Modern British Heresy

  Carteret John Halford Fletcher began his working life as a solicitor. He was ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England In 1867 and from 1872 was Rector of the Church of St Martin, Carfax in the centre of Oxford ( wiki . history and images ) . He was married to Agnes and they had three daughters and six sons. Fletcher sat firmly at the broad church end of clerical opinion. In 1874 he invited the then notorious Bishop of Natal, John Colenso ( wiki ), to preach in his Church. When it became public, the invitation was met by a prohibition from the Bishop of Oxford on the grounds that Colenso was not licenced to preach in the Diocese. That Sunday the church held “an unusually large congregation” and Fletcher read the sermon Colenso had been due to deliver. Perhaps the reporter was disappointed that  “The discourse was not of a controversial character, and consisted chiefly of a plea for liberty of conscience.” ( Oxfordshire Weekly News - Wednesday 02 December 1874 p5, Col. 5)   A

Meandering through some heresy links (when I ought to have been concentrating on something else), I came across a significant discussion of heresy linked to the announcement of  The Journal of Controversial Ideas , to be published next year.  I recognise I'm late to notice them though, in mitigation, I've never worked in academia.  And conflict over the acceptability or toleration of ideas in American academia isn't my field or focus. However: The journal describes itself as a forum for careful, rigorous, unpolemical discussion of issues that are widely considered controversial, in the sense that certain views about them might be regarded by many people as morally, socially, or ideologically objectionable or offensive.  The aim of the journal is to enable people to publish ideas that they reasonably expect will be regarded by some as offensive, immoral, or dangerous. Authors may use a pseudonym, if they so choose.  ( here )  See the Heterodox Academy  ( wiki ). Universities

Arthur Bury 1624-1714 Rector of Exeter College, Oxford Bury, a vicar’s son, went up to Exeter College, Oxford in 1639, aged 15. He was awarded the degree of BA in 1642 and subsequently elected a Fellow of the college. He was a strong royalist and during the civil war helped in the defence of Oxford for the King. Consequently, in 1648, he was expelled from the city and lived out the remainder of the war and the Cromwellian peace in relative quiet with his father in Devonshire. He married Mary Southcott, a widow, and became Rector of Duloe in Cornwall. As a Royalist he was turned out of this living in 1649 and returned to it after the war. The restoration of the monarchy also meant the restoration of his fellowship, and Bury returned to his College. In May 1662 he was elected Rector [head] of the College, on the recommendation of Archbishop Tillotson and the explicit instruction of King Charles II despite the Fellows’ ingrained resentment of external interference in their