laudable Practice

In his 1816 Bampton Lectures , John Hume Spry - linked to the Hackney Phalanx, rector of Marylebone, and described by Peter Nockles as "very 'high and dry'" - summarised the history of the Church of England in the 18th century as the consistent defeat of Latitudinarianism.  He begins with the comprehension proposals of 1689, defeated by the "vigilant opposition of the great majority of the clergy" in the Lower House of Convocation.  This was followed by the "long protracted struggle" of the Bangorian Controversy (beginning in 1716), which, in the Letters of Law , gave to the Church of England "the most powerful defence of her apostolic constitution".  He concludes with the attempt of the 1772 Feathers Tavern Petition to abolish clerical subscription to the Articles of Religion: With similar unwillingness to commemorate the failings of those who are now called to their account, would I pass over the ill advised petitions against su...

Recently on Twitter I came across pictures of a small Suffolk church - King Charles the Martyr, Shelland .  The fine Suffolk Churches site says of this church: This dear little building is so far from a major road that you will not come across it, except by accident. It sits beside a tiny lane between Woolpit and Stowmarket, a lane so narrow that it seems designed for horses and bikes more than cars. There is perhaps an echo here of famous words regarding another "dear little building": It would be the same, when you leave the rough road,  And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade And the tombstone ... If you came this way, Taking any route, starting from anywhere, At any time or at any season, It would always be the same ... - T.S. Eliot, 'Little Gidding'. And, of course, Little Gidding had been visited by "a broken king", to whom the little church at Shelland is dedicated. The similarities, however, are not restricted to geography ...

Following on from yesterday's post , another Laudian example, this time from Jeremy Taylor, of how 'the power of the keys' was interpreted not in terms of private absolution but rather, in Protestant terms, as the ministry of Word and Sacrament: but the power of the keys is another thing; it is the dispensing all those rites and ministries by which heaven is opened: and that is, the word and baptism at the first, and ever after, the holy sacrament of the supper of the Lord, and all the parts of the bishops’ and priests' advocation and intercession in holy prayers and offices - Unum Necessarium, or The Doctrine and Practice of Repentance , Chpt. X.IV. this further appears in the case of baptism; which is the most apparent and evident use of the power of the keys, it being truly and properly the intromission of catechumens into the house God, and an admitting them to all the promises and benefits of the kingdom , and, which is the greatest, the most absolute and m...

In a recent paper on The North American Anglican , Onsi A. Kamel convincingly argues that both Thomas Cartwright and Richard Hooker held to a Reformed understanding of the 'power of the keys'.  Whereas Roman teaching saw this power exercised in priestly absolution in the Sacrament of Penance, the Reformed view was that the power is dispensed "in the ministry of the Word, the sacraments, and discipline".  While there were undoubted differences of emphasis between Hooker and Cartwright, "on this issue ... Anglicans and Puritans were both committed to the broader Reformed theological movement". Of particular interest here is that Hooker's stance, "following Jewel and Calvin", is also the stance of the Laudian and High Church traditions.  From the 17th to the 19th centuries, this can be consistently seen in influential figures in these traditions.   John Cosin , preaching at an episcopal consecration in 1626, declared of the offices of bishop ...

... they considered it indifferent who the Supreme Governor was as long as the settlement of the church was protected. In the second half of his article on the political complexities of Laudianism , Francis Young considers the High Church tradition during the 'long' 18th century.  As seen from the above quote regarding the majority of High Churchmen who were reconciled to the Glorious Revolution, the implication throughout is that constitutional order and dynastic right were things indifferent.  Here, then, is another "germ of ecclesio-political radicalism that saw the church as independent of the state – or at least potentially independent of the state, if such independence became necessary". The implication is that High Church political theology was about pragmatics.  As long as the right ordering of the Church was secured, the constitutional regime in the polity was mere adiaphora .  This fails, however, to take seriously High Church political theology in it...

There is much to welcome in Francis Young's recent post ' Exploring the political complexity of Laudianism '.  It takes Laudianism seriously, recognises that it was not a monolithic movement, and concludes that it "certainly cannot be equated with the Oxford Movement or Anglo-Catholicism (the greatest misappropriation of all, which would require a separate exploration)".  I do think, however, that questions should be asked in two areas.  The second concerns Anglican political theology in the 18th century and I will explore this in a post tomorrow.  Today's post addresses the suggestion that Laudianism contained "a germ of ecclesio-political radicalism that saw the church as independent of the state".  Almost immediately we can suggest that this risks another "misappropriation", this time by the Non-Jurors, a misappropriation no less ahistorical than that proposed by the Tractarians.  Peter Heylyn is invoked as a rather surprising exampl...

