laudable Practice

On this 30th January, we turn to a 1660 sermon delivered on the anniversary of the day - as its title states - "on which that Sacred Martyr, King Charles the First was murdered". The preacher was John King, who, as Dean of Tuam (the office to which he was appointed in 1638), ministered to and served the interests of King Charles II in exile. (He is found in Bosher's 'A List of Clergy in Exile'.) From January 1660, it was increasingly evident that opinion in the political nation was moving in the direction of the restoration of the monarchy. That said (as Henry Reece has superbly explored in his The Fall: Last Days of the English Republic ), restoration was by no means a foregone conclusion during the days of January 1660. The ending of King's sermon certainly speaks of uncertainty, albeit with a recognition that, unlike even as late as 1659, restoration was now a realistic possibility: The Lord in mercy look upon us, and wipe away these tears from our eyes, ...

As Hungary will be featuring in Monday's post, I thought it would be appropriate today - as Saint Bartholomew's Day approaches, the anniversary of the implementation of the 1662 Act of Uniformity - to consider how Episcopalian divine John Durel, in his A view of the government and publick worship of God in the reformed churches beyond the seas wherein is shewed their conformity and agreement with the Church of England (1662), points to the government, ceremonies, and liturgy of the Reformed Churches of Hungary and Transylvania as he defends the episcopal and liturgical order of the English Church. On the matter of church government, Durel notes the account given by the Episcopalian Isaac Basire, who had spent time in Hungary and Transylvania during the Interregnum: Reverend Doctor Basire sheweth out of the very Canons of the Hungarian Churches that they have Bishops both name and thing for their Governors and Pastors; that they think themselves bound to have those several Orde...

From a sermon preached in Ballymena Parish Church, County Antrim, on 31st August 1862, responding to Nonconformist commemorations of the bicentenary of the so-called 'Black Bartholomew', the anniversary of the Act of Uniformity 1662. The preacher was the Incumbent, the Reverend Edward Maguire.  Maguire noted that in his "dealings and intercourse with my Presbyterian and other dissenting friends in this and every other place, I have sincerely endeavoured to maintain peace, harmony, and good will towards all". However, "the causeless revival of the 'Black Bartholomew' controversy" had to be addressed in order to defend "my beloved Church from much unmerited obloquy and censure".  In the sermon, Maguire set forth the reasonableness and moderation of the provisions of the Act of Uniformity: In a Church which holds, and rightly holds, that Episcopal ordination is essential to constitute a minister of her sanctuary, it was not to be expected tha...

I A. B do declare that it is not lawfull upon any pretence whatsoever to take Armes against the King and that I do abhorr that traiterous Position of taking Armes by His Authority against His Person or against those that are commissionated by him ... And I do declare that I do hold there lies no Obligacion upon me or on any other person from the Oath comonly called the Solemne League and Covenant to endeavour any change or alteration of Government either in Church or State And that the same was in it selfe an unlawfull Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realme against the knowne Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome. The requirement of the 1662 Act of Uniformity that clergy openly rejected the Solemn League and Covenant as "an unlawfull Oath", contrary to the "Lawes and Liberties" of the realm, was - despite now being usually overlooked by many Anglican commentators - a crucial provision of the Act. The Solemn League and Covenant had its roots in the 1638 N...

Provided alwaies and be it enacted that from and after the Feast of St. Bartholomew which shall be in the yeare of our Lord One thousand six hundred sixty and two no person who now is Incumbent and in possession of any Parsonage Vicarage or Benefice and who is not already in Holy Orders by Episcopall Ordination or shall not before the said Feast day of St. Bartholomew be ordained Preist or Deacon according to the forme of Episcopall Ordination shall have hold or enjoye the said Parsonage Vicaradge Benefice with Cure or other Ecclesiasticall Promotion within this Kingdome ... but shall be utterly disabled and (ipso facto) deprived of the same. The requirement of the 1662 Act of Uniformity that those holding office in the Church of England, but who had not been ordained by a bishop, must receive episcopal orders, was one of the Act's most controversial provisions. Non-conformist critics declared that it enshrined a un-reformed view of episcopacy, alien to the post-Reformation Church...

That every Parson Vicar or other Minister whatsoever who now hath and enjoyeth any Ecclesiasticall Benefice or Promotion within this Realme of England or places aforesaid shall in the Church Chappell or place of Publique Worshipp belonging to his said Benefice or Promotion upon some Lords day before the Feast of Saint Bartholomew which shall be in the yeare of our Lord God One thousand six hundred sixty and two openly publiquely and solemnely read the Morneing and Evening Prayer appointed to be read by and according to the said Booke of Comon Prayer att the times thereby appointed and after such reading thereof shall openly and publiquely before the Congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned assent & consent to the use of all things in the said Booke ... In this week in which the feast of St. Bartholomew is celebrated, laudable Practice will consider the Act of Uniformity 1662 , its provisions coming into force on 24th August of that year. Each year the anniversary is ofte...

Many thanks to the North American Anglican for publishing my essay ' Foundations of unity and accord: in praise of Saint Bartholomew’s Day 1662 '.  The essay seeks to offer an alternative to the Whiggish assumptions which dominate contemporary Anglicanism regarding that Saint Bartholomew's Day and the so-called 'Great Ejection'. Below is an extract from the essay, considering the stance of Richard Baxter. --- The Non-conforming representatives at Savoy were not declaring the surplice, kneeling to receive, and signing with the cross at Baptism to be impossible barriers to communion.  If they were not to be abolished, the ‘Exceptions’ declared, there should be given “such a liberty, that those who are unsatisfied concerning their lawfulness or expediency, may not be compelled to the Practice of them, or Subscription to them”.  In other words, the Non-conforming representatives stated that they would minister in a Church of England in which these ceremonies, while no...