The London Police and the Holy War: Ritualism and St. George's-in-the-East, London, 1859-1860

Abstract

In 1859-60 Londoners were treated to the unusual and alarming spectacle of disturbances in the East End Anglican church of St. George's-in-the-East. The cause of the disorder was Ritualism, the introduction of High-Church rituals into the Sunday services. At St. George's it was hardly a learned dispute among theologians, but a weekly brawl that pitted the Ritualist rector against a largely hostile and disruptive congregation trying to restore the simpler traditional forms. The vexatious problems of public order at St. George's amplified the issue and brought it before the public in a strident way. This not only made obvious the tensions within the parish in question, but also the growing liturgical differences within the Church of England as well. The latter problem had been a knotty one for the Anglican Church officials (who had been unhappy about the innovations from the start), and also for the civil authorities— especially the police—who found themselves legally limited in trying to deal with the disorders. St. George's brought the police into a situation in which the law limited their actions, leaving them with a series of irritating disturbances to deal with as best they could. The result was some loss of public support, mainly from the working classes who saw the police as enforcers of unwelcome religious changes. The Reformation had pushed the focus of religious activity from the altar to the pulpit, but the Tractarianism of the 1840s and the resulting Ritualist movement were a reversal of this. As a movement within the Church of England, Ritualism was nourished both by ritual innovations at Oxford and especially Cambridge, and by the general historical revival of the age. The effects were increasingly manifest in the diversity in the conduct of Anglican services in the 1840s and 1850s.1