'The best and wisest among the Fathers': a 1796 Prayer Book Commentary, 18th century Anglicanism, and 'the primitive Church'

In recent years, laudable Practice has turned to the commentary of John Shepherd on the Book of Common Prayer. Beginning in March 2023, we considered his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796). June 2024 commenced a series of posts - concluding in August 2025 - on the Holy Communion in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801). Today, at the beginning of June, the month when ordinations usually take place in Anglican churches, we return to the first volume and begin a series on Shepherd's review of Absolution in the theology and practice of the Prayer Book. 

Shepherd opens his consideration of Absolution in the Prayer Book by stating his intention to place it in the context of "the primitive Church":

Without stating in detail the disputes that have existed between Christians of different denominations, and which have oftentimes terminated in contrary extremes, I propose to give a concise review of Absolution, as it was taught and practised in the early ages of Christianity. I mean more particularly to enquire, by whom, in the primitive Church, Absolution is said to be granted, and to examine the various modes in which it was usually administered. In the prosecution of this enquiry we may probably perceive, that the doctrine of the Church of England respecting Absolution, is the doctrine that was held by the best and wisest among the Fathers: and we shall occasionally have reason to observe the harmony, that in this instance, as well as in others, exists between our Offices, and "the most ancient Liturgies, which have been used in the Church in the primitive and purest times".

This short paragraph highlights significant characteristics of Anglicanism across 'the long 18th century'. 

Firstly, invoking "the primitive Church" was built into the ecclesial DNA of the Church of England: from Cranmer's writings and prefaces to the BCP, to the Elizabethan Canon regarding preachers, to the defences of episcopacy and liturgy in the 1640s, to - as quoted by Shepherd above - the letters patent to appointing the reviewers of the Prayer Book in 1661. 18th century Anglicanism robustly maintained this commitment, with invocations of "the primitive Church" being fundamental to the writings of its divines throughout the century.

Secondly, and related to this, 18th century Anglicanism saw in "the primitive Church", as Eamon Duffy has stated, "not merely its origins, but ... a mirror image of itself". This was seen in, for example, Beveridge's 1683 sermon 'Steadfastness to the Established Church Recommended', in which he said of the constitution of the Church of England:

it exactly answers the pattern of the Primitive and Apostolical Church itself, as near as it is possible for a national Church to do it.

Thirdly, both of the above then contributed to a confidence in the Church of England, its polity, doctrine, and liturgy. Thus, Shepherd begins his review of Absolution in the Prayer Book by declaring:

the doctrine of the Church of England respecting Absolution, is the doctrine that was held by the best and wisest among the Fathers.

Shepherd's work was published 32 years before Keble stepped into the pulpit of the University Church in Oxford to deliver his Assize Sermon. In the years that followed 1833, invoking the Fathers and "the primitive Church" increasingly became a means of critiquing long-established Anglican norms and undermining confidence in the Church of England. The contrast with Shepherd and the 18th century is stark. 

Contributing to this stark contrast are the significant hints given by Shepherd that the Fathers and "the primitive Church" are to be approached with discernment.

Such discernment is necessary because there is no such thing as 'the Fathers'; there is no such thing as 'the primitive Church'. As successive studies of early Christianity have convincingly demonstrated in recent decades, patristic teachers and patristic churches covered a vast array of doctrinal commitments, liturgical practices, and spiritual commitments. To suggest that that either 'the Fathers' or 'the primitive Church' can be invoked as a determining authority is nonsensical. 

It is this which makes Shepherd's approach wise - that we can "probably perceive" in patristic teachers and patristic churches sources for the constitution, doctrine, and liturgy of the Church of England; that this is seen in "the best and wisest among the Fathers". This further highlights the contrast with Tractarian invocations of 'the Fathers' and 'the primitive Church': such invocations were shaped by a loss of confidence in the Church of England and a desire for a radically different ecclesial context than that inherited from 18th century Anglicanism. In other words, Tractarian readings of the Fathers were in themselves the product of - rather than the cause for - the aspiration to change Anglicanism.

We begin, therefore, Shepherd's inquiry into Absolution in the Prayer Book with a confidence that the Prayer Book's teaching and provision reflects "the best and wisest among the Fathers".