Anglican History Research Articles

What was the Oxford Movement?

The justification for this book is the professed need for a single-volume introduction to the Oxford Movement, the immense literature on which has certainly been far longer on biography and monograph than on the sort of synopsis which Herring has set out to furnish. This short textbook and selection of documents, however, eschews the narrative form routinely adopted in the standard accounts, generationally R.W. Church, The Oxford Movement: Twelve Years (1891), S.L. Ollard, A Short History of the Oxford Movement (1915), and M.R. O'Connell, The Oxford Conspirators: A History of the Oxford Movement 1833–45 (1969). Herring's aim is not merely to synthesise, but occasionally to ‘break new ground in a number of areas’—chronological and geographical—such as the consequences for the movement of Newman's conversion, and ‘the impact of Tractarianism within the parochial setting’. The introduction has a short section on the historiography—too short, and a little crude, given the book's avowed purpose in summarising the new and debunking the old (and some of the new)—though the point that far too much of the literature is biographically or prosopographically framed is well made in justification of the author's fourfold-thematic approach to ‘Contexts’, ‘Ideas’, ‘Events’, and ‘Parishes’. The first of these nicely situates the movement in religious, political, and cultural terms. The religious contextualisation—as any such history must—owes much to Peter Nockles's recovery of the Tractarians' debt to the earlier high-church tradition, though Herring remains disposed to emphasise the novelty and innovations of the movement, which, he doughtily insists, ‘represents one of the most fundamental discontinuities in the history of Anglicanism’. Politically, he demonstrates that the common ‘conservative or radical?’ teaser is anachronistic when posed of the 1830s and 1840s, much of whose radical-paternalist discourse defies those binary categories, a point which is pursued in the context of Tractarianism's obvious romantic affinities. The chapter on ‘Ideas’ frames Tractarian religious thought in terms of the visible church, of the via media, and of sacraments and ascetics, though the intelligibility with which this is done is at odds with the needlessly defeatist air of Herring's ensuing conclusion that since Tractarianism was a ‘dynamic rather than a static phenomenon’ it remains ‘slippery as the proverbial bar of soap’. A merit of this chapter, however, is its attention not just to Tractarian thought, but to the means of its ‘dissemination’, in a short section which reminds us of the role played not only by the Tracts but by the mass of published sermons, by the periodical journalism of the British Critic, and by the movement's early fictional forays. The (third) chapter on ‘Events’ is perhaps the most conventional of the four, and might profitably have preceded the others: it confronts terminology, traces the disparate personal routes to Tractarianism, and recovers the ‘Oxford battles’ around which theological partisanship became entrenched. It is here that the author delivers on his promise to question the impact of Newman's conversion with an assortment of very useful data on the numbers of Anglican conversions to Rome, and of Tractarian ordinations and incumbencies. The statistical dimension is sustained in a final chapter which, since it draws on numerical and geographical data from the author's still-indispensable doctoral work on Tractarianism in the parishes, is inevitably the most original. If this lacks the choice exemplification which might have imparted some colour to the panorama, it succeeds well both in recovering the Tractarian ideal of ‘an ever-expanding Eucharistic community’, and in demonstrating the relative paucity of our understanding of the movement's parochial rather than polemical character. Finally, the book contains an Epilogue which ‘offers some thoughts on the contemporary problems faced by Anglo-Catholics, including the controversy over the ordination of women’. This strikes a discordant note in a textbook and slightly compromises the foregoing deprecation of the parochialism and partisanship of Tractarian historiography. The reappearance shortly after this book of Brad Faught's The Oxford Movement: A Thematic History of the Tractarians and their Times (Pennsylvania, 2003), which broadly shares the purpose and approach of Herring's, only at greater length, was perhaps unfortunate. But Herring's vigour, his very brevity—the commentary itself weighs in at under a hundred pages—and the thoughtful and eclectic selection of forty documents in accompaniment, should ensure him the grateful student audience which is his target.

All Things Human: Henry Codman Potter and the Social Gospel in the Episcopal Church. By Bourgeois Michael. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. 288 pp. $34.95 cloth.

All Things Human: Henry Codman Potter and the Social Gospel in the Episcopal Church. By Bourgeois Michael. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. 288 pp. $34.95 cloth.

