a life and not the history of a Diocese , and we need not describe the process of adapting the diocesan machinery to its new conditions .sx In matters of finance and general organization Theodore was admirably served by his officials , while he himself , though he was not at his strongest as an organizer , had a firm grip on all points of detail and took great trouble to master them :sx he had also the born leader's gift for finding the best help and using it when it was given .sx One fact , however , in connection with the Division may be mentioned , because it greatly appealed to him .sx Under its new constitution in the Diocesan Conference the representation of the parochial clergy and laity was largely increased , and thus it was brought into closer touch with the actual life of the rank and file in the parishes .sx Before settling into West Highlands , Theodore and his wife spent six weeks at Bournemouth with a view to getting into closer touch with this important town , which with Winchester and Southampton is now one of the three chief centres of the Diocese .sx During the next four years Theodore's hold on Bournemouth and Southampton steadily strengthened , and he was able to enter into everything that concerned them in ways which had been impossible before Division .sx The Diocesan Conference met in October , and the greater part of the Bishop's Address was devoted to the uncertain fate of the Revised Prayer Book in Parliament .sx Since July , when the Book left the Assembly , it had been attacked by " a sleepless propaganda nicely calculated to appeal to not a few of the prejudices of the Englishman who knows very little about theology or the history of the Church .sx " Dr. .sx Barnes , the Bishop of Birmingham , had aroused intense feeling by utterances on some of the controversial questions connected with the Holy Communion which are now as notorious as they were then astounding .sx Theodore reluctantly felt that he could not keep silence , and , after prefacing his remarks with a respectful tribute to the Bishop's sincerity and his ability as " a kind of liaison officer between the Church and Science , " he said :sx I would respectfully beg him to think , and to think again , of the pain he causes by the contemptuous tone which he not infrequently uses towards those whose beliefs he does not share .sx .. The action of God in the Sacraments is not scientifically definable ; it moves on a plane and in a world of which science , in the ordinary acceptation of the term , knows nothing , and of which it is not competent to speak .sx Moreover , to talk of submitting the consecrated elements to physical tests is both irrelevant and irreverent .sx You might as well talk of measuring heaven with a foot-rule .sx I would respectfully submit that the Bishop has yet to realize that religion does not live by intellect alone and that you cannot get the faith into a mathematical framework .sx Indeed , I go farther and say that he has himself overstepped the mark on his own ground , for this over-emphasis on the intellectual in religion is literally unscientific .sx It leaves out of count whole ranges of equally relevant phenomena .sx .. which refuse to conform to a merely intellectual analysis .sx Science reckons with all the facts .sx The Revised Prayer Book , and the problems arising out of its rejection by the House of Commons on the 15th of the following December , completely over-shadowed every other Church question during the next twelve months .sx Theodore did not make a speech in the House of Lords , which after a three days' debate passed the Prayer Book Measure by the unexpectedly large majority of 241-88 , but he followed the debate with tense interest and at one point corrected a mistake by a speaker .sx Reviewing the Commons debate , he believed that " the larger and deeper issues were , excepting in one or two instances ( such as the speech of the Prime Minister ) , hardly discernible , " and that " reason was to a great extent overwhelmed by passion .sx " He felt that the situation was one of " immense gravity " and " fraught .sx with tremendous issues to the relationship of Church and State .sx " Instead of going abroad for Christmas with his wife as they had purposed , they accepted an invitation to spend Christmas quietly with the Archbishop and Mrs. Davidson at Canterbury , with the opportunities which this would afford for talking over future action .sx The following letter to the present writer expresses his feelings :sx LOLLARDS TOWER , LAMBETH PALACE , S.E. .sx 28th Dec .sx , 1927 .sx Thank you so much for your letter which reached me this morning .sx Like you , I already see a silver lining to the black cloud of Prayer Book rejection .sx It is already deepening and extending loyalty , and I think and hope that any modifications which are introduced will improve the Book without upsetting its balance .sx Needless to say we are already considering what those modifications might be though not in negotiation with the Home Secretary I .sx We had originally intended to spend Christmas in Paris , having no settled home just now :sx but when the disaster occurred I was in no mood to go out of the country or far from the Archbishop .sx So in the end we have had a delightful Christmas with him at Canterbury .sx His spirit is wonderful , but the body is obviously frail , and I trust he will be able to hold out till the whole matter is finally settled .sx At present he is very well .sx Dear love to you all , not forgetting my dear Margaret , and more to yourself , dearest friend , from your loving .sx THEODORE .sx During January it became known that the Prayer Book Measure with certain alterations would again be brought before Convocation and the Church Assembly .sx This took place in February and March , and the Convocations of both Provinces with a reduced majority concurred in the decision of the House of Bishops to