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The history of Christianity in Sussex includes all aspects of the Christianity in the region that is now
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
from its introduction to the present day.
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
is the most commonly practised
religion in Sussex Religion in Sussex has been dominated over the last 1,400 years by Christianity. Like the rest of England, the established church in Sussex is the Church of England, although other Christian traditions exist. After Christianity, the religion wi ...
.


Early history

After the Roman conquest of AD 43, the Celtic society of Sussex became heavily Romanized.Snyder.''The Britons''. p. 53.Cunliffe. Ancient Celts. pp. 260–267 The first written account of Christianity in Britain comes from the early Christian Berber author,
Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...
, writing in the third century, who said that "Christianity could ''even'' be found in Britain."Snyder.''The Britons''. pp. 106–107 Emperor
Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I *Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
(AD 306-337), granted official tolerance to Christianity with the
Edict of Milan The Edict of Milan ( la, Edictum Mediolanense; el, Διάταγμα τῶν Μεδιολάνων, ''Diatagma tōn Mediolanōn'') was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Frend, W. H. C. ( ...
in AD 313. Then, in the reign of Emperor Theodosius "the Great" (AD 378–395), Christianity was made the official religion of the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. When Roman rule eventually ceased, Christianity was probably confined to urban communities.Snyder.''The Britons''. p. 105. At
Wiggonholt Wiggonholt is a village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is southeast of Pulborough on the A283 road. The village consists of a farm, a few houses and a small Church of England parish church. The RSPB Pulborough Brooks wil ...
, on a tributary of the River Arun, a large lead tank with repeated
chi-rho The Chi Rho (☧, English pronunciation ; also known as ''chrismon'') is one of the earliest forms of Christogram, formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters—chi (letter), chi and rho (ΧΡ)—of the Greek word (Christ (title), ...
motifs was discovered in 1943, the only Roman period artefact in Sussex found with a definite Christian association. It may represent a baptismal font or a container for
holy water Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from ...
, or alternatively may have been used by pagans.


Medieval


Saxon

After the departure of the Roman army, the Saxons arrived and founded the
Kingdom of Sussex la, Regnum Sussaxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the South Saxons , capital = , era = Heptarchy , status = Vassal of Wessex (686–726, 827–860)Vassal of Mercia (771–796) , governm ...
in the 5th century, bringing with them their polytheistic religion.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. pp. 38-40 The Saxon pagan culture probably caused a reversal of the spread of Christianity.Higham The English Conquest. p. 79. According to
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
, Sussex was the last of the mainland Anglo Saxon kingdoms to be converted. Æðelwealh became Sussex's first Christian king when he married Eafe, the daughter of
Wulfhere Wulfhere or Wulfar (died 675) was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of North ...
, the Christian king of
Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...
. In 681 St
Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...
, the exiled
Bishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...
, landed at Selsey and is credited with evangelising the local population and founding the church in Sussex. King Æðelwealh granted land to Wilfrid which became the site of
Selsey Abbey Selsey Abbey was founded by St Wilfrid in AD 681 on land donated at Selsey by the local Anglo-Saxon ruler, King Æðelwealh of Sussex, Sussex's first Christian king. The Kingdom of Sussex was the last area of Anglo-Saxon England to be evangeli ...
. The seat of the Sussex bishopric was originally located here before the Normans moved it to
Chichester Cathedral Chichester Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in West Sussex, England. It was founded as a cathedral in 1075, when the seat of the ...
in 1075. According to
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
, Sussex was the last area of the country to be converted.Bede.HE.IV.13 However it is unlikely that Sussex was wholly heathen when Wilfrid arrived. Æðelwealh, Sussex's king, had been baptised. Damianus, a South Saxon, was made
Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was foun ...
in the Kingdom of Kent in the 650s; this may indicate earlier missionary work in the first half of the 7th century. At the time of Wilfrid's mission there was a monastery at
Bosham Bosham is a coastal village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England, centred about west of Chichester with its clustered developed part west of this. Its land forms a broad peninsula projecting into natural Chiche ...
containing a few monks led by an Irish monk named Dicul, which was probably part of the
Hiberno-Scottish mission The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by Gaelic missionaries originating from Ireland that spread Celtic Christianity in Scotland, Wales, England and Merovingian France. Celtic Christianity spre ...
of the time. Wilfrid was a champion of Roman customs and it was these customs that were adopted by the church in Sussex rather than the
Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...
customs that had taken root in Scotland and Ireland. Shortly after Æðelwealh granted land to Wilfrid for the church,
Cædwalla of Wessex Cædwalla (; 659 – 20 April 689 AD) was the King of Wessex from approximately 685 until he abdicated in 688. His name is derived from the Welsh Cadwallon. He was exiled from Wessex as a youth and during this period gathered forces and ...
killed Æðelwealh and conquered Sussex. Christianity in Sussex was put under control of the
diocese of Winchester The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. Founded in 676, it is one of the older dioceses in England. It once covered Wessex, many times its present size which is today most of the historic enla ...
. It was not until c. 715 that Eadberht, Abbot of Selsey was consecrated the first bishop of the South Saxons. St Lewinna, or St Leofwynn, was a female saint who lived around Seaford, probably at Bishopstone around the 7th century. According to the
hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
of the Secgan Manuscript,
Lyminster Lyminster is a village that is the main settlement of Lyminster and Crossbush civil parish, in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It borders, to the south, Littlehampton, which has its town centre away. Landmarks Church The Church of E ...
is the burial place of St Cuthflæd of Lyminster.Stowe MS 944
, British Library
The
Oxford Dictionary of Saints The ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' by David Hugh Farmer is a concise reference compilation of information on more than 1300 saints and contains over 1700 entries. It is published by Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is ...
,
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
In the late 7th or early 8th century, St Cuthman, a shepherd who may have been born in Chidham and had been reduced to begging, set out from his home with his disabled mother using a one-wheeled cart. When he reached
Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles (6.4 km) north of the ...
he saw a vision and stopped there to build a church. Cuthman was venerated as a saint and his church was in existence by 857 when King Æthelwulf of Wessex was buried there. Steyning was an important religious centre and St Cuthman's grave became a place of pilgrimage in the 10th and 11th centuries. In 681, Bede records that an outbreak of the plague had devastated parts of England, including Sussex, and the monks at Selsey Abbey fasted and prayed for three days for an end to the outbreak. A young boy with the plague prayed to St Oswald and his prayers were answered, and a vision of St Peter and St Paul was said to have appeared to the boy, telling him that he would be the last to die. The church built at Steyning was one of around 50 minster churches across Sussex and these churches supplied itinerant clergy to surrounding districts. Other examples are churches at
Singleton Singleton may refer to: Sciences, technology Mathematics * Singleton (mathematics), a set with exactly one element * Singleton field, used in conformal field theory Computing * Singleton pattern, a design pattern that allows only one instance ...
,
Lyminster Lyminster is a village that is the main settlement of Lyminster and Crossbush civil parish, in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It borders, to the south, Littlehampton, which has its town centre away. Landmarks Church The Church of E ...
, Findon and Bishopstone. The jurisdiction of each minster church in the pre-Viking era seems to match early land divisions that were replaced by
hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
s in the 10th or 11th centuries. It was not until 200–300 years after its conversion to Christianity in the 680s that a network of local parish churches existed in Sussex. Various monastic houses were established in the Saxon period in Sussex including at
Selsey Abbey Selsey Abbey was founded by St Wilfrid in AD 681 on land donated at Selsey by the local Anglo-Saxon ruler, King Æðelwealh of Sussex, Sussex's first Christian king. The Kingdom of Sussex was the last area of Anglo-Saxon England to be evangeli ...
,
Lyminster Priory Lyminster Priory was a priory in Lyminster, West Sussex, England. It was a possible Saxon royal minster of Benedictine nuns and was founded or refounded about 1082 AD by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Sussex, who granted land to ''St. Peter' ...
, Aldingbourne, Beddingham, Bosham, Chichester, Ferring and South Malling, near Lewes.


