Death of Canterbury

Only the death of the Pope could have saddened more Christians. William Temple was more than the 98th Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England, spiritual leader of 40.000,000 Anglicans. He was also head of the World Council of Churches, representing 350,000,000 Christians of almost every denomination except the Roman Catholic.

To William Temple death came suddenly, with a heart attack at Westgate-on-the-Sea, where the 63-year-old prelate was recuperating from gout. He had been Archbishop of Canterbury for only two and a half years. Speculation about his successor, to be appointed by the King (on the advice of the Prime Minister), centered around two names: Dr. Cyril Forster Garbett, 69, Archbishop of York, and Dr. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, 57, Bishop of London. But one thing was certain: there is no one else quite like William Temple in the whole Anglican Communion. London's Tory Times and Communist Daily Worker mourned him equally.

"A Just Beast." William Temple, the only son of an Archbishop of Canterbury ever to follow his father, was born in the Bishop's Palace at Exeter. Later, Bishop Frederick Temple became headmaster of Rugby, and young William learned Latin and Greek on backless benches in chilly rooms among fellow students who referred to his father as "a beast, but a just beast." "Fat Willie Temple'' was both precocious and impish. From Rugby he went on to Balliol College, Oxford, where he made a brilliant academic record and became president of the Oxford Union.

Social Revolutionist. Ordained to the priesthood, Temple served successively as chaplain to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, headmaster of Repton School, rector of St. James's in Piccadilly, Canon of Westminster Abbey. In 1921 he was appointed Bishop of Manchester. Eight years later, at 48, he was made the youngest Archbishop of York in history.

In industrial Manchester and Yorkshire, William Temple found ample occasion to raise his voice against social and economic injustice. He once horrified the Chancellor of the Exchequer by suggesting that a budget surplus should be given to the unemployed rather than used to reduce taxes. Ruddy, fat-cheeked, jolly Dr. Temple laughed easily and loud* but he was in deadly earnest about social reforms.

The Archbishop's outstanding achievement was his leadership of the famed Malvern Conference (TIME, Jan. 20, 1941), which marked him as the world's leading exponent of Christian social reconstruction. Reading Malvern's recommendations, Britons realized that the Church of England was trumpeting nothing less than a social revolution, could no longer be dubbed the Tory Party at Prayers./-

Last year, in Christianity and Social Order, Dr. Temple set forth six propositions for a Christian society:

P: Every child should find itself a member of a family housed with decency and dignity.

P: Every child should have an opportunity for education up to maturity. P: Every citizen should have sufficient income to make a home and bring up his children properly.

P: Every worker should have a voice in the conduct of the business or industry in which he works.

P: Every citizen should have sufficient leisure--two days' rest in seven and an annual holiday with pay. P: Every citizen should be guaranteed freedom of worship, speech, assembly and association.

The Archbishop was once introduced to one Cholmondeley Jones. "Take a seat, Mr. Jones," said he. "My name is Cholmondeley Jones," returned the other. "Indeed," said the Archbishop. "Then take two seats." /- Dr. Temple's latest book, The Church Looks Forward (Macmillan; $2), containing 25 addresses made since his enthronement, will be published Nov. 14.

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