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Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. TRADITION AND MEMORY IN PROTESTANT ONTARIO Anglican and Methodist Clerical Discourses During Queen Victoria's Golden 11887) and Diamond (1897) Jubilee CeIebrations B.A., University of Guelph, 1970 M.L.S., University of Western Ontario, 1977 Thesis Submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfhent of the requirements for the Master of Arts WiIfrid Laurier University 2000 AESTRACT This thesis examines the religious-patriotic discourse on Queen Victoria. the rnon- archy. and the British empire produced by the Anglican and Methodist clergy in Ontario during the celebrarions for the sovereign's Golden Jubilee in 1887 and the Dimond Jubilee in 1897. Loyalty to the queen and the rnonarchy was shaped by the interplay between the P~CPIVP~hn!ngiral, ecclesiastical, and hi~tnricaltraditions of each church. its collective mernories, adby the contexts which infiuenced the comrnemorations. The discursive representations of the queen, constitutional monarchy, and imperialism, embedded within the semons and patriotic literature of the two churches. differentiated into separate patterns of affirmation, in ~heprocess. appropriating sub-cultural, or vernacular, pasts which justified the conternporary identities of the churchos and their world in Iate Victorian Ontario. The Church of England in Canada, drawing upon an organic, unitive vision. which integrated Church, state, and society under the monarchy, maintained a conservative, rit times defensive, but reasonably stable message in its pronouncements of loyalty over the decade between 1887 and 1897. In the person of Queen Victoria, the Methodists consecrated the Wrsleyan theological heritage through a discourse of substirutionary piety. However. the Methodist narratives of imperial and social progress during the queen's reign began to invoke the nascent language of the social gospel, a differenr type of pietistic discoursa which altered the categories of traditional Wesleyan theology. Thus the Methodist loyalty sermons and articles reveal a bifurcation in the structures of collective idenrity . The representations of the qurrn anchored the past in the present, but the discourse of imperial and social progress indicates a gradua1 deconsecration of the Wesleyan heritage. implying a concomitant destabilization of identity in the Methodist Church in late nineteenth-century Ontario. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research and writing of this thesis would have been impossible without the generous assistance of many librarians and archivists in Ontario. Special thanks are extrnded to Diane Peters. Karen Scott, and Amy Menary of Wilfrid Laurier University Library. who assisted me with archival. reference. and interlibrary ioan services at various stages of the research. Among others who directed me towards sources which 1 would otherwise have overlookcd were Susan Hoffman at the Kitchener Public Library. Hugh Hill at Emmanuel Bible College Library in Kitchener. Lutzen Riedstra and Carolynn Bart-Riedstra, Archivists of the Stratford-Perth Archives. and Mary Evans ar the Oxford County Archives in Woodstock. In addition, I appreciate the time taken by several clergymen and church secretaries who sent me additional information on some of their clericai forebears of the late Victorian era. 1 am also grateful for the invaluable assistance provided by the staff at the United Church of Canada Central Archives. and also for their insights and cornrnents on the Victorian clergy. Special thanks to Mary-Anne Nicholls. Archivist of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Carol Radford-Grant, Archivist of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. Patrick Cummins of the Corporate Records and Archives of Toronto. Donna Hrinson at the St. Thomas Public Library, and also to the staff at the Archives of Ontario and the National Archives and National Library of Canada. Many thanks to Dr. Cynthia Comacchio, Dr. Barry Gough. and Dr. Peter Erb of Wilfkid Laurier University for taking time from their busy schedules to read the final draft of the thesis and for their interesting perspectives and insights on the topic. Finally, the thesis would have been impossible without the patient and invaluable assistance of my supervisor. Dr. Suzanne Zeller who guided me through the painstaking stages of organization and writing, and whose advice and constructive criticism kept me on the right path to the completion of the project. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abs tract 1. Acknowledgments ii. Introduction 1 a. OutIine of the Topic and Argument 1 b. The Terminology of the Study 4 c. Icttt!!rctiiz! 