Norman and Angevin

Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, there was a purge of the English episcopate in 1070.Kelly. The Bishopric of Selsey ''in'' Mary Hobbs. Chichester Cathedral. p. 9 The Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Selsey was deposed and replaced with William the Conqueror's personal chaplain,
Stigand Stigand (died 1072) was an Anglo-Saxon churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England who became Archbishop of Canterbury. His birth date is unknown, but by 1020 he was serving as a royal chaplain and advisor. He was named Bishop of Elmham in 104 ...
. During Stigand's episcopate the see that had been established at Selsey was transferred to Chichester after the Council of London of 1075 decreed that sees should be centred in cities rather than
vill Vill is a term used in English history to describe the basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. Medieval developments The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical ...
s. 1094 saw the completion of
Battle Abbey Battle Abbey is a partially ruined Benedictine abbey in Battle, East Sussex, England. The abbey was built on the site of the Battle of Hastings and dedicated to St Martin of Tours. It is a Scheduled Monument. The Grade I listed site is now op ...
, which had been founded on the site of the
Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William the Conqueror, William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godw ...
after
Pope Alexander II Pope Alexander II (1010/1015 – 21 April 1073), born Anselm of Baggio, was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1061 to his death in 1073. Born in Milan, Anselm was deeply involved in the Pataria refor ...
had ordered the Normans to do penance for killing so many people during their conquest of England. Monks also planned out the nearby town of
Battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
shortly after the conquest. Many of the monastic houses of this period were founded by Sussex's new Norman lords. Around 1081, the lord of Lewes Rape, William de Warenne and his wife Gundrada formed England's first and largest
Cluniac The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began wit ...
monastery at
Lewes Priory Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building. History The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and had o ...
. The lord of Arundel Rape,
Roger de Montgomerie Roger de Montgomery (died 1094), also known as Roger the Great, was the first Earl of Shrewsbury, and Earl of Arundel, in Sussex. His father was Roger de Montgomery, seigneur of Montgomery, a member of the House of Montgomerie, and was probably ...
established Arundel Priory in 1102.
Sele Priory Sele Priory was a medieval monastic house in Upper Beeding, West Sussex, England. It was a Benedictine Order priory founded before 1126 and was dedicated to St Peter. It was a dependent priory of the abbey of St Florent in Saumur, France, and w ...
in the
Rape of Bramber The Rape of Bramber (also known as Bramber Rape) is one of the rapes, the traditional sub-divisions unique to the historic county of Sussex in England. It is the smallest Sussex rape by area. Bramber is a former barony whose original seat was th ...
was founded by the Braose family by 1126. Bishop Ralph Luffa is credited with the foundation of the current
Chichester Cathedral Chichester Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in West Sussex, England. It was founded as a cathedral in 1075, when the seat of the ...
.Stephens. Memorials. p. 47 The original structure that had been built by Stigand was largely destroyed by fire in 1114. The medieval church also set up various
hospitals A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...
and schools in Sussex, including St Mary's Hospital in Chichester (c. 1290-1300); St Nicholas' Hospital in Lewes, which was run by the monks of Lewes Priory; and
the Prebendal School The Word of God is the Fountain of Wisdom , established = , type = PreparatoryIndependent , religious_affiliation = Church of England , head_label = Head , head = Louise Salmond Smith , chair_label = Chair of G ...
close to Chichester Cathedral. The
archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...
ries of
Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
and
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
were created in the 12th century under Ralph Luffa.Hennessy. Chichester Diocese Clergy Lists. pp. 2–3 Sussex has strong links with the
Knights Templar , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...
and the
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...
including at Shipley, Poling and
Sompting Sompting is a village and civil parish in the coastal Adur District of West Sussex, England between Lancing and Worthing. It is half grassland slopes and half developed plain at the foot of the South Downs National Park. Twentieth-century est ...
. In the 13th century,
Richard of Chichester Richard of Chichester (1197 – 3 April 1253), also known as Richard de Wych, is a saint (canonized 1262) who was Bishop of Chichester. In Chichester Cathedral a shrine dedicated to Richard had become a richly decorated centre of pilgrimag ...
was canonised as a saint, and a shrine dedicated to him at Chichester Cathedral became an important place of
pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
. St Richard later became Sussex's patron saint. In 1450
Adam Moleyns Adam Moleyns (died 9 January 1450), Bishop of Chichester, was an English bishop, lawyer, royal administrator and diplomat. During the minority of Henry VI of England, he was clerk of the ruling council of the Regent. Life Moleyns had the livin ...
became the first and only bishop of Chichester to be assassinated. Troops had been gathered to send to the war in France, but bad weather delayed their departure, and troops raided several towns along the coast. Moleyns was sent to Portsmouth to pay troops their outstanding wages, but was beaten so severely by the mob of soldiers that he died. There is very little evidence of
Lollardy Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic ...
in Sussex in the 15th century. Only one person was burnt to death as a Lollard, Thomas Bageley. Goring argues that pockets of Lollardy existed in the High Weald for over a century before Henry VIII's break with Rome. Lollards tended to congregate near diocesan boundaries so that they could flee across the boundary to safety.
Reginald Pecock Reginald Pecock (or Peacock; c. 1395– c. 1461) was a Welsh prelate, scholastic, and writer. Life Pecock was probably born in Laugharne and was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. Having been ordained priest in 1421, Pecock secured a master ...
, bishop of Chichester from 1450–1459, was accused of heresy and only saved his life by privately and publicly renouncing his opinions.


Early modern

During this period Sussex has been described "as an anomaly: a southern county with a religious dynamic more in keeping with those of the north, connected to the Continent as much as the rest of the country, an entity that resisted easy co-option into Elizabeth I's 'little Israel of England'." Rye was probably the most Protestant of all Sussex towns, gaining a reputation as a 'godly commonwealth' well before the end of Henry VIII's reign. There was also strong opposition to the imposition of mass by Mary I.


The Reformation

As in the rest of the country, the Church of England's split with Rome during the reign of
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
was felt in Sussex.Peter Wilkinson. The Struggle for Protestant Reformation 1553-1564: in Kim Leslie's. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 52-53 In 1535, the king appointed Sir Thomas Cromwell as vicar-general. Cromwell visited Sussex later in 1535, as part of his national census of churches and monasteries. The census was intended to enable the more efficient taxing of church property. The following year, an Act was passed that decreed the dissolution of monasteries with an income of less than £200 per annum. This first phase was followed by the "voluntary" surrenders of the larger houses.
Lewes Priory Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building. History The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and had o ...
with Battle, was the first house in England, during the
Dissolution Dissolution may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books * ''Dissolution'' (''Forgotten Realms'' novel), a 2002 fantasy novel by Richard Lee Byers * ''Dissolution'' (Sansom novel), a 2003 historical novel by C. J. Sansom Music * Dissolution, in mu ...
, to surrender on a voluntary basis.Kitch. ''The Reformation in Sussex'' in ''Sussex Church History''. p. 89 The monks surrendered the house in November 1537 in return for either being given a small pension or a living as a priest. The site and possessions of Lewes Priory were granted to Henry VIII's vicar-general, Thomas Cromwell, who passed Lewes Priory to his son,
Gregory Cromwell Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, KB ( – 4 July 1551) was an English nobleman. He was the only son of the Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex ( – 1540) and Elizabeth Wyckes (d. 1529). Gregory's father Thomas Cromwell ros ...
. Sussex did not do too badly compared to the rest of the country, as it only had one person in 500 who was a member of a religious order, compared to the national average of one in 256.Kitch. The Reformation in Sussex ''in'' Sussex Church History. p. 88 In 1538 there was a royal order for the demolition of the shrine of St
Richard of Chichester Richard of Chichester (1197 – 3 April 1253), also known as Richard de Wych, is a saint (canonized 1262) who was Bishop of Chichester. In Chichester Cathedral a shrine dedicated to Richard had become a richly decorated centre of pilgrimag ...
in Chichester Cathedral.Stephens Memorials of the See of Chichester. pp. 213–214 Thomas Cromwell saying that there was "a certain kind of idolatry about the shrine".
Richard Sampson Richard Sampson (died 25 September 1554) was an English clergyman and composer of sacred music, who was Anglican bishop of Chichester and subsequently of Coventry and Lichfield. Biography He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, the Paris S ...
, Bishop of Chichester, incurred the displeasure of Cromwell and ended up imprisoned in the
Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
at the end of 1539.Stephens. Diocesan Histories. pp. 182–184 Sampson was released after Cromwell's fall from favour and execution in 1540. Sampson then continued at the see of Chichester for a further two years. He was succeeded as Bishop of Chichester by George Day. Day opposed the changes, and incurred the displeasure of the royal commissioners, who promptly suspended him as Bishop and allowed him only to preach in his cathedral church.Stephens. Diocesan Histories. pp. 184–185. Henry VIII died in 1547; his son
Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...
continued on the path that his father had set. However his reign was only short-lived as he died after only six years. The bishops of Chichester had not been in favour of the Reformation until the appointment of
John Scory John Scory (died 1585) was an English Dominican friar who later became a bishop in the Church of England. He was Bishop of Rochester from 1551 to 1552, and then translated to Bishop of Chichester from 1552 to 1553. He was deprived of this positio ...
to the episcopate in 1552.Kitch. ''The Reformation in Sussex'' in ''Studies in Church History''. p. 80 During Henry VIII's reign two of the canons of Chichester Cathedral had been executed for their opposition to the Reformation, and during Edward VI's reign George Day was ultimately imprisoned for his opposition to the reforms.


