letter to The Times co-signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and 25 bishops which threatened the theologians with the ecclesiastical courts. Darwin quoted a proverb: "A bench of bishops is the devil's flower garden", and joined others including the eminent geologist Charles Lyell, and the mathematician and Queen's printer William Spottiswoode, in signing a counter-letter supporting Essays and Reviews for trying to "establish religious teachings on a firmer and broader foundation". On the subject Lewis Carroll wrote, "Let E = Essays, and R = Reviews: then the locus of (E + R), referred to multilinear coordinates, will be found to be a superficies (i.e., a locus possessing length and breadth, but no depth)." Repercussions Despite this alignment of pro-evolution scientists and Unitarians with liberal churchmen, Williams and Wilson were charged with heresy in the Court of Arches. They were found guilty on some of the counts by the Dean of Arches, Stephen Lushington, but appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Judicial Committee comprised secular judges sitting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London. In 1864 it overturned the convictions, with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York dissenting in part (though the Bishop of London concurred in the decision). It was said that the Privy Council had "dismissed hell with costs". One hundred and thirty-seven thousand laity signed a letter of thanks to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for voting against the Committee, and a declaration in favour of biblical inspiration and eternal torments was drawn up at Oxford and circulated to the 24,800 clergy, being signed by eleven thousand of them. Wilberforce went to the Convocation of Canterbury and in June obtained "synodical condemnation" of Essays and Reviews. Today the essay topics and conclusions may seem innocuous, but at the time, the essays were described by their opponents as heretical, and the essayists were called "The Seven Against Christ.".... See also Anglicanism Church of England Liberal Christianity Notes References Published anonymously. Also available from Google-books. Published anonymously. Further reading 1860 books Anglicanism History of the Church of England Books about religion and science