Approaching All Hallows: Old High Church piety and the Communion of Saints (3)

They were constantly observed in the Church of England, from the time of the Reformation till the late Rebellion, when it could not be expected that any thing that carried an air of religion or antiquity, could bear up against such an irresistible inundation of impiety and confusion. But at the Restoration our holy-days were again revived, together with our ancient Liturgy, which appoints proper Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for each of them.

Thus does Wheatly refer to the feast days appointed in the BCP Calendar.  He goes on to quote the 1662 rubric:

Then the Curate shall declare unto the people what Holy-days, or Fasting-days, are in the week following to be observed.

This was no new provision in 1662.  1552 and 1559 had declared:

the Curate shall declare unto the people, whether there be anye holy dayes or fastynge dayes the weke folowyn.

The observance of feast days, then, was intended to be an integral part of the rhythms of the reformed ecclesia Anglicana.  This has some significance when contrasted with the stance of the Second Helvetic Confession:

we do not approve of feasts instituted for men and for saints ... holy days which have been instituted for the saints ... we have abolished.

The retention of feast days for the Saints was defended by Hooker as not detracting from but celebrating the glory of Christ:

for as much as we know that Christ hath not only been manifested great in himself, but great in other his Saints also, the days of whose departures out of the world are to the Church of Christ as the birth and coronation days of kings or emperors ... glorified in every of those Apostles whom it pleased him to use as founders of his kingdom here (LEP V.70.8).

Sparrow repeated the defence of feast days by "the learned Hooker", while Secker pointed to them as a continuation of the Primitive Church's reverence for the Apostles:

we have annual [memorials], to celebrate, not only the principle Parts of the History of Christ, but also the holy Lives and Deaths of his chief Followers, who are mentioned in the New Testament. For, as the Righteous are to be had in everlasting Remembrance; and the Epistle to the Hebrews particularly directed the first Christians to remember them, which had had the Rule over them, who had spoken unto them the Word of God: as they did accordingly pay distinguished Honours to the Memories of the Apostles, Evangelists, and Martyrs; and as the Church of Rome, which had gone much too far in this Matter, would notwithstanding have had a great Advantage against us, if we had neglected it entirely; we do therefore, on the Days, which bear their Names, read Portions of holy Writ relating to them, return Thanks to God for their Labours and Example; and beg, that we may profit suitably by them. 

Both perspectives reflect the language used in the collects for the feasts of Saints.  The collects routinely use the phrase 'holy Apostle', celebrating Hooker's affirmation that the Crucified and Risen Lord is manifested in the witness of the Apostles, and reverencing them as Secker notes after the manner of Primitive Church.

Amongst Old High Church authors, there was recognition of the need to revise the Calendar at the Reformation.  Sparrow notes that commemoration of the Saints should not be "too heavy a burden".  Nicholls states that the pre-Reformation calendar of Saints "had grown too numerous and cumbersome to the Church", while Wheatly similarly referred to commemorations "crowding the calendar".  The reformed Calendar, precisely because it removed liturgical observance of the numerous commemorations which had filled the pre-Reformation calendar, allowed for a renewed focus on the witness and teaching of the Apostles.  In the words of Wheatly, "They are most of them set apart in commemoration of the apostles and first martyrs".  This also ensured a renewed significance for All Saints' Day.  As Sparrow puts it, a "commemoration of the Saints in general".  Nicholls likewise describes it as "a general commemoration" in which "our Church gives God thanks for them all".  

The importance of All Saints' Day was further increased because of the non-observance of All Souls' Day.  As Mant states, "in ours and other reformed Churches it was deservedly abrogated".  All Saints' Day then became a commemoration of all "thine elect" who have entered into eternal rest.  Cranmer's collect for the feast echoed the prayer of in The Burial of Dead, with its petition "shortly accomplish the number of thine elect".  As Wheatly puts it, "The memory of all other pious persons is celebrated together upon the festival of All Saints".  This aspect of the Prayer Book feast of All Saints' Day is a rather beautiful expression of how the quiet reverence and reserve of the Old High Church tradition is neither cold nor unfeeling towards the Communion of Saints, but rejoices that it embraces both martyred Apostles and the humble parishioner who attended Mattins each week and passed from earthly life this year.

(Unless otherwise indicated, quotes are from Mant's use of High Church divines in his Notes, 1825.)