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Isaac Williams (1802-1865), the Oxford Movement and the High Churchmen: a Study of His Theological and Devotional Writings

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Isaac Williams (1802-1865), the Oxford Movement and the High Churchmen: a Study of His Theological and Devotional Writings Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Isaac Williams (1802-1865), the Oxford Movement and the High Churchmen: A Study of his Theological and Devotional Writings. Boneham, John Award date: 2009 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 05. Oct. 2021 Isaac Williams (1802-1865), the Oxford Movement and the High Churchmen: A Study of his Theological and Devotional Writings. By, John Boneham, B.D. (hons.), M.Th. Ph.D., Bangor University (2009) Summary Isaac Williams was one of the leading members of the Oxford Movement during the 1830-60s and made a valuable contribution to the movement through his published poetry, tracts, sermons and biblical commentaries which were written to help propagate Tractarian principles. Although he was active in Oxford as a tutor of Trinity College during the 1830s, Williams left Oxford in 1842 after failing to be elected to the university’s chair of poetry. He served successively as perpetual curate of the Gloucestershire parishes of Bisley and Stinchcombe, where he died in 1865. It is perhaps because Williams withdrew from Oxford in 1842 and also because his contribution to the Oxford Movement centred on his literary works rather than on being directly involved in its more practical aspect, that he has tended to be overlooked by historians. This thesis will consider the significance of Isaac Williams’ contribution to the Oxford Movement on the basis of his published works. Whereas previous works on Isaac Williams have examined his significance as a historical figure, this study will focus on his approach to the theological issues with which the Oxford Movement was concerned, specifically, the interpretation of scripture, the sacraments, aspects of High Church/Tractarian piety, the relationship between church and state, the authority of tradition and the apostolic succession. While considering Williams’ approach to these issues, this thesis will also examine whether his theological thinking was at one with that of the Tractarians generally or whether it was more typical of that of the High Church tradition which preceded the Oxford Movement and continued to exist alongside it. Contents Chapter Page Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Author’s Declaration iv Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Life and Works of Isaac Williams 14 Chapter Two: The Principle of Reserve 40 Chapter Three: The Tractarian Poet 68 Chapter Four: Isaac Williams and the Bible 111 Chapter Five: The Sacraments 154 Chapter Six: Isaac Williams and High Church/Tractarian Spirituality: 190 Fasting and Asceticism, Liturgy and Auricular Confession Chapter Seven: The Church and the State 208 Chapter Eight: The Appeal to Antiquity and Tradition 222 Chapter Nine: The Apostolic Succession and the Attitude towards 239 Nonconformity and Roman Catholicism Chapter Ten: Isaac Williams and Welsh Tractarianism 263 Conclusion 288 Bibliography 292 Abbreviations L.P.L. Lambeth Palace Library L.B.V. Liddon Bound Volume P.H. Pusey House Library N.L.W. National Library of Wales G.R.O. Gloucestershire Records Office i Dedication I would like to dedicate this thesis to the loving memory of Emrys Davies, my late grandfather, and of Fr. Frank Maher S.J., a much valued priest and friend. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank everyone who has helped me during the course of my doctoral research and during the preparation of this thesis. I am especially indebted to the Arts and Humanities Research Council whose generous financial support has made it possible for me to carry out this research. I am also grateful to the staff of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at Bangor University for their support and encouragement during the course of my studies, and in particular Professor Densil Morgan and Dr. Robert Pope who have supervised my thesis and offered helpful guidance and support. I would also like to thank Professor Donald Allchin for his continued interest, advice and enthusiasm in the subject of my research over the last year. During the course of my research I have had to make a number of study visits to various libraries and archives and am grateful to the staff of St. Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden, the National Library of Wales, the Lambeth Palace Library and Pusey House, Oxford, for their support and assistance. I am particularly grateful to Ms. Patsy Williams of St. Deiniol’s, Dr. Huw Walters of the National Library of Wales, Dr. Barry Orford of Pusey House and Ms Clare Brown of Lambeth Palace for their help with various aspects of my research. I am also indebted to Fr. Conleth O’Hara, Fr. Daniel Donovan and the Passionist Fathers at St. Joseph’s Retreat, Highgate, for providing me with a place to stay when I needed to make frequent research visits to London. For this I am very grateful. I would also like to thank Rev. Elfryn Jones and the North Wales Baptist College for providing accommodation during the course of my research and also during the writing-up period. I would also like to thank Mrs Pat Jones who provided me with a translation of Isaac Williams’ Latin poem Ars Geologica and Canon Dewi Thomas who assisted with some of the translations from the works of the Welsh-speaking Tractarians quoted in chapter ten. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my family Mum, Dad, Lisa and Mamgu, and my friends for their unwavering encouragement and support during the course of my research without which this work would never have been completed. iii Author’s Declaration This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed .......................................... (candidate) Date ........................................... Statement 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Where correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction are clearly marked in a footnote(s). Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed ........................................ (candidate) Date ......................................... Statement 2 I hereby give my consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ………………………… (candidate) Date …………………………… iv Introduction Isaac Williams was born in 1802 in Cardiganshire and was brought into contact with the Oxford Movement through his friendship with John Keble, Hurrell Froude and John Henry Newman. Between 1833 and 1842 Williams served as Newman’s curate at the university church of St. Mary’s, Oxford, and contributed to the Tractarian cause as the author of Tracts 80 and 87 on “Reserve in Communicating Religious Knowledge” and of Tract 86 on the Prayer Book. Despite leaving Oxford in 1842 in order to assist as curate of the rural parish of Bisley in Gloucestershire, Williams continued to contribute to the movement as the author of voluminous works of poetry, biblical commentaries and published sermons, all of which sought to teach and propagate Tractarian principles.1 Despite making a definite contribution to the Oxford Movement, Isaac Williams has been the subject of only three published volumes. The first of these was his own Autobiography which was published by his brother-in-law, Sir George Prevost, in 1892.2 This is an important work since it was the first history of the Oxford Movement to be written from the perspective of someone who wished to portray John Keble, rather than Newman, as its main leader.3 The Autobiography does have to be treated with some caution, however, since it was not originally written for publication but for Williams’ children in order to explain to them the importance of the religious movement in which their father had been involved.4 The most complete biography of Isaac Williams is O.W. Jones’ Isaac Williams and his Circle, published in 1971.5 This work successfully demonstrates that Williams made a fundamental contribution to the Oxford Movement rather than merely being someone on its periphery.6 In the preface to his work Jones claimed that he wished to “correct the impression . that Isaac Williams was little more than a shy and retiring disciple of John Keble”, and to demonstrate that he “played a distinctive 1 Skinner S.A., “Williams, Isaac (1802-1865)”, Matthew H.C.G. and Harrison B., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (volume 59) (Oxford, 2004), 213-6 2 Prevost G. (editor), The Autobiography of Isaac Williams B.D., Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford (London, 1892) 3 R.W. Church’s classic account of the movement in The Oxford Movement: Twelve Years, 1833-45, for example, presents Newman as the only real leader of the Oxford Movement, claiming that his conversion effectively brought it to an end. 4 Prevost (ed.)., The Autobiography of Isaac Williams, preface 5 Jones O.W., Isaac Williams and his Circle (London, 1971) 6 Ibid., 1-4 1 part” in the Tractarian Movement.7 An important element of Jones’ work is his frequent reference to manuscript evidence drawn from Williams’ correspondence which supplements the material found in the Autobiography.
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