The authority of church and party among London Anglo-Catholics, 1880-1914, with special ...

289 Pages·2013·7.62 MB·English

Alan Wilson
The authority of church and party
among London Anglo-Catholics,
1880-1914, with special reference to
the Church Crisis, 1898-1904.
A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
the University of Oxford.
September 1988
Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Ritualism in Context 1
1.2 Anglo-Catholic ecclesiology 3
2. Who were the Anglo-Catholics?
2.1 Terms and definitions 7
2.2 Publications and manuscripts 21
2.3 Parishes 24
2.4 Societies 32
3. The church crisis of 1898-1904
3.1 Background 42
3.2 Flashpoints: January to April 1898 50
3.3 Meetings and demonstrations: May 54
3.4 The crisis in parliament: June 63
3.5 Outside parliament: July to December 71
3.6 Holbornand Westminster: Spring 1899 76
3.7 The Lambeth hearings 8 7
3.8 Implementation 98
3.9 Between opinions: problems of enforcement 108
3.10 The Round Table conference 118
3.11 Parliamentary impasse 121
3.12 Final dispositions 125
3.13 Winnington-Ingram 132
3.14 The collapse of regulation 149
3.15 St Michael's Shoreditch 157
4. Anglo-Catholic ecclesiology
4.1 Anglican Catholic ecclesiology 178
4.2 Party and praxis
(a) Liturgy and formularies 185
(b) Magisterium and episcopacy 197
(c) The Roman question 208
(d) The pursuit of holiness 216
5. Anglo-Catholicism in the new century: facts and prospects
5.1 Authority in church and party 227
5.2 Donatists of the nineteenth century 234
5.3 Defensiveness and creativity 237
5.4 Words and meanings 241
5.4 Achievements and identity 243
n
Acknowledgments
First of all, I wish to acknowledge the wisdom and encouragement of my
tutor and supervisor, Canon Peter Hinchliff. I am also grateful to colleagues
who allowed time for writing-up, The Revd Peter Ridley and The Revd
Richard Kingsbury, and to my wife and children for their forbearance.
The research for this thesis was done in a number of archives and
libraries. I received especially valuable help from The Revd Leslie Craske
(Then Vicar of St John's Upper Norwood), Fr Maurice Ryan (Parish Priest
at St Mary Moorfields), Fr David Sharpe (Vicar of St Chad's Haggerston),
Fr Michael Shields (then Master of the Society of the Holy Cross), The
Revd Mother of St Saviour's Priory, Staff at Woolwich Parish Church, Fr
John Vine (Vicar of St Cuthbert's Philbeach Gardens), and the Mother
Abbess of the Convent of St Mary at the Cross, Edgware.
Special thanks are due to clergy at Stepney Parish Church, who found an
important collection of papers connected with the church crisis and made it
available to me. Fr Michael Peet found it, Fr Ken Ross ensured its proper
preservation, and Prebendary Michael Shrewsbury has secured its future,
by arranging for it to be deposited in Lambeth Palace Library.
Many Librarians went out of their way to help, including Mrs
J.E.Robinson of Keble College Oxford, The Records Officer of the Church
Commissioners, and the Librarians of Pusey House who allowed me to
transcribe and note the Croom collection relating to St Michael's Shored-
itch. I am most grateful to Dr E.C.W.Bill and his staff at Lambeth Palace
Library, where much manuscript reading was done. I also wish to thank
staff at the Cambridge and Reading University Libraries. Among these,
Roy Noakes, the binder at Reading, gave me valuable advice about design
and preparation of the thesis.
Throughout the project, I have discussed it with many friends. I gladly
acknowledge suggestions and comments from Canon Brian Brindley,
Rachel Brooke, Dr Peter Caddy, the late Prebendary Henry Cooper, Fr
Tony Dalton, Bishop Eric Gordon, Dr Paul Gurowich, the Revd Richard
Holroyd, the Revd Graham Lynch-Watson, the Revd Peter Mullins, Fr
Lewis Shaw, the Revd Neil Turton, Michael Wainwright, the Revd Vernon
White, Dr Hywel Williams and the Revd lan Wills. Among those who read
sections of the manuscript, I owe special thanks to Fr Adrian Dorber.
Lastly, I wish to thank those whose hospitality made it possible to read in
London, Cambridge and York - Penny Minett, Vivien Naylor, Hilary Prior,
John and Sue Smith, David and Margarita Stocker/Malcolm and Rebecca
Tony.
MS Citations
Records of the SSC are cited by the month, year, and page number (if any)
within the bound volumes of Ada.
