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Chapter 4

Ridley, Wycliffe, and St. Paul’s, 1889–1893

By the end of his undergraduate career, Cody had progressed a long way towards the Anglican ministry. Starting from a Diocese of Huron and Embro background, he continued to be in contact with evangelical influences – his father, the Torrances, and his cousins, Phila and Mill Cody. As well, he had established a connection with the Wycliffe community and probably with St. Paul’s Church and its rector, T.C. Des Barres Senior (Tommy’s father).

The evangelical Anglicans were a disciplined and well-organized group of clergy and laity.¹ In 1869 they had organized the Evangelical Association of the United Church of England and Ireland in the Diocese of Toronto, which was merged in 1873 with the Church Association of the Diocese of Toronto. Among the leaders of the group were S.H. Blake, a Toronto corporation lawyer and brother of Edward Blake; J. George Hodgins, deputy superintendent of education for Ontario; Dean H.J. Grasett of St. James Cathedral; and Sir Casimir Gzowski, the famous engineer. They had conducted a determined opposition to Bishop Bethune, a high church Anglican, in the 1870s. They had strengthened their position by bringing Sheraton to Toronto in 1876 as editor of the Evangelical Churchman and by establishing the Protestant Episcopal Divinity School in 1877 with Sheraton as principal. Their position was basically the theology of the Protestant Reformation and the evangelical revival – justification by faith, the authority of Scripture, and rejection of excessive ritual in church services.

Cody’s association with the evangelicals was strengthened by his appointment to the staff of Ridley College in 1889. Ridley, a boys’ school, was founded by Toronto evangelicals who formed a corporation, purchased a building in St. Catharines (formerly the Springfield Sanitarium), and opened the school in the fall of 1889.

J.O. Miller, the principal, was a Wycliffe graduate and a budding authority on Canada’s literary future. He had published an undergraduate essay in the Varsity (February 12, 1883) arguing that there was little immediate hope for the development of a distinctively Canadian literature. Like many of his evangelical friends, Miller was in the British-Canadian tradition. He thought that Canadians should try to reach a universal audience by first cultivating a taste for British and European literature.

One of Cody’s colleagues at Ridley was F.J. Steen, who taught modern languages. Steen, an old friend of Cody’s from college days, was not exactly what the Ridley corporation were looking for. He was an able scholar but an abrasive critic of what he regarded as the Anglican evangelical establishment, specifically the Evangelical Churchman in Toronto and, later, the Bishop of Montreal. Cody did not share such views, but Steen was his friend and Cody respected him.

The intentions of Ridley’s promoters are suggested by an excerpt from the first annual report of the first president, T.R. Merritt, in 1890: “We have endeavoured to carry out the object of the promoters in establishing a school under the auspices of the Church of England in Canada where sound religious training, Evangelical in character and thorough literary instruction may be obtained, combined with the best physical training.” A year later the Evangelical Churchman described Ridley as “a school for the sons of Christian parents where this effort to carry out the home training of earlier years is definitely made.”²

Cody was a candidate for the position of classics master at Ridley. His candidature was strongly supported by, among others, his old high school principal, Bryant. According to W.J. Armitage, a promoter of Ridley, Miller had watched Cody’s career through university and “had listened to J.E. Bryant ... rhapsodize on the wonders of his mind as it developed in school life.” There was another candidate for the classics position, Stephen Leacock, but his qualifications were not as strong as Cody’s. Leacock’s rueful account, written years later, describes Cody as “a blue-eyed, handsome young man with a squared jaw which correctly reflected his firmness, though he was never to be unreasonably opinioned.”³

Cody was a popular teacher at Ridley. His friendly relations with the boys are reflected in a letter from an old student, Walter Caldecott, written after Cody had left Ridley in order to train for the Anglican ministry:

Poor old Ridley, the football from all accounts must be weak, when such as Uniacke, Cartwright Major could get on, why honestly they hardly crawled into the II last year, I should think it hard on Mr. MacLean [the English master] and Perry to play with such a team. I have heard from Cam Cartwright, his health is good, but he says that Mr. White is not nearly so nice as you were when you tried to drill Latin into our dull Heads.

I hope you may still be at St. Paul’s when I return, it seems natural to listen to you, like old times. Do you remember the “Top Hat” supper? I’d give $5 to be at one now, although our songs were never in tune (especially when Thompson was there and Lee) still I think we all enjoyed ourselves. And perhaps you remember last Easter when the “Wing” came to attack the “main.” We told them (the wing) that why they never arrived on the scene was because, they went and knocked at your door and asked to be sent back. I made the charge against Billy Evans. (I didn’t go in the wing for a while after.)

