Thomas Secker

1693-1768. Archbishop of Canterbury from 1758. A distinguished ecclesiastical career which included a royal chaplaincy, the sees of Bristol and Oxford, and the deanery of St. Paul's culminated in his appointment to Canterbury. Secker was a conformist, readily accepting established dogma and doctrines. His theology was of that rational, ethical brand usually associated with his predecessor, John Tillotson,* but it went somewhat beyond this in his doubts about the sufficiency of a prudential morality. His characteristic note, however, is moderation, so much in contrast with his contemporary Wesley; and his style matches his tone-dignified, sane, but rather colorless.