'The best constituted Church in the world': Nelson's 'Life of Bull' and the confidence of the Church of England during the long 18th century

In the closing days of December 1660, as the Convention Parliament was about to be dissolved, the Earl of Clarendon - Charles II's Lord Chancellor - declared in the House of Lords that the Church of England was "the best and the best-reformed church in the Christian world". It was a phrase which captured what Eamon Duffy has described as "the new assurance" amongst Episcopalians at the Restoration that the restored Church of England was "primitive Christianity revived".

This confidence and pride in the Church of England resounded across the decades. In 1684, William Beveridge - who had received episcopal orders in 1660 and would be made Bishop of Asaph in 1704 - preached his sermon 'Steadfastness to the Established Church Recommended'. He echoed Clarendon's words as he challenged critics of the Church of England:

if such would but lay aside all prejudices, and impartially consider the constitution of our Church, as it is now reformed, they might clearly see, that as there is nothing defective, so neither is there anything superfluous in it, but that 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 ...

In our readings from Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull, we have seen Bull consecrated to the episcopate. As Nelson notes, Bull took his place amongst the Lord's Spiritual at a historic moment, as  Parliament prepared to pass the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland:

The Bishop took his Seat in the House of Lords in a most critical Conjuncture, even that memorable Session, when the Bill for uniting both Kingdoms passed into a Law; and when not a few were in the greatest Apprehensions concerning our Church, and were for considering thence the best Methods of securing it to Posterity, together with the Union. Wherefore upon a Debate in the House, in relation to the said Bill, a certain noble Lord, of a very eminent Character, moved in a Speech, that since the Parliament of Scotland had given a Character of their Church, by extolling the Purity of its Worship, their Lordships should not be behind-hand in giving a Character of the best constituted Church in the World. For, saith he, (turning himself towards the Bench of Bishops) "my Lords, I have been always taught by my Lords the Bishops from my Youth, that the Church of England is the best constituted Church in the World, and most agreeable to the Apostolical Institution". 

We can see the extent to which the understanding of the Church of England set forth by Clarendon in 1660 and echoed by Beveridge in 1684 had taken root amongst the laity. Now Bishop Bull stood in the House of Lords and affirmed this conviction, invoking his status as a scholar of the primitive Church:

Upon which, Bishop Bull, who sat very near his Lordship, apprehending how upon such an Appeal to the Bishops, it was necessary for them to say something, stood up and said; "My Lords, I do second what that noble Lord hath moved, and do think it highly reasonable, that in this Bill a Character should be given of our most excellent Church. For, my Lords, whosoever is skilled in primitive Antiquity, must allow it for a certain and evident Truth, that the Church of England is, in her Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship, most agreeable to the Primitive and Apostolical Institution". 

Amongst those who greeted Bull after his intervention was, appropriately, Beveridge:

The Bishop of St. David's coming out of the House, Bishop Beveridge and another Bishop thanked his Lordship for his excellent Speech.

Bull and Beveridge were, of course, Tories. Crucially, however, such praise for the Church of England was not confined to Tories. The same formula was used by Tillotson, the Whig and 'Latitude Man'. In a sermon on I Corinthians 3.15, he declared:

I do believe in my conscience the Church of England to be the best constituted Church this day in the world ...

To return to a common theme of this blog, taken from the title of William Gibson's 2001 study of the Church of England 1688-1832, the conviction that the Church of England was "the best constituted Church in the world" underpinned the 'unity and accord' it experienced throughout 'the long 18th century'. This confidence provided a central unifying conviction for Church Whigs and Church Tories, for High and Low, for Reformed Conformity and Arminian Conformity. And so Clarendon's words - repeated by Tillotson and Bull alike - echoed across the long century, that the Church of England was "the best and the best-reformed church in the Christian world".