The Christian Church, as
he conceived it, was primarily a civilizer, and the expression of the
highest ethical sentiment of the age.
"The Church," he writes, "can surely not be re-established in its former
religious significance, for the system upon which it rests has slept
away three centuries of history; and it is of no use that this man or
that man yet pretends to believe in the somnambulist. But the church has
also a civic significance as an integral part of the social order of
humanity. If you abandon that to the spirit of laxity and drowsiness, I
can see no reason why the clergy and the whole religious apparatus
should not be, and ought not to be, abolished and their costs covered
into the treasury."
These are not highly episcopal sentiments; but they are in keeping with
Tegner's whole personality and his conception of his duty. His first
concern was to purge his diocese of drunken clergymen, a task in which
he encountered many unforeseen difficulties.
"It is nowadays less difficult," he says, "to get rid of a king than a
drunken clergyman.
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