Within his diocese Davidson was drawn into controversy over a high-church breach of canon law by Robert Dolling, a fervent Anglo-Catholic priest, who liked to be called "Father Dolling". Davidson discovered that Dolling had installed a third altar at his newly built church, to be reserved for masses for the dead. The Church of England disowned the Roman Catholic belief in Purgatory and the efficacy of praying for souls in it. Davidson saw Dolling and tried to reach a compromise that would bring the latter's practices within Anglican rules. Dolling refused to compromise and resigned, leaving the diocese. His supporters were critical of Davidson; Mews cites a high-church journalist who concluded that the episode left its mark on Davidson "in forming his determination not to be the archbishop who drove the high-church party out of the Church of England". Though traditionally Protestant in his rejection of some aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine such as Benediction, he thought his evangelical colleagues were too easily upset by "incense, copes and other adornments", which had no doctrinal significance.