Reign of Mary I

There had been twenty years of religious reform when the Catholic, Mary Tudor succeeded to the throne of England in 1553.Kitch. ''The Reformation in Sussex'' in ''Studies in Church History''. p. 77 Mary expected her clergy to be unmarried, so Bishop Scory thought it prudent to retire as he was a married man, and George Day was released and restored to the see of Chichester.Stephens. Diocesan Histories. p. 190 Mary's persecution of Protestants earned her the nickname "Bloody Mary". Nationally about 288 Protestants were burnt at the stake during her reign, including 41 in Sussex. Most of the executions in Sussex were at Lewes. Of these 41 burnings, 36 can be identified to have come from specific parishes, and the place of execution is known for 27 of them; because the details of the executions were recorded in the ''Book of Martyrs'' by
John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587), an English historian and martyrologist, was the author of '' Actes and Monuments'' (otherwise ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''), telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the su ...
, published in 1563.Kitch. ''The Reformation in Sussex'' in ''Studies in Church History''. pp. 94-98 Martyrs included Deryck Carver, a French-speaking Flemish man who had sought refuge in Brighton from persecution for his Calvinist beliefs; and
Richard Woodman Captain Richard Martin Woodman LVO (born 1944) is an English novelist and naval historian who retired in 1997 from a 37-year nautical career, mainly working for Trinity House, to write full-time. Writing His main work is 14 novels about the ca ...
, an ironmaster from
Buxted Buxted is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex in England. The parish is situated on the Weald, north of Uckfield; the settlements of Five Ash Down, Heron's Ghyll and High Hurstwood are included within its boundarie ...
. There are Bonfire Societies in Sussex that still remember the 17 Protestant martyrs that burned in Lewes High Street, and in Lewes itself they have a procession of martyrs' crosses during the
bonfire night Bonfire Night is a name given to various annual celebrations characterised by bonfires and fireworks. The event celebrates different traditions on different dates, depending on the country. Some of the most popular instances include Guy Fawkes ...
celebration. According to Quinn, the authorities in Sussex during Mary's reign were rather less bloodthirsty than is generally assumed, often allowing their opponents to slip the noose when they could. Carver's meetings had been attended by many fishermen from both England and France, beginning the tradition of French Christian worship in Brighton. There was a range of Protestant beliefs in Sussex during the reign of Queen Mary. Sussex's proximity to the Continent left it particularly exposed to European Protestantism, while its proximity to large parts of the Weald also left it open to pre-Reformation Protestantism. This was particularly so in the east of the county, with its trade links to Protestant areas of northern Europe and it covering a large part of the Weald, as well as being close to the Kentish border.


Reign of Elizabeth I

When Mary died in 1558, she was replaced by her Protestant sister
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
. Elizabeth re-established the break with Rome when she passed the 1559
Acts of Supremacy The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the Eng ...
and Uniformity: the clergy were expected to take statutory oaths, and those that did not were deprived of their living. In the county nearly half the cathedral clergy and about 40% of the parish clergy had to be replaced, although some of the vacancies were due to ill health or death. A case can be made for the Reformation as a religious phenomenon only arriving in Sussex with Bishop
Richard Curteys Richard Curteys (c.1532?–1582) was an English churchman. A native of Lincolnshire, after his education at St. John's, Cambridge he was ordained and eventually became Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth I. He was made the Dean of Chichester Cathedral ...
from 1570. In the west, Curteys' reforms were hampered by the noble Catholic families, and in the east by more radical forms of Protestantism. Until then the loyal but conservative bishops Sherborne, Sampson and Day did not appear to enforce doctrinal orthodoxy. Through the influence of Richard Curteys, the Reformation in Sussex took on a Puritan tone from the 1570s and a tradition of 'radical parochialism' developed with well-educated preachers supporting ministers, often sponsored by Puritan landowners. Curteys circumvented the existing clergy by bringing in 'lecturers' or unbeneficed clergy who provided a new preaching tradition, and also gathered some existing clergy who were sympathetic to his aims. This was particularly strong in the Lewes area, in part because of its European trade links. During the 1570s Puritan Christian names like "Feregod" became common in the Weald. Far from the seat of the Bishop of Chichester, radical towns like Rye and Lewes became "free-thinking" Protestant towns, and numbers of Protestants increased, with
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
s seeking refuge after the
St Bartholomew's Day massacre The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (french: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wa ...
in France. In the 1560s and 1570s, there was a trend for giving Puritan children "godly" names, especially in East Sussex, signifying a Puritan
counter-culture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
. Eighteen parishes in the east of Sussex record Puritan names, the highest concentration of which was in
Warbleton Warbleton is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. Within its bounds are three other settlements. It is located south-east of Heathfield on the slopes of the Weald. Etymology The place-name Warbleton, der ...
, where around half the children were given Puritan names between 1587 and 1590. Such Puritan names included "Be-courteous Cole" (in Pevensey), "Safely-on-High Snat" (in Uckfield) and "Fight-the-Good-Fight-of-Faith White" (in Ewhurst. One child with a Puritan name,
Accepted Frewen Accepted Frewen (baptized 26 May 158828 March 1664) was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of York from 1660 to 1664. Life Frewen was born at Northiam, in Sussex, the son of John Frewen who was the rector there. The unusual foren ...
, later became Archbishop of York. Many Sussex Puritans emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean to
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
, accounting for about 1% of New England's immigrants. Puritan migrants from other English regions, such as East Anglia, had much lower usage of hortatory names, and Puritans in the US state of Massachusetts followed the East Anglian rather than the Sussex naming custom. In the late 16th century, Sussex was a complicated and divided region. The countryside was largely Catholic, dominated by the ancient Catholic families: the Howards at Arundel, the Percys at Petworth House, the Gages at Firle, the Brownes (the Lords Montague) at Cowdray Park, the Palmers at Parham House, as well as other minor dynasties like the Carylls, Lewkenors, Shelleys and Kemps. At the start of Elizabeth's reign all six of Sussex's noble families were Catholic. The towns, including Rye and Lewes, were more likely to be controlled by Protestants if not Protestant in orientation. The Earl of Arundel, Henry FitzAlan had considerable influence as Lord Steward of the Royal Household, privy councillor and Lord Lieutenant of Sussex (1559-1569) until he was involved in the
Ridolfi plot The Ridolfi plot was a Roman Catholic plot in 1571 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. The plot was hatched and planned by Roberto Ridolfi, an international banker who was able to travel betwee ...
to marry his son-in-law, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, to Mary Queen of Scots. Even after the 1580s when restrictions on Catholics were imposed, Sussex continued to be led by Catholic peers. The office of sheriff of Sussex was held by Catholics eleven times between 1558 and 1603. At the end of Elizabeth's reign, Catholicism continued to be tolerated. On the death of her husband,
Lady Montague William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'' contains a relatively distinctive cast of characters. In addition to the play's eponymous protagonists, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, the play, which is set in Verona, Italy, contains roles fo ...
withdrew to Battle Abbey, the family's seat in the east of the county. The establishment of what became known as "Little Rome" became a focal point for the local Catholic community, with as many as 120 people attending Mass. This shows that long-standing political loyalty by Catholics was repaid by a form of toleration. The Catholic Sussex families which suffered imprisonment or financial ruin at this time were mostly those that were involved in conspiracies against Elizabeth. After the uprising of 1569, the eighth Earl of Northumberland was effectively sent into internal exile in Sussex, at his home at
Petworth House Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Sa ...
. After 1577, central authorities mounted on a growing attack on Catholic
recusant Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...
s, forcing them to abandon apparent conformity at a greater cost. Fines for non-attendance at an Anglican church were increased from 12d per week to 20 pounds per month. In 1580 leading Sussex Catholics including
John Gage John Burdette Gage (born October 9, 1942) was the 21st employee of Sun Microsystems, where he is credited with creating the phrase The Network is the Computer. He served as vice president and chief researcher and director of the Science Office ...
of Firle and Richard Shelley of Warminghurst were imprisoned for recusancy and continued to pay the taxes and fines demanded. In 1583 Charles Paget was smuggled into England, meeting William Shelley at Patching to discuss a plan to land Spanish, German and Italian troops in Sussex and march to Petworth House, the home of Northumberland, and Arundel Castle, while a second force would land in Lancashire and be joined by an uprising of English Catholics. Shelley's and Northumberland's actions reveal there was some truth in the suspicions directed against Sussex Catholics. With further legislation in the 1580s, Sussex Catholics caught harbouring priests were guilty of treason. Significantly, no member of the Sussex gentry or nobility was ever charged under these laws, and neither was there ever any uprising, even though there was a significant Catholic community in Sussex. In this, the west of Sussex was out of step with the rest of England, just as attempts to impose a "Godly magistracy" in Rye in the east of the county was out of step with the rest of Protestant England. During this period Sussex was often different from the rest of England, with east and west of the county often inversions of each other. West Grinstead Park, home of the Caryll family, became a Roman Catholic mission where priests arrived, generally at night up the River Adur to await "posting". he River Adur was extensively used by the many Catholics travelling covertly between London and the Continent. Thomas Pilchard was executed in 1587 for being a priest and Edward Shelley of Warminghurst died at Tyburn in London in 1588 for hiding a priest. In 1588 two Catholic priests, Ralph Crockett and
Edward James Edward Frank Willis James (16 August 1907 – 2 December 1984) was a British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement. Early life and marriage James was born on 16 August 1907, the only son of William James (who had inherite ...
, were arrested at Arundel Haven (now Littlehampton), taken to London and executed outside Chichester.
Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel (28 June 155719 October 1595) was an English nobleman. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. He is variously numbered as 1st, 20th or 13th Earl of Arund ...
, who was canonised in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, spent much of his life at his family home of
Arundel Castle Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established during the reign of Edward the Confessor and completed by Roger de Montgomery. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War a ...
. From a family of Catholic recusants, Howard was imprisoned in the Tower of London for leaving the country without the permission of Queen Elizabeth. He died there ten years later. Early in the 17th century, Bosham-born Benedictine priest, George Gervase, was executed in London.


