After curacies in several parishes, he was instituted as vicar of St. Just by Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, in 1846. The following year, Gorham was recommended for Brampford Speke, and upon examining him, Phillpotts declared Gorham to be Calvinist, and hence unsuitable, in the matter of baptismal regeneration. He appealed to the Court of Arches, which confirmed the bishop's decision, but the sentence of the court was reversed by the Privy Council, and institution granted. The resulting furore led several leading Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church. Gorham spent the rest of his life dedicated to the church at Brampford Speke.
Legal action
The evangelical Gorham held that baptism was conditional and dependent upon a later personal adoption of promises made; these two views or modifications of them, exist side by side in the Church of England. Gorham sought an order from a church court (the Court of Arches) to compel the bishop to institute him to the living, but the court found in favour of the bishop and awarded costs against Gorham. Gorham appealed to the Privy Council, Edward Lowth Badeley appearing to argue Phillpotts' cause, but the decision of the lower court was reversed, though not unanimously (9 March 1850).
Bishop Phillpotts repudiated the judgment and threatened to excommunicate the Archbishop of Canterbury and anyone who dared to institute Gorham. The sticking point was this: should a secular court (even with, in this case the two Archbishops and the Bishop of London as members) decide the doctrine of the Church of England.
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