This was it that some did exceedinglie feare, least Zwinglius and Oecolampadius would bringe to passe, that men should accompt of this sacrament but only as of a shadowe, destitute emptie and voide of Christe - LEP V.67.2. Hooker's words can sound like a critique of Zwingli and Oecolampadius.  They are, however, the introduction to a defence of the Swiss Reformed eucharistic theologies which emerged from these Reformers.  The point Hooker makes is that what was feared regarding the sacramental teaching of Zwingli and Oecolampadius has not come to pass: But seeinge that by openinge the severall opinions which have bene held, they are growen (for ought I can see) on all sides at the lengthe to a generall agreement, concerninge that which alone is materiall, Namelye the reall participation of Christ and of life in his bodie and bloode by meanes of this sacrament - ibid. As Zwingli declared in his The Exposition of the Christian Faith (1531), we do "eat the body of Chr...

... that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life - 1 Timothy 2:2. O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord ... - from the Second Collect, for Peace, at Mattins. We brag of light, and reformation, and fulness of the Spirit: in the mean time we understand not many parts of our duty. We inquire into some thing that may make us talk, or be talked of, or that we may trouble a church, or disturb the peace of minds; but in things that concern holy living, and that wisdom of God whereby we are wise unto salvation, never was any age of Christendom more ignorant than we. For, if we did not wink hard, we must needs see, that obedience to supreme powers, denying of ourselves, humility, peacefulness, and charity, are written in such capital text letters, that it is impossible to be ignorant of them - Jeremy Taylor, Sermon XXXIII, 'Deceitfulness of the Heart'. This short extract from Taylor captures a key (and attractive) part of the classical Anglican vision, of how ...

In his book Finding the Church , the late priest and theologian Daniel Hardy described the eucharist as a gathered interval in the scattered life of the Church. What if we are called to inhabit an interval that is longer than a day or a week - an interval of extended scattering as we anticipate the feast? The Church Times article by priest-theologian Julie Gittoes, ' Why I am fasting from the feast ', offers a welcome and necessary theological reflection on our fasting from the Eucharist during this time of Covid-19.  Above all, it points to the theological rationale for such a fast: that this is not merely a pragmatic course of action but, rather, one grounded in the Church's life of prayer and sacrament. What particularly caught my attention in the article was this section: This Eastertide, we are walking a road to Emmaus. The world around is unsettled and fearful; we have questions that we can’t answer; we are haunted by death. Yet we also hear stories of life-...

In his sermon on Easter Day 1630 , Donne uses the text 'He is not here, for he is risen' (Matthew 28:6) to express the concerns of a classically Reformed sacramental theology: this particle of argumentation, the angel opposes prophetically, and by way of prevention, both against that heresy of Rome, that the body of Christ may be in divers places at once, by the way of transubstantiation, and against that dream of the ubiquitaries, that the body of Christ must necessarily be in all places at once, by communication of the divine nature. For, if the angel argue fairly, logically, sincerely, he is not here, for he is risen, then there is no necessity, there is no possibility of this omnipresence, or this multipresence, for then the angel's argument might have been denied, and they might have replied, what though he be risen, he may be here too, for he may be in divers places; but the angel concludes us in this for, he cannot be here, for he is risen; because he is risen, h...

But this pestilence too shall pass, and we need to make sure in the meantime we do no harm to our more normative theology and practice. The words are those of George Sumner , bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.  His warning has not, unfortunately, been heeded.  Normative Anglican theology and practice regarding the Eucharist has been and is being harmed in the time of Covid-19.  It began with the requirement of communion in one kind.  To be clear, heeding the advice of public health authorities concerning the common chalice at the Holy Communion was certainly the right thing to do: introducing communion in one kind as normative for the laity for this time was the wrong thing to do. Then there are private masses.  The whole idea of Common Prayer has, from the outset, rejected the innovation of private mass, emphasising that the Holy Communion is necessarily corporate and communal, bound up with "the nature of a Sacrament".  Related, rather iron...