17th century

In the 17th century, the diocese of Chichester was home to several
Arminian Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...
bishops, including Bishops Andrews, Harsnett, Montagu, Duppa and
King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
. In the 1620s and 1630s many communities had licensed preachers. Lectureships at Rye, Lewes, Horsham and Midhurst extended preaching to the towns with the full support of the local gentry. From this time,
Sabbatarianism Sabbatarianism advocates the observation of the Sabbath in Christianity, in keeping with the Ten Commandments. The observance of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is a form of first-day Sabbatarianism, a view which was historically heralded ...
gained ground with suppression of games and disorder. Bishop Montagu put forward extreme views against Puritanism and stressed the importance of ritual.
Anthony Stapley Anthony Stapley (born 30 August 1590 – buried 31 January 1655) was one of the regicides of King Charles I of England. Stapley was M.P. for New Shoreham (1624–1625), Lewes (1628), Sussex (1640, 1653–1654). He was colonel and governor of Ch ...
, chairman of the Michaelmas quarter sessions in Sussex, was persuaded by Puritans to develop a harangue against the bishops in 1639, and in 1641 Stapley and Thomas Pelham petitioned Parliament on this issue. Latent hostility towards Catholics increased; and although Sussex contained as large a proportion of recusant households as many of the northern counties, few Catholic gentry in the county openly supported the king. There were no battles of national significance in Sussex, during the 1642–1651 English civil war; however there were small sieges at Chichester and Arundel.Maurice Howard. Civil War ''in'' Kim Leslie's. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 58–59. The west of the county was generally royalist, although Chichester was for parliament and the east of the county, with some exceptions, was also for parliament.Seward. Sussex. pp. 142-144. A few churches were damaged, particularly in the Arundel area. Also, after the surrender of Chichester, the Cathedral was sacked by
Sir William Waller Sir William Waller JP (c. 159719 September 1668) was an English soldier and politician, who commanded Parliamentarian armies during the First English Civil War, before relinquishing his commission under the 1645 Self-denying Ordinance. ...
s parliamentary troops.Trevor Brighton. ''Art in the Cathedral from the Foundation to the Civil War'' in Mary Hobbs. ''Chichester Cathedral an Historical Survey''. pp. 69–84
Bruno Ryves Bruno Ryves (1596–1677) was an English royalist churchman, editor in 1643 of the Oxford newsbook ''Mercurius Rusticus'', and later dean of Chichester and dean of Windsor. His first name was variously spelt Brune, Bruen, Brian, Bruno, and his su ...
,
Dean of Chichester Cathedral The Dean of Chichester is the dean of Chichester Cathedral in Sussex, England. Bishop Ralph is credited with the foundation of the current cathedral after the original structure built by Stigand was largely destroyed by fire in 1114. Ralph di ...
said of the troops that "they deface and mangle he monumentswith their swords as high as they could reach". He also complained that Waller's troops...
"... brake down the Organs and dashing the pipes with their Pole-axes..."
''Mercurius Rusticus p. 139''
Destruction of the cathedrals' music seems to have been one of the objectives, as Ryves also said, of Waller's men, that...
"they force open all the locks, either of doors or desks wherein the Singing-men laid up their Common-Prayer Books, their singing-Books, their Gowns and Surplesses they rent the Books in pieces and scatter the torn leaves all over the Church, even to the covering of the Pavement.."
''Mercurius Rusticus p. 140''
In 1643,
Francis Bell Francis Bell may refer to: * Arthur Bell (martyr) (1590–1643), also known as Francis Bell, Franciscan and English martyr *Dillon Bell (Francis Dillon Bell; 1822–1898), New Zealand politician, father of the New Zealand Prime Minister * Francis B ...
, one of the priests at the Catholic mission in West Grinstead, was executed, along with other priests. The Caryll family were frequently persecuted and fined. During Cromwell's interregnum, Rye stood out as a Puritan 'Common Wealth', a centre of social experiment and rigorous public morality under vicar Joseph Beeton and his successor John Allen. The people of Rye seem in general to have ignored the strict sabbatarianism enforced by the constables, particularly where 'immoderate drinking' was concerned.


