"I wish we were well rid": Lonsdale on the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed

Last week, laudable Practice considered what the The Life of John Lonsdale (1868) - an associate of the Hackney Phalanx and later Bishop of Lichfield (1843-67) - revealed about an Old High view of ceremonial disputes in Victorian Anglicanism. This week we turn to his stance on another matter of debate, the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed. 

This was, of course, a long-standing debate. Jeremy Taylor had famously expressed his view that the damnatory clauses lacked "moderate sentence and gentleness of charity". The 1689 Liturgy of Comprehension proposed a rubric stating that these clauses only applied to this "who obstinately deny the substance of the Christian Faith". Despite robust High Church for this Creed in the 18th century, in the face of anti-Trinitarian theologies, it was removed from PECUSA's BCP 1789. This, however, did not prevent the Church of England recognising PECUSA. Unease with the damnatory clauses was evident within the Victorian Old High tradition, with William Jacobson - Bishop of Chester - stating in 1865 that he was prepared to support an amendment to the rubric directing use of this Creed, changing "shall" to "may".

Lonsdale's view of the damnatory clauses was set out in a letter to one of his clergy in 1864, in which he agreed with the views of the great Latitudinarian:

Like Abp. Tillotson, and many others, I wish we were well rid of the damnatory clauses in the Athanasian Creed ...

I do not think those who forbear to repeat the two damnatory clauses when they occur in our Service can be blamed ... I cannot agree with you in thinking that the A. C. excludes, or at least was intended to exclude Jews and Turks from salvation; for it was certainly framed not against them, but against unorthodox Christians.

He reassured the cleric that subscription of Article VIII, with its reference to the Athanasian Creed, did not require an acceptance of the damnatory clauses:

I am inclined to think that the Article may well be understood as only asserting that the doctrine of the Athanasian Creed 'ought thoroughly to be received and believed, as capable of being proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture'.

In other words, the doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation are set forth in this Creed, with its damnatory clauses being no part of that doctrine. A footnote in The Life points to another Old High bishop sharing a similar view:

Bishop Blomfield ... expressed the same opinion, that the damnatory clauses are no part of the Christian doctrine set forth in the A. C., nor, strictly speaking, part of the creed itself; but only a particular form of asserting that the doctrine of the creed is true.

Something of what is suggested by Lonsdale shaped the view of the Church of Ireland in its post-disestablishment revision of the Prayer Book.  As was carefully stated in the Preface to the 1878 revision:

With reference to the Athanasian Creed (commonly so called), we have removed the Rubric directing its use on certain days, but, in so doing, this Church has not withdrawn its witness as expressed in the Articles of Religion, and here again renewed, to the truth of the Articles of the Christian Faith therein contained.

In other words, Lonsdale's approach to the Athanasian Creed provides another example of the Irish 1878 revision, rather than straightforwardly being a low church, evangelical victory, also reflected currents of thought within the Old High tradition.

We can, however, also say more about Lonsdale's discomfort with the damnatory clauses.  The author of The Life was his clerical son-in-law, which adds considerable weight to the following observation:

he never, for some years past certainly, said them himself in the responses (where alone they occur) at Eccleshall [the parish in which he resided]; and his silence at those verses must have struck the congregation, as his voice was heard all over the church. 

This refers to the Athanasian Creed being said in antiphonal fashion, with the congregation saying the second half of each phrase of this Creed.  As Lonsdale's son-in-law notes, this means it fell to the congregation to say "without he shall perish everlastingly" and "which accept a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved". The bishop's refusal to say these words points to the wisdom of the approach taken by the Church of Ireland after disestablishment: retaining the Athanasian Creed in Prayer Book and articles as a doctrinal statement, but removing the rubric directing its use in public worship.

Lonsdale's approach to the Athanasian Creed also demonstrates that the Old High tradition was not an unchanging, rigid, reactionary school of thought. Despite the significance of the Athanasian Creed to the earlier generations of High Churchmen confronting those proposing anti-Trinitarian theologies, important Victorian Old High voices, such as Lonsdale, Jacobson, and Blomfield indicated their awareness of a need to alter how this Creed was both used and interpreted. Here again we see the wise moderation of the Old High tradition.