laudable Practice

Having considered how David Lindsay, Bishop of Brechin (1619-34 and Bishop of Edinburgh 1634-38) - in his 1621 account of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Perth in 1618 - articulated the case for episcopacy and conformity in the Jacobean Church of Scotland, we now turn to his defence of another significant pillar of the Jacobean vision, the Royal Supremacy. Lindsay addressed the allegation that the Royal Commissioners - representing James VI - voting in the decisions of the Perth Assembly was a rejection of previous practice in Scotland. He did so by pointing to ancient precedent for monarchs and their representatives engaging in the decision-making of councils and synods: Whatsoeuer his Maiestie in former times hath done, remitting of his owne right, for causes knowne to himselfe, should be no preiudice to his Royall priuiledges; especially amongst these that haue abused, and set themselues obstinately to crosse his Royall and iust designes. The practice of thes...

Yesterday was Gloriana Day. Elizabeth I was born on 7th September 1533. When the Book of Common Prayer was lightly revised in 1604 following the Hampton Court conference, at the beginning of the reign of James I/VI, a black letter day for the obscure Saint Evurtius was introduced to the Kalendar on 7th September. It was a way of marking the anniversary of Elizabeth's birth. Gloriana Day invites us to give thanks for the Elizabethan Settlement and recognise how that Settlement, despite the awkward embarrassment of 21st century Anglicans, offers a wise path for a contemporary Anglicanism so often confused about its identity. We see this wisdom in one of Elizabeth's bishops, John Aylmer (1521-94), Bishop of London from 1577. Strype's 1701 Historical collections of the life and acts of the Right Reverend Father in God, John Aylmer  offers us an insight into how Aylmer embodied the Elizabethan Settlement.  Aylmer's allegiances were made abundantly clear when he, then an Arch...

... whosoever shall hereafter maintain, that the Kings-Majesty hath not the same authority in causes Ecclesiastical, that the godly Kings had amongst the Jews, and Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church, or impeach in any part his Regal supremacy in the said causes restored to the Crown, and by the laws of this Realm therein established, let him be excommunicated, and not restored but only by the Archbishop of the Province, after his repentance, and publick revocation of his error. So declared the Canons adopted by the Convocation of the Church of Ireland in 1634. It was Ussher, as Archbishop of Armagh, who had insisted that the Irish Church should have its own Canons, rather than - as the Laudian Bramhall had desired - merely adopt those of the Church of England. What was never in question, however, was that the Irish Canons would robustly affirm, like the English Canons of 1604 , the Royal Supremacy.  Ussher's commitment to the Royal Supremacy was already evident through his...

In the week of 4th July last year, laudable Practice considered how English, Irish, and Loyalist Anglicans responded to the 'American War' , perceiving it as an unjust rebellion against the liberal constitutional order secured by the Revolution of 1688. This year, in the week leading up to 4th July, we turn to those colonial Anglicans who sided with the Patriots. Their understanding of the Revolutionary War was encapsulated in a resolution of the Maryland Provincial Convention on 25th May 1776 : Whereas his Britannic majesty King George has prosecuted, and still prosecutes, a cruel and unjust war against the British Colonies in America, and has acceded to acts of parliament, declaring the people of the said colonies in actual rebellion: and whereas the good people of this province have taken up arms to defend their rights and liberties, and to repel the hostilities carrying on against them ... As the resolution continued, it demonstrated how it had a particular relevance for A...

As in the United Kingdom and across the Commonwealth we celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, words from an 1809 sermon by Edward Nares - a representative of the Orthodox party (i.e. the Old High mainstream of the pre-1833 Church of England) - to mark the Golden Jubilee of George III. Noting how the British Crown was limited by law and constitution, Nares rejoiced in the religious example and influence of George III.  This is an aspect of the reign of the Elizabeth II that should be given much more serious consideration by Anglicans: But I have reserved for the last, that trait of his character, which must still give the greatest lustre to his names and will forever shine as the brightest jewel of his crown, I mean, his constant and exemplary discharge of RELIGIOUS duties. I say exemplary, because in this consists the great worth of his character. I must maintain that a King of this country is so limited and restrained by the laws of the Empire, and so impeded ...