‘Objectionable Ornaments and Decorations’

Ritual and Riot at St George-in-the-East, London, 1859–1860

Authors

  • David Kent University of New England

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/arsr.v23i1.46

Keywords:

Church, Religius Ritual

Abstract

In the third quarter of the nineteenth century the High and Low Church wings of the Church of England were bitterly divided over the use of religious ritual. A legacy of the Oxford Movement and the Gothic Revival, Anglican ritualism in practice was most obviously manifested in liturgical forms, eucharistic vestments, church furniture, religious decoration, church design and the use of sacred space. For nearly 18 months services at St George-in-the-East were disrupted by the Vestry-led, popular protest against the ritualistic practices of the Rector and his High Church curates. This article outlines the practices and behaviour which were considered offensive, explores the links with anti-Catholic sentiment and shows how the protesters carried on their campaign of disturbance inside the church so effectively that they eventually secured the resignation of the Rector, the removal of all the ‘objectionable ornaments and decorations’ and an end to Anglo-Catholic ritualism in the parish church.

Author Biography

  • David Kent, University of New England
    School of Humanities

References

Best, Geoffrey 1973 Mid-Victorian Britain 1851–75. Panther, London.

Chadwick, Owen 1966 The Victorian Church, part 1. Adam & Charles Black, London.

Colley, Linda 1994 Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837. Pimlico, London.

Dickens, Charles 1850 What a London Curate Can Do if He Tries. Household Words 2(34): 172-76.

Downes, Kerry 1969 Hawksmoor. Thames & Hudson, London.

Ellsworth, Lida E. 1982 Charles Lowder and the Ritualist Movement. Darton, Longman & Todd, London.

Elton, Geoffrey R. 1960 The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1960.

Evans, Eric J. 1983 The Forging of the Modern State: Early Industrial Britain 1783–1870. Longman, London.

Fairweather, Eugene R. (ed.) 1964 The Oxford Movement. Oxford University Press, New York.

Jeffrey, Sally 1995 Architecture. In The Cambridge Cultural History of Britain. V. The Eighteenth Century, edited by Boris Ford, 217-59. Cambridge University Press (for the Folio Society), Cambridge.

Lowder, Charles 1877 Twenty-One Years in S. George’s Mission: An Account of its Origin, Progress and Works of Charity. Rivington’s, London.

Marsh, Peter T. 1969 The Victorian Church in Decline: Archbishop Tait and the Church of England 1868–1882. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

Mathews, Henry C.G., and Brian Harrison (eds.) 2004 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press,

Oxford.

Mitchell, Rosemary 2004 Alexander Heriot Mackonochie 1825–1887. In Mathews and Harrison 2004: XXXV, 695-97.

Morris, Jeremy 2004 Bryan King 1811–1895. In Mathews and Harrison 2004: XXXI, 602-3.

National Archives 1859–60 Home Ofce Disturbance Papers, HO 45/6751.

Palmer, Bernard 1993 Reverend Rebels: Five Victorian Clergy and their Fight against Authority. Darton, Longman & Todd, London.

Paz, Denis G. 1992 Popular Anti-Catholicism in Mid-Victorian England. Stanford University Press, Stanford.

Reed, John S. 1988 ‘Ritualism Rampant in East London’: Anglo-Catholicism and the Urban Poor. Victorian Studies 31(3): 375-403.

Reynolds, Michael 1965 Martyr of Ritualism: Father Mackonochie of St. Alban’s, Holborn. Faber & Faber, London.

Robbins, Keith 1982 Religion and Identity in Modern British History. In Religion and National Identity, edited by Stuart Mews, 465-87. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Smith, Philip T. 1986 The London Police and the Holy War: Ritualism and St. George’s-in-the-East, London, 1859–60. Journal of Church and State 28: 107-19.

Trench, Maria 1883 Charles Lowder: A Biography. Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co., London.

Trollope, Anthony 1858 Dr Thorne, repr. 1996. Folio Society, London.

The Last Chronicle of Barset, repr. 1997. Folio Society, London.

Vernon, James 1993 Politics and the People: A Study in English Political Culture c.1815–1867. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Wilson, Kathleen 1989 Inventing Revolution: 1688 and Eighteenth-Century Popular Politics. Journal of British Studies 28(4): 349-86. doi:10.1086/385942.

Wolffe, John 1991 The Protestant Crusade in Great Britain, 1829–60. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Yates, Nigel 1983 The Oxford Movement and Anglican Ritualism. Historical Association, London.

Published

2010-06-13

How to Cite

Kent, D. (2010). ‘Objectionable Ornaments and Decorations’: Ritual and Riot at St George-in-the-East, London, 1859–1860. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 23(1), 46-63. https://doi.org/10.1558/arsr.v23i1.46