Worship, ecclesiastical discipline, and the establishment in the Church of England, 1904--1929

The subject of this work is the ritual controversy in the Church of England between 1904 and 1929. It is primarily concerned with the themes of worship (especially the Book of Common Prayer and its revision), ecclesiastical discipline (particularly the determination and enforcement of the Church's ceremonial law), and the establishment (in terms of the Church-State relationship which existed). The thesis argues that the constitutional relationship between the Church of England and the State was of primary importance during the controversy, affecting the process of prayer book revision every step of the way, as well as its eventual outcome. This legal framework is necessary to interpret the liturgical, theological, partisan, and political flow of events throughout the period. Its primacy becomes more apparent when the important events of the period---whether in parliament, Royal Commission, Convocation, or the National Assembly---are placed in context.; The thesis contains six chapters, each covering a particular time period, plus a conclusion. The work emphasizes the important roles played by the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline (1904-1906), and the Enabling Act, passed by parliament in 1919. The Commission's unanimous 1906 Report had a lasting effect on prayer book revision in the years that followed, but work had not been completed when the Great War broke out. After the war, parliament, at the Church's behest, passed the Enabling Act in 1919. This Act fundamentally altered how ecclesiastical affairs were governed, as the National Assembly of the Church of England, which possessed legislative authority, came into existence. It was responsible for completing prayer book revision in the twenties. After a proposed new Book was passed by the Church Assembly and the Convocations, the House of Commons, within the terms of the Enabling Act, twice rejected (in 1927 and 1928) the finished product, deciding that it was not congruent to the standards of the established Church of England. When faced with the options of accepting the rebuff of parliament or seeking disestablishment as a means of exerting the Church's spiritual authority over the liturgy, the bishops chose a third option in 1929: they would, during the "present emergency," use their "enforced discretion" and not prohibit the use of the 1928 Book, even though it did not have legal sanction. The Church thereupon entered a new, uncharted path, as the interaction between the Church and the State, classically expressed by the Royal Commission, was no longer being applied.; The main sources utilized are parliamentary records, convocation minutes and reports, public documents, and contemporary writings from the period. The thesis does not rely on new sources to reach its conclusions, but uses existing sources to illustrate the constitutional argument and explain the events of 1927-1928 and the immediate aftermath.; Nearly two dozen statistical tables and summaries are included in the text, as well as seventeen appendices on various parliamentary, legal, liturgical, and statistical aspects relating to the ritual controversy.