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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2024
From the days of its foundation in the sixteenth century it has always been possible to trace in the Established Church, side by side with the Puritan and Erastian traditions, a tradition of teaching which approximates very closely to the doctrines of Catholicism; a tradition which lays strong emphasis on the supernatural character of the visible Body of Christ, on the importance of the sacraments in the scheme of salvation and in consequence on the Catholic ideal of holiness. At times in the history of the Church of England this Catholic tradition has flourished widely, but never to the complete exclusion of other traditions, and at times these have appeared to squeeze the Catholic tradition almost out of existence. The beginning of the nineteenth century was such a time; with the Revolution of 1688 and the consequent schism of the Non-jurors the old Catholic High Churchmanship of the Caroline divines, with its solid Patristic learning, its sober but definite exposition of the corporate existence and supernatural basis of the Church of Christ and its insistence on sacramentalism, began to fade into obscurity. Political circumstances had much to do with the gradual disappearance of a school of thought which had almost dominated the Stuart period. The failure of the ‘45 made Jacobitism for ever a lost cause, and from that date Jacobite Toryism began to make terms with the established order and Jacobite churchmen drank the health of the Hanover kings.
1 An extract from Lawrence Sterne's answers to the Visitation questions of Archbishop Drummond of York in 1764 is a commentary on this loss of supernatural ideals during the eighteenth century. In reply to the question, ‘Have you a residing curate?‘Sterne writes:’…. the curate's name is Kilner, he has served the cure two years and a half. By some mistake or other either on his side or mine, something has ever prevented his obtaining Priest's orders. He shall offer himself to your Grace the next Ordination.’ On which Canon Ollard remarks:' The least pleasant feature of his own Return is his off-hand, almost jaunty way of writing about his curate's ordination to the Priesthood, as if it were a mere compliance with some technical formality which had been forgotten through carelessness.'—Times Literary Supplement, May 25th, 1933: Sterne as a Parish Priest, by S. L. Ollard, p. 364.
2 ‘[Mr. Fortescue] is of a non-juring family, and was taught secretly Catholic doctrine and practice from a child. From a child I have heard he has gone to confession. When at Wadham people could not make him out, he lived by himself. After a while, to his surprise he found the things he had been taught to keep secret as being a disciplina arcani common talk. He has had a most wonderful influence in his neighbourhood, more than anyone in the Church, I suppose.'—Letters and Correspondence of J. H. Newman, Vol. II, p. 435. Newman to Mrs. J. Mozley, August 13th, 1844.
3 ‘I sat next to Keble …. he is more like an undergraduate than the first man in Oxford; so perfectly unassuming and unaffected in his manner.’—Letters and Correspondence, Vol. I, p. 72.
4 The Oxford Movement, 1833–1845, ch. ij, p. 24.
5 ‘I am every day becoming a less and less loyal son of the Reformation. It appears to me plain that in all matters that seem to us indifferent or even doubtful we should conform our practices to those of the Church which has preserved its traditionary practices unbroken.’—Remains, Vol. I, p. 336.
6 Apologia. History of my Religious Opinions up to 1833, p. 85.
7 Ibidem. p. 87.
8 ‘Do keep writing to Keble and stirring his rage, ‘he writes to Newman on November 17th, 1833,’ he is my fire but I may be his poker.’—Letters and Correspondence, Vol. I, p. 484.
9 Apologia: ibidem, p. 95.
10 Lyra apostolica (10th edition), cix, p. 142.
11 Ibid. c. p. 131.
12 Ibid. lxxxvii, p. 109.
13 Ibid. lxxxii, p. 102.
14 Ibid. cxxxiv, p. 181.
15 Ibid, cxx, p. 161.
16 Vide, Newman, by F. L. Cross. Appendix iv, the Myth of July 14th, 1833.
17 The Oxford Movement, 1833–1845, chapter II, p. 28.
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