Letters in Box 270 of the Hickleton Papers are not mounted and numbered,
but where possible a number has been given to help locate them within the
large packets (numbered chronologically in roman numerals).
Abbreviations
AA
and All Angels
Adm & Eccl Admiralty and Ecclesiastical Divion
AFWI A.F.Winnington-Ingram
AHC Annuarium Historic Conciliorum
ArchD Archdeacon
BCP Book of Common Prayer
BJES British Journal ofE ducational Studies
Bp Bishop
CA Church Association
cap Chapter
CBS Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament
CC Church Commissioners
CH Church History
CQR Church Quarterly Review
CIS Catholic Truth Society
DNB Dictionary ofN ational Biography
DR Downside Review
ECE Ecclesiastical Commisioners for England
ECU English Church Union
EGW E.G.Wood
FR Fortnightly Review
FT Frederick Temple
HC House of Commons
HJ Historical Journal
HL House of Lords
HMPEC Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal
Church [of the U.S.A.]
JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical History
Ld Lord
LSW L.S.Wainright
NC Nineteenth Century
ND, n.d. No Date
OED Oxford English Dictionary
PBD Protestant Defence Brigade
PC Parliamentary Companion
PGA Public General Acts
PL Migne, Patrologica Latina.
PP Parliamentary Papers
PrCl Privy Council
PTS Protestant Truth Society
Q/QQ Question/ Questions
QBD Queen's Bench Division
QR Quarterly Review
RC Roman Catholic
RCEC Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Courts, 1883.
RCED Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline 1906.
SCH Studies in Church History
SSC Society of the Holy Cross
TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
VS Victorian Studies
IV
Abstract
Alan Wilson D.Phil.
Balliol College Trinity, 1988.
Anglo-Catholicism was the major occasion of strife within the
Church of England, 1880-1914. Between 1898 and 1904 Protestant
agitators made their last serious attempt to invent laws to put down
ritualism. This thesis describes that church crisis, as London Anglo-
Catholics experienced it. Particular attention is paid to the ways in
which the authorities tried to establish control over ritualists, and to
the different reactions to the crisis within the Catholic party.
Anglo-Catholic ecclesiology was not so much a dogmatic package
as a theological method - the application of an organic church prin
ciple to all doctrine and practice. Anglo-Catholics used a distinctive
hermeneutic, taken over from Pusey and Bishop Forbes, to
neutralize offensive aspects of the thirty-nine articles and Prayer
Book. Pressure from their bishops before and during the crisis
stimulated distinctive doctrines of episcopacy and magisterium
among them. Against all opposition, they continued to postulate a
special affinity between the churches of England and Rome, secured
by a particlar concept of holiness.
Radical Anglo-Catholics who came to the fore in the church crisis
turned the concept that the Church of England was but two
provinces of the Catholic church from a passive assumption into the
basis of a radical critique of other Anglican doctrine and practice.
They responded to being under pressure in two kinds of way.
Some sought security in formally reactionary postures which they
hoped would make their position impregnable. Others saw the crisis
as an opportunity for all involved to re-think their perceptions of
their own positions and of the nature of authority.
Although Anglo-Catholics did not always face up to the eccles-
iological implications of their behaviour, they did manage to defend
and define their approach between 1880 and 1914 well enough for it
to make a major impact upon the twentieth century Church of Eng
land.
Long Abstract
Alan Wilson D.Phil.
Balliol College Trinity, 1988.
Anglo-Catholic practices were a major source of contention within
the late Victorian Church of England. Behind the strife lay com
peting concepts of church and authority, held within an establish
ment which tended to define itself socially and culturally rather than
dogmatically.
This thesis is mainly concerned with ritualism at its most popular
levels. It draws on many unpublished sources, mainly from
parochial and diocesan archives. These include one from St
Augustine's Stepney, newly discovered, which contains several
hundred letters between the most advanced Anglo-Catholics of the
day, and others between St Augustine's clergy and Bishops
Creighton and Winnington-Ingram. Use has also been made of the
private records of Anglo-Catholic societies, especially the Acta of
the Society of the Holy Cross.
This thesis describes in detail the Church Crisis which began in
1898, with Protestant attacks on London Anglo-Catholic Churches.
The agitation was taken up by the leader of the opposition in the
House of Commons, Sir William Harcourt. An account is given of
his campaign, and of Anglo-Catholic responses. Two attempts were
made to find principles to unite those who were being attacked, one
by general submission to episcopal authority and the other by obed
ience to the Prayer Book. Both of these failed in their purpose, and
extremists began to detach themselves from the rest of the party.
