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Ritualism, in the history ofChristianity, refers to an emphasis on therituals andliturgical ceremonies of the Church, specifically the Christian practice ofHoly Communion.
In theAnglican church in the 19th century, the role of ritual became a contentious matter. The debate over this topic was also associated with struggles between theHigh Church andLow Church movements.
InAnglicanism, the termritualist is often used to describe the revival of the second generationOxford Movement/Anglo-Catholic/High Church, which sought to reintroduce a range ofRoman Catholicliturgical practices to theChurch of England. Ritualism is also seen as a controversial term (i.e., rejected by some of those to whom ritualism is applied).
Arguments about ritualism in the Church of England were often shaped by opposing (and often unannounced) attitudes towards the concept ofsola scriptura and the nature of the authority of theBible for Christians.
Those who support the ritualist outlook in the Church of England have often argued that the adoption of key elements ofRoman Catholic ritual would:
Those who oppose ritualism in the Church of England have generally argued that it:
The development of ritualism in the Church of England was mainly associated with what is commonly called "second generation" Anglo-Catholicism (i.e., the Oxford Movement as developed after 1845 whenJohn Henry Newman abandoned the Church of England to become aRoman Catholic). Some scholars[who?] argued that it was almost inevitable that some of the leaders of Anglo-Catholicism would turn their attention to questions of liturgy and ritual and started to champion the use of practices and forms of worship more commonly associated with Roman Catholicism. However, there was only limited enthusiasm among ritualists to introduce the widespread use ofLatin in the liturgy, which was the norm in the Roman Catholic Church beforeVatican II.
The leaders of the first generation of the Anglo-Catholic revival or Oxford Movement (i.e., Newman,Edward Bouverie Pusey, andJohn Keble) had been primarily concerned withtheological andecclesiological questions and had little concern with questions ofritual. They championed the view that the fundamental identity of the Church of England was Catholic rather than Protestant. They argued that Anglicans were bound by obedience to use theBook of Common Prayer. "Tract 3" of theTracts for the Times series had strenuously argued against any revision of theBook of Common Prayer, viewing its use as a matter of absolute obligation. EvenTract 90, which analysed the39 Articles, was more concerned with the theological dimension of the issue. It gave little attention to the question of altering current liturgical practice in the Church of England.
The ecclesiological questions gave rise to an interest in giving liturgical expression to the theological conviction that the Church of England had sustained a fundamentally Catholic character after theEnglish Reformation. In some circles, the shift of focus to the question of liturgy proved as provocative as had been the theological assertions of the first generation of Anglo-Catholicism.
The clearest illustration of the shift that took place within Anglo-Catholicism from theological to liturgical questions is to be found in Pusey's attitude towards ritualism. Pusey, the only pre-eminent first-generation leader of Anglo-Catholicism to survive into the second generation, had no sympathy with the preoccupation with ritual. However, when priests started to be prosecuted and imprisoned as a result of thePublic Worship Regulation Act 1874, Pusey was quick to show his support for those who were prosecuted.
From the 1850s to the 1890s, severalliturgical practices espoused by many ritualists led to some occasional and intense local controversies, some of which led to prosecutions (most notably as a result of thePublic Worship Regulation Act 1874). Those considered most important by adherents of the Catholic movement were known as the "six points":
Other contentious practices included:
In regards to the "north side" celebration, at the time of the Reformation, altars were fixed against the east end of the church, and the priests would celebrate the Mass standing at the front of the altar. Beginning with therubrics of the Second Prayer Book ofEdward VI published in 1552, and through the 1662Book of Common Prayer (which prevailed for almost 300 years), the priest is directed to stand "at the north syde of the Table." This was variously interpreted over the years to mean the north side of the front of a fixed communion table, the north end of a fixed table (i.e., facing south), the north side of a free-standing table (presumably facing those intending to receive the Elements who would be sitting in the quire stalls opposite), or at the north end of a free-standing table lengthwise in the chancel (facing a congregation seated in thenave). The last option copies the practice of the Early Church when the celebrant stood before a small stone or marble table, usually rectangular, facing the nave.
The ritualist movement (seeCambridge Camden Society) also played a substantial role in promoting:
The prosecution and conviction ofArthur Tooth in 1876,Sidney Faithorn Green in 1879, andRichard William Enraght in 1880, illustrate the controversies caused by these liturgical practices. The prosecutions, which were often instigated by theChurch Association, gave considerable impetus to the foundation and work of theEnglish Church Union. TheSociety of the Holy Cross (SSC) played a crucial role in championing and developing the use of elements of proscribed Catholicritual inAnglicanism.
