Public Worship Regulation Act 1874
Encyclopedia
The Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c.85) was an Act
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
, introduced as a Private Member's Bill
by Archbishop of Canterbury
Archibald Campbell Tait
, to limit what he perceived as the growing ritualism of Anglo-Catholicism
and the Oxford Movement
within the Church of England
.
Benjamin Disraeli, who called it "a bill to put down ritualism". He referred to the practices of the Oxford Movement
as "a mass
in masquerade." Queen Victoria was supportive of the Act's Protestant intentions. Liberal
leader William Ewart Gladstone
, a high church
Anglican whose sympathies were for separation of church and state
, felt disgusted that the liturgy
was made, as he saw it, "a parliamentary football."
practices through the Court of Arches with appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
. The Act established a new court, presided over by former Divorce Court judge Lord Penzance
. Many citizens were scandalised by parliamentary interference with worship and, moreover, by its proposed supervision by a secular court. The act gave bishop
s the discretionary power to order a stay of proceedings
.
Section 8 of the Act allowed an archdeacon
, church warden or three adult male parishioners of a parish
to serve on the bishop
a representation that in their opinion:
The bishop had the discretion to stay proceedings but, if he allowed them to proceed, the parties had the opportunity to submit to his direction with no right of appeal. The bishop was able to issue a monition
, but if the parties did not agree to his jurisdiction, then the matter was to be sent for trial (section 9).
The Act provided a casus belli
for the Anglo-Catholic English Church Union and the evangelical
Church Association
. Many clergy were brought to trial and five ultimately imprisoned for contempt of court
.
Prosecutions ended when a Royal Commission
in 1906 recognised the legitimacy of pluralism in worship, but the Act remained in force for 91 years until it was finally repealed on 1 March 1965 through the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measures of 1963 (No. 1).
and the Isle of Man
. As these were Crown dependencies, there was a separate question as to the power of Parliament of the United Kingdom
to legislate for them. It was a confused and controversial matter (see Crown dependencies: Relationship with the UK).
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, introduced as a Private Member's Bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
by Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
Archibald Campbell Tait
Archibald Campbell Tait
Archibald Campbell Tait was a priest in the Church of England and an Archbishop of Canterbury.-Life:Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Tait was educated at the Royal High School and at the Edinburgh Academy, where he was twice elected dux. His parents were Presbyterian but he early turned towards the...
, to limit what he perceived as the growing ritualism of Anglo-Catholicism
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
and the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
within the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
.
Tait's bill
Tait's bill was controversial. It was given government backing by Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Benjamin Disraeli, who called it "a bill to put down ritualism". He referred to the practices of the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
as "a mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
in masquerade." Queen Victoria was supportive of the Act's Protestant intentions. Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
leader William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, a high church
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
Anglican whose sympathies were for separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, felt disgusted that the liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
was made, as he saw it, "a parliamentary football."
The Act
Before the Act, the Church of England regulated its worshipWorship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...
practices through the Court of Arches with appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom. Established by the Judicial Committee Act 1833 to hear appeals formerly heard by the King in Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is one of the highest courts in the United...
. The Act established a new court, presided over by former Divorce Court judge Lord Penzance
James Plaisted Wilde, Baron Penzance
James Plaisted Wilde, 1st Baron Penzance was a noted British judge and rose breeder who was also a proponent of the Baconian theory that the works usually attributed to William Shakespeare were in fact authored by Francis Bacon....
. Many citizens were scandalised by parliamentary interference with worship and, moreover, by its proposed supervision by a secular court. The act gave bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s the discretionary power to order a stay of proceedings
Stay of proceedings
A stay of proceedings is a ruling by the court in civil and criminal procedure, halting further legal process in a trial. The court can subsequently lift the stay and resume proceedings. However, a stay is sometimes used as a device to postpone proceedings indefinitely.-United Kingdom:In United...
.
Section 8 of the Act allowed an archdeacon
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
, church warden or three adult male parishioners of a parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
to serve on the bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
a representation that in their opinion:
Monition
In English law and the canon law of the Church of England, a monition, contraction of admonition, is an order to a member of the clergy to do or refrain from doing a specified act. Other than a rebuke, it is the least severe censure available against clergy of the Church of England. Failure to...
, but if the parties did not agree to his jurisdiction, then the matter was to be sent for trial (section 9).
The Act provided a casus belli
Casus belli
is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...
for the Anglo-Catholic English Church Union and the evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Church Association
Church Association
The Church Association was an English evangelical Anglican organisation, founded in 1865.It was particularly active in opposition to Anglo-Catholicism, Ritualism and the Oxford Movement.Founded in 1865 by Richard P...
. Many clergy were brought to trial and five ultimately imprisoned for contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
.
List of clergy imprisoned
- the Revd Sidney Faithorn GreenSidney Faithorn GreenThe Rev. Sidney Faithorn Green was a British clergyman who, during the Ritualist controversies in the Church of England, was imprisoned for 20 months for liturgical practice contrary to the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874.-Background:...
, Rector of St John's, Miles PlattingMiles PlattingMiles Platting is an inner city district of Manchester, England. It is east-northeast of Manchester city centre, along the course of the Rochdale Canal and A62 road...
, Manchester, 1881–82 - the Revd T. Pelham DaleT. Pelham DaleThomas Pelham Dale was an English Anglo-Catholic ritualist clergyman, most famous for being prosecuted and imprisoned for ritualist practices-Biography:...
, Rector of St Vedast Foster LaneSt Vedast Foster LaneSaint Vedast-alias-Foster, a church in Foster Lane, in the City of London, is dedicated to Vedast , a French saint whose cult came to England through contacts with Augustinian clergy.-History:...
, in the City of LondonCity of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, 1880 - the Revd Richard William EnraghtRichard William EnraghtRichard William Enraght SSC was an Irish-born Church of England priest of the late nineteenth century. He was influenced by the Oxford Movement and was included amongst the priests commonly called “Second Generation” Anglo-Catholics.Fr...
, Rector of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, West MidlandsBordesley, West MidlandsBordesley is an area of Birmingham, England and is part of the City's Nechells Ward.It is served by Bordesley railway station.It should not be confused with nearby Bordesley Green.-Notable residents :...
, 1880 - the Revd James Bell Cox, Vicar of St Margaret's, LiverpoolLiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
- the Revd Arthur ToothArthur ToothArthur Tooth SSC was a Ritualist priest in the Church of England and a member of the Society of the Holy Cross . Tooth is best known for having been prosecuted in 1876 under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 for using proscribed liturgical practices...
, Vicar of St James's, HatchamHatchamHatcham was a manor and later chapelry in what is now London, England. It corresponds to the area around New Cross Gate station in the London Borough of Lewisham....
, 1877
Prosecutions ended when a Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
in 1906 recognised the legitimacy of pluralism in worship, but the Act remained in force for 91 years until it was finally repealed on 1 March 1965 through the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measures of 1963 (No. 1).
Territorial extent
The Act purported to extend to the Channel IslandsChannel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
and the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
. As these were Crown dependencies, there was a separate question as to the power of Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
to legislate for them. It was a confused and controversial matter (see Crown dependencies: Relationship with the UK).
See also
- Anglican Eucharistic theologyAnglican Eucharistic theologyAnglican Eucharistic theology is diverse in practice, reflecting the essential comprehensiveness of the tradition. Some High church Anglicans, especially those considered to be Anglo-Catholics, hold beliefs identical with, or similar to, the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation...
- Ritualism
- Julius v. The Bishop of Oxford