Westcott: unsafe, shadowy, mystical
Westcott’s memoir openly admits that some regarded him as “unsound,” “shadowy,” or “mystical.” His son also records later episodes in which his orthodoxy was called in question and a pamphlet was suppressed after episcopal referees judged it heretical. Whatever conclusion one finally draws, the controversy was real enough that his own family biographer could not omit it.
Hort: not safe or traditional
Hort’s evidence is in some ways even more direct. He told Bishop Harold Browne that he had warned him he was “not safe or traditional” in theology and that he could not give up association with heretics and such like. Together with the Mary-worship / Jesus-worship line and his earlier language about bibliolaters, that confession makes it impossible to portray him simply as an untroubled guardian of inherited orthodoxy.