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Latitudinarians, also calledlatitude men, were initially a group of 17th-century English theologians – clerics and academics – from theUniversity of Cambridge who were moderateAnglicans (members of theChurch of England). In particular, they believed that adhering to very specific doctrines, liturgical practices, and church organizational forms, as did thePuritans, was not necessary and could be harmful: "The sense that one had special instructions from God made individuals less amenable to moderation and compromise, or to reason itself."[1] Thus, the latitudinarians supported a broad-based (sensu lato, with "laxitude") Protestantism. They were later referred to asbroad church (see alsoInclusivism).
Examples of the latitudinarian philosophy underlying the theology were found among theCambridge Platonists and SirThomas Browne in hisReligio Medici. Additionally, the term latitudinarian has been applied to ministers of theScottish Episcopal Church who were educated at the Episcopal-sympathizing universities atAberdeen andSt Andrews, and who broadly subscribed to the beliefs of their moderate Anglican English counterparts.[1]
Latitudinarianism should not be confused withecumenical movements, which seek to draw all Christian churches together and not necessarily to de-emphasize practical doctrine. The term latitudinarian has taken on a more general meaning, indicating a personal philosophy that includes tolerance of other views, particularly, but not necessarily, on religious matters.
In theCatholic Church, latitudinarianism was condemned in the 19th-century documentQuanta cura and theSyllabus of Errors.Pope Pius IX taught that, with its emphasis on the freedom to discard traditional Christian doctrines and dogmas, latitudinarianism threatened to undermine the church.
The latitudinarian Anglicans of the 17th century built onRichard Hooker's position inOf the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker (1554–1600) argues that what God cares about is the moral state of the individual soul. Aspects such as church leadership are "things indifferent". However, the latitudinarians took a position far beyond Hooker's own and extended it to doctrinal matters.
As a positive position, the latitudinarian view held that human reason, when combined with theHoly Spirit, is a sufficient guide for the determination of truth in doctrinal contests; therefore, legal and doctrinal rulings that constrain reason and the freedom of the believer were neither necessary nor beneficial. At the time, their position was referred to as an aspect oflow church (in contrast to thehigh church position). Later, the latitudinarian position was calledbroad church.[citation needed]
While always officially opposed by the Anglican church, the latitudinarian philosophy was, nevertheless, dominant in 18th-century England. Because of the Hanoverian reluctance[2] to act in church affairs, and the various groups of the religious debates being balanced against one another, the dioceses became tolerant of variation in local practice. Furthermore, afterGeorge I of Great Britaindismissed the Convocation, there was very little internal Church power to either sanction or approve.[citation needed]
Thus, with noArchbishop of Canterbury officially adopting it, latitudinarianism was the operative philosophy of the English church in the 18th century. For the 18th-century English church in the United States (which would become theEpiscopal Church after theAmerican Revolution), some[who?] are of the opinion that latitudinarianism was the only practical course because the nation[clarification needed] had official pluralism, diversity of opinion, and diffusion of clerical power.[why?]
