laudable Practice

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...

And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that no person shall be or be received as a Lecturer or permitted suffered or allowed to preach as a Lecturer or to preach or read any Sermon or Lecture in any Church ... within this Realme ... unlesse he be first approved and thereunto licensed by the Archbishopp of the Province or Bishopp of the Diocesse ... and shall in presence of the same ... read the nine and thirty Articles of Religion mentioned in the Statute of the Thirteenth yeare of the late Queene Elizabeth with declaration of his unfeigned assent to the same. When compared to the criticism of its other provisions, the restoration of the Articles of Religion by the 1662 Act of Uniformity is often overlooked. This is a significant mistake, both in terms of understanding how 1662 responded to "the late unhappy confusions" and how it established foundations for the unity and accord of the Church of England during the 'long 18th century'. Alongside the Act o...

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...