The most radical group's distinctive ideology was defined at
Holborn Town Hall in January 1899. This consisted of a theory of
oecumenical uses which disallowed any unilateral or joint action by
English bishops.
Meanwhile, the archbishops attempted to re-establish control by
invoking the preface to the Prayer Book, and holding private
hearings at Lambeth about the most controversial subjects - incense,
portable lights, and reservation. The results of these hearings were
unfavourable to the Anglo-Catholic cause, and attempts to enforce
them further eroded discipline and spoiled relationships between
bishops and clergy.
The Bishop of London attempted to induce all his clergy to limit
their use of incense to processions before the liturgy. In the final
stages of these negotiations, an unfortunate interview with three
extreme clergy exposed the weakness of his position. In 1900
Archbishop Temple ruled against reservation, and thus increased the
tension between bishops and ritualist clergy. Although many Anglo-
Catholics remained loyal to partial compromises, these did nothing
to conciliate Protestants and were a continual source of resentment
to those who accepted them. A threat to allow the prosecution of
recalcitrants over incense was only averted after months of difficult
negotiation, at the end of which the Bishop of London died.
The new Bishop of London attempted to find a way of regulating
incense and reservation which would be acceptable to all his clergy.
After successful negotiations with all but one of them, his plan was
rejected by a bishops' meeting. He was thus compelled to return to
vi
the position taken by his predecessor. This soon crumbled, and with
it all effective episcopal control of ritual in London. One decisive
step on the way was the conversion to Roman Catholicism of most
of the clergy and people of St Michael's Shoreditch in 1903. This
thesis pays special attention to the various ways in which Bishop
Winnington-Ingram was advised to deal with problems at St
Michael's. They provide valuable evidence of the perceived state of
authority in his diocese.
Parliamentary concern about ritual, having been deflected in 1900
by the South African War, was eventually channeled into a Royal
Commission which sat from 1904-1906. It reported that the
church's machinery for regulating ceremonial had broken down, its
rules too narrow to satisfy legitimate contemporary aspirations. In
spite of the election of a Liberal government in 1906, nothing was
done legislatively about ritualism, mainly because there was nothing
sensible to do. Individual churchmen worked out for themselves
their own practical responses to this state of affairs.
Having described the church crisis, this thesis considers its
underlying ecclesiological concerns. Anglo-Catholicism was a
theological method rather than a consistent ideological package. Its
essence was the application under Anglican conditions of an organic
church principle. This began with a strong doctrine of the church's
necessary visibility.
Opposition encouraged Anglo-Catholics to define precisely the
limits of provincial and episcopal authority. Many used the oecu
menical principle laid down at Holborn Town Hall. Others,
however, preferred to see this unity in sacramental, even mystical
terms, as a oneness with God created by baptism and grounded in
the unity of godhead, rather than literally visible in the canons and
constitution of the church. All Anglo-Catholic approaches shared a
strong desire to transcend provincial self-sufficiency.
Applying these principles in the Church of England led to conflict
in four different areas.
First, a special way of interpreting liturgy and formularies was re
quired, to answer the accusation that the Anglican Church was a
merely local phenomenon. Anglo-Catholics took two different
approaches to liturgy, based on ancient English and modern Roman
uses. Their inability to decide between these, in itself, called into
question their commitment to Catholicism. In Tridentine terms a
chop-and-change liturgy defined nothing but confusion. This
anomaly was increased by Anglo-Catholics who mixed and matched
between the two norms, on grounds of convenience or taste. Those
who did this seldom grasped how paradoxical what they were doing
was, in terms of the ecclesiology they had taken upon themselves.
The church crisis encouraged such individualism, within and
beyond the party. Increasingly, the Western use spread among
extreme Anglo-Catholics, while enthusiasm for the English use
became general among moderates and high church outsiders.
Second, Anglo-Catholics developed a special view of episcopacy.
Nineteenth century Anglican patristic work, especially that of
J.B.Lightfoot and E.W.Benson, defined the inherent powers of the
episcopate. Anglo-Catholics snared with the high church party a
respect for this authority, but added to it the requirement that it be
exercised uniformly throughout the world. Some Anglo-Catholics
made this theoretical entity the locus of infallibility in an
Vll
Ultramontane sense, but this principle proved all but impossible to
apply. At its least, the principle of unus episcopates required respect
for the jurisdictions of other Catholic prelates. Anglo-Catholics
disliked the tendency of Anglican Bishops to interpret their office in
isolationist terms. Some believed bishops to have an inherent power
over liturgy within their dioceses, but others feared that emphasizing
jus liturgicum encouraged merely local concepts of the church. In
practice, the best obedience that could often be rendered to Anglican
bishops was to refuse their practical requests for the sake of their
Catholic office. The chronic problem remained of making theory
match up to the real attitudes and practices of Church of England
bishops.