Innovation and Undecidability: Some Implications for theKoinoniaof the Anglican Church

ABSTRACTThe Anglican Church is now a worldwide communion and international Anglicanism is marked by a high degree of variety and significant tensions both at local and international levels. Dealing with diversity and conflict across the communion may be the most pressing issue facing Anglicanism in the twenty-first century. Certainly the needs of mission require a strong focus on local and regional concerns and the history of Anglicanism bears testimony to a strong emphasis on a contextual and incarnational approach to discipleship, worship and social engagement. For this reason the Anglican Church has always wrestled with the tension between its inherited identity and the demand for relevance in an expanding communion. Many of the tensions and unresolved conflicts that beset modern Anglicanism arise because of the astonishing capacity of the Church to develop new responses in new situations that result in practices that do not fit easily with the received tradition. These point to a fundamental fact of Christianity; its inherent creativity and capacity for innovation. But not all innovations are wise for the Church; many innovations generate further conflict and the people of God are often confused or puzzled about what innovations to adopt or reject, and how to facilitate either of these scenarios. Some examples in the history of Christianity include controversies over the date of Easter, the development of church order (for example, episcopacy), doctrinal developments (for example,homoousionof the Nicene Creed), and issues to do with slavery, marriage, divorce and, more recently, ordination of women. None of these ‘innovations’ were greeted with immediate consensus at the point of local adoption nor as the innovation became more widely known and assimilated into the life of the Church.From an ecclesial point of view the fact of innovation represents both a challenge to, and opportunity for an enhancedkoinoniain the gospel. Minimally this involves commitment to ongoing patient dialogue and face-to-face encounter as innovations are wrestled with, differences explored and conflicts faced. This article considers further the concepts of innovation and undecidability as critical issues underlying much of our current difficulties. The article then inquires as to their relevance and importance for thekoinoniaof the Anglican Communion.

Stewart Headlam's radical Anglicanism. The mass, the masses, and the music hall. By John Richard Orens. (Studies in Anglican History.) Pp. xii+188. Urbana–Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003. $29.95. 0 252 02824 4

Stewart Headlam's radical Anglicanism. The mass, the masses, and the music hall. By John Richard Orens. (Studies in Anglican History.) Pp. xii+188. Urbana–Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003. $29.95. 0 252 02824 4 - Volume 55 Issue 3

Stewart Headlam's Radical Anglicanism: The Mass, the Masses, and the Music Hall (review)

Reviewed by: Stuart Headlam’s Radical Anglicanism: The Mass, the Masses, and the Music Hall Walter L. Arnstein Stuart Headlam’s Radical Anglicanism: The Mass, the Masses, and the Music Hall. By John Richard Orens. [Studies in Anglican History.] (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 2003. Pp. xii, 184. $29.95.) The nineteenth-century Church of England encompassed a spectrum of religious attitudes that included dour High Churchmen such as Edward Bouverie Pusey (who unlike John Henry Newman and others did not convert to Roman Catholicism), pious Low Church evangelicals, and liberal Broad Churchmen who reconciled their teachings with those of Charles Darwin and kindred scientists. Stuart Headlam (1847-1923) fitted none of these categories. Instead, this graduate of Eton and Cambridge became "the most bohemian priest" (p. 1) in the history of his church. He defined himself as a Catholic who welcomed elaborate ritual; he preached "universal salvation" in the slums of London's East End; he invited "wicked" music hall dancers to the Church and Stage Guild that he founded, [End Page 559] and he saw joy rather than vice in popular amusements. He also instituted the egalitarian Guild of St. Matthew and edited the Church Reformer; he fostered the education of the poor as an elected member of the London County Council; he welcomed the socialist revival of the 1880's and 1890's, and he served for a decade as a member of the executive committee of the Fabian Society; he concluded his life as president of the London Shakespeare League. He also scandalized his church superiors by becoming the friend and defender of a notorious atheist, Charles Bradlaugh, and by providing bail for the imprisoned Oscar Wilde. Basing himself on Headlam's published writings, on church archives, and on relevant monographs, Orens has provided the first modern biography of Headlam, and he has done so in an admirably compact, fair-minded, well-documented, and readable manner. Such conciseness does have a few disadvantages, however. The opening chapter, "Anglican Difficulties," cannot do justice to the complexity of the mid-Victorian church in which Headlam was ordained. And the "socialism" that Headlam professed during much of his life remains curiously fuzzy. It meant both the kingdom of heaven realized on earth and the arbitrary confiscation of large landed estates. It meant a single tax (a la Henry George), the unionization of the semi-skilled, the collective ownership of the means of production, and at the same time a dawning suspicion of the bureaucratic coercion to which Marxist socialism might lead. True socialism, Headlam insisted, was not only "distinctly Christian" but also involved "the greatest economic change with the least possible interference with private life and liberty" (p. 121). By the time of Headlam's death, the Church of England had become far more sympathetic to Anglo-Catholicism and to social reform than fifty years earlier, and its leading clerics no longer insisted on biblical literalism or scorned actors and dancers. Yet Britain's laboring masses had failed to embrace the Anglican Church as "the divinely ordained instrument of social emancipation" (p. 79). Church attendance figures had instead begun to tend downwards—as they were to continue to do, slowly, through the rest of the twentieth century. Walter L. Arnstein University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Copyright © 2004 The Catholic University of America Press

