laudable Practice

Today is the eve of the commemoration of the martyrdom of Archbishop Laud. Tomorrow, particular corners of Anglican social media will indulge in a long-standing Whiggish pursuit - condemning the martyred Archbishop. There are, of course, reasons to critique Laud. Indeed, post-1662 High Church opinion was often cautious about aspects of Laud's primacy, not least because of the shadow cast by the Personal Rule . Laud's character has also proven to be as unlikeable to historians as to his critics in the 1630s. That said, we are long overdue a favourable  interpretation of Laud, described by the Cambridge Platonist George Rust, in his sermon at Jeremy Taylor's funeral, as "the wise Prelate".  This post seeks to consider what I am describing as Archbishop Laud's legacy: a vision of popular Anglicanism, a national church embedded in culture through the liturgical rites and rhythms of the parish, an alternative account of the Christian life to that offered by the se...

The young George Bull, having completed his studies with the Puritan Mr. Thomas - and having read those books by "Hooker, Hammond, Taylor, Grotius, Episcopius, &c" provided by the younger Thomas -  now sought ordination. According to Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull , this was a moment when Bull's theological allegiances were demonstrated: Soon after that he left Mr. Thomas, he entertained Thoughts of going into Holy Orders; he had read enough to convince him, that meer Presbyters had no Power to give him a Commission to exercise the Sacred Function, especially when the plausible Plea of Necessity could not be urged. In this Case Mr. Bull fought out for an unexceptionable Hand, that his Mission might be valid, according to the Practice of the Christian Church for Fifteen hundred Years, which affordeth not one Instance of Presbyterian Ordination, but what was condemned by the universal Voice of the Catholick Church.  This, of course, was in a context in which e...

In The Teaching of the Anglican Divines in the Time of King James I and King Charles I on the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (1858), Henry Charles Groves - a clergyman of the Church of Ireland - quotes Pusey declaring that Calvinists believe that Sacraments "serve only to kindle faith". Groves refutes this with words from the Institutes: in the mystery of the Supper, under the symbols of bread and wine, Christ is truly presented to us, and so His Body and Blood, in which He fulfilled all obedience to procure our justification; in order that we may first coalesce with Him into one body, and then, being thus partakers of His substance, may experience the virtue also which belongs to Him in the participation of all blessings (IV.17.11). He then goes on to invoke Laud against Pusey, emphasising that Laud stood firmly within the Reformed eucharistic consensus of the English Church, from Reformation to Restoration: And most certainly Dr. Pusey did not learn this manner of speaking...

In the seventh of his 1807 Bampton Lectures, On the Nature and Guilt of Schism , Le Mesurier points to the success of the 1662 Settlement: Indeed it was the very moderation of our church which indisposed the puritans to her communion. Their alleged ground of complaint against her was that she still retained the trappings of popery, that she used many ceremonies and kept up many practices which they considered as superstitious. On these objections which they thus entertained to the doctrine or rather to the discipline of the established religion, I need not, I trust, dwell at any length. For who is there in these days that will seriously maintain that the wearing of a surplice, the making of the sign of the cross in baptism, the observance of a few festivals in commemoration of those particular acts in which our Lord's mercy and goodness towards us were most signally displayed, or in honour of his immediate followers and acknowledged saints, or, lastly, a few expressions in our litu...

Joseph Hall (appointed Bishop of Exeter in 1627, translated to Norwich in 1641) appears early in Stephen Hampton's Grace and Conformity: The Reformed Conformist Tradition and the Early Stuart Church of England , as one of the "representative voices" of that tradition. Oddly missing from the book's bibliography, however, is Hall's 1623 sermon - when he was Dean of Worcester - to Convocation, ' Noah's Dove ', a statement of peaceable irenicism in a time of bitter theological controversy. The previous year, James VI/I had issued his 'Directions Concerning Preachers': That no preacher of what title soever under the degree of a bishop, or dean at the least, do from henceforth presume to preach in any popular auditory the deep points of predestination, election, reprobation or of the universality, efficacity, resistibility or irresistibility of God's grace. Three years after Hall's Convocation sermon, Charles I published ' A Proclamation ...