I really thought that Mr. Williams [the mathematics master] had designs on my life and if I had not been sleeping the sleep of the just I should have been a tender victim to Cruel fate, fortunately I am a heavy sleeper, as my snores must have assured him of my genuine sleep.⁴

The Ridley boys were probably not quite so hearty nor so innocent as they appear in Caldecott’s letter, but it does bear out Leacock’s assertion that Cody “had no pretensions and even though he had little athletic ability, the boys liked and respected him.”⁵ Cody’s stint at Ridley was the beginning of his long and friendly association with the school. He was a member of the Ridley board until his death.

Cody likely decided to enter the Anglican ministry during his undergraduate career when he had already come under Sheraton’s influence. He had been contemplating the ministry since his time with Hincks in Galt, but Sheraton and the Des Barres – Senior and Junior – probably were the final influences. He registered at Wycliffe in 1890, but remained at Ridley for another two years. He took a summer course in Hebrew at Chautauqua, N.Y., in 1890, apparently in preparation for his divinity program. He may also have done some work at Wycliffe during vacations, and while at Ridley he did a good deal of preaching in the college chapel and in churches in the St. Catharines area.

The course at Wycliffe that preceded ordination normally took three years. Cody managed to complete it by the spring of 1893, although he was in residence for only a year, 1892–93. When he registered at Wycliffe in 1890 the college had been in operation for thirteen years. By that time it had produced some sixty graduates and was about to move into its new building on Hoskin Avenue, north of the site of the present Hart House. The faculty was still small. In 1885 it consisted of Sheraton, three young Wycliffe graduates (Edwin Daniel, George Wrong, and F.H. DuVernet), two city clergymen (S.J. Boddy and Septimus Jones), and a professor from University College, J.M. Hirschfelder, who taught Hebrew. The course was similar to that of other evangelical Anglican colleges then and for a long time afterwards. The distinctive feature was tremendous emphasis on Bible study and on the theology of the Protestant Reformation. The core of the program was Old Testament and New Testament studies and a number of professional courses such as Apologetics (the defence of the truth), Systematic Theology (an organized presentation of the Christian faith), Homiletics (the organization and preaching of sermons), and Liturgies (the study of the Prayer Book).

The program was based on a firm and precise seven-point statement of principles, set forth at the outset of Wycliffe’s history and substantially restated in subsequent Wycliffe calendars. The first two indicate their tenor: “(1) The Bible as the sole rule of faith and (2) Justification by faith in Christ alone.”⁶

Cody’s continuing relationship with Sheraton was of especial importance to his career.⁷ Sheraton was the dominant personality at Wycliffe and the intellectual centre of the evangelical community in Toronto. He was an able theologian and a fine teacher. A man of slight stature, he was much beloved by his students, who called him “the little doctor.” One gets a glimpse of this affection in a letter from one of his students to Mrs. Sheraton when Sheraton was ill in 1905, “As one of his boys who has had the privilege of his teaching I would not like to think of his being laid aside.”⁸ Sheraton was very approachable and sympathetic in dealing with students. Tommy Des Barres was much impressed by his fairness. Des Barres was having intellectual difficulties about whether to go to Wycliffe. Probably his father desired it, but he was less sure. He wrote to Cody after a conference with Sheraton in which he had announced he was not going to Wycliffe:

In his reply he endeavoured to broach some of my difficulties but did not succeed in removing them very considerably. I liked however, the spirit he assumed very much; he said he sympathized with me in my difficulties ... had himself passed through much the same, could not very well see how any thoughtful man could escape meeting them in some form or other ... He is certainly a Broad Evangelical, a progressive man and one in sympathy with all earnest seeking-after truth.⁹

Sheraton was an able administrator and an active participant in university politics. As editor of the Evangelical Churchman, he was a forthright exponent of the evangelical position in the Church of England. One of his colleagues, Dyson Hague, said he was a born propagandist who “devoted himself with a single eye to the glory of God” and “to the propagation of evangelical principles.” Cody described him as “a real master of the voluminous literature of the Reformation Period.”¹⁰ He was the author of various works including The Inspiration and Authority of the Holy Scriptures (1873) and Our Lord’s Teaching concerning Himself (1904).