Third, Anglo-Catholics startlingly re-interpreted the relationship
between the churches of England and Rome by suggesting that there
was a special affinity between them. They believed the Roman
Church in England to be schismatic, and conversions from among
their number were a major irritant. Anglo-Catholics believed Rome
to be the sole guarantor of Catholicity in continental Europe,
however. Some held a high doctrine of Roman primacy, but this
was interpreted in constitutional rather than absolute terms. In spite
of the rejection of Anglican orders by Pope Leo XHI in 1896, Anglo-
Catholics looked forward enthusiastically to the reunion of Western
Christendom, and believed their liturgical and other behaviour to be
important steps towards this end.
Fourth, Anglo-Catholics believed Catholicism to be a function of
personal and corporate holiness. Respect for conventional morality
was prized almost as highly as correct liturgical behaviour. There
were also distinctive personal disciplines which defined Anglo-
Catholic holiness - fasting communion, sacramental confession, and
Catholic priestliness. This last aspiration was a matter of dress,
personal bearing, and discipline over marriage. Pressure to make the
SSC exclusively celibate simmered below the surface of the society,
grew after the turn of the century, but failed to achieve its aim.
Although many Anglo-Catholic appurtenances of holiness spread
widely within the church in the twentieth century, few Anglo-
Catholics managed to make their stress on personal discipline relate
credibly to the party's almost complete disregard for corporate
provincial discipline.
After describing the Anglo-Catholic ecclesiological agenda, this
thesis considers the ways in which the church crisis affected it.
Between 1898 and 1906 the ineffectiveness of parliamentary and
episcopal coercion was decisively exposed. Neither bishops nor
parliament could regulate the church on their own. This fact
strengthened the confidence of those who located this function in
wider Christendom. Starting from a Pauline and Augustinian con
cept of the church as the body of Christ, broadly acceptable to
Anglicans in general, Anglo-Catholics made the whole church so
defined the basis of a radical critique of conventional Anglican belief
and practice.
The church crisis evoked two sorts of personal response from
Anglo-Catholics. Some were fearful of future changes, church re
form as well as possible Protestant repression. This fear inspired
attempts to erect impregnable ideological defences. Other Anglo-
Catholics saw the crisis as the last nail in the coffin of conventional
Anglicanism, a means of redemption from mediocrity. They hoped
that it might prove to be the threshold of a process of renewal,
founded on mutual discovery by those on both sides who cared
about the issues which had been raised. An important part of this
response was concern for a renewed and less juridical concept of
episcopacy, which T.A.Lacey called "episcopality."
Within the party two ways of using the word "Catholic" emerged,
in association with these reactions. One was as a description of the
whole church. The other was in a focused sense, as a party or in
dividual label. Behind this latter use lay a paradox - the only real
short-term success of the most extreme Catholics was in building up
close associational cells of a sectarian type. However much personal
fulfilment doing this brought to individuals, it achieved little on a
corporate level. Anglo-Catholics' concepts of Catholicism were
more successful at convincing themselves than anyone else.
Anglo-Catholics emerged from the church crisis with their
ecclesiology intact and radicalized. As they held their own within the
Church of England, their party grew and became more influential.
Thus they found themselves increasingly in the twentieth century in
a strong position from which to move the whole Anglican church's
centre of gravity away from its traditional Protestantism
I always wonder what horses think about a coachman.
I imagine that they think him stupid, unjust, particular
about unnecessary trifles, and always checking them
needlessly. But his business is to get the coach along
without upsetting it. He is on the box and he sees more
than anybody else. He is not responsible for the ob
stacles in the road, and if he could regulate all the
traffic, he could make things easy all round. But alas
he is limited to the obscure and ignoble duty of steer
ing his own vehicle to the best of his power.
Bishop Mandell Creighton to Henry Westall, 3 April 1900.
(L.Creighton, Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton,
Volume II page 424.)
True, My Lord/ Mr Westall might have replied, 'but
in a fog the coachman, from his box, sees no further
than anyone else can, while the horses (poor un
reasoning beasts) can at least feel the solid ground
under their feet, and sometimes their instinct will lead
them safely home/
W.Scott, "An 'advanced' view of the 'Church Crisis',"
Nineteenth Century, April 1901, p 692.