submit the Measure as amended to the Assembly for final approval .sx The Church Assembly was adjourned to the end of April , when a two days' debate ended in the Measure being approved by a majority of 396 to 153 .sx In this debate Theodore made a speech much in the sense of what hehad said the previous July .sx Resistance by his Evangelical friends , he said , even if they were successful , would only lead to chaos and in no way alter the rightful claim of others to have more ample provision made for them by the Revision .sx The real issues were toleration and the comprehensiveness of the Church , with freedom and variety within reasonable limits .sx " The Revised Book , " as he said later , " is the best bulwark that could be conceived against the ' Romanizing ' tendencies which undoubtedly exist ( though they are anything but widespread ) , for it encourages all that is good in Anglo-Catholicism and discourages all that is doubtful .sx " After some natural hesitation Theodore approved the policy of attempting to remove misunderstanding of the Deposited Book and presenting it a second time to Parliament .sx Like the Archbishop and others , he saw no other practicable alternative short of raising immediately the issue of Church versus State .sx It might be that the added safeguards would convince a sufficient number of members of the House of Commons that the Book was in truth not " Roman " :sx for he thought that the fact that its supposed " Roman " character had turned the scales against it in December was beyond question .sx The average English-man , with his traditional sensitiveness about anything which appears to threaten his freedom , at once rattles his sabre when he espies " Rome " :sx he inherits a fear-complex for which there was a painfully real reason in the minds of his forbears , when under Tudor and Stuart Sovereigns the political power of Rome in Europe was a constantly recurring danger to British security .sx Knowing little or no-thing of the real history of the Prayer Book , he is unaware how much in common it has with its medieval forerunners , and is ignorant for the most part of the ways in which exactly it differs from them .sx Fear is of all the passions the most irrational :sx and when the re-Revised Book came before the House of Commons on June 13-14 it was again ejected , and by the increased majority of 266 to 220 .sx " The whole question of the relationship of Church and State , " declared Theodore , " has thereby been raised .sx in a peculiarly acute form .sx .. This set-back is a trumpet-call to a deeper and more voluntary unity .sx " He shared to the full with his brother-Bishops the heavy burden of anxiety as to what action must now be taken .sx There were two , and only two , alternatives .sx First , bold action , which would strike at once at the heart of Establishment , involving a declaration by the Church's Convocations that her spiritual prerogative had been violated , and that now at all costs her spiritual independence must be asserted without regard to consequences the policy of immediate amputation .sx Or , secondly , a dignified declaration of spiritual independence ; then an enquiry , as soon as possible set in motion , into the conditions under which it would be possible to continue the centuries-old relationship to the State ; and then , when passions would be cooler and the real issues involved would be more clearly revealed , action the policy , as Theodore phrased it , of " no hasty surgery .sx " The Bishop of Durham at once chose the first , and with admirable courage and consistency he has never since ceased to urge that this is the only choice which is worthy of the dignity and the integrity of the Church .sx The Archbishop and the Bishops , and later the Church Assembly , chose the second , and it is useless to speculate as to what would have happened within the next five years , if , say , Theodore and a large proportion of the Upper Houses of Convocation had followed their brother of Durham in his decision .sx To pursue the story , the Bishops' decision plainly involved the necessity of facing the urgent , actual situation .sx There must be an interim policy to deal with the problem of what was to be done with regard to the proposed Prayer Book .sx A large majority of the Bishops , including Theodore , decided to adopt the proposed Book of 1928 as the standard of all deviations from the old Prayer Book to be permitted by them in the Dioceses .sx This policy would be administered at their individual discretion , but with a general concurrence of action .sx They also resolved that their suggested action should be laid before the clergy in Diocesan Synods , for the purposeof ascertaining whether it would command their loyal support .sx Then it would be referred to Convocation .sx In July Theodore conducted a Diocesan Retreat for the clergy , and the Winchester Synod was held in the Cathedral on November 27 .sx He was careful to explain that the Synod , important though it was for its purpose , was purely consultative , and not in any sense a legislative body by which the Bishop's action would be bound .sx Six questions , explaining in detail the operation of the policy above outlined , were addressed to the clergy :sx and , as he said , " on the whole the policy was endorsed by substantial majorities .sx " He was greatly cheered by this result , which he had awaited with much prayer and anxious thought , and the tone of the discussion and the general atmosphere of loyalty and unity which prevailed at the Synod fortified him in his belief that the Bishops generally had chosen the right course .sx Early in December a meeting of the lay members of the Diocesan Conference followed at Southampton , at which the support given was even more emphatic .sx The Diocesan Synods having met and pronounced their opinions , the final concurrence of Convocation was sought in the following July .sx