Alexander Heriot Mackonochie (11 August 1825 – 15 December 1887) was a Church of England mission priest known as "the martyr of St Alban's" on account of his prosecution and forced resignation for

ritualist Ritualism, in the history of Christianity, refers to an emphasis on the rituals and liturgical ceremonies of the church. Specifically, the Christian ritual of Holy Communion. In the Anglican church in the 19th century, the role of ritual became ...

practices.

Early life

Mackonochie was born at

Fareham, Hampshire Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...

, the third son of George Mackonochie (1775/6–1827), a retired colonel in the service of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

, and his wife, Isabella Alison. Through his mother he had a traditional Low Church upbringing and his family were opponents of the early Catholic Revival. Mackonochie was educated at private schools in Bath and Exeter. Early on he felt a call to the Ministry of the Church and gained the nickname "the boy-bishop" among his contemporaries. He attended lectures at Edinburgh University before matriculating at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

in 1844. He graduated BA in 1848 and MA in 1851. Oxford was the centre of the two-decades-old

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

, the leading force in English

Anglo-Catholicism Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglica ...

. There are conflicting accounts of his theological opinions while at Oxford. Some describe Mackonochie as having "pronounced Low Church views", but he heard Pusey preach and was on personal terms with many of the other leading Anglo-Catholics of the day, especially Charles Marriott. However, we can be sure that during his time at the university he came into contact with the vanguard of the Oxford Movement, though he may not have shared its views at this early stage in his life.

Ordination and early parish ministry

Mackonochie was ordained in Lent 1849 and became a curate at

Westbury, Wiltshire Westbury is a town and civil parish in the west of the English county of Wiltshire, below the northwestern edge of Salisbury Plain, about south of Trowbridge and a similar distance north of Warminster. Originally a market town, Westbury was kn ...

. In 1852, he became a curate of W. J. Butler at

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. Butler was a

Tractarian The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

and at Wantage Mackonochie followed a typical

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...

pattern of ministry. Mackonochie taught in the Church schools and had special responsibility for the nearby district of Charlton, preaching forcefully.

London Docks and Holborn

In 1858, he moved to become a curate at

St George's-in-the-East St George-in-the-East is an Anglican Church dedicated to Saint George and one of six Hawksmoor churches in London, England. It was built from 1714 to 1729, with funding from the 1711 Act of Parliament. Its name has been used for two forms of p ...

, London. There he worked with

Charles Fuge Lowder Charles Fuge Lowder (22 June 1820 – 9 September 1880) was a priest of the Church of England. He was the founder of the Society of the Holy Cross, a society for Anglo-Catholic priests. Early life Charles Lowder was born on 22 June 1820 a ...

as a mission priest in the slum areas of London Docks. At this time St George's-in-the-East was a focus for anti-Ritualist rioting which including services being interrupted and stones being thrown at the mission's priests. In 1862, Mackonochie became

perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly du ...

at St Alban the Martyr, Holborn. In a letter to the patron, J. G. Hubbard, he explained his theological opinions, which included endorsing the (for that time) radically Catholic eucharistic doctrine of G. A. Denison. Mackonochie introduced a daily Eucharist, which featured

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...

and significant ritual elements (e.g. the lighting of altar candles and the cleansing of eucharistic vessels at the altar). St Alban's was the first Anglican church to hold the three-hour devotion on Good Friday (in 1864) and one of the first to celebrate a Harvest Festival. Mackonochie also openly heard

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...

s. Mackonochie's pastoral ministry was typical of the 19th-century

"slum priest". With his two curates, Arthur Stanton and Edward Russell, and lay assistants he founded schools, soup kitchens, a working men's club, mothers' meetings, clothing funds and more. Throughout Mackonochie's later persecution St Alban's remained a thriving

parish. From 1867 Mackonochie was also chaplain of the sisterhood of St Saviour and the sisters and sisters of the Clewer Community of St. John Baptist worked in the parish.

Prosecution

Alexander Heriot Mackonochie Vanity Fair 31 December 1870

St Alban's increasingly became a focus of Low Church ire, drawing the attention of

Lord Shaftesbury Earl of Shaftesbury is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1672 for Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Baron Ashley, a prominent politician in the Cabal then dominating the policies of King Charles II. He had already succeeded his f ...

and the ultra-Protestant and anti-ritualist

Church Association The Church Association was an English evangelical Anglican organisation founded in 1865. It was particularly active in opposition to Anglo-Catholicism, ritualism, and the Oxford Movement. Founded in 1865 by Richard P. Blakeney, the association st ...

. In 1867, a prosecution was brought against Mackonochie by John Martin, supported by the Church Association, under the

Church Discipline Act Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

1840. The charges brought were elevating the host above his head, using a mixed chalice and altar lights, censing things and persons, and kneeling during the prayer of consecration. The first decision (of the

Court of Arches The Arches Court, presided over by the Dean of Arches, is an ecclesiastical court of the Church of England covering the Province of Canterbury. Its equivalent in the Province of York is the Chancery Court. It takes its name from the street-level ...