The commemoration of the Royal Martyr is an appropriate occasion on which to reflect on the oft-repeated suggestion that the Laudians supported 'absolutism'.  Leaving aside the fact that 'absolutism' is a notoriously ill-defined term, it may be rather more appropriately applied to some later Enlightenment monarchs who rejected the checks and balances provided by traditional communal and corporate institutions which early modern monarchies such as the Stuarts necessarily relied upon. I have previously pointed to a High Church vision of constitutional order with a mixed polity, derived from Hooker,  flowing Lancelot Andrewes, through the Laudians, and into the 18th century. Indeed,  Waterland's 1723 Restoration Day sermon and Swift's 1725 Royal Martyr Day sermon illustrate how this commitment to a Hookerian mixed constitution found expression in High Church critique of the Personal Rule.   What, however, of Laud himself, so often associated with the accusation o...

In his account of the life of Laud, Cyprianus anglicus (1668), the Laudian Peter Heylyn addresses the accusation of 'Popery' levelled at the Archbishop by his opponents in church and state. Heylyn is clear, of course, that such accusations had no basis whatsoever, for Laud was committed to the defence of the Church of England, what Heylyn describes as "the true Protestant religion".  This, Heylyn states, was not at all contradicted by Laud's opposition to a populist, sectarian anti-popery stance. Rather, such opposition stood in the best traditions of the reformed Church of England. Heylyn first considered how Laud discouraged and used his influence against publications with "exasperating passages" which condemned the Pope as 'antichrist': he was not pleased that the Pope should be any longer stigmatized by the name of Antichrist; and gave a strict Charge unto his Chaplains, That all exasperating Passages (which edifie nothing) should be expunge...

It has been a night of astonishing scenes at Westminster with reports or jostling, manhandling, bullying and shouting outside the parliamentary lobbies in a supposed vote of confidence in the government. The Deputy Chief Whip was reported to have left the scene saying, “I’m absolutely effing furious, I just don’t effing care anymore,” before he resigned, along with the Chief Whip.  But, we’ve just been told they have now officially un-resigned. The Home Secretary has, however, definitely gone. In short, it is total, absolute, abject chaos. That was how the UK's ITV News introduced the events of last Wednesday.  And that was before the resignation of the Prime Minister, after a mere 44 days in office.   If ever there was a time for the churches of the United Kingdom to be praying for Parliament, it is now.  In the Church of Ireland's BCP 2004, however, the contemporary form of Morning and Evening Prayer has no prayer for Parliament.  Nor is such a pray...

Recently, laudable Practice suggested that a return of a 'West Gallery' tradition could aid Mattins and Evensong in smaller churches.  Evensong, I said, "does not require an organ and large choir".  I went on to say "the choral tradition is, where it may be had, a gift to be received with gratitude".  Two quite contrasting experiences of Evensong following that post demonstrated the strengths of both approaches. Firstly, I was preaching at contemporary Evening Prayer for Harvest Thanksgiving in a friend's rural parish.  A small, unrobed, makeshift choir for the event led hearty singing of traditional harvest hymns, accompanied by an electronic keyboard.  It was a joyous expression of what I had sought to describe as 'West Gallery' Evensong. The second Evensong, however, was a reminder to me of the gift of the choral tradition and it will be the focus of this post. The parish in which I serve has monthly Choral Evensong. On a windy, dark Autumn ...

In 1660, with the monarchy restored and the nightmare of the 1650s over, and as the Laudian Mark Frank rejoiced in the "miraculous restoring" of a "comely uniformity" to the Church of England's worship, the Presbyterian polemicist  Zachary Crofton lamented the re-emergence of the signs of Laudianism: Bowing to the Communion Table Symbolizeth with the worship of Pagans and Papists; those known Idolaters, especially in that order in which it was of late (and beginneth afresh to be) used among us, in his Majesties Royal Chappel, Lambeth Chappel, the Cathedral and many Parish Churches, whilst the Table must be made in the frame of an Altar, railed in, and advanced as an holy Inclosure; fixed at the East end of the Church; and furnished with Altar-Furniture, and Coverings, and Candlesticks with Candles in them placed therein. In the 1640s it had seemed as if the anti-Laudians had won the altar wars.  Parliament had decreed that rails must be destroyed, and the Holy...