As early as 1838 Lord Ashley had written in his diary, "Could we not erect a Protestant Bishopric at Jerusalem?" But the actual proposal came from quite an unexpected source. In 1841 the King of Prussia sent Chevalier Bunsen to England to sound the authorities of Church and State on this very matter. "The King," so ran Bunsen's instructions, "has from early youth cherished the idea of amending the condition of Christians in the Holy Land, where the condition of all Christians is ignominious, and that of Protestants doubly so. . . . Protestant Christianity can entertain no hope of recognition in the East, unless it exhibits itself as a united body. The Government have been accustomed in all ages to see those who acknowledge themselves to be co-religionists act together as one body subject to uniform discipline. If, therefore, Protestant Christendom were to insist on being recognized under all its separate denominations, the Turkish Government would undoubtedly hesitate to grant such recognition." His proposal was that the English Church should appoint a Bishop at Jerusalem to superintend the German congregations as well as the English missions; he offered £15,000 towards the endowment of the See, and suggested that the Bishop should be nominated alternately by the Crowns of England and Prussia, the Archbishop of Canterbury having power to veto any of the Prussian nominees; all Lutheran ministers in charge of congregations in Palestine would then be ordained by the Bishop after signing the Thirty-nine Articles.
The Evangelicals took up the scheme with enthusiasm. Lord Ashley used his influence with the Government to gain its consent. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London warmly welcomed the proposal. Broad-minded High Churchmen like Bishop Wilberforce and Gladstone favoured it, hoping, as probably the King himself did, that it would lead to the introduction of episcopacy into Prussia. Dr. Hook subscribed to the fund, and wrote a pamphlet defending it. But the Tractarians were furious, not only because there was already an Oriental Bishop of Jerusalem, though Pusey himself pointed out that the rule of antiquity allowed people who spoke different languages each to have a Bishop of their own, though living side by side, but also because the scheme involved the recognition of Prussian Protestants as fellow-Christians, whereas the Tractarians regarded them as ex-communicate heretics. Newman sent a strong protest to the Archbishop, and, when the scheme was adopted, declared that this was the blow which finally shattered his faith in the Anglican Church.
In September, 1841, the Bill passed through Parliament, and in November Michael Solomon Alexander, a Jew by race, a Prussian by birth, and for many years a devout and learned clergyman of the Church of England, was consecrated at Lambeth as Bishop of Jerusalem. On his death in 1845, the King of Prussia nominated Samuel Gobat as his successor, a Swiss, who had been trained at Islington College, and had served as a C.M.S. missionary in Syria and Egypt. He was still Bishop at the time of the Society's jubilee.
Extract from "A History of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England" (G.R.Balleine)
