Mary still suggested popery to most English people.

Mary still suggested popery to most English people. Indeed, one explanation for the failure to develop a stronger Marian devotional tradition in Anglicanism may be that those who had the strongest feelings about Mary became Catholic, 

G. Woodman, 'The Blessed Virgin Mary in Seventeenth-Century Anglican Theology: a Study in Doctrine and Devotion' Sobornost 46.1 (2024), 20

Mary still suggested popery for most English people

Mary still suggested popery for most English people. Indeed, one explanation for the failure to develop a stronger Marian devotional tradition in Anglicanism may be that those who had the strongest feelings about Mary became Catholic.

G. Woodman, 'The blessed Virgin Mary in Seventeenth Century Anglican Theology: a study in doctrine and devotion', Sobornost 46:1 (2024), 20

But the Bible is an oriental book. Its alien imagery has nothing to do with us.

To my mind King James's Bible has been a very harmful influence on English prose. I am not so stupid as to deny its great beauty. It is majestical. But the Bible is an oriental book. Its alien imagery has nothing to do with us. Those hyperboles, those luscious metaphors, are foreign to our genius. I cannot but think that not the least of the misfortunes that the Secession from Rome brought upon the spiritual life of our country is that this work for so long a period became the daily, and with many the only, reading of our people. Those rhythms, that powerful vocabulary, that grandiloquence, became part and parcel of the national sensibility.

W.S. Maugham, The summing up (1938), 34

But one had been brought up an Anglican, and the process of change would have been a great bother

In fact, Laura had often thought that she would have liked to be a Catholic; she had always felt an affinity with those big busy cool churches abroad, the smell of incense, obsequious priests, candles. Even the ghastly statues and pictures. But one had been brought up an Anglican, and the process of change would have been a great bother, and anyway one didn't feel all that strongly about it.

 P. Lively, Treasures of time (1979), 114

He hated the frenzies of sectarianism even more than the mummeries of Rome

Now nothing is more notable about the generous and joyful impatience of Sydney Smith, than the fact that he hated the frenzies of sectarianism even more than the mummeries of Rome. For him the Methodists were simply madmen; and he said so; which is the ringing note of reality in all his record. He would have said that he was a loyal Anglican parson; his opponents might say he was a Pagan; but he was not only not a Puritan, but he was not a subconscious or submerged or secret Puritan.

G.K. Chesterton, 'Introduction', H. Pearson, The Smith of Smiths (1934), 10 

And you say I can't give a blessing because the Archbishop of Liverpool is present?

'You can't expect me  to like all the propaganda about "getting England back for the Faith"? How could I? At Westminster they always go on about their feelings being hurt, but I said to one of them (over the Hungarians at the Albert Hall) don't you suppose I've  got any feelings to hurt? Here I am, in my country, head of my country's church, and you say I can't give a blessing because the Archbishop of Liverpool is present? They saw the point.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 226

Modern hymns are awful. I don't know why they bothered.

As with the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, you do not have to be a Christian, or even a believer, to appreciate and be uplifted by hearing a church full of people singing something out of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Modern hymns are awful. I don't know why they bothered. If they felt the words were outdated, and so of limited appeal to the young, it would not have been beyond the wit of an Anglican subcommittee to write new ones to the old tunes. But no, baby went out with the bathwater and we got slush and soup and sentimentality.

S. Hill, Jacob's room is full of books (2017), 207

I am for the Established Church. ... And if you can get your damned religion established, I'll be for that too!

Edward Thurlow, the crusty Lord Chancellor under George III, thus addressed himself to a deputation of Nonconformists:

I'm against you, by God. I am for the Established Church, damme! Not that I have any more regard for the Established Church than for any other church , but because it is established. And if you can get your damned religion established, I'll be for that too!

The Reverend Sydney Smith showed the same spirit. On his deathbed he complained of being so weak that 'I verily believe, if the knife were put into my hand, I should not have the strength or energy enough to stick it into a Dissenter.'

C. Elliott, 'Great gossips', Slightly Foxed 64 (2019), 75

 

I hope to see all the Protestants fry in theire own grease beefore Michaelmas next

At that time [the beginning of the reign of James II] a limner was imployed to beautyfy the Parish church at Ellesmeare. This Clarke went to see his worke, and said, 'You doe well to leave the Church in good repaire for us; for you had it from us in good order.
The limner (knowing him to be a Papist) said, 'What, doe you think the Papists must have the Church?' '
Yes, I doe' says Clarke.
Then sayes the limner, 'What doe you think shall become of us Protestants?'
Then Clarke answeared, 'I hope to see all the Protestants fry in theire own grease beefore Michaelmas next.'

R. Gough, The history of Myddle (1700), ed. D. Hey (1981), 173-4

Ritualists had odd ideas about the truth

It [his face] looked honest, but you could never tell. According to local report the Vicar was a ritualist, and ritualists had odd ideas about the truth. They would, for instance, subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles and unblushingly invent ingenious ways to get round them.