Sussex Quakers and emigration to British North America

About a quarter of the incumbents were forced from their parishes and replaced with Puritans. Many people turned away from the traditional churches and in 1655
George Fox George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...
founded the
Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
at Horsham. Quakerism emerged in Sussex in the 1650s, to be firmly suppressed by a gentry concerned about its revolutionary tendencies. In 1656, Thomas Haycock of Horsham became the first person in Sussex to be sent to gaol for their Quaker beliefs.
William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...
lived in the county for a while; in 1676 he bought the estate of
Warminghurst Warminghurst is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Thakeham, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the Ashington to Heath Common road 2.4 miles (3.9 km) northeast of Storrington. In 1931 the pari ...
, near
Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles (6.4 km) north of the ...
. In 1677 a huge open air meeting of Quakers was held at Penn's home in Warminghurst in defiance of the law, with several hundred Quakers attending. Then in 1681 Charles II granted Penn lands in what became
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
and
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
. Amongst those whom he carried to Pennsylvania as colonists were 200 people from Sussex.Lower. Worthies of Sussex. p. 341 In 1682 Penn left the Kent port of Deal for the
Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to W ...
with about 100 passengers, mostly Quakers and mostly from Sussex. Quakers to leave Sussex for Pennsylvania included
Samuel Carpenter Samuel Carpenter (4 November 1649 – 10 April 1714) was a Deputy Governor of colonial Pennsylvania. He signed the historic document "The Declaration of Fealty, Christian Belief and Test" dated 10 September 1695; the original is in the Histor ...
who founded
Horsham Township, Pennsylvania Horsham Township is a home rule municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is located ten miles north of Center City Philadelphia. The township, incorporated in 1717, is one of the oldest original municipalities in Montgomery County. Altho ...
; and in 1677 William Clayton left for Pennsylvania, where his family founded with others a township they called Chichester, and opened the
Chichester Friends Meetinghouse Chichester Friends Meetinghouse is a historic Quaker meeting house at 611 Meetinghouse Road near Boothwyn, in Upper Chichester Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. This area, near Chester, was one of the earliest areas settled by Quakers ...
. Penn also created Sussex County and renamed the settlement of Hoernkills as
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
. Following the
Rye House Plot The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother (and heir to the throne) James, Duke of York. The royal party went from Westminster to Newmarket to see horse races and were expected to make the ...
of 1683 a new wave of religious persecution swept across England. Until the passing of the Toleration Act received royal assent in 1689 Quakers in Sussex and elsewhere had suffered considerable persecution, many of whom were imprisoned in Horsham Jail. While living at Warminghurst, Penn too was persecuted for his Quaker faith. The 1684 Chichester Quarter Sessions recorded that William Penn "being a factitious and seditious person doth frequently entertain and keep an unlawful assemblage and conventicle in his dwelling house at Warminghurst to the terror of the King's liege people." Penn sold the estate, at Warminghurst, to a James Butler in 1707.Lower. Worthies of Sussex. Lower says that he sold Warminghurst in 1702. p. 341 The Quakers in Sussex debated with
Matthew Caffyn Matthew Caffyn (christened 26 October 1628 – buried June 1714) was a British General Baptist preacher and writer. Early life He was born at Horsham, Sussex, the seventh son of Thomas Caffin, by Elizabeth his wife (in Mark Antony Lower's 'Worthi ...
, a
General Baptist General Baptists are Baptists who hold the ''general'' or unlimited atonement view, the belief that Jesus Christ died for the entire world and not just for the chosen Election (Christianity), elect. General Baptists are theologically Arminian, whic ...
preacher and writer, including George Fox and William Penn. There is a well-known account in 1655 when two Quakers from the north of England, Thomas Lawson and John Slee, disputed doctrine with Caffyn. As a result of their debates, Lawson produced a pamphlet entitled ''An Untaught Teacher Witnessed Against'' (1655) and Caffyn produced a pamphlet ''Deceived and Deceiving Quakers Discovered, Their Damnable Heresies, Horrid Blasphemies, Mockings, Railings'' (1656). in 1696, Caffyn's increasingly radical, unorthodox beliefs caused a schism in the General Baptist Assembly, and its response to his changing theology was significant in the development of Unitarianism. The attorney-general of Rye,
Samuel Jeake Samuel Jeake (1623–1690), dubbed the Elder to distinguish him from his son, was an English merchant, nonconformist, antiquary and astrologer from Rye, East Sussex, England. Life Born at Rye in Sussex, on 9 October 1623, he may have belong ...
was exiled from the town after being found guilty of preaching under the
Five Mile Act 1665 The Five Mile Act, or Oxford Act, or Nonconformists Act 1665, was an Act of the Parliament of England (17 Charles II c. 2), passed in 1665 with the long title "An Act for restraining Non-Conformists from inhabiting in Corporations". It was one ...
. He was forced to remain outside of Rye until 1687 when the toleration which James II extended to Protestant dissenters enabled him to return to Rye. The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 under Charles II. It took over a year, after the restoration of Charles II in May 1660, for Chichester cathedral to get its choir back to full strength.Philip Barret. The Musical History of Chichester Cathedral ''in'' Hobbs. Chichester Cathedral. p. 252 In the late 17th century, Sussex was a stronghold of the
General Baptist General Baptists are Baptists who hold the ''general'' or unlimited atonement view, the belief that Jesus Christ died for the entire world and not just for the chosen Election (Christianity), elect. General Baptists are theologically Arminian, whic ...
s. In 1676 the Sussex parishes with the highest proportion of Catholics were almost entirely in the two most westerly Rapes of
Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
and
Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much large ...
: at least ten per cent of the population were Catholic in the parishes of Burton,
Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history T ...
, Coates,
Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town, parish and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother inland from the English Channel, and north of the county town of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first recorded in 1186 as ''Middeh ...
,
Racton Racton is a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2147 road 2.1 miles (3.4 km) northeast of Emsworth and within the civil parish of Stoughton. The hamlet lies along the River Ems. 0.4 miles north of th ...
, Shipley and Westfield. In 1678 a former Hastings rector,
Titus Oates Titus Oates (15 September 1649 – 12/13 July 1705) was an English priest who fabricated the " Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II. Early life Titus Oates was born at Oakham in Rutland. His father Samuel (1610 ...
fabricated the "
Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate C ...
", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to assassinate King Charles II and replace him with James (later James II). The plot led to the false implication, imprisonment and execution of William Howard. As a 'Catholic of distinction' the seventh John Caryll from Sussex was imprisoned in the Tower of London but was let out on bail. Following the persecutions and executions that followed the Titus Oates plot, the death penalty for being a priest was removed. Instead, unscheduled fines were doubled and all remaining civil rights were removed from people keeping the Roman Catholic faith. At this stage, most Sussex Catholic families conformed to the Anglican church, except notably for the Caryll family. In 1688 the seventh John Caryll went into exile to Saint-Germain in France with James II as private secretary to James' queen,
Mary of Modena Mary of Modena ( it, Maria Beatrice Eleonora Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este; ) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James II and VII. A devout Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was then the young ...
.


Late modern


18th century

There was a significant decline in non-conformity in Sussex in the early 18th century. Between 1676 and 1724 the strength of non-conformity in the county was reduced by at least one quarter. Around a third of the parishes in Sussex in 1724 had no dissenters. For instance in 1676, Horsham had over 100 non-conformists but by 1724 there were just 34. The number of dissenters fell from 4,300 in 1676 to around 3,300 in 1724. In the 18th century, the Sussex grocer, Thomas Turner left a diary which suggests a high level of theological literacy amongst laypeople. At this time, the Sussex Weald and bordering towns such as Lewes were home to a number of fundamentalist sects. Cade Street Chapel in Heathfield was founded in 1769 for the followers of George Gilbert, who was popularly styled as 'The Apostle of Sussex'. Gilbert also preached in surrounding villages, often with great hardship and difficulty: at Ticehurst he was pelted with stones when the bells rang; at Bexhill he was plastered from head to toe in filth, and a large drum was played to drown out the sound of his voice until a woman put a knife into the drum. Under Caffyn's guidance a General Baptist chapel was founded in Horsham in 1719, bringing together Baptists who had met in small house-groups in the town since 1669 or possibly as early as 1645. Worshippers from across northern Sussex came to this chapel; many were from the village of
Billingshurst Billingshurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village lies on the A29 road (the Roman Stane Street) at its crossroads with the A272, south-west of Horsham and north-east of Pulborough. Th ...
a few miles away. This group later became large enough to split from the Horsham congregation and establish a chapel in their home village. Methodist pioneers came to the
Rape of Hastings The Rape of Hastings (also known as Hastings Rape) is one of the rapes, the traditional sub-divisions unique to the historic county of Sussex in England. History Rapes are territorial divisions, peculiar to Sussex, that were used for administrat ...
in 1756, with
John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...
visiting Rye in 1758. Wesley's last open air sermon was held in nearby Winchelsea in 1790. The
Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783 by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, as a result of the Evangelical Revival. For many years it was strongly associated with the Calvinist ...
's first church was set up in 1761 in North Street, Brighton in what was originally Selina, Countess of Huntingdon's garden. Sussex had a significantly larger proportion of Catholics than other southern counties. Between 1715 and 1720, 8 per cent of the population of Sussex were registered as Catholic, a proportion more in common with counties north of a line from the
River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...
to
the Wash The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk, England, Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it i ...
.
John Baptist Caryll John Baptist Caryll (13 December 1713 – 7 March 1788) was the third Jacobite Baron Caryll of Durford. Caryll was the eldest son of the Honourable John Caryll (28 December 1687 – 6 April 1718), who predeceased his father, the 2nd Baron Caryll ...
, the last of the Caryll family, was penalised for his Catholic faith and was forced in 1754 to sell his Sussex homes including that at West Grinstead. He endowed the Priest's House to the Catholic Church via Lewes-born bishop
Richard Challoner Richard Challoner (29 September 1691 – 12 January 1781) was an English Roman Catholic bishop, a leading figure of English Catholicism during the greater part of the 18th century. The titular Bishop of Doberus, he is perhaps most famous for hi ...
so that Catholic mass could be continued in the locality. When Challoner visited the West Grinstead Mission in 1741 he found 80 Catholics at Mass. Finally, history cannot forget the famous recusant,
Maria Fitzherbert Maria Anne Fitzherbert (''née'' Smythe, previously Weld; 26 July 1756 – 27 March 1837) was a longtime companion of George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV of the United Kingdom). In 1785, they secretly contracted a marriage that was i ...
, who during this period secretly married the
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
,
prince regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...
, and future
George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
in 1785. The
British Constitution The constitution of the United Kingdom or British constitution comprises the written and unwritten arrangements that establish the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a political body. Unlike in most countries, no attempt ...
, however, did not accept it and George IV later moved on. Cast aside by the establishment, she was adopted by the town of Brighton, whose citizens, both Catholic and Protestant, called her "Mrs. Prince." According to journalist, Richard Abbott, "Before the town had a atholicchurch of its own, she had a priest say Mass at her own house, and invited local Catholics", suggesting the recusants of Brighton were not very undiscovered.


