laudable Practice

Continuing the series of weekly posts on visitation charges of Old High bishops in the immediate aftermath of the Tract XC controversy, we turn for the final time to the  1842 Visitation Charge  of Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford. In the closing words of his Charge, Bagot set out the Laudian vision of ecclesial peace, against both evangelical and Tractarian agitation which refused to recognise that "good men will differ" within the charity provided by the Prayer Book and Articles: And, seeing the grievous want of charity which has prevailed among us, I have felt it my duty to condemn those who have set themselves forward as gratuitous agitators, and unbidden accusers of their brethren. I am no lover of error, and will shew it no favour; but, while the world stands, there must be points on which good men will differ, and so long as those points of difference do not contravene the Prayer-Book and formularies of the Church, it seems to me, that one set of opinions has the same r...

Continuing the new series of weekly posts on visitation charges of Old High bishops in the immediate aftermath of the Tract XC controversy, we again turn to the  1842 Visitation Charge  of Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford. Here Bagot warns against the early indications of ritualism, "the revival of obsolete practices", as harmful to the Church's peace and undermining its episcopal constitution. It was, unfortunately, a warning which would not be heeded: I am happy to say that, so far as the Parochial Clergy are concerned, the caution which I felt it my duty to give at my last Visitation with respect to the revival of obsolete practices, which were calculated to give offence, without any adequate advantage resulting, has been, so far as I have been able to ascertain, attended to. Of course questions about vestments and matters of a similar description, cannot be raised without much higher principles being involved. It was not a contest whether the red rose or the white were...

Continuing the new series of weekly posts on visitation charges of Old High bishops in the immediate aftermath of the Tract XC controversy, we again turn to the  1842 Visitation Charge  of Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford. Here Bagot offers an example of the warm sacramental piety of the Old High tradition, grounded in the Articles of Religion and Catechism.  A warm, sacramental piety, therefore, did not require a reliance on the doctrines and practices of other communions. Also significant, of course, is the fact that this summary of sacramental teaching was quite unremarkable and uncontroversial in terms in the pre-1833 Anglican eucharistic consensus . Remind them of the awful warning of our Lord himself, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you". And join to that warning, as He in mercy joined, his wondrous promise, "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day...

Continuing the new series of weekly posts on visitation charges of Old High bishops in the immediate aftermath of the Tract XC controversy, today we turn again to the  1842 Visitation Charge  of Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford.  As stated in the introductory post of the series last week, the focus is be not so much on the well-known critique of Tract XC but, rather, on what the visitation charges reveal about the teaching, piety, concerns, and vitality of the Old High tradition nearly a decade after the emergence of the Oxford Movement. In today's post, an extract from Bagot's charge on the significance of the sacraments.  This notably follows his praise for the Tracts:  "they have successfully laboured to impress the necessity and efficacy of the Sacraments, as the appointed means, in and by which God is pleased to impart the vital and saving grace of Christ". Against this, Bagot contrasts some opponents of Tractarian teaching on the sacraments, accusing ...

Today begins a series of weekly posts on laudable Practice from a rich seam of Old High teaching, the responses to Tract XC by Old High bishops in the visitation charges of the early 1840s.  The focus of the posts will be not so much on the well-known critique of Tract XC articulated in these charges but, rather, on what these visitation charges reveal about the teaching, piety, concerns, and vitality of the Old High tradition nearly a decade after the emergence of the Oxford Movement.  I begin with the 1842 Visitation Charge of Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford (1829-45, and Newman's diocesan).   Here Bagot warns against undermining the "definite and tangible" catholic nature of the Prayer Book with devotional material from the Roman Breviary, in pursuit of an "indefinite and elusive ... shadowy Catholicism". This contrast - "definite and tangible" against "indefinite and elusive" - captures the differences between an Old High piety rooted i...