D.L. Sayers, 'Shocks for the Inspector' in The Detection Club, The Floating Admiral (1931), 94

Nobody had contrived to make England see that her very existence would not be threatened if museums were opened on Sunday

[During a seven year period in the 1870s] the world had been whizzing ceaselessly from one miracle into another. Board schools had been opened in Bursley, wondrous affairs, with ventilation; indeed ventilation had been discovered. A Jew had been made Master of the Rolls: a spectacle at which England shivered, and then, perceiving no sign of disaster, shrugged its shoulders. Irish members had taught the House of Commons how to talk for twenty-four hours without a pause. The wages of the agricultural labourer had sprung into the air and leaped over the twelve shilling bar into regions of opulence.  ... Every effort had been made to explain by persuasion and by force to the working man that trade unions were inimical to his true welfare, and none had succeeded, so stupid was he. ... Bishops, archbishops, and dissenting ministers had met at Lambeth to inspect the progress of irreligious thought, with intent to arrest it. 

...

But, in spite of numerous attempts, nobody had contrived to make England see that her very existence would not be threatened if museums were opened on Sunday, or that Nonconformists might be buried according to their own rites without endangering the constitution.

A. Bennett, Clayhanger (1910),156-7

It is absurd to be merely gentlemanly about it, like the Church of England, or drab and respectable, like the Nonconformists

I stayed there a few minutes [listening to the Salvation Army band], and came to the conclusion that if I could persuade myself to believe in the Christian account of this life - and the essence of it, the self-sacrifice of a god for men, seems to good to be true, and the rest of it, the theological jugglery lit by hell-fire, not worth having - I should either join the Catholic church or fall in with the Salvation Army. Both have the right religious attitude; that is, they are not afraid of being thought noisy and vulgar; to take the thing out into the street. After all, if you really believe that the gates of heaven are swinging open above you and the pit of Hell yawning below, it is absurd to be merely gentlemanly about it, like the Church of England, or drab and respectable, like the Nonconformists.

J.B. Priestley, English Journey (1934), 172

You could see he was an Englishman first and a Christian second

Arthur Box-Bender was seeking to make himself agreeable to the domestic prelate '... not a member of your persuasion myself but I'm bound to say your Cardinal Hinsley did a wonderful job of work on the wireless. You could see he was an Englishman first and a Christian second; that is more than you can say of one or two of our bishops.' 

E. Waugh, Unconditional Surrender (1961), in collected edition, Sword of Honour (1984), 435

Church of England services ... harmless enough compared to murder.

What your grandfather would feel if he knew we had the police in the house - it's enough to make him turn in his grave. A strict Plymouth Brother he was all his life. The fuss there was when he found out I'd been attending Church of England services in the evening! And I'm sure that was harmless enough compared to murder.

A. Christie, A pocket full of rye (1953), 87

Anglo-catholicism, reaction and whimsy

I discussed over the weekend whether this was a quotation book for conversation. I think it is, though the bon mots would have be exceptionally bon. However, it is certainly a place for excellently written bloggage, of which the following is an exemplar. It's from my favourite blog at the moment, which I would urge you all to read. Anyway, I can't decide which of these two bits is best, so I'll have both:

'We advertise our letters as containing Anglo-catholicism, reaction and whimsy; but like all Church of England publications we actually cover mostly the gays, internal church politics, and nostalgia for an impossibly golden age. For most Anglicans this utopia is the 1950s: for us, true to form, the 1670s. Or possibly the 1630s. Certainly not the 1650s, though.

... 

We encourage you to speak again more of kings than of queens; to become once again the Tory party at prayer. The seventeenth-century Tory party at prayer, of course. Not today's soi-disant version.'

S.Fisher, Posing as a Jacobite, retrieved 22 May 2013 from http://plumsteadletters.blogspot.co.uk/

<http://plumsteadletters.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/posing-as-jacobite.html>

Religion is the most dangerous thing in the world

'Exactly. Religion is the most dangerous thing in the world. It is not little girls in their communion frocks and silly holy pictures and the Children of Mary. It is,' he said, 'high explosive, dynamite, the,' he smiled at the conceit, 'splitting of the atom.'

...

'Your church,' I said, 'anticipated Carlo's reforms.'
'My church knew what it was doing,. It knew it would turn into a club for upperclass Englishmen. You may laugh at it, but it's a safe church, not like yours. It's tepid, because it knows that fire burns. It thinks fire should be imprisoned in an Adam fireplace, not held in the hand. Never despise tepidity,'

A. Burgess, Earthly Powers (1982), 345 and 629


I've paired these two, because I think they summarise Burgess' view of religion, which threatens to be true. The first is spoken by the catholic priest who later becomes pope; the latter by an English poet. This juxtaposition is as telling as the words, and it's the great glory of Anglicanism that it's almost true, but, just, not quite.