One particular liturgical offering which I have missed saying and hearing this Easter, because of the Eucharistic fast during the time of Covid-19, has been Cranmer's preface for the Easter octave: Upon Easter Day, and seven days after.  BUT chiefly are we bound to praise thee for the glorious Resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord: for he is the very Paschal Lamb, which was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world; who by his death hath destroyed death, and by his rising to life again hath restored to us everlasting life. Therefore with Angels, &c. It is a profoundly rich proclamation of the Easter Gospel.  When I say "Cranmer's preface" it is, of course, his translation of the ancient preface of the Latin West, retained in the Latin BCP 1560 : ET te quidem omni tempore, sed in hoc potissimum die gloriosius prædicare, cum Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus. Ipse enim est vere Agnus, qui abstulit peccata mundi : qui mortem nostra...

The former resurrection (that of a sinner to repentance by preaching) is wrought by a plain, and ordinary means here in the church; where you do but hear a man in a pew, read prayers, and pronounce absolution, and a man in a pulpit preach a sermon, and a man at a table consecrate, and administer a sacrament; and because all this, though it be the power of life, and the means of your spiritual resurrection, is wrought by the ministry of man, who might be contemptible in your eye, therefore the whole work is referred to God. John Donne  Sermon XVIII , preached at St. Paul's, in the evening, upon Easter Day 1625.

Before that, says he, that is, before the resurrection of the body, there shall be another resurrection, a spiritual resurrection of the soul from sin; but that shall be, by ordinary means, by preaching, and sacraments, and it shall be accomplished every day; but fix not upon that, determine not your thoughts upon that, marvel not at that, make that no cause of extraordinary wonder, but make it ordinary to you, feel it, and find the effect thereof in your souls, as often as you hear, as often as you receive, and thereby provide for another resurrection. John Donne Sermon XVIII , preached at St. Paul's, in the evening, upon Easter Day 1625.

We celebrate this day, the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, blessed for ever; and in his, all ours; all, that is, the resurrection of all persons; all, that is, the resurrection of all kinds, whether the resurrection from calamities in this world, Ezekiel's resurrection, where God says to him, 'Son of man, dost thou think, these scattered bones can live again?' Or the resurrection from sin, St. John's resurrection, 'Blessed is he that hath his part in the first resurrection': or of the resurrection to glory, St. Paul's resurrection, that is, more argued, and more particularly established, by that apostle, than by the rest. This resurrection to glory, is the consummation of all the others.  Johne Donne Sermon XXII , preached upon Easter Day, 1629.

Wheatly, in his  A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer , describes how the ceremonies of the Easter Vigil - "solemn watchings, with multitudes of lighted torches" - have been replaced by the Prayer Book provision for Easter Even: Since they are only indifferent (though innocent) ceremonies, the Church of England hath laid them aside: but for the exercise of the devotion of her true sons, she retains as much of the primitive discipline as she can; advising us to fast in private, and calling us together in public to meditate upon our Saviour's death, burial, and descent into hell: which article of faith the public service of the Church this day confirms, the Gospel treating of Christ's body lying in the grave, the Epistle of his soul's descent into hell.

Charles Wheatly, in his  A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer (first published in 1710, re-published numerous times throughout the 18th century), describes three characteristics of the Prayer Book provision for Good Friday - fasting, the reading of the Passion according to Saint John, and the solemn collects: The commemoration of our Saviour's sufferings hath been kept from the very first age of Christianity, and was always observed as a day of the strictest fasting and humiliation; not that the grief and affliction they then expressed did arise from the loss they sustained, but from a sense of the guilt of the sins of the whole world, which drew upon our blessed Redeemer that painful and shameful death of the cross.  The Gospel for this day (besides its coming in course) is properly taken out of St. John rather than any other Evangelist, because he was the only one that was present at the passion, and stood by the cross while others fled: and there...

Many thanks to The North American Anglican for publishing ' In Praise of 1552: A High Church Appreciation '.  At the outset of the essay, I mention that Laudian sentiment at the Restoration should not be assumed to be represented by the small coterie of 'advanced' Laudians in the episcopacy who desired a revision of the liturgy as represented by the Durham Book , "not far removed from the original Book of 1549" (p.245) and a rejection of 1552. I refer in a footnote to Bosher's classic account The Making of the Restoration Settlement: The Influence of the Laudians 1649-1662 (1951).  As the footnote states: He cannot reconcile the fact that when the BCP was being revised at the Restoration, “the Laudian party was at the height of its influence” (p.245), yet in the 1662 revision “the Laudian influence is barely apparent” (p.246). The problem here is Bosher viewing Laudianism through the lens of the Durham Book.  This obscures the not insignificant Lau...