) was against Mackonochie on two counts and in his favour on the other three, with no decision as to the payment of costs. Despite Mackonochie agreeing to comply, the anti-ritualists appealed to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

, which found against Mackonochie in the remaining three charges; and he was ordered to pay all costs. Even after the prosecution the Church Association continued to pursue Mackonochie, believing that he had re-introduced the prohibited ritual. This led to further judgments against Mackonochie, culminating on 25 November 1870 with his suspension from office for three months. In the interim he had become a hate-figure for the Low Church; in 1869 he was banned from preaching in the

Diocese of Ripon The Diocese of Ripon (Diocese of Ripon and Leeds from 1999 until 2014) was a former Church of England diocese, part of the Province of York. Immediately prior to its dissolution, it covered an area in western and northern Yorkshire as well as ...

and a Low Church cleric,

Hugh M‘Neile Hugh Boyd M‘Neile (18 July 1795 – 28 January 1879) was a well-connected and controversial Irish-born Calvinist Anglican of Scottish descent. Fiercely anti- Tractarian and anti-Roman Catholic (and, even more so, anti-Anglo-Catholic) and an ...

, refused to speak at the Liverpool

Church Congress Church Congress is an annual meeting of members of the Church of England, lay and clerical, to discuss matters religious, moral or social, in which the church is interested. It has no legislative authority, and there is no voting on the questions d ...

because Mackonochie would also be speaking. A second lawsuit was brought in March 1874 repeating the old charges as well as adding new ones including the use of processions with a

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

, use of the

Agnus Dei is the Latin name under which the " Lamb of God" is honoured within the Catholic Mass and other Christian liturgies descending from the Latin liturgical tradition. It is the name given to a specific prayer that occurs in these liturgies, and ...

, and the ancient custom of the eastward-facing consecration. (The normal practice, prescribed by the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

, was to stand at the north end of the altar facing south; westward-facing consecration, as is now most common in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

, was only introduced by Cranmer and as an attempt to deemphasise the sacrificial nature of the traditional Mass.) Mackonochie stood firm in the face of the prosecutions but on 12 June 1875 was found against on most of the charges and suspended for six weeks. In 1878, John Martin appealed to the

Dean of Arches The Dean of the Arches is the judge who presides in the provincial ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This court is called the Arches Court of Canterbury. It hears appeals from consistory courts and bishop's disciplinary trib ...

, claiming that Mackonochie had not obeyed the 1875 judgement. Mackonochie was brought in front of the new court created by the

Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 The Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 (37 & 38 Vict c 85) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Campbell Tait, to limit what he perceived as the growing rit ...

. Mackonochie was this time suspended for three years. In 1882 a fresh round of prosecutions was under way when, at the deathbed request of Archbishop Tait, Mackonochie resigned from St Alban's to move to St Peter's, London Docks, the church founded in 1866 by C.F. Lowder. Though by 1882 the mob violence that Mackonochie had faced during his time with Lowder in the 1850s and 1860s had abated, the prosecutions continued. Despite the vibrancy of St Peter's Mackonochie was extremely unhappy: he had moved from St Alban's out of a sense of duty. He missed his old parish and his self-confidence was waning. By July 1883 he faced yet another suspension. In December, knowing his suspension would be disastrous for the parish, and only a year after resigning from St Alban's, he handed his resignation to the Bishop. Unlike his resignation from St Alban's, his friends almost unanimously supported this resignation, knowing it was required for the good of both the parish and of his health.

Later life and death

Mackonochie did not think of taking another parish and moved into the Clergy House of St Alban's as a freelance. This was a happy arrangement for all, and there was no clash between the old priest and the new (Fr Suckling). For a time Mackonochie undertook a fair amount of work in the parish, but he was weakening mentally. He travelled several times to the continent and often visited the

Bishop of Argyll The Bishop of Argyll or Bishop of Lismore was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Argyll, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. It was created in 1200, when the western half of the territory of the Bishopric of Dunkeld was formed into t ...

, his friend Alexander Chinnery-Haldane, in Ballachulish, Scotland, a place which he loved. Increasingly his home was his brother's house at

, another place very dear to his heart, where he continued to assist in parochial work as much as possible. His mental decline continued apace until on 15 December 1887 he got lost in the Forest of Mamore while out walking near the

's home in Ballachulish. His body was found two days later guarded by the dogs he had been with. After a packed

Requiem Mass A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

at St Alban's a special train took mourners to

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

where his body was laid to rest in the cemetery. A cross of Scottish granite was later raised on the spot where he had died, and in the 1890s a chapel was dedicated to his memory at St Alban's. The circumstances of Mackonochie's death were commemorated in a poem by

William McGonagall William Topaz McGonagall (March 1825 – 29 September 1902) was a Scottish poet of Irish descent. He gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work. He wrote about 2 ...

. He is buried in

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...

Role in the broader Anglo-Catholic Movement

Besides his work in Holborn and London Docks, Mackonochie was also a leading member of the broader Catholic revival. He was one of the first Priest Associates of the

Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (CBS), officially the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, is a devotional society in the Anglican Communion dedicated to venerating the Real Presence of Christ in the Eu ...

and served as Master of the

Society of the Holy Cross The Society of the Holy Cross (SSC; la, Societas Sanctae Crucis) is an international Anglo-Catholic society of male priests with members in the Anglican Communion and the Continuing Anglican movement, who live under a common rule of life that i ...

(SSC) in 1863–1875, 1879–1881 and 1885. He was a major force in the formulation of the Society's constitution and, as Master, had an important role in directing its activities. Under Mackonochie the Society increasingly represented the vanguard of the

movement.

Notes

Sources

* * * * *

External links

St Alban the Martyr, HolbornSt Peter's London DocksSociety of the Holy Cross (SSC), Province of England & Scotland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackonochie, Alexander Heriot 1825 births 1887 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Anglo-Catholic clergy Burials at Brookwood Cemetery English Anglo-Catholics History of the Church of England People from Fareham