Anglican Papalism, also referred to as Anglo-Papalism, is a subset of

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 Anglican ...

with adherents manifesting a particularly high degree of influence from, and even identification with, the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. This position has historically been referred to as ''Anglican Papalism''; the term ''Anglo-Papalism'' is an American

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

and it seems not to have appeared in print prior to the 1990s. Anglican Papalists have suggested "that the only way to convert England is by means of an 'English

Uniate The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...

' rite". Anglican Papalists have historically practiced praying the

Dominican rosary The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

, among other Marian devotions, Corpus Christi procession, as well as the reservation of and

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, also called Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament or the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction, is a devotional ceremony, celebrated especially in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in some other C ...

Origins

The origins of "Anglican-Papalism", as it was then termed, lie in the writings of Spencer Jones, vicar of

Moreton-in-Marsh Moreton-in-Marsh is a market town in the Evenlode Valley, within the Cotswolds district and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Gloucestershire, England. The town stands at the crossroads of the Fosse Way Roman road (now the A429) and the ...

, and Lewis T. Wattson, an American who became an Anglican Franciscan friar. Both men were active around the turn of the twentieth century. Later adherents of the tradition include

Henry Fynes-Clinton Henry Fynes Clinton (14 January 1781 – 24 October 1852) was an English classical scholar, chronologist and Member of Parliament. Life He was born in Gamston, Nottinghamshire, the eldest son of Rev. Charles Fynes, prebendary of Westminster ...

, Dom Gregory Dix and

Hugh Ross Williamson Hugh Ross Williamson (1901–1978) was a prolific British popular historian, and a dramatist. Starting from a career in the literary world, and having a Nonconformist background, he became an Anglican priest in 1943.Joseph Pearce, ''Literary Co ...

. Some Anglican religious communities were Anglican Papalist, prominent among them the Benedictines of Dix's

Nashdom Abbey Nashdom, also known as Nashdom Abbey, is a former country house and former Anglican Benedictine abbey in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England. Designed in Neo-Georgian style by architect Edwin Lutyens, it is a Grade II* listed building. It was c ...

, who used the

Roman Missal The Roman Missal ( la, Missale Romanum) is the title of several missals used in the celebration of the Roman Rite. Along with other liturgical books of the Roman Rite, the Roman Missal contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of th ...

and monastic breviary in Latin.

Beliefs and practices

Anglican Papalists regard the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

as the earthly leader of the Christian Church. They generally accept in full all the

Ecumenical Council An ecumenical council, also called general council, is a meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote ar ...

s recognised by the Catholic Church, including the Councils of Trent and the First Vatican Council, along with nearly all subsequent definitions of doctrine, including the bodily

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by ...

and her

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

. There are Anglican Papalists who are in communion with 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 Britai ...

who reject the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

for the same reasons many

traditionalist Catholics Traditionalist Catholicism is the set of beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions, and presentations of Catholic teaching that existed in the Catholic Church before the liberal reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1 ...

do;

sedevacantist Sedevacantism ( la, Sedevacantismus) is a doctrinal position within traditionalist Catholicism, which holds that the present occupier of the Holy See is not a valid pope due to the pope's espousal of one or more heresies and that therefore, fo ...

groups, in particular, reject the Vatican II council. Most Anglo-Catholics regard the English Reformation as an act of the Church of England repudiating papal authority. They usually regarded Archbishop

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry ...

as more of a translator than as a theologian, and saw the service in the first

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 ...

as being the Mass in English. Anglo-Papalists, on the other hand, regard the Church of England as two provinces of the Catholic Church's Latin Rite (the Province of Canterbury and the

Province of York The Province of York, or less formally the Northern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England and consists of 12 dioceses which cover the northern third of England and the Isle of Man. York was elevated to ...

) forcibly severed from the rest by an act of the English Crown. In his defence of Anglican orders, Gregory Dix speaks of Cranmer and his associates using the power of the English state to impose their views on the church by Act of Parliament. Anglican Papalists therefore regard the Book of Common Prayer as having only the authority of custom, and believe it is legitimate to use the

and Breviary for their worship. Like many other Anglo-Catholics, Anglican Papalists make use of the rosary,

and other Catholic devotions. Some have regarded Thomas Cranmer as a heretic and his second Prayer Book as an expression of

Zwingli Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Univ ...

an doctrine (as did Gregory Dix in his pamphlet "Dixit Cranmer et non Timuit"). They have actively worked for the reunion of the Church of England with the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

, as the logical objective of the Oxford Movement. In 1908, they began the "Church Unity Octave of Prayer", the precursor of the much more general "

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an ecumenical Christian observance in the Christian calendar that is celebrated internationally. It is kept annually between Ascension Day and Pentecost in the Southern Hemisphere and between 18 January ...