What was the Oxford Movement?

NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL BOOK REVIEW WHAT WAS THE OXFORD MOVEMENT? BY GEORGE HERRING 113 What was the Oxford Movement? By George Herring. London-New York: Continuum, 2002. Pp: xi + 146. Paper, $19.95/£14.99, ISBN 0-8264-5185-1. The author’s stated intention in writing this short monograph was to provide an “up-to-date starting point for investigating the Oxford Movement” (ix). The “Introduction”claims that:“Since the Reformation there have been only a handful of movements of what might be termed revitalization that could be said to have left a permanent mark on the face of Christianity in the English-speaking world” (1). While qualifying for this distinction, the Oxford Movement has been variously interpreted by historians and theologians. On the one hand are those who have “tended to portray the originators of the Movement in heroic terms, a small but courageous band of reformers battling against the forces of a hostile Establishment, an enraged Protestantism, and a growing liberal tendency in theology” (2). On the other hand are those who have depicted theTractarians as“villains secretly believing the doctrines of Rome and attempting to subvert the true Protestant faith of Englishmen ” (2). Given these polarities, it is hardly surprising that in recent years, historians have advanced a number of revisionist interpretations.For example,instead of envisioning the Oxford Movement as being in continuity with a catholic tradition flowing from the Henrician Reformation through the Caroline Divines to 19th-century High Churchmanship, Herring maintains:“The Tractarians only related themselves to the past history of their Church in ways which suited their contemporary controversial purposes” (10). Accordingly, the Oxford Movement “represents one of the most fundamental discontinuities in the history of Anglicanism. It is as much a new beginning as it is an inheritance from the past” (10). After characterizing the“contexts”ofTractarianism as growing out of the vacuum left when both “traditional High Churchmanship and Anglican Evangelicalism had ‘run out of steam’ (23),” Herring examines the Movement’s “ideas.”Acknowledging that“aTractarian‘creed’did not emerge,fully formed,in 1833,or any other date”(24), Herring describes the varied means—tracts, sermons, pamphlets, books, even novels (and one might add: poems and hymns)—which Tractarians used to propagate their ideas,especially about the visible Church,theVia Media,and Sacraments andAscetics. Tractarianism“changed and evolved over time, and different individual leaders came to personify different aspects of it” (43).Yet if the personalities of the Movement’s leaders were distinctively different, weren’t there also many commonalities? Herring, for example, in commenting on the Tractarian treatment of the visible Church, concedes: “The Caroline Divines of the seventeenth century had also appealed to antiquity in justification of their theological arguments, as had the NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 114 Nonjurors, and the continuing High Church tradition up to the 1830s” (31); is there then more catholic continuity in the Oxford Movement than Herring apparently allows? And even if Newman “used the historical record of the early Church in a blatantly rhetorical way” (31), could not a similar charge be levied against Herring’s own treatment of Newman? Only after considering the Oxford Movement’s “contexts” and “ideas,” does this book consider its “events”—a curious topical arrangement insofar as it results in duplication of material previously mentioned. In any case, Herring first discusses in detail Newman’s dating of the inception of the Oxford Movement as Keble’s Assize Sermon on July 14,1833 and concludes that“the Oxford Movement had its origins in the crisis years of 1828-33 and that the Assize Sermon represents more a stage in the process of genesis than it does the precise moment of birth” (47).While historically cogent, such a judgment seemingly ignores the need of every movement for a symbolic beginning whose antecedents necessarily back-drop the designated date. More important: by attributing the beginning of the Oxford Movement to Keble, Newman was apparently building a bridge to his former Oriel colleague. Finally, insofar as July 14 is Bastille Day, one wonders whether this date is also symbolic of Newman’s aversion to liberalism and revolution? Such quaestiones disputandae aside, this book provides useful information about the“events”following Newman’s...

