author
Sir Emilius Bayley
1823–1917
A Victorian clergyman and baronet, he wrote in a clear, earnest style shaped by church life and public preaching. Best known today for Episcopal Fidelity, he brings readers straight into the religious debates and duties of late 19th-century England.
1 Audiobook
Episcopal Fidelity
by Sir Emilius Bayley
About the author
Born on May 16, 1823, Sir Emilius Bayley was an English clergyman, baronet, and writer who was generally known by his middle name, Emilius. Later in life he took the surname Laurie, and he died in December 1917.
His surviving work is closely tied to his role in the Church of England. Episcopal Fidelity, the book most readily associated with him today, began as a sermon preached in Westminster Abbey in 1877 for the consecration of Anthony Wilson Thorold as Bishop of Rochester. That background gives his writing a direct, spoken quality, with the feeling of a thoughtful public address rather than a distant academic treatise.
Beyond authorship, Bayley also had a notably varied life: he was educated at Eton, was active in cricket in his younger years, and belonged to a prominent family through his baronetcy. For modern listeners, his appeal lies in the window he opens onto Victorian religious thought, where questions of faith, duty, and church leadership were treated as matters of real public importance.