The great church crisis and the end of English Erastianism, 1898-1906 /

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This book traces the history of the "Church Crisis", a conflict between the Protestant and Anglo-Catholic (Ritualist) parties within the Church of England between 1898 and 1906. During this period, increasing numbers of Britons embraced Anglo-Catholicism and even converted to Roman Catholicism. Consequent fears that Catholicism was undermining the "Protestant" heritage of the established church led to a moral panic. The Crisis led to a temporary revival of Erastianism as protestant groups sought to stamp out Catholicism within the established church through legislation whilst Anglo-Catholics, who valued ecclesiastical autonomy, opposed any such attempts. The eventual victory of forces in favor of greater ecclesiastical autonomy ended parliamentary attempts to control church practice, sounding the death knell of Erastianism. Despite increased acknowledgment that religious concerns remained deep-seated around the turn of the century, historians have failed to recognize that this period witnessed a high point in Protestant-Catholic antagonism and a shift in the relationship between the established church and Parliament. Parliament’s increasing unwillingness to address ecclesiastical concerns in this period was not an example advancing political secularity. Rather, Parliament’s increased reluctance to engage with the Church of England illustrates the triumph of an anti-Erastian conception of church-state relations. The Great Church Crisis and the End of English Erastianism, 1898–1906- Front Cover The Great Church Crisis and the End of English Erastianism, 1898–1906 Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Terminological preface Notes Acknowledgments List of abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter outline Notes Chapter 2: The Church Crisis and Erastianism Notes Chapter 3: Never trust a clergyman in black: British anti-Catholicism during the Great Church Crisis Theological anti-Catholicism Patriotic anti-Catholicism Moral anti-Catholicism Ethnic, class, gender, and generational catalysts of anti-Catholicism Conclusion Notes Chapter 4: William Harcourt’s Protestant Erastianism: church and state, 1898–1900 Disestablishment, Erastianism, and the Great Church Crisis The onset of the Great Church Crisis The Benefice Bill debates and aftermath: to what extent should Parliament legislate church patronage? Harcourt in historiography Anti-Ritualism in the context of Harcourt’s Erastianism and Liberalism The popularity of anti-Ritualism Political effects of anti-Ritualism: Harcourt’s resignation Gedge’s amendment and the Church Discipline Bill, 1899: Erastianism ascendant? Preparation for the next General Election: the Erastian call for “Protestantism before politics!” The General Election, October 1900: a khaki and orange election Harcourt’s Legacy Conclusion Notes Chapter 5: Protestant paranoia and Catholic conspiracies: Protestant and Catholic perspectives on the Second Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902 Protestant perspectives on the Boer War The Catholic perspective on the war Conclusion Notes Chapter 6: Arthur Balfour and the coming triumph of ecclesiastical independence, 1900–1902 Balfour historiography Balfour the philosophical Theist Balfour and the Church Crisis Conclusion Notes Chapter 7: A new front in the Church Crisis: the 1902 Education Act Conclusion Notes Chapter 8: The Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline, another education bill, and the implosion of Erastianism The Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline The Scottish Church Crisis By-elections and the General Election of 1906: Pyrrhic Erastian victories The Report of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline and the Education Bill, 1906: the dissolution of the anti-Ritualist Erastian political alliance Conclusion Notes Chapter 9: Conclusion Notes Appendix Appendix Table 1 Members elected in 1900 publicly supporting a Church Discipline Bill Appendix Table 2 The Church Association’s positive assessment of by-elections up until June 1903 Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index