"As it was first settled and established under Queen Elizabeth": Laudian joy on the day of Elizabeth's Accession

On this day in 1558 Elizabeth acceded to the throne. In Ecclesia Restaurata (1660), the Laudian polemicist Peter Heylyn rejoiced in the Elizabethan Settlement, presenting it as a restoration of primitive purity:

And now we may behold the face of the Church of England, as it was first settled and established under Queen Elizabeth. The Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops, according to the practice of the best and happiest times of Christianity. These Bishops nominated and elected according to the statute in the 25th of King Henry VIII, and consecrated by the Ordinal, confirmed by Parliament, in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the 6th, never appearing publickly but in their Rochets, nor officiating otherwise than in Copes at the Holy Altar. The Priests not stirring out of doors but in their square caps, gowns, or canonical coats, nor executing any divine Office but in their Surplice, a vestment set apart for Religious services in the Primitive times, as may be gathered from St. Chrysostom for the Eastern Churches, and from S. Hierom for the Western. The Doctrine of the Church reduced unto its ancient purity, according to the Articles agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1552. The Liturgy conform to the Primitive patterns, and all the Rites and Ceremonies therein prescribed, accommodated to the honour of God and increase of piety. The Festivals preserved in their former dignity, observed with their distinct Offices peculiar to them, and celebrated with with a Religious concourse of all sorts of people; the weekly Fasts, the holy time of Lent, the Embring weeks, together with the Fast of the Rogation, severely kept by a forbearance of all kind of flesh, not now by virtue of the statute, as in the time of King Edward, but as appointed by the Church in her publick Calendar before the Book of Common Prayer. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper celebrated in most reverend manner, the Holy Table reared in the place of the Altar, the people making their due reverence at their first entrance into the Church, kneeling at the Communion, the Confession, and the publick Prayers, standing up at the Creed, the Gospels, and the Gloria patri, and using the accustomed reverence at the same of Jesus. Musick retained in all such Churches where provision had been made for the maintenance of it, or where the people could be trained up at the least to plainsong. All which particulars were either established by the Laws, or commanded by the Queen's Injunctions, or otherwise retained by virtue of some ancient usages not by Law prohibited.

Now, of course, Heylyn's account was (to say the very least) somewhat romanticised. There were plenty of parishes in the Elizabethan Church in which the reality was quite different. This, however, misses the point: the Laudian Heylyn presented a romantic account of the Elizabethan Settlement. Any rather silly suggestion that the Laudians somehow wanted to undo the Reformation (as seen, for example, in the conclusion of Diarmaid MacCulloch's otherwise excellent Tudor Church Militant) has not meaningfully engaged with what the Laudians themselves (as opposed to their opponents) said. As Laud himself insisted, he sought conformity to those rites and ceremonies settled "from the beginning of the Reformation". Note, too, that Heylyn's praise for the Elizabethan Settlement is not confined to matters liturgical and ceremonial. He also praises the "ancient purity" of the Articles of Religion, describing them as equivalent to the confessions of "all other Protestant and Reformed Churches".

Heylyn goes on to rejoice in "this glorious posture" of the Elizabethan Church, standing "in so much glory" under "so excellent a mistress", following her "great example". Here was the Church the Laudians sought to defend against Puritan agitation. To quote from the concluding paragraph of Ecclesia Restaurata, here was the ecclesia Anglicana "in her primitive lustre". Here was the tradition which would become known as Anglican, "as it was first settled and established under Queen Elizabeth".

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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