19th Century


Roman Catholic Church

Brighton's Roman Catholic community at the time of the Relief Act was small, but two factors caused it to grow in the 1790s. Many refugees from the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
settled in Brighton after escaping from France; and
Maria Fitzherbert Maria Anne Fitzherbert (''née'' Smythe, previously Weld; 26 July 1756 – 27 March 1837) was a longtime companion of George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV of the United Kingdom). In 1785, they secretly contracted a marriage that was i ...
, a twice-widowed Catholic, began a relationship with the
Prince Regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...
(and secretly married him in 1785 in a ceremony which was illegal according to the
Act of Settlement 1701 The Act of Settlement is an Act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Catholic, or who married one, bec ...
and the
Royal Marriages Act 1772 The Royal Marriages Act 1772 (12 Geo 3 c. 11) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which prescribed the conditions under which members of the British royal family could contract a valid marriage, in order to guard against marriages t ...
). She accompanied the Prince Regent whenever he visited Brighton, and had her own house (
Steine House Steine House is the former residence of Maria Fitzherbert, first wife of the Prince Regent, in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The building is now owned and used by Brighton YMCA, the largest supported hous ...
on Old Steine). The first Catholic place of worship since the Reformation in Brighton was established above a shop in 1798; it was one of the earliest in Britain. In 1805 the priest in charge, a French
émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Huguenots fled France followi ...
, started to raise money for a permanent building; a site on High Street, east of the
Royal Pavilion The Royal Pavilion, and surrounding gardens, also known as the Brighton Pavilion, is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George IV of t ...
and Old Steine, was found, and the Classical-style church was completed in 1807. It was demolished in 1981. In 1818 the new
rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
, a friend of Maria Fitzherbert, wanted to extend the church. Mrs Fitzherbert donated £1,000 for this purpose, but before any action could be taken the events of 1829, when Catholic emancipation was fully achieved, encouraged Brighton's Catholic community to seek a new site for a larger, more elaborate church. A piece of undeveloped land on the estate of the
Marquess of Bristol Marquess of Bristol is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom held by the Hervey family since 1826. The Marquess's subsidiary titles are Earl of Bristol (created 1714), Earl Jermyn, of Horningsheath in the County of Suffolk (1826), and ...
was bought for £1,050, and William Hallett, later a mayor of Brighton, designed and built the new church of St John the Baptist. It was consecrated on 7 July 1835 and opened on 9 July 1835. Many of the 900 Catholic churches opened in England since the 1791 Roman Catholic Relief Act had not been consecrated by that stage, so St John the Baptist's was only the fourth new church to be consecrated in England since the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
in the 16th century. Founded in 1873, St. Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster is the first and only post-Reformation
Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...
monastery in the United Kingdom. In 1876 the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Consolation of West Grinstead was established, becoming the first Catholic shrine in honour of Mary to be established in England since the Reformation. Sussex was covered by the new Roman Catholic
diocese of Southwark The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Dio ...
, created in 1850. New priests for the Catholic
diocese of Southwark The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Dio ...
began to train at West Grinstead until they could move to a larger domestic property at Henfield. The diocese then moved its seminary to a purpose-built seminary in Surrey.


Non-conformist churches

Despite Methodism's early progress around Rye and Winchelsea in the Rape of Hastings, Methodism took longer to gain ground in the rest of Sussex. Methodism in the coastal towns of Sussex had a very unusual origin in that it was Methodists in the army who were the main or contributory founders of Methodism in towns from Chichester to Bexhill, including Lewes. Michael Hickman has argued that it was not until 1803 when Methodists and others in the army were allowed to worship freely on Sundays that Methodist soldiers could support or found Methodist societies in Sussex. 1805 saw the timber-framed Jireh Chapel open in Lewes, for Calvinist William Huntington whose tomb is at the rear of the chapel. The General Baptist congregations at Billingshurst, Ditchling and Horsham gradually moved from General Baptist beliefs towards
Unitarianism Unitarianism (from Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there i ...
in the early 19th century. In the mid 19th century John Sirgood founded the
Society of Dependants The Society of Dependants were a Christian sect founded by John Sirgood in the mid-nineteenth century. Their stronghold was in West Sussex and Surrey where they formed co-operatives in some villages. They were widely known as "Cokelers", a nickn ...
at
Loxwood Loxwood is a small village and civil parish with several outlying settlements, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, within the Low Weald. The Wey and Arun Canal passes to the East and South of the village. This Civil Parish is at t ...
in the north of the county. Nicknamed the 'Cokelers' their beliefs were largely derived from Wesleyan
Arminianism Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...
. They believed in the people's ability to exercise free will and thereby achieve salvation rather than the
Calvinistic Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calv ...
assertion of
predestination Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby G ...
. They first established themselves at
Loxwood Loxwood is a small village and civil parish with several outlying settlements, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, within the Low Weald. The Wey and Arun Canal passes to the East and South of the village. This Civil Parish is at t ...
because it was outside of the control of the large estates whose
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
owners would have denied them land or premises. As well as at Loxwood, the Society of Dependants went on to found places of worship at Chichester, Hove, Northchapel and Warnham, as well as at three locations in Surrey.


1851 census

In 1851 the authorities organised a census of places of worship in England and Wales.John Vickers. Religious Worship 1851 ''in'' Leslie's. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 76-77 The figures for Sussex indicated that there were more Anglican than non-conformist places of worship. In the neighbouring counties of Hampshire and Kent, there were more non-conformist places than Anglican. The 1851 census shows that the Anglican church was particularly strong in the west of the county. These were areas where settlements were predominantly
nucleated The cell nucleus (pl. nuclei; from Latin or , meaning ''kernel'' or ''seed'') is a membrane-bound organelle found in eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells usually have a single nucleus, but a few cell types, such as mammalian red blood cells, ...
, with small parishes.
Thakeham Thakeham's History Thakeham is a village and civil parish located north of the South Downs in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village is situated approximately 12 miles south-west of Horsham and 11 miles north of the sea-s ...
had the second highest rate of Anglicans in England (96% Anglican).
Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles (6.4 km) north of the ...
,
Petworth Petworth is a small town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 road, A272 east–west road from Heathfield, East Sussex ...
,
Westhampnett Westhampnett (or West Hampnett) is a village and civil parish in the district of Chichester in West Sussex, England, located northeast of Chichester on the former A27 road, now by-passed. The village is pre-Norman and is home to many listed bui ...
and Westbourne were also over 80% Anglican. Anglican churches did well in the coastal towns including Brighton. In parts of the Sussex Weald the Anglican church had fewer churches than many other denominations, but not in terms of attendances at these churches. Just over 40% of the places of worship in Sussex in 1851 were non-conformist, mainly Independents, Wesleyan Methodists and Baptists. There were also smaller congregations of Catholics, Quakers, Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion and Unitarians. Non-conformist chapels did well particularly in the Weald. Old dissent - dating back to Lollardy, such as Baptists, Unitarians and Quakers - remained more popular than new dissent and could be seen particularly in the Weald and on the Downs. It was particularly noticeable in the towns such as Brighton, Shoreham, Hastings and Rye. Some parts of Sussex were areas of strength for Baptists, but the west was an area of relative weakness. Overall in Sussex, Wesleyan Methodism had some of the fewest adherents in Sussex in all of England. However Wesleyan Methodism was strong in the rape of Hastings along the border with Kent; it was weakest in the county west of Eastbourne. Primitive Methodists were almost absent from Sussex.
Primitive Methodists The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...
were almost completely absent from Sussex. Of the 44 Sussex parishes with Catholics in 1676, only two, Arundel and
Slindon Slindon is a mostly rural village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England, containing a developed nucleus amid woodland. Much of Slindon's woodland belongs to the National Trust on the southern edge of the escarpment of th ...
, also had a Catholic place of worship in 1851.


