High Church revival in the Age of Reason and Revolution

Walked then immediately to the Cathedral, and heard a very good sermon preached by a Dr. Cobb, Rector of Carleton St Peter, very severe on Dr. Priestly the Apostate if properly named - from the diary of Parson Woodforde, entry for 7th July 1791.

This is one of the joys of The Diary of a Country Parson. Alongside the grace of the ordinary which fills the diary, and the Wendell Berry-like sense of place, each page of the diary also provides some detail which gives insight into the life of late 18th century Anglicanism.

This particular entry is an example of a reoccurring theme throughout the 'long eighteenth century': a robust affirmation of the Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy of the Formularies, a commitment shared by both High Church and Reformed/Evangelical traditions within Anglicanism (on this, see Stephen Hampton's Anti-Arminians: The Anglican Reformed Tradition from Charles II to George I).

"Dr. Priestly the Apostate" was the infamous author of the anti-Trinitarian The History of the Corruptions of Christianity (1782). As J.C.D. Clark showed in his now classic English Society 1688-1832, both the Socinianism of Priestly and his rejection of the "Anglican doctrine of the State" called forth a "formidable scholarly defence of doctrinal Orthodoxy", led by the High Church tradition.

Clark particularly emphasises the significance of Samuel Horsley (made Bishop of Rochester in 1793) in this revival of the High Church tradition, with Latitudinarianism theologically exhausted and unconvincing in the face of theological and political challenges to the Anglican order. F.C. Mather's study of Horsley - High Church Prophet - notes that his rebuttal of Priestly's Socinianism (in an extended debate from 1783 to 1790) led "to the revival of a positive High Church theology", with the result that "the doctrine of the Trinity became the touchstone of the teaching authority of the Anglican Church and of its standing in the community".

And so we come with Parson Wooforde to Norwich Cathedral in July 1791, gathering with other clergy from his deanery for an episcopal visitation. There they heard the sermon by another parson refuting Priestly, an expression of that revived High Church tradition and its commitment to the patristic orthodoxy of the Anglican Formularies.

This, of course, was not meant to be happening in the Age of Reason. As Mather states, the defence of Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy which had been seen in Waterland and the High Church tradition of the early 18th century, had been "progressively undermined by the eighteenth-century retreat from the appeal to antiquity, as Scripture interpreted by reason alone was not considered a sufficient proof of the Athanasian construction". Added to this, the Revolutions in the American colonies and France gave rise to a sense of a new political and social order in which, it seemed, orthodox, Trinitarian Christianity would, at best, be irrelevant, an unwanted relic of past dark ages.

The sermon heard by Parson Woodforde, however, witnesses to a widespread High Church revival of Trinitarian orthodoxy and Anglican political theology in a theological, cultural and political context in which many assumed this could not occur. Not only did it occur, but it produced a compelling account of ecclesial and civic being and identity. Just weeks before the sermon in Norwich Cathedral against "the Apostate", Priestly wrote to a correspondent that the "majority" of English people sympathised with the "High Church Party" (quoted in Clark, p.344).

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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