laudable Practice

The two books that have most shaped my views of the Church of England during 'the long 18th century' have been Nockles' The Oxford Movement in Context: Anglican High Churchmanship 1760-1857 (1994) and Gibson's The Church of England 1688-1832: Unity and Accord (2001).  Both works point to the experience of 18th century Anglicanism differing significantly from the partisanship that came to define Anglicanism after 1833. As Nockles stated, "a much greater degree of consensus pertained prior to 1833 than afterwards". Gibson ended his book by quoting from a 1698 sermon exemplifying the "power and importance to Anglicans" of the call "to live peaceably with all men" and a 1747 episcopal visitation charge demonstrating how clergy were "more cohesive and united".  The August 1826 primary visitation charge of Bishop Thomas Burgess to the clergy of the Diocese of Salisbury could have been used by Nockles to preface his study and by Gibso...

Last week, we left Parson Bull and Squire Sheppard in 1685, in the Tory idyll of the Cotswolds' parish of Avening. Perhaps we spoke too soon, for all was not well in the Tory idyll. In the parish, according to Nelson's 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , "there were ... many more disaffected to the Discipline and Liturgy of the Church of England". Nelson's reference here probably reflects one of the consequences of the 1640s and 50s, when use of the Book of Common Prayer was prohibited. In addition to this, of course, criticism of the Prayer Book had also loomed large in the political controversies of the civil wars, with renewed controversy surrounding the 1662 Act of Uniformity. Indeed, Nelson had referred to this in his description of Bull's ministry at the Restoration. Added to this, Nelson's readers in 1713 would also have recognised the situation, as the Toleration Act of 1689 gave recognition to Dissenting bodies largely defined by a rejection of the Pr...

Having considered the account given by Nelson, in his 1713 Life of Dr. George Bull , of the controversy following the 1669 publication of Bull's Harmonia Apostolica , we now turn to one particular aspect of that controversy, the involvement of a leading Dissenting divine: Some time after this, Mr. Daniel Williams, now a Doctor in Divinity, and an eminent Preacher and Writer in this City, among the Presbyterians, made himself famous for managing the Controversy against the Anti-Antinomian Principles, when they were breaking in with great impetuosity among those of his Persuasion. Williams (b.1643, d.1716), who refused to conform in 1662, was described by Nelson as standing in the line of Baxter's thought - in his  Aphorisms of Justification (1655) - regarding the necessity of works for our salvation, as against those whom Bull critiqued as 'Antinomians':  Dr. Williams may be said to have succeeded Mr. Baxter, in the Management of these Disputes, as he also incurred ther...

It is Yale Apostasy Day . On 13th September 1722, the day after commencement at Yale, seven New England Congregationalist ministers publicly declared their intention to seek episcopal orders in the Church of England. Four of the seven were ordained deacon and priest in the Church of England the following year, with three returning to minister in America. For New England's Congregationalists it was a shocking event, "the dark day", "the Great Apostasy", not least because, as a result of the the Yale Apostasy, Anglicanism became a feature of New England's religious landscape, offering a serious alternative to the New England Way. On past commemorations of Yale Apostasy Day, laudable Practice has considered how the the ministry and writings of the Yale Apostates did indeed offer such an alternative. This year, however, I consider a somewhat different theme: did Church of England congregations take root in New England after the Yale Apostasy because of  similar...