A REREADING OF TRACT 90 by Kelvin F