Anglo-Catholic reform in the Anglican Church and subsequent protest

In the mid 19th century, divine
Frederick William Robertson Frederick William Robertson (3 February 1816 – 15 August 1853), known as Robertson of Brighton, was an English divine. Biography Born in London, the first five years of his life were passed at Leith Fort, where his father, a captain in the R ...
became well-known and preached at the Holy Trinity Church, Brighton. Formed in the 19th century, the cult of the Sussex martyrs was instigated at a time of the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England, bolstered by an increase in the Irish Catholic population, as well as the high-profile conversion to Catholicism of members of the Oxford movement, including Cardinal Newman and former
Archdeacon of Chichester The post of Archdeacon of Chichester was created in the 12th century, although the Diocese of Sussex was founded by St Wilfrid, the exiled Bishop of York, in AD 681. The original location of the see was in Selsey. The see was moved to Chichester, ...
,
Henry Edward Manning Henry Edward Manning (15 July 1808 – 14 January 1892) was an English prelate of the Catholic church, and the second Archbishop of Westminster from 1865 until his death in 1892. He was ordained in the Church of England as a young man, but con ...
.
Mark Antony Lower Mark Antony Lower F.S.A. M.A. (1813–1876) was a Sussex historian and schoolteacher who founded the Sussex Archaeological Society. An anti-Catholic propagandist Lower is believed to have started the "cult of the Sussex Martyrs", although he was ...
, an anti-Catholic propagandist and schoolmaster from Lewes, inaugurated the cult of the Sussex martyrs after the publication of his 1851 book ''The Sussex Martyrs'' to recall the dire actions of Catholicism in Sussex. Hostility to the Roman Catholic church, strong shortly after the Reformation had virtually died out by the early 19th century when religious tolerance was dominant mood. This began to change with the
Evangelical Revival The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected ...
. The first Methodists to preach in Lewes were Calvinist Methodists, who saw the world as a sharp contrast between good and evil, God and the devil. The natural recipients of their negative projections were Catholics, who were becoming tolerated in England. More petitions were to come out of Lewes against Catholic emancipation that any other town in southern England. They came not from the old dissenters who favoured toleration but from the newly-formed Calvinist congregations. The local press in Lewes pandered to these prejudices. The introduction of ritualist practices in the Anglican church further increased anti-Catholic attitudes in Lewes. In the mid 19th century the practice of burning an effigy of Pope Paul V at the
Lewes Bonfire Lewes Bonfire, or Bonfire for short, describes a set of celebrations held in the town of Lewes, Sussex, England, that constitute the United Kingdom's largest and most famous Bonfire Night festivities, with Lewes being called the bonfire capi ...
celebrations began. Paul V was a peaceable man who happened to be pope at the time of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and who cannot be held responsible for the Gunpowder Plot or the persecution of Protestants in the reign of Mary I, which were linked at this time by a misunderstanding of the past. In 1893 William Richardson, rector of the Southover district of Lewes, held sermons on the Sunday before 5 November warning about the perils of Catholicism. Many attendees were members of the newly-formed
Orange Lodge The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants, particularly those of Ulster Scots people, Ulster Sco ...
in Lewes. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, memorials were erected across Sussex and several other English counties to honour people burnt to death as heretics in the reigns of Henry VIII and Mary I. These were largely a reminder of religious divisions of more than three centuries earlier which seemed remote from the public preoccupations of the day. The actions could only be seen an anti-Catholic or at least anti-papal. Whilst moderate supporters did not wish to offend the Catholic community, a memorial in Heathfield read "burnt to death at Lewes by the Roman Catholics". These monuments did not commemorate the martyrdoms of Catholics or the Protestant opponents of state-imposed orthodoxy, except where they were erected by nonconformists. Anger was directed against the Anglo-Catholic community more than Catholics. In the Anglican church in the 19th century, the role of ritual became subject of great, often heated, debate. In Brighton the Anglican church became influenced by the
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 ...
, to an extent unparalleled elsewhere in the country apart from
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. In Anglo-Catholic circles, Brighton became associated with London, as in the collective title of ''"London-Brighton and South Coast Religion",'' a play on the name of the main railway company in Victorian Sussex, the "
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...
". The railway, coincidentally or otherwise, linked all the large and growing centres of Anglo-Catholic worship spreading from London to Brighton and then east and west along coast of
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
to the neighbouring counties of
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
.
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 ...
priests in Brighton, included Henry Michell Wagner whose churches included St Paul's Church and there was a powerful Protestant reaction including a riot in 1880. Brighton vicar Rev
John Purchas John Purchas, (born at Cambridge, 14 July 1823; died at Brighton, 18 October 1872), was an author and a priest of Church of England who was prosecuted for ritualist practices. He received his education at Bury St Edmunds, Rugby School and Christ' ...
was charged and
ritualism 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 Church of England, Anglican church in the 19th century, the rol ...
spread to churches in
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
and
Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...
. Various militant Protestant groups formed branches and lodges across the county.
Richard Enraght Richard William Enraght (23 February 1837 – 21 September 1898) was an Irish-born Church of England priest of the late nineteenth century. He was influenced by the Oxford Movement and was included amongst the priests commonly called "Second ...
was also tried, arrested and imprisoned.R.W. Enraght (1883) ''My Prosecution under the Public Worship Regulation Act'' The prolific Anglo-Catholic hymnologist
John Mason Neale John Mason Neale (24 January 1818 – 6 August 1866) was an English Anglican priest, scholar and hymnwriter. He worked and wrote on a wide range of holy Christian texts, including obscure medieval hymns, both Western and Eastern. Among his most ...
was attacked by a mob and hostile demonstrations ensued at
East Grinstead East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the extreme northeast of the county, the civ ...
. In 1884 rioting ensued in Worthing, Eastbourne and Shoreham as mobs of people including members of the
Skeleton Army The Skeleton Army was a diffuse group, particularly in Southern England, that opposed and disrupted The Salvation Army's marches against alcohol in the late 19th century. Clashes between the two groups led to the deaths of several Salvationis ...
reacted to
Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
criticism.


Contemporary Christianity


Church of England

In the Church of England in Sussex, the administration of the diocese of Chichester which covers the county was changed in 1912. In addition to the existing archdeaconries of Chichester and Lewes that date from the 12th century, a third archdeaconry of Hastings was created. This structure remained in place until the archdeaconries were reorganised under Eric Kemp in 1975. The archdeaconry of Hastings was dissolved and merged back into the archdeaconry of Lewes, which was renamed the archdeaconry of Lewes and Hastings. A new archdeaconry was created in the north of the county - the archdeaconry of Horsham. This structure remained until 2014 when the archdeaconry of Hastings was recreated in the east of the county and the archeaconry of Lewes and Hastings was renamed the archdeaconry of Brighton and Lewes. The suffragan
Bishop of Horsham The Bishop of Horsham is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop (area bishop from 1984 to 2013) of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after the market town of Horsha ...
oversees the archdeaconries of Chichester and Horsham, while the suffragan
Bishop of Lewes The Bishop of Lewes is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Lewes, the county town of East Sussex. The bishops suffrag ...
oversees the archdeaconries of Brighton & Lewes and Hastings. The bishop of Chichester retains oversight over the entire diocese of Chichester i.e. all of Sussex. On 16 November 2001, Pat Sinton, became the first woman priest in Sussex to be ordained. Sinton was ordained by John Hind, the bishop of Chichester, following the departure of the previous bishop of Chichester, Eric Kemp. Although Kemp had encouraged women to serve in the permanent diaconate in his diocese he had been an opponent of the ordination of women to the priesthood and women priests were not licensed in the Diocese of Chichester during his episcopate. In September 2014
Fiona Windsor Julie Fiona Windsor (called Fiona; born 2 September 1959) is a British Anglican priest. She served as the Archdeacon of Horsham in the Diocese of Chichester from 2014 until her retirement in 2020. Windsor was educated at Ridley Hall, Cambridge and ...
was made
archdeacon of Horsham The Archdeacon of Horsham is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Church of England Diocese of Chichester. The diocese almost exactly covers the counties of East and West Sussex and the City of Brighton and Hove, stretching for nearly a hundred m ...
, making her the first female archdeacon in Sussex. The Church of England in Sussex was damaged by sexual abuse scandals in the early 2000s.


Roman Catholic Church

In 1900 the Roman Catholic nun
Maude Petre Maude Dominica Mary Petre (4 August 1863 – 16 December 1942) was an English Roman Catholic nun, writer and critic involved in the Modernist controversy. Life Petre (pronounced ''Peter'') was born at the family estate of Coptfold Hall, near th ...
began a friendship with the
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
priest George Tyrell, which resulted in Petre building a cottage for Tyrell in the garden of her Storrington home. Both Petre and Tyrell were major figures in the Modernist controversy of the early 20th century. The
Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton (in la, Dioecesis Arundeliensis-Brichtelmestunensis) is a Latin Church Roman Catholic diocese in southern England covering the counties of Sussex and Surrey (excluding Spelthorne, which is part ...
was formed in 1965 out of part of the diocese of Southwark. It includes Sussex and Surrey. In the early 2000s, the sexual abuse scandal in the Arundel and Brighton diocese hurt the public's trust in the work of local diocesan officials.


