RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Goose Bible Gorton
in a decision rendered Aug., 1849; he then appealed from the decision of the spiritual court to the judicial committee of the Privy Council, exercising the right of every clergyman of the Established Church in England to appeal from the judgment of an ecclesiastical court to a court of law. On this occasion the court, while essentially a lay tribunal deriving its authority solely from the crown, had for assessors the archbishops of Canterbury (Sumner) and York (Musgrave) and the bishop of London (Blomfield). The decision here, Mar., 1850, was in Gorham's favor, and an order in council demanded its execution. The bishop of Exeter questioned the authority of the judicial Committee in the courts of Queen's Bench, of Exchequer, and of Common Pleas, but without success. Gorham was instituted by the Court of Arches into the vicarage of Brampford Speke in Aug., 1851. The committee justified its decision by appealing to the fact that " many eminent prelates and divines had propounded and maintained " opinions practically the same as Gorham's " without censure or reproach," thus showing " the liberty which has been allowed of maintaining such doctrine." The judgment also declared that " devotional expressions, involving assertions, must not, as of course, be taken to bear an absolute and unconditional sense."
The case aroused intense interest and something like fifty works were published concerning it. Gorham's sympathizers reimbursed him for the heavy expenses of the litigation by public subscription. The decision was the first of several which have established the right of a clergyman of the Church of England to express opinions honestly held and have made heresy trials for deviation from traditional interpretations well-nigh impossible in the Established Church. On the other hand, the High-church party considered that the judgment had struck out what they believed to be an article of the creed, and had asserted afresh, as an inherent right, the supremacy of the crown in matters of faith. The decision was one of the causes leading to Manning's withdrawal from the Church of England.
Bibliography: The principal documents in the case are: Examination before Admission to a Benefice, by H. Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, ed. G. C. Gorham, London, 1848; Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter; a Report of the Arguments before the Privy Council, ib. 1850; Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter; the Judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Mar. 8, 1850, reversing decision of Sir H. J. Fust, ed. G. C. Gorham, ib. 1850; Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter; Arguments before the Privy Council, the Court of Queen's Bench, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Arches, ed. G. C. Gorham, ib. 1850; G. C. Gorham, The Great Gorham Case, a Hist, in Five Books, ib. 1850; idem, A Letter on the Recent Judgment, Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter, ib. 1850. Consult also: DNB, xxiii. 243-245. A partial list of the literature evoked by the case is given in the British Museum Catalogue, under " Gorham, George Cornelius."
GORTON, SAMUEL (SAMUELL): English sectary and founder of the Gortonites; b. at Gorton (3 m. e. of Manchester), Eng., c. 1592; d. at Warwick, R. I., Nov. or Dec, 1677 He received a good education from private tutors and learned to read the Bible in the original tongues. When about twentyfive he began business in London on his own account
as a " clothier," i.e., a finisher of cloth after weaving. Being very unconventional in his religious views, he emigrated to America " to enjoy libertie of conscience in respect to faith towards God, and for no other end." He arrived in Boston in Mar., 1636 or 1637 But he did not find what he sought there, and so soon removed to Plymouth, where he did better for a while until what he considered unjust treatment of a servant led him to criticize publicly the magistracy, and in consequence he was, in Dec. of 1638, banished on a charge of contumacy. He then went to Rhode Island. But here again his independent views on State and Church got him into trouble, and in 1641 he was imprisoned and banished, probably after a public whipping at Portsmouth. He then went to Providence. In Jan., 1643, he and his followers retired to Shawomet, where be bought land of Miantonomi, head sachem of the Narragansetts, and two undersachems. The latter two were induced by the enemies of Gorton to deny that he had ever bought the land. This involved Gorton with the commonwealth of Massachusetts, to which the alleged misused Indians appealed. Accordingly he was summoned to Boston, Sept. 12, 1643, and because he and his followers refused, they were compelled by force of arms to obey. The general court of Massachusetts condemned him and six of of his followers to imprisonment, Nov. 3, 1643, but on Mar. 7, 1644, they were released and banished. Gorton went to Portsmouth, and in 1646 to England, where he pleaded his cause so successfully that he returned with an order from the earl of Warwick to the Massachusetts magistrates that the Shawomet colony should be free from interference. He renamed his colony Warwick. He was held in the highest esteem by his fellow citizens, and was honored by positions of trust.
Gorton stood politically for English law and citizenship in the English colonies, and advocated that, while the latter should purchase their lands from the Indians, they yet should have charters from England. Religiously he stood for the right of private judgment, and maintained the following distinctive views: (1) He denied the doctrine of the Trinity, but declared that Christ was God and the only proper object of worship. (2) He declared against a " hireling ministry," and affirmed that there was no fitness in a class of men paid for ministerial functions, as each man was his own priest. (3) He would do away with all outward ordinances. (4) He taught a conditional immortality wholly dependent on the character of the individual. With such views, which he boldly affirmed, it was no wonder that he had perpetual strife with the clerical and political powers in the colonies. It is claimed that for a hundred years after his death there were adherents of his views, but he did not organize any sect. To do so would have been contrary to his principles.
Gorton published several controversial tracts in advocacy of his political and religious views. The best known is his Simplicities Defence against Seven- Headed Policy (London, 1646, written while there to defend his cause, reprinted as vol. ii. in the Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, 1835, also in Force's Historical Tracts,
Goshen
Gospel and Gospels