Black Bishop: Edward T. Demby and the Struggle for Racial Equality in the Episcopal Church. By Michael J. Beary. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001. xvi + 307 pp. $34.95.

Black Bishop: Edward T. Demby and the Struggle for Racial Equality in the Episcopal Church. By Michael J. Beary. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001. xvi + 307 pp. $34.95. - Volume 72 Issue 1

Prayer, Despair, and Drama: Elizabethan Introspection

Strikingly original and beautifully written....Prayer, Despair, and Drama is an extremely rich, complex study. -- John Corrigan, Arizona State University West Prayer, Despair, and Drama explores the godly sorrow and pious dis-ease, or lack of ease, of Elizabethan Calvinists and finds that what some have characterized as an evangelism of fear functioned more as a kind of religious therapy. In this major contribution to discussions of the relationship between religion and literature in Elizabethan England, Peter Iver Kaufman argues that the soul-searching and self-scourging typical of late Tudor Calvinism was reflected in the rhetoric of self-loathing then prevalent in sermons, sonnets, and soliloquys. Kaufman shows how this spiritual psychology informs major literary texts including Hamlet, The Fairie Queene, Donne's Holy Sonnets, and other works. A volume in the series Studies in Anglican History, edited by Peter W. Williams

The Ties That Used to Bind: A Fresh Look at the History of Australian Anglicanism

This article questions the widely accepted idea that the history of Anglicanism in Australia has been dominated by warfare between three church parties: Anglo-Catholic (high), evangelical (low) and liberal (broad). In fact, among lay Anglicans and at the parish level party strife was much less important than is often assumed. Until recently Australian Anglicans shared a number of common institutions, attitudes and social characteristics, and there was a large body of “moderate” Anglicans — exemplified in this article by the Rev R. P. Hewgill of Adelaide — who did not identify with any particular party.

The Nature of Salvation: Theological Consensus in the Episcopal Church, 1801-73.

Robert Prichard examines both high-church and evangelical theology in the nineteenth-century Episcopal church, claiming a commonality between the two that has been neglected in the study of Anglican history. Parting company with the interpretation dominant among historians of the Episcopal church for more than sixty years, he focuses on shared theological assumptions rather than on liturgical divisions. By focusing on these shared theological assumptions, he sheds new light on the Episcopal church, helping the reader to see the evangelical and high-church parties as concerned with theological as well as liturgical topics. Prichard's approach avoids overemphasis on division and opens the way for a broader comparison of the Episcopal church's relationship to other Protestant churches.

The Nature of Salvation: Theological Consensus in the Episcopal Church, 1801–73. By Robert W. Prichard. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. 217 pp. $29.95 cloth.

The Nature of Salvation: Theological Consensus in the Episcopal Church, 1801–73. By Robert W. Prichard. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. 217 pp. $29.95 cloth. - Volume 67 Issue 1

Accommodating High Churchmen: The Clergy of Sussex, 1700–1745. By Jeffrey S. Chamberlain. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. xx + 192 pp. $32.50 cloth.

Accommodating High Churchmen: The Clergy of Sussex, 1700–1745. By Jeffrey S. Chamberlain. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. xx + 192 pp. $32.50 cloth.

Jeffrey S. Chamberlain. Accommodating High Churchmen: The Clergy of Sussex, 1700-1745. (Studies in Anglican History.) Champaign, III.: University of Illinois Press. 1997. Pp. xvii, 192. $32.50. ISBN 0-252-02308-0.