For many who opposed ritualism, the key concern was to defend what they saw as the fundamentallyProtestant identity of the Church of England. This was also not just a matter of anecclesiological argument; for many, there was a sense thatCatholic worship was somehow "un-English". Catholicism was deeply associated with cultural identities that historically had been treated with suspicion by many English people, especially the Spanish, French, and Irish.
For an ideological defence of this position, it was argued that English identity was closely linked with England's history as a Protestant country that, after theReformation, had played a key role in opposing Catholic powers in Continental Europe, especially Spain and then France. In the minds of such people, Protestantism was inextricably identified with anti-despotic values and Catholicism withautocracy that, in the religious arena, hid behind the "disguise" of complicated rituals whose meaning deliberately lacked transparency. The opposition to ritualism, therefore, had a deeply cultural andsymbolic significance that extended far beyond purelytheological concerns.
Ritualists themselves were often eager to try and present the "Englishness" of the ritual they championed by predominantly keeping English as the language of the liturgy and reconstructingAnglo-Catholicism as a recovery of pre-Reformation Catholic forms that were specifically English; a revival of interest in theSarum Rite (the pre-Reformation Catholic liturgy ofSalisbury) was sparked off by the Ritualist movement. This tendency was also often expressed as the revival in the use of the pre-ReformationGothic forms rather than theBaroque, the latter of which was more closely linked in the minds of many with specifically continental andCounter Reformation forms.
Although ritualism had an aesthetic and ideological appeal for many in the cultural elite, as well as a cognate relationship with theGothic Revival, the idea that it was inextricably linked with an inclination towards political despotism was a misapprehension. Ritualism had an appeal for many who were politicallyconservative and had supporters highly placed in the establishment (i.e.,Viscount Halifax andthe 4th Marquess of Bath). However, the outlook of many of the ritualistclergy themselves, many of whom inevitably operated in some of the most deprived communities in England, resulted in them becoming politically radicalised, with some becoming ardentChristian socialists.
In the spectrum of hostility that it aroused, ritualism also provoked in some of its opponents a reaction that saw its theatricality and its aestheticism as symptoms of "effeminacy".[2] A typical charge was that ritualistic clergy were "man milliners",[3] who were more concerned with lace and brocade than doctrine. Adverse reaction to this played a significant role in the evolution of theBroad andLow Church enthusiasm formuscular Christianity.
One of the key ideological justifications used by many of the early ritualists, apart from the fact that it was asymbolic way of affirming their belief in the essentiallyCatholic nature ofAnglicanism, was the argument that it provided a particularly effective medium for bringing Christianity to the poorest "slum parishes" of theChurch of England.
It was argued thatritual andaesthetically impressiveliturgy did not only provide a powerful contrast to the drabness of the lives of the poor, but its emphasis onsymbol and action rather than word was a more effective medium for spreading Christian faith in areas with poorliteracy rates than the highly cerebral andlogocentric worship that focused on theBook of Common Prayer. This argument may have had some merits, but, very often, the respect that the most successful ritualists often gained in the highly impoverished communities they went to serve was based on the fact that they had expressed a genuinepastoral concern for the poor among whom they lived.
The argument for ritualism inAnglicanism was also based on the analogy of the success of the Roman Catholic Church among the highly impoverishedIrish migrant communities in the urban areas of England. It was argued by some that ritual played a key role in the growth of theRoman Catholic Church among the poor. However, the use of ritual probably played little more than a subsidiary role in the success of the Catholic Church in this area. Instead, its success was probably largely due to a special cultural identity that many Irish migrants felt with the Roman Catholic Church as one of the few institutions that they encountered indiaspora that was also a feature of life in their homeland.
The ritualists' use ofvestments and wafer bread have become widespread, even normative, in the Church of England for much of the 20th century.
Although many members of the Church of England today still feel uncomfortable or sceptical about certain "Catholic" or "Romish" liturgical practices,[citation needed] in the late 19th century, usingincense, wearingvestments, putting candles on thealtar, having the mixed cup, making the sign of the Cross over the congregation, and using unleavened (wafer) bread in theEucharist could spark riots and lead to the prosecution and imprisonment ofpriests, such as the prosecution ofEdward King,Bishop of Lincoln, between 1888 and 1890. The lasting legacy is that the Ritualists won; the current liturgical style in its various manifestations in almost all Anglican parishes worldwide is much closer to the way Mass was celebrated 500 years ago even in Low Church and "mid-range" parishes.[citation needed]
