Pusey's Eucharistic Theology After the Sermon of 1843

118 Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Pusey’s Eucharistic Theology after the Sermon of 1843 4.1 Introduction Pusey’s biographer, Henry Parry Liddon, describes the sermon of 1843, The Holy Eucharist: a Comfort to the Penitent as ‘the most important sermon of Pusey’s life’.1 The effort Pusey expended in the sermon and the reaction to it affected him greatly. His subsequent two year prohibition from preaching before the University of Oxford was a source of great pain to Pusey and may go some of the way to explaining why he did not write another major piece on the Eucha- rist until 1851, some eight years later, and why he did not preach on this subject again until 1853. Pusey’s first major statement on the Eucharist after the sermon of 1843 took the form of a letter to the Bishop of London, Bishop Blomfield, which was published in 1851.2 Pusey believed this letter was necessary since the Bishop in his Charge3 to the clergy of the Diocese of London in 1850 had made certain comments on eucharistic doctrine which Pusey saw as applying to him. Pusey states in a ‘Notice’4 placed before the letter that he believed that The Rev. Wil- liam Dodsworth5 had not only misunderstood his teachings on several mat- ters, including the Eucharist, suggesting a different sense to what Pusey had actually taught, but that in so doing he had unduly influenced the views of Bishop Blomfield as expressed in his Charge. Dodsworth had published a pub- lic letter6 to Pusey objecting to a perceived lack of strength in Pusey’s posi- tion on the crisis concerning baptismal regeneration in the Church of England.7 In addition Dodsworth made the claim that Pusey was ‘teaching the propitiatory sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist, as applicatory of the one sacrifice of the cross, and by adoration of Christ really Present on the altar under 1 Liddon, Life of Pusey, II, p. 306. 2 Pusey, A Letter Bishop of London. 3 Blomfield, A Charge. 4 Blomfield, A Charge, pp. iii-iv. 5 Dodsworth was a Tractarian who later converted to Roman Catholicism. 6 Dodsworth, A Letter to the Rev. E. B. Pusey. 7 For details see Nockles, The Oxford Movement in Context, pp. 229–235. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi 10.1163/9789004304598_006 Pusey’s Eucharistic Theology after the Sermon of 1843 119 the form of bread and wine’.8 These words appeared to influence the Bishop of London in his Charge since he mentions that ‘a propitiatory virtue is attributed to the Eucharist’.9 Henry Liddon makes the comment that the Bishop of Lon- don’s Charge specifically comments on some of Pusey’s practices and teachings and insinuated that these contributed to people converting to Roman Catholicism.10 Pusey therefore felt the need to respond and so he sent his letter to the Bish- op of London in 1851. In this letter Pusey makes considerable mention of eucharistic theology. This letter, offered by Pusey in a defensive mode, will be the starting point for the investigation of Pusey’s eucharistic theology following the sermon of 1843. Other significant pieces of writing by Pusey dealing with the Eucharist will also be examined in this chapter. These include his next major university ser- mon11 on the Eucharist preached in Christ Church Cathedral in 1853, ten years after the important sermon of 1843. Pusey approached this sermon with some caution, mindful of the reaction to his sermon of 1843, but at the same time wanting to expound the doctrine of the Eucharist as taught by the Church of England. He was due to preach this sermon on 16 January 1853 but he wrote to John Keble, 12 his trusted friend, on 16 October 1852 seeking advice about the sermon. He was clearly concerned about the reception this new sermon would receive and believed that he was ‘still under a slur, for my former con- demnation, among a large party’.13 He also believed that the University was committed to condemn the same doctrines as he had preached in 1843 and that if he was condemned again the University would ‘take a more effectual measure than a two year’s suspension’.14 Pusey in the Letter to Keble reveals that his object would be ‘to inculcate the doctrine of the Real Presence and to speak of the elements as remaining; as the obvious teaching of Holy Scripture and of the Fathers’.15 Pusey also mentions the teaching of the Book of Homi- lies which in proposing topics for future homilies at the end of the first book of Homilies speaks of a future homily concerning Christ’s ‘blessed body and 8 Dodsworth, A Letter to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, p. 17. 9 Blomfield, A Charge, p. 50. 10 Liddon, Life of Pusey, III, p. 294. 11 Pusey, The Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. 12 See Letter of Pusey to Keble on 16 October, 1852, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, Volume III, pp. 423–424. 13 Liddon, Life of Pusey, Volume III, p. 423. 14 Liddon, Life of Pusey, Volume III, p. 423. 15 Liddon, Life of Pusey, Volume III, p. 423..

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