Relations with Sussex churches

Appointed as Bishop of Chichester in 1929,
George Bell George Bell may refer to: Law and politics * George Joseph Bell (1770–1843), Scottish jurist and legal author * George Alexander Bell (1856–1927), Canadian pioneer and Saskatchewan politician * George Bell (Canadian politician) (1869–1940) ...
was a vocal supporter of the German resistance to Nazism and a pioneer of the
Ecumenical Movement Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
that aimed for greater co-operation between churches. Bell established in 1955 the first ever County Council of Churches in Sussex, since which similar structures have been formed in other parts of England. There is a history of religious antagonism and anti-popery around the bonfire celebrations in Lewes. In the 1930s the mayor of Lewes requested that 'no popery' banners be removed and an end to the burning of effigies of Pope Paul V. In the 1950s the Cliffe Bonfire Society was banned from the Bonfire Council from taking part in the United Grand Procession for its refusal to stop carrying a 'no popery' banner and banners commemorating the 16th century Protestant martyrs burned at Lewes. In Lewes, women were to a significant degree responsible for using the spirit of ecumenism to build bridges between the denominations that had until then continued to be anti-Catholic. In 1984 Sussex church leaders were invited to Lewes to discuss Protestant-Catholic relations. Attendees included Eric Kemp,
Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's seat ...
, Peter Ball, suffragan
Bishop of Lewes The Bishop of Lewes is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Lewes, the county town of East Sussex. The bishops suffrag ...
and
Cormac Murphy-O'Connor Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (24 August 1932 – 1 September 2017) was a British cardinal, the Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He was made cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. He sub ...
,
Bishop of Arundel and Brighton The Bishop of Arundel and Brighton is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton in the Province of Southwark, England. The bishop's official residence is Bishop's House, The Upper Drive, Hove, East Sussex. The most rec ...
, as well as their equivalent positions in the Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed churches. In a historic gesture after the meeting the leaders walked to the Martyrs' memorial and prayed for peace and reconciliation. The owners of the memorial, associated with Jireh Chapel, subsequently threatened the intruders for trespassing. The LDCC later persuaded BBC to make a ''
Songs of Praise ''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK. The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Ta ...
'' TV programme in Lewes on the theme of religious tolerance, broadcast on 5 November 1989. To many though, the bonfire celebrations have lost much of their religious meaning, with many Catholics taking part. There are parallels with the carnival celebrations that took place across western Europe when the established order was turned upside down and the
lord of misrule In England, the Lord of Misrule – known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the ''Prince des Sots'' – was an officer appointed by lot during Christmastide to preside over the Feast of Fools. The Lord of Misrul ...
held sway for the day. In 1981 Ian Paisley visited Lewes on Bonfire Night and tried to fan the flames of conflict by handing out anti-Catholic pamphlets. His intervention back-fired and the following year he was burned in effigy. Today, anti-Catholic attitudes are rare and the militant Calvinism that continues in Northern Ireland is all but extinct in Lewes. In the 21st century, controversy continues to be associated around the Bonfire societies and competing definitions of tradition and bigotry. For instance, the burning in effigy of Pope Paul V was described in 2012 as "a scandalous piece of stone-cold bigotry"


Other Christian denominations

Established in 1971 the
Anabaptist Anabaptism (from New Latin language, Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re- ...
Bruderhof community was founded near Robertsbridge, the earliest such community remaining in Europe. From the 1980s, Sussex has three
Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek language, Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the Eastern Orthodox Church, entire body of Orthodox (Chalced ...
churches - at
Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
,
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
and Eastbourne. Following the
Second Sudanese Civil War The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originate ...
, many refugees came to Brighton and Hove and neighbouring areas. Hove and Worthing are now home to
Coptic Orthodox Church The Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, translit=Ti.eklyseya en.remenkimi en.orthodoxos, lit=the Egyptian Orthodox Church; ar, الكنيسة القبطي ...
es, two of 28 such churches in the British Isles. The churches were visited in 2017 by
Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria Pope Tawadros II or Theodore II ( cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲑⲉⲟ́ⲇⲱⲣⲟⲥ ⲡⲓⲙⲁϩ ⲃ̅', translit=Papa Abba Theódōros II ; ar, البابا تواضروس الثاني, translit=al-Bābā Tawāḍurūs al-Th ānī, ...
and Bishop Paula of
Tanta Tanta ( ar, طنطا ' , ) is a city in Egypt with the country's fifth largest populated area and 658,798 inhabitants as of 2018. Tanta is located between Cairo and Alexandria: north of Cairo and southeast of Alexandria. The capital of Gharbia ...
. In 1998 the congregation at Jireh Chapel in Lewes took the decision to affiliate with the
Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster :''Distinct from Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)'' The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster ( ga, Eaglais Phreispitéireach Saor Uladh) is a Calvinist denomination founded by Ian Paisley in 1951. Doctr ...
. The church is one of seven such churches established in England. In the Old Roman Catholic Church in Europe in 2012, Jerome Lloyd was made Metropolitan Archbishop of Selsey (officially "''Archbishop Metropolitan of the Isle of the Seals'' (Selsey) ''and the New Market of the Regnenses'' (i.e. of the Celtic tribe the Romans conquered in AD43, now called Chichester) ''in the Kingdom of the South Saxons'' (i.e. Sussex)". Based in Brighton, the archbishop is one of a small number of priests who broadcast the traditional Mass in Latin live, via the internet and is the only priest to do so in Europe. The archbishop works on various projects to help homeless people in Brighton. The turn of the 21st century saw the rise of so-called mega-churches and neo-charismatic and
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
churches including Kingdom Faith in Horsham, set up by
Colin Urquhart Colin Urquhart (1940 – 13 September 2021) was an English Evangelical Christian minister, speaker, author, and apostolic and Neocharismatic leader in the United Kingdom.Newfrontiers Newfrontiers (previously New Frontiers International) is a neo-charismatic church network of evangelical, charismatic churches founded by Terry Virgo. It forms part of the British New Church Movement, which began in the late 1950s and 1960s co ...
group founded by
Terry Virgo Terry Virgo (born 20 February 1940) is a prominent leader in the British New Church Movement, formerly known as the House Church Movement. He is the founder of the Newfrontiers family of neocharismatic evangelical churches, which has grown into ...
.


Current and former places of worship

Lists of all current and former places of worship in Sussex by district are as follows: *
Adur District Adur () is a Districts of England#Non-metropolitan district (shire district), local government district of West Sussex, England. It is named after its main River Adur, river and is Historic counties of England, historically part of the English co ...
*
Arun District Arun is a local government district in West Sussex, England. It contains the towns of Arundel, Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, and takes its name from the River Arun, which runs through the centre of the district."Arun" in ''The New Encyclopæ ...
*
Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
* Chichester (current) * Chichester (former) *
Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...
*
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
*
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
*
Horsham District Horsham is a local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in Horsham. The district borders those of Crawley, Mid Sussex, Mole Valley, Chichester, Arun and Adur, and the unitary authority of Brighton & Hove. Th ...
*
Lewes District Lewes is a local government district in East Sussex in southern England covering an area of , with of coastline. It is named after its administrative centre, Lewes. Other towns in the district include Newhaven, Peacehaven, Seaford and Telsco ...
* Mid Sussex *
Rother Rother may refer to: General *Rother (surname) (also sometimes spelled Röther) *Rother District, a local government district in East Sussex, England *Rother FM, an independent local radio station for Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England *Rother Kup ...
* Wealden (current) * Wealden (former) *
Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...


See also

*
History of Christianity in England The history of Christianity in Britain covers the religious organisations, policies, theology and popular religiosity since ancient times. The Roman Catholic Church was the dominant form of Christianity in Britain from the 6th century through t ...
*
History of Sussex Sussex , from the Old English 'Sūþsēaxe' ('South Saxons'), is a historic county in South East England. Evidence from a fossil of Boxgrove Man (''Homo heidelbergensis'') shows that Sussex has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years. It ...
*
Religion in Sussex Religion in Sussex has been dominated over the last 1,400 years by Christianity. Like the rest of England, the established church in Sussex is the Church of England, although other Christian traditions exist. After Christianity, the religion wi ...
*
List of monastic houses in East Sussex The following is a list of the monastic houses in East Sussex, England. See also * List of monastic houses in England Notes References {{DEFAULTSORT:Monastic houses in East Sussex East Sussex Lists of buildings and structures ...
*
List of monastic houses in West Sussex The following is a list of the monastic houses in West Sussex, England. See also * List of monastic houses in England Notes References Sources

* Binns, Alison (1989) ''Studies in the History of Medieval Religion 1: Dedications ...
*
History of local government in Sussex The history of local government in Sussex is unique and complex. Founded as a kingdom in the 5th century, Sussex was annexed by the kingdom of Wessex in the 9th century, which after further developments became the Kingdom of England. It currently ...


Bibliography

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References

{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2017 Christianity in Sussex History of Sussex History of Christianity in England