 In the autumn of 1908 Lang was informed of his election as Bishop of Montreal . Letters from the Governor General of Canada and the Canadian High Commissioner urged him to accept , but the Archbishop of Canterbury asked him to refuse . A few weeks later a letter from Herbert Asquith , the prime minister , informed Lang that he had been nominated Archbishop of York . Lang was only 44 years old , and had no experience as a diocesan bishop . On the issue of age , the Church Times believed that Asquith deliberately recommended the youngest bishop available , after strong political lobbying for the appointment of the aged Bishop of Hereford , John Percival . Such a promotion for a suffragan , and within so short a period after ordination , was without recent precedent in the Church of England . Lang 's friend Hensley Henson , a future Bishop of Durham , wrote : " I am , of course , surprised that you go straight to an archbishopric ... But you are too meteoric for precedent . " The appointment was generally well received , although the Protestant Truth Society sought in vain to prevent its confirmation . Strong opponents of Anglo @-@ Catholic practices , they maintained that as Bishop of Stepney Lang had " connived at and encouraged flagrant breaking of the law relating to church ritual " . 