During this period Cody had an especial contact with Sheraton as well as J.O. Miller through the Evangelical Churchman. The Evangelical Churchman had been one of Sheraton’s main concerns since its inception in 1876. Although he was succeeded as editor by Miller in 1888, he continued to play an active role in the production of the paper. It is not clear whether he or Miller enlisted Cody’s service, but at any rate Cody was doing editorial work for the Evangelical Churchman as early as 1889. There are letters in this period in the Cody papers from Goldwin Smith, Phillip Brooks (the great Boston preacher), and others in reference to applications from Cody for contributions to the Evangelical Churchman. A letter to Cody from Sheraton dated March 4, 1891, suggests how cordial the relationship between them had already become. Cody had submitted a review of a book on prophecy in which he was strongly critical of the author’s premillennial view.* Although Sheraton himself was not a premillennialist, he was concerned about the many premillennialist subscribers to the paper and rejected Cody’s review. Then, fearing his forthright rejection may have hurt Cody’s feelings, he wrote a long letter apologizing for his action and explaining his reasons in detail. He explained that the review had come to him in proof with a number of others: “I read very hastily and wrote a brief memorandum to the Committee. I have not at all changed my judgment as to the advisability of inserting it, but I feel that I did not make my reasons sufficiently plain and used some expressions stronger than the case warranted.”¹¹

Cody continued to receive counsel and news from his relatives and friends. Phila married a Baptist minister, H.G. Fraser, in 1889. The Frasers were stationed in Hamilton and Phila urged Cody to “run across” from St. Catharines to see them. In 1890 the couple moved to Owen Sound. Phila’s father, Marvin, was living with them, apparently in ill-health, but still interested in the news: “He reads just as much as his daughters will let him, and though he is a good boy, he requires watching. The Birchell trial has occupied his attention lately.” Phila was still concerned about Cody’s spiritual welfare and earnestly enquired, “How is it now Harry do you sometimes find yourself absorbed just for the sake of the knowledge you gain, or is your life closely linked with the Giver of all wisdom. How grand a life may be if it is steadily guided by God.”¹²

In his letters to Cody, Tommy Des Barres continued to display the supreme self-confidence that had characterized his earlier letters. In 1889 he was considering the problem of where to go after graduation from University College. Having decided not to enter Wycliffe, he chose Yale. After two years he was at Cambridge, but he did not approve of that university either: “Cambridge life is very different from Yale or Toronto life. At first I was struck with what I thought was the men’s ignorance, but afterwards found to be narrowness of vision.”¹³

Two years later, having survived Cambridge, Tommy decided to be ordained and to stay in England for several years. Meanwhile, a cycling trip around southern England produced more of his caustic comments. About Bishop Ryle, the great evangelical, author of Knots Untied and other works, Tommy averred, “I dare to go against the trend of popular opinion at Cambridge and say that I don’t think Ryle is very much of an intellectual heavyweight. He is vastly G. Watkin’s inferior.” About Isaac Hellmuth, who had resigned in 1878 as Bishop of Huron and settled in England, he reported, “I saw Bishop Hellmuth when I was in Bristol ... I heard him styled ‘that well-nourished old gentleman’ and I thought it a most appropriate designation.” Tommy’s remarks about evangelicals were not those of a disciple: “It is interesting to note in England the various types of Evangelical churchmen e.g. 1) the Protestant Controversialist 2) the Keswickians 3) the Mouleians 4) the Broad Evangelicals 5) the Moderate Evangelicals.”¹⁴

The year 1892–93 was an important one in Cody’s life. While finishing his course at Wycliffe, he established a connection with St. Paul’s Church on Bloor Street East, an evangelical congregation under the rectorship of T.C. Des Barres Senior. This association likely came about as a result of the influence of Tommy and also of F.H. DuVernet, one of Cody’s Wycliffe friends. DuVernet was the curate at St. Paul’s and professor of practical theology at Wycliffe.

Cody was a student assistant at St. Paul’s in 1892–93. He is mentioned in the annual Warden’s Report for 1892–93 as having participated in the work conducted in the North End Hall by Stapleton Caldecott, a prominent parishioner.¹⁵ Though not yet ordained, he preached frequently at St. Paul’s. Meanwhile he brought his undergraduate career at Wycliffe to a respectable conclusion in May of 1893, graduating with first-class honours. In the prize list for 1893 his name appears twice – as winner of the De Soyres Prize in Church History and the Macpherson Prize in Biblical Greek.¹⁶ John De Soyres, probably the donor of the history prize, wrote to Cody at the time of his graduation congratulating him on his “brilliant essay” and urging him to continue in the field of church history. “I do hope that you will not lose your grip on historical studies ... Church History is sword and shield alike for the men who are ‘Evangelical Churchmen,’ and we want you to carry truth effectively.”¹⁷ But Cody found other fields of Christian endeavour more attractive.

Cody was ordained by Bishop Sweatman at St. Alban’s Cathedral on June 4, 1893.

* Evangelicals were divided (some of them still are) by their interpretations of prophecy, especially in reference to the book of Revelation. Premillennialists look forward to the reign of Christ for a thousand years on the earth when he returns at the Second Coming, whereas the Amillennialists regard the reign of Christ as occurring in the present prior to his return. The book in question was by William Milligan, a Scottish theologian, The Resurrection of the Dead(1890).