laudable Practice

One of the accusations historians often make of those who defended episcopal conformity in the 17th century Church of Scotland is that their case lacked force. Moderation and eirenicism, we are told, could not hold against the passion and conviction of Covenanters. There are good grounds for doubting this in the latter part of the century. (Indeed, the victory of the Covenanter tradition was the chiefly the result of contingent political circumstances , not force of argument.) And, in his 1621 account of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Perth in 1618 , David Lindsay - Bishop of Brechin (1619-34 and Bishop of Edinburgh 1634-38) - demonstrates that this also was not the case in the Jacobean Church of Scotland.  Addressing those who rejected the authority of the Articles of Perth, as accepted by the General Assembly at the request of James VI/I, Lindsay has no hesitation in directly addressing how they disorder both Church and State: And if any will still oppose ...

And as in baptism in baptism we receive the Spirit of Christ, for the renewing of our life, so do we in this sacrament of Christ's most precious body and blood, receive Christ's very flesh and drink his very blood ... When Gardiner drew this distinction between Baptism and Eucharist, Cranmer - in his Answer to Gardiner  (1551) - was ready with an approach well-established in Swiss sacramental theology, accusing papalist opponents of demeaning the Sacrament of Baptism: And where you say that in baptism we receive the Spirit of Christ, and in the sacrament of his body and blood we receive his very flesh and blood: this your saying is no small derogation to baptism, wherein we receive not only the Spirit of Christ, but also Christ himself, whole body and soul, manhood and Godhead, unto everlasting life, as well as in the holy communion. For St. Paul saith, As many as be baptized in Christ, put Christ upon them: Nevertheless, this is done in divers respects; for in baptism it is do...

As we have seen in a variety of ways in our readings from Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , the work gives important insights into the life of the post-1662 Church of England. Today's extract introduces some significant themes: patronage, relationship with the State, and the Church and Toryism.  Nelson introduces us to Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, who, after prosecuting the regicides at the Restoration and becoming Attorney General, was appointed Lord Chancellor - the first minister of the Crown - in 1675. He was what we might call a proto-Tory, embodying the Cavalier loyalty to Church and Crown which would, in the Exclusion Crisis of 1678-81, become Toryism. This, indeed, is seen in his eldest son, the 2nd Earl, and second son being leading Tory figures during and after the Revolution of 1688. His commitment to the Church of England, the distinguishing feature of early Toryism, is emphasised by Nelson: Among the many very commendable Qualities of this Gre...

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, laudable Practice turns to an Autumn day in 1820, as - according to an 1851 account of the journey - the Rev'd John West, appointed by the Church Missionary Society, set out for the territory then known as Rupert's Land (now southern Manitoba and parts of eastern Saskatchewan): It was in the autumn of the year 1820 that a little boat of birch-rind might have been seen to leave York Fort, on the western side of Hudson's Bay and after coasting for a while along the shore, enter one of the rivers that flow from the interior. There was nothing in this circumstance to attract the attention of a casual observer - similar boats were continually arriving at, and departing from, the fort during the few bright months of summer and early autumn; this canoe was, as usual, manned by natives, and, as was frequently the case, an European gentleman was sitting at the stern. But if any of God's own people had seen that boat depart, they would have w...

Today's post is part of an occasional series on paintings which capture experiences of magisterial Protestantism. The picture found at the head of this blog, William Teulon Blandford Fletcher's 'Sacrament Sunday', c.1897, is a particular example of this. I have previously posted on ' Preaching to the Congregation ' by German artist Jacobs Alberts, c.1910. This post reflects on two paintings from the 1860s by Norwegian artist Adolph Tidemand (b. 1814, d. 1876). Both depict the administration of Holy Communion to the dying, according to the rites of  Den norske kirke , the Church of Norway. They provide us with significant insights into magisterial Protestant piety. This is particularly evident in an important detail in the paintings. In both cases - and this, I think, must surely be Tidemand's informed intention - they portray the chalice being administered to the dying. This expresses the importance to the magisterial Protestant traditions of communion in bo...

As David Lindsay - Bishop of Brechin (1619-34 and Bishop of Edinburgh 1634-38) - continues his defence of the Articles of Perth, in his 1621 account of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Perth in 1618 , he again emphasises that such matters of ceremony and practice are not  determined by Scripture. Contrary to those who attacked the Articles of Perth, and who exalted the previous ceremonial order of the 1560 Book of Discipline , Lindsay explicitly states that the provisions of the Articles were not "knowne verities": None of the affirmatiue voters approued the Articles for knowne verities; for when wee speake of knowne verities, we vnderstand the verities defined in Scripture, such as are the points of our faith, which no man ought to call in question: but that any man did giue his voice otherwise, then his iudgement led him, yee will hardly perswade vs, much lesse, that any man would openly professe this. This, as Lindsay has previously demonstrated , re...