Liturgy

The

English Missal ''The English Missal'' is a translation of the Roman Missal used by some Anglo-Catholic parish churches. After its publication by W. Knott & Son Limited in 1912, ''The English Missal'' was rapidly endorsed by the growing Ritualist movement of Ang ...

has been widely used by Anglican Papalists. This volume, which is still in print, contains a form of the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almo ...

in English interspersed with sections of the Book of Common Prayer. The Roman Catholic writer Fr. Adrian Fortescue's ''Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described'' served as a useful guide as to how to use the missal. At early celebrations, some Anglican Papalist priests would use only the Roman Missal, in Latin or in English translation. Many modern Anglo-Papalists use the modern Catholic rite of Mass in English. Some Anglican Papalist parishes advocate "corporate worship in the Latin tongue".

Groups and publications

Anglican Papalists have established a variety of organisations, including the Catholic League and the Society for Promoting Catholic Unity (SPCU), which published ''The Pilot''. They have also provided the leadership in many more general Anglo-Catholic organisations such as the Annunciation Group. Other Anglican Papalist groups include the

Sodality In Christian theology, a sodality, also known as a syndiakonia, is a form of the "Universal Church" expressed in specialized, task-oriented form as opposed to the Christian church in its local, diocesan form (which is termed ''modality''). In Eng ...

of the Precious Blood. Priests of the sodality commit themselves to recitation of the modern Roman

Liturgy of the Hours The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: ''Liturgia Horarum'') or Divine Office (Latin: ''Officium Divinum'') or ''Opus Dei'' ("Work of God") are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, often also referred to as the breviary, of the ...

and to the Latin Rite discipline of celibate chastity. The now-defunct Society of SS. Peter and Paul published the

Anglican Missal The Anglican Missal is a liturgical book used liturgically by some Anglo-Catholics and other High Church Anglicans as a alternative or supplement to editions of the ''Book of Common Prayer''. The ''Anglican Missal'' is distinct from the similarl ...

. In the 1950s the Fellowship of Christ the Eternal Priest, which was established for Anglican

ordinand Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform vari ...

s in the armed forces, published a journal called ''The Rock'', which was strongly pro-Roman. Few copies remain as it consisted of cyclostyled sheets.

Personal ordinariates

On 9 November 2009,

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

promulgated the apostolic constitution ''Anglicanorum coetibus'', allowing the creation of

personal ordinariates A personal ordinariate for former Anglicans, shortened as personal ordinariate or Anglican ordinariate,"...the liturgies approved for the Anglican ordinariates..." "Bishop Stephen Lopes of the Anglican Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter..." ...

that would allow Anglican clergy and faithful to reunite with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of a "distinctive Anglican patrimony". On 15 January 2011, the

Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales is a personal ordinariate in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church immediately exempt, being directly subject to the Holy See. It is within the territory of the Catholic B ...

was established in the United Kingdom in accordance with the rules of ''Anglicanorum coetibus''. The Ordinariate has attracted large numbers of Anglican Papalists, Anglo-Catholics and Anglican clergy in opposition to the

(CoE), including four Bishops of the CoE ( Jonathan Michael Goodall, Michael James Nazir-Ali, John William Goddard and Peter Robert Forster); it currently includes 36 parished and 57 congregations. On 1 January 2012, the

Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is a special Catholic diocese for Anglican and Methodist converts in the United States and Canada. It allows these parishioners to maintain elements of Anglican liturgy and tradition in thei ...

was established in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

; it has attracted large groups of clergy and lay people from the Episcopal Church, the

Anglican Church in North America The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba ...

and other Anglo-Catholic groups. It currently includes 41 parishes. On 15 June 2012, the

Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross is a personal ordinariate of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church primarily within the territory of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference for groups of Anglicans who desire ful ...

was established in Australia; it has attracted a certain number of clergy and faithful from the Anglican Church of Australia and currently includes 18 parishes.

References

Bibliography

* Gregory Dix, ''The Question of Anglican Orders'', Dacre Press, 1944. pp. 31–32. * Peter F Anson, ''The Call to the Cloister'', London SPCK, 1955, pp. 183–192, 462–466, 547–548. * Peter F Anson. ''Fashions in Church Furnishings 1840-1940'', Faith Press, 1960, Chapters XXIX, XXX. * Hugh Ross Williamson, ''The Walled Garden'', Macmillan, 1957, Chapters X, XIV–XVI. * Michael Yelton. ''Anglican Papalism''. Canterbury Press Norwich, 2005. .

External links

{{Portal, Christianity
Catholic League
an Anglo-Papalist organisation centred in England
Historical documents regarding the Society of SS Peter and Paul
an Anglo-Papalist publishing company prominent in the early years of the Catholic Revival, from Project Canterbury
A Simple Mass Book
(1920) liturgical expression of Anglo-Papalism

Anglo-Papalism Anglican Papalism, also referred to as Anglo-Papalism, is a subset of Anglo-Catholicism with adherents manifesting a particularly high degree of influence from, and even identification with, the Roman Catholic Church. This position has historica ...