laudable Practice

For [Bellarmine] himself, but in the very Chapter going before, quotes four Places out of Calvin, in which he says expresly, That we receive in the Sacrament the Body and the Bloud of Christ 'Verè', truly. So Calvin says it four times, and Bellarmine quotes the places; and yet he says in the very next Chapter, That never any Protestant said so, to his Reading. And for the Church of England, nothing is more plain, than that it believes and teaches the true and Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist ... And the Church of England is Protestant too. So Protestants of all sorts maintain a true and Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; and then, where's any known, or damnable Heresie here? As for the Learned of those zealous men that died in this Cause in Q. Maries days, they denied not the Real presence simply taken, but as their Opposites forced Transubstantiation upon them, as if that, and the Real presence had been all one ... Now that the Lear...

Walked then immediately to the Cathedral, and heard a very good sermon preached by a Dr. Cobb, Rector of Carleton St Peter, very severe on Dr. Priestly the Apostate if properly named - from the diary of Parson Woodforde, entry for 7th July 1791. This is one of the joys of The Diary of a Country Parson .  Alongside the grace of the ordinary which fills the diary, and the Wendell Berry-like sense of place, each page of the diary also provides some detail which gives insight into the life of late 18th century Anglicanism. This particular entry is an example of a reoccurring theme throughout the 'long eighteenth century': a robust affirmation of the Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy of the Formularies, a commitment shared by both High Church and Reformed/Evangelical traditions within Anglicanism (on this, see Stephen Hampton's Anti-Arminians: The Anglican Reformed Tradition from Charles II to George I ).  "Dr. Priestly the Apostate" was the infamous aut...

A final extract from Mant's An Explanation of the Rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer . The Church gives no countenance to the mixing of water with the sacramental wine. Her authority for so doing, in King Edward VI.'s first book, was subsequently withholden, and has not been revived. To revive it now were a dangerous, and offensive, innovation.  Mant's opposition to the mixed chalice may seem to represent a rather antiquated approach to Anglican liturgy.  After all, what can possibly be wrong with a practice that has patristic precedent and which, as a result of later 19th century Anglo-catholic practice, has become quite common within broader Anglicanism? Two reasons come immediately to mind. Firstly, in rejecting the revival of the mixed chalice, Mant was standing in continuity with normative High Church tradition.  Yes, examples may be pointed to of Laudian and High Church clergy using a mixed chalice (that is, water mingled with wine in the chalice prior...

... perjury is not a good way to start a ministry. Harsh but necessary words from Angela Tilby in last week's Church Times concerning the Declaration of Assent taken by candidates for holy orders in the CofE.  What particularly attracted my attention to the column was her focus on the Articles of Religion, recounting her panic and confusion when at her pre-ordination retreat the bishop asked her to explain her understanding of Article VI. Tilby continues: It shocks me now that, even thought I had been worshipping in the Church of England from the age of five, had been confirmed at 16, and had been a Reader for ten years, I still needed prompting to be able to give an account of one of the most fundamental of the Thirty-Nine Articles. It is hardly surprising that such a context resulted in a widespread dismissive approach to the assent required of candidates for holy orders: Twenty-odd years ago ... the precise details of the legal framework for ministry were unimportan...

From a ' Charge to Candidates for Holy Orders ' in Richard Mant's An Explanation of the Rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer .  Here Mant reaffirms the traditional High Church understanding of decency and uniformity in the face of what was then emerging Ritualism.  Specimens of these objectionable rites will occur to you in the innumerable and reiterated gesticulations of the officiating priests, and the variety and continual changes of the sacerdotal vestments: in the exorcisms and chrisms used in holy baptism : in the reserving, carrying about, lifting up, and worshipping of the consecrated bread and wine in the holy communion : in the kissings of the pax, and the creepings to the cross: in the telling of beads: in the hallowing of bells: in the  multitudinous bowings and crossings of the person : in the sprinklings of holy water : in the ringing of little hand bells, and the lighting of numerous candles, and the burning of incense during divine service :...

In two charges to his clergy in 1842, Richard Mant, Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore, addressed "certain publications, under the title of 'Tracts for the Times,' which have of late been the subject of much public discussion".  Mant's Charges - published under the title The Laws of the Church, the Churchman's Guard against Romanism and Puritanism - were a superb example of how High Church bishops used their episcopal charges to refute Tract XC and restate the Old High Church tradition in the face of Tractarianism's misreading of the tradition. In these extracts from the Charges, Mant points to how Tractarianism had abandoned "affectionate attachment" to the native piety and native constitution of Anglicanism, a defining characteristic of the High Church tradition.  From the Charge to the clergy of Down and Connor, June 1842: Be it our second caution, that, in our extreme reverence and affection for the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church...

The woods and pastures are joyous in their abundance now in a season of warmth and much rain. We walk amid foliage, amid song. The sheep and cattle graze like souls in bliss (except for flies) and lie down satisfied. Who now can believe in winter? In winter who could have hoped for this? - Wendell Berry, 'Poem IV, Sabbaths 1998', in Given: New Poems . Long days, the deep green of the landscape, birdsong echoing from early morning, warmth and light lasting long into the evenings.  We are now in the joyous abundance of Summer. What are the characteristics of a Prayer Book Summer?   Feasts at beginning, middle, and end Today, of course, is St John Baptist's Day, a feast traditionally associated with Midsummer.  We are now in the season of long days, warmth, and growth.  The Prayer Book Gospel for the feast echoes with the themes of light and life: whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us; to give light to them that sit in darkness and in ...