"Charity, the mother of unity": the eirenic vision of the Jacobean Church and its Supreme Governor

From Casaubon's preface to his Answer to Cardinal Perron (1612), a summary of how James VI/I and his eirenic, Hookerian orthodoxy prized and envisaged the restoration of the unity of Christendom, through charity and moderation healing the wounds of disunity, allowing the churches to be centred around 'the ancient and the necessary'. Once again, it demonstrates how an eirenic vision - rather than a straightforward Reformed Conformity - was evident in the Jacobean Church.

Religious and wise men shall further understand what manner of peace, and concord in the Church this most pious Prince wisheth: and upon what terms and conditions his Majesty is ready to make covenant. For this answer is tempered with such moderation, that the zealous endeavour by all good means to make up peace, appeareth not to be inferior to the zealous endeavour of defending the truth. And this surely is the King's opinion, this his firm sentence, that it is but vain for such men to think, or talk of the peace of the Church, which are not afraid to separate and disjoin this celestial chariot, which ought in no wise to be discoupled. That in vain therefore do they vaunt of the truth of their opinion, who maliciously interpreting all the sayings of other men, and deducting thence such absurd consequences as they list, giving bad example of such perverse industry, do prove themselves destitute of charity, which is the mother of unity. That in vain also do they usurp the golden names of Charity and Unity, which are not willing to admit of Truth, which is the foundation of piety that is sincere. It was of old excellently spoken by S. Hilary: 'Beautiful is the name of peace (saith he) and fair is the opinion of unity, but who may doubt, that that only is the peace of the Church, which is the peace of Christ?' The peace of Christ, which alone is taught by this most holy father to be approved of in the Church, it is that, by which the doctrine of Christ, which he taught his Apostles, and his Apostles taught the primitive Church, doth remain safe defenced, and unshaken. Let those to whom it belongeth, who challenge the principal places in the Church, offer unto his Majesty such a peace, and straightway the discord is ended. Let them ingenuously and faithfully separate human matters from divine, things superstitious from things religious, novelties, and late born devices from such matters as be truly ancient, lastly, the nothing or less necessary, from the necessary: and I say again, and I cry aloud, that all may hear, on his Majesty's part, and for the Church of England, the discord is at an end.

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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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