Skip to main content

"The succession which the Fathers meant": Laud on episcopal succession

A final extract from A relation of the conference between William Laud, late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mr. Fisher the Jesuite, in which Laud recognises episcopal succession to be for the bene esse of the Church, not of its esse:

... for Succession in the general I shall say this. 'Tis a great happiness where it may be had Visible and Continued, and a great Conquest over the Mutability of this present world. But I do not finde any one of the Ancient Fathers that makes Local, Personal, Visible, and Continued Succession, a Necessary Signe or Mark of the true Church in any one place. And where Vincentius Lirinensis calls for Antiquity, Universality, and Consent, as great Notes of Truth, he hath not one word of Succession ... And once more, before I leave this Point. Most evident it is, That the Succession which the Fathers meant, is not tyed to Place or Person, but 'tis tyed to the Verity of Doctrine ... For so Tertullian expresly. Beside the order of Bishops running down (in Succession) from the beginning, there is required 'Consanguinitas Doctrinae', that the Doctrine be allyed in blood to that of Christ and his Apostles. So that if the Doctrine be no kinn to Christ, all the Succession become strangers, what nearness soever they pretend. And Irenaeus speaks plainer than he. We are to obey those Presbyters, which together with the Succession of their Bishopricks have received 'Charisma Veritatis', the gift of truth.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...
25 comments
Read more

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...
19 comments
Read more

'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...
Post a Comment
Read more