2nd Secid Cnnrexrs nf rhe Oniarii Jtihilee Celehrarinnc 7 d. Origins and Nature of the Monarchical Discourse 14 e. The Monarchy in Britain from George III to Queen Victoria 18 f. The Monarchy in Upper Canada-Ontario from George III to Queen Victoria 25 g. Anglicans and Methodists in Upper Canada-Ontario: The Literature 36 h. ~ethod010~~and Organization of the Thesis 38 Chapter 1. Canadian Anglicanisrn and Methodism in Historical Perspective 39 a. Theology and Authoriry in the Development of Anglicanism 50 b. Theology and Authority in rhe Development of Methodism 60 Chapter 2. Anglican and Methodist Responses to the Golden Jubilee 80 a. Context: Conflict and Reaction 84 b. Church and Sovereign: The Outlines of Authority and Order 96 c. The Servant Queen: Power and the Role of Women 115 Chapter 3. Anglican and Methodist Responses to the Diamond Jubilee 132 a. Background and Context: Conflict and Consensus 136 b. The S tability of Tradition: Constructions of Ideology . Theology and Symbols of Order 133 c. The Anglican Vision of Empire: A Triurnphant British Race 152 d. The Methodist Vision: The Virtuous Queen-the Symbol for a Progressive Empire 162 Conclusion 186 a. General Overview 187 b. The Golden Jubilee: Comparison of Anglican and Methodist Loyalty: i. The Context 192 ii. Authority and Order 194 iii. The Servant Queen 196 c. The Diarnond Jubilee: Cornparison of Anglican and Methodist Loyalty: i. The Context 197 ii. Ideology and the Symbols of Order 199 iii. Visions of Empire: A Comparison of the Anglican and Methodist Conceptions 20 1 d. Summary 204 Bibliography 209 INTRODUCTION In his book Enduring Witness: TIte History of the Presbyterian Chrtrch iin Cnrincin (1976)' John Moir comments rhat "the closing decrides of Queen Victoria's long reign were .. rnarkeii in Canada by an unprecedented mixture of piety and patriotisrn. "' Moir's observation suggests that the languages of religious faith and loyalty were interchangeable xi:hir, th: scciz! n?i!ieu. As rhii rhesis will cnntlm. a diqtingiiiching featiire in n toynlisr province such as Ontario one hundred years ago was the tacit concordat between the Protes- tant pulpit and the fundamental symbols of the political culture. Coupiing sacred and srcular discourses which attributed the triumphs of the Victorian age to the superiority of the British constitution, commentators easily conjoined the empire's grandeur to Queen Victoria, the cmblrm of the pure. honoured Iife, and the living icon of public and domestic virrue. In Ontario. this steadfast tldelity to the rnonarch hrid long ben nurtured in the annual observ- ances of the queen's binhday on the twenry-fourth of May. A rite of spring wiih mots in [lie military origins of Upper Canada. it began to rake shape in its modern form as a popular civic celebration with a half-holiday in Toronto in 1848.' Loyalty to the queen received its supremc expressions during the Golden and Diamond Iubilees of 1887 and 1897. respectively. Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901. but affection for the sovereign was cemented in English Canada's public memory when the Dominion parliament, shonly before 24 May of the sarne year, proclaimed Victoria Day a national holiday.' Outline of the Topic and the Argument This thesis is a study of the religious-patriotic discourse on Queen Victoria produced by the Anglican and Methodist clergy in Ontario during the jubilee celebrations of 1887 and 1897. It argues that loyalty to the monarch and the crown was a construction of identity shaped by the interplay between two forces. On the one side were the collective memories, the received theoIogica1, ecclesiastical, and historical understandings of each church, and on the other, were the contexts which infiuenced the comrnemorations. The loyalty sermons and the patriotic belle-lettres published in the Ontario-based religious press of the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Canada welded the historically detemined self- deilnition and aims of each church to the sentiments demanded by these occasions. The rirual affirmations of the sovereign and the crown subtly validated the polity, theology, and pastoral rninkty of ench pup.justifying its niche in contemporary societv. The royal celebrations served as sites upon which were evoked both extrinsic memory (Aristorir's idea of manmesis), and intrinsic memory (Aristotle's concept of rrrnenre).' The themes of the queen's domestic virturs. her sterling cliaractrr as a constitutional ruler. and the growth of the empire migrated across religious borders. However, closer scrutiny reveals nuances.