Jeffrey S. Chamberlain. Accommodating High Churchmen: The Clergy of Sussex, 1700-1745. (Studies in Anglican History.) Champaign, III.: University of Illinois Press. 1997. Pp. xvii, 192. $32.50. ISBN 0-252-02308-0. - Volume 30 Issue 2

The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400-c. 1580 by Eamon Duffy

The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400-c. 1580. By Eamon Duffy. (New Haven: Yale University Press. 1993. Pp.xii, 654. $45.00 cloth; $18.00 paperback.) Historians have always questioned traditional beliefs and interpretations about the past. Some off new insights or emphasize neglected aspects of the human story, and others, iconoclastic in approach, radically reshape one's understanding of events. Very seldom, however, do the findings of revisionist historians touch a nerve outside the academic profession. Eamon Duffy's recent book on the English Reformation, however, proves to be an exception. has created a stir within English ecclesiastical circles and has forced some to re-examine the causes, motives, and events associated with the separation from Rome during the sixteenth century. The Tablet, a Roman Catholic publication, recently noted that the preface to the 1995 edition of the Church of England Yearbook drew attention to revisionist historians, especially Eamon Duffy, who have questioned some Anglican views about the Reformation. In his recent book, Duffy argues that the pre-Reformation Catholic Church was not as corrupt as some historians have believed, and he also casts doubt on the belief that the Reformers performed valuable services by reviving a moribund church. If this interpretation is correct and if Anglican history needs re-examination, then, the preface pointed out, Eamon Duffy's book has important ramifications in the area of ecumenism. The Stripping of the Altars, despite its length, will appeal to both the professional historian and to anyone interested in English ecclesiastical history. After an informative introduction, Duffy, a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, divides this important contribution to sixteenth-century England into two parts. In the first he skillfully sketches the structures of traditional religion, especially the beliefs and practices of the laity in the parishes of East Anglia, up to 1536. It is the contention of the first part of the book that late medieval Catholicism exerted an enormously strong, diverse, and vigorous hold over the imagination and the loyalty of the people up to the very moment of the Reformation (p. 4) The second part details the reforming and disruptive policies of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth I. The break with Rome represented a violent rupture, and occasioned some opposition to the policy of the Reformers. Moreover, Mary's brief reign and the restoration of Catholicism met with success. This view of the English Reformation, consequently, contradicts those historians who portray the Roman Church as corrupt and believe that the dismantling of the traditional religion was supported by the laity. The liturgy of pre-Reformation England played an important part in the lives of the laity; it provided a meaning and purpose for their existence. Duffy describes the importance of the liturgical calendar, emphasizing certain feast days and Holy Week devotions, and he concludes that the liturgical cycle paralleled the rhythms of life. Moreover, literacy and the impact of the printing press, the importance of the Mass, the idea of corporate Christianity, the cult of the saints, prayers, the relation of religion and magic, and popular beliefs concerning death and purgatory all contributed to the connection between religion and the concerns of the laity. …

The Panther and the Hind: A Theological History of Anglicanism by Aidan Nichols, O.P.

The Panther and the Hind: A Theological History of Anglicanism by Aidan Nichols, O.P.

REVIEWS

Book reviews in this article:The Metaphor of God Incarnate, John HickPhilosophy and Theology in the Middle Ages, G. R. Evans, Routledge 1993The Bible and Postmodern Imagination: Texts under Negotiation, Walter BrueggemannThe Panther and the Hind: A Theological History of Anglicanism, Aidan NicholsThe Body of God: An Ecological Theology, Sallie McFagueInfant Baptism and the Gospel: The Church of England's Dilemma, C. Buchanan, Darton, Longman & ToddDiscipleship of Equals, Elisabeth Schiissler FiorenzaThe Renewal of Common Prayer: Unity and Diversity in Church of England Worship, M. Perham (ed.)A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms; The Psalms as Torah, J. Clinton McCann Jr, AbingdonIs God Real?, Joseph Runzo (ed.), MacmillanAsian Faces of Jesus, R. S. Sugirtharajah (ed.)Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing, Rosemary Radford RuetherTheological Dialogue between Orthodox and Reformed Churches, T. F. Torrance (ed.)The Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith, D. K. McKim (ed.)Eucharist: Christ's Feast with the Church, Lawrence Hull StookeyHans Küng: New Horizons for Faith and Thought, Karl‐Josef Kuschel and Hermann Hauml;Uring (eds),Our God Has No Favourites: A Liberation Theology of the Eucharist, Anne Primavesi and Jennifer HendersonBuddhism and Christianity: Rivals and Allies, Ninian Smart, MacmillanHanging in Judgment: Religion and the Death Penalty in England, Harry PotterThe Greater‐Good Defence: An Essay on the Rationality of Faith, Melville Y. Stewart, Macmillan

‘The Soul–Sleeping System’; Politics and Heresy in Eighteenth–Century England

Historians of eighteenth–century England have begun to reassess its relationship with the preceding century, creating in the process the now conventional periodisation of a ‘long eighteenth century’ fromc.1660 to 1832. Historical revisionism, however, needs constantly to be revised, and there remains the danger of creating too sharp a separation between this period and that which preceded it. This article aims to introduce just such a complicating factor by linking the turbulent theologies of the 1640s and 1650s with a particular strand of eighteenth century religious thought. This might be described as the legacy of ultra-Protestantism, the insistence on the priority of private judgement and the supremacy of Scripture which were allied with a suspicion of clericalism. Its survival among an articulate and academically well-placed group of eighteenth-century Anglican divines demonstrates that the attempt by the Restoration Church of England to distance itself from ultra-Protestantism was not uniformly successful; the problem of ‘heresy’ continued into a period of Anglican history more usually associated with comfortable doctrinal latitude.

The Panther and the Hind

While reading Aidan Nichols’ book, The Panther and the Hind: A Theological History of Anglicanism (T & T Clark, 1993) I remembered the story of the country which decided that their young people should be taught to play football and that a national side should be fielded to compete with other countries. So they wrote to the Football Association in England for copies of the laws of football and sent them to their schools with instructions that the young people should learn the rules by heart, be tested in their knowledge and then be sent out to play. There was, apparently, some consternation in high places when chaos ensued and questions were asked as to why people who had learned the rules still could not play the game.Aidan Nichols has certainly learned the rules of Anglicanism but still appears—at least to this Anglican reviewer who was taught the rules by one of those whom Nichols recognises as a “separated doctor” of the Roman Catholic Church, Eric Mascall—to be unable to play the game. For there is no doubt at all about Fr. Nichols’ scholarship and the acuity of his perspective on the history and development of Anglicanism since the Reformation. But none of his perception enables him to see how or why such a perverse—in his view—beast can continue to survive as it does with such vigour and obvious self-enjoyment, or why all right thinking Anglicans do not immediately see the error of their ways and at least join a Uniate Anglican Church and so regularise their position.

Ministry to All the People? the Anglican Church in Malaysia

Since Independence in 1957 the Anglican Church in Malaysia has disavowed any inclination towards Malay evangelism in concert with a general climate of Christian opinion which sees such efforts as not only legally difficult, if not actually illegal following enactments in a number of states, but also politically impossible and threatening to the stability of the nation. This is the background to the claim in a Singapore Anglican history written in 1963 that ‘In the Peninsular… no missionary work among the Muslim Malays was considered and their faith always has been respected.’

Medical Science and Pentecost: The Dilemma of Anglicanism in Africa

I begin this paper with some broad generalisations about the history of anglicanism in relation to healing. I shall contend that in East and Central Africa over the last hundred years there were simultaneously present and interacting with each other a number of tendencies which in Europe had developed over a much longer period. Thus in some ways the religious history of colonial Africa is an intensification and telescoping of the religious history of Europe.I am assuming, then, that in England by the end of the 17th century anglicanism had come to repudiate ‘enthusiasm’ and the visible manifestations of the Holy Spirit, partly for reasons of social control. I am assuming that this more or less closed the door on spiritual healing within 18th century anglicanism and produced the characteristically ‘cool’ anglican tone. Wesley brought back into the Church of England a universe of spirits and spiritual healings and exorcisms but all this went off into early methodism and out of the 19th-century Anglican church. In this 19th-century church, before it reached out into Central African mission, a number of superficially contradictory developments took place. There was an interaction of church and medical ‘establishments’ which led to anglican involvement in public health programmes and to an intellectual commitment to the ‘divine’ origins of modern medical science. At the same time there was a revival, particularly in the countryside, of communal rituals designed to create feelings of solidarity despite the realities of class division.