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The Religious Thought and Activity of Edward Feild, Second Church ofEngland Bishop ofNewfoundland (1844-1876) by © Sherri Sanderson A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department ofReligious Studies Memorial University of Newfoundland July 2007 St. John's Newfoundland Abstract For over thirty years, in the middle of the nineteenth century, Edward Feild served as second bishop of the Church of England diocese ofNewfoundland, which included the Archdeaconry of Bermuda. His episcopate lasted from 1844-1876, years of great turmoil in the colony and in the church. Although he was in the midst of it all, he is barely remembered today. Feild is best known today for his educational and political activities, but his religiosity was at the core of his being and motivated his thought and actions. Feild was not simply a High Churchman, he was a Tractarian, and his Tractarianism had great consequences for his episcopacy and pastoral leadership. Not only was he a follower of the Oxford Movement, he also followed the tenets of the Cambridge Camden Society, the Cambridge Movement, in order to bring concrete expression to his Tractarian sacramentalism in church architecture and design. Feild's Tractarianism can be found in all ofhis writings, most especially, the seven published Charges to the clergy of Newfoundland and Bermuda. These texts are crucial to an understanding ofFeild's religious views since the bishop's charge expressed what was of greatest concern at the time of its deliverance. Feild's Tractarianism in his Charges was intimately related to his Church ofEngland ecclesiology as well as his views on worship and liturgy, the sacraments, and church architecture. Feild's Tractarian ecclesiology is shown by his defence of the church as a supernatural institution, and his efforts to exclude the secular world from its governance. Concerning the worship of the church, Field's Tractarianism insisted upon following established authorities and the rules of the Church of England as found within the Book of Common Prayer. Through the immense importance that he gave to the sacraments and their administration, Feild exemplified his Tractarian ii sacramentalism. In his ever-abiding concern for church architecture, as shown through his interest in church design and construction throughout the diocese, Feild concretely expressed his Tractarianism and his belief in the architectural ideals of the Cambridge Movement. This thesis involves both historical criticism and interpretation in order to determine Bishop Feild's religious thought and actions through an analysis of seven of his key ecclesiastical texts and the recreation of the historical context in which he can be situated. Ill Acknowledgments I wish to thank my advisor, Dr. Hans Rollmann, for his guidance, instruction, encouragement, and insight. The depth of his scholarship has been greatly appreciated. Thank you as well to the rest of the Religious Studies faculty at Memorial who have encouraged me throughout my time at the university. Special thanks to Mrs. Mary Walsh who has assisted me with administrative matters and listened when I needed someone with whom to talk. Thanks to my friends, both in St. John's and away, who have listened to me and given me confidence whenever I needed it. Finally, thanks to my mom who has supported me, both financially and emotionally, throughout the course of my life. Quotations from the Biblical text are taken from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. IV Table of Contents Abstract n Acknowledgements IV Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1. The Historical and Religious Context ofNewfoundland and Bermuda 2 1.2. Previous Scholarship 6 1.3. Charges to the Clergy 9 1.4. Methodology and Scope 10 1.5. Not Your Typical High Churchman 14 Chapter 2 Two Oxbridge Movements 17 2.1. The Oxford Movement 17 2.2. The Cambridge Movement 32 Chapter 3 The Church According to Feild 38 3.1. The Essence of a Church 38 3.1.1. Apostolic Succession: the Mark of a True Church 39 3.1.2. The Via Media: the Place of the Church ofEngland 42 3.2. Church Governance, or, Who is in Charge? 47 3.2.1. State Interference or Self-Government 49 3.2.2. Methods of Church Finance 53 3.3. Education and Cooperation 57 3.4. Summary 63 Chapter 4 The Worship and Liturgy of the Church 65 4.1. Importance of Christian Worship 65 4.2. Tradition, Reason, and the Individual 66 4.2.1. Private Judgment and the Use of Reason 69 4.2.2. Established Authorities: the Early Church and the English Reformers 70 4.3. Rules, Rubrics and the Book of Common Prayer 72 4.4. Various Aspects of Church Liturgy 76 4.4.1. Public Worship Services in the Church of England 77 4.4.2. Baptism, Catechizing and Holy Days 80 4.4.3. Church Music: Psalms and Hymns 82 4.4.4. Sermons and Preaching 84 4.5. Summary 86 Chapter 5 Sacramental Life in the Church of England 87 5.1. Importance of Sacraments 87 5.2. Baptism, the Spiritual Birth 88 5.2.1. Practice 89 5.2.2. Doctrinal Controversies 92 5.3. Confirmation 96 5.4. Communion, Spiritual Food for the Soul 98 5.4.1. Practice 99 5.4.2. Doctrinal Controversies 102 5.5. Confession as a Means to Examine One's Conscience 104 5.6. Matrimony, a Sacramental Institution 106 5 .6.1. Practice 106 5.6.2. Civil Intervention in the Sacrament ofMatrimony 108 5.7. Summary 111 Chapter 6 Church Architecture in Feild's Diocese 112 6.1. Tractarian Spirituality and Church Architecture 112 6.1.1. Feild's Policy on Erecting Churches 113 6.1.2. Feild and the Cambridge Camden Society 115 6.2. Consecration: for the Glory of God 118 6.3. Church Architecture and Design 121 6.3.1. Church Buildings 122 6.3.2. The Architecture of St. John's Cathedral 125 6.4. Internal Design, Construction, and Furnishing of a Church 128 6.4.1. Layout and Furniture within the Church 129 6.4.2. Adorning the Church Interior 132 6.5. Summary 134 Chapter 7 Conclusion 13 7 Bibliography 150 Appendix: William Grey, "The Ecclesiology ofNewfoundland" Chapter 1 Introduction Although there are schools, roads, and buildings named after him in Newfoundland and England, people of today know very little about Bishop Edward Feild. The embodiment of the Church of England in the Diocese ofNewfoundland (including the Archdeaconry of Bermuda) for over thirty years, surprisingly little scholarship exists about him, and he has not been given a scholarly biography. Edward Feild was bishop of Newfoundland from 1844-1876, which were years of much upheaval in Newfoundland, some of which he was involved in, or helped to create. The years of his episcopate were by no means quiet, but both productive and controversial as far as the history of the Church of England and ofNewfoundland is concerned. Edward Feild was born on 7 June 1801, in Worcester, England, and died 8 June 1876, in Hamilton, Bermuda, "in the 76th year of his age, the 51st of his ministry, and the 33rd ofhis Episcopate."1 Feild was educated at Rugby, and then at Queen's College, Oxford. It was during his time at Queen's that his High Church sympathies grew when he studied divinity under the very popular Dr. Charles Lloyd, Regius Professor of Divinity. Lloyd was later bishop of Oxford and ordained Feild as a priest in 1827. Feild was at Oxford at the same time as other future members of the Oxford Movement and even competed for an Oriel Fellowship (unsuccessfully) with, among others, Frederick Oakeley and Robert Isaac Wilberforce, two of its prominent members.2 His first parish was at Kidlington and, in 1833, he left that church when he became rector of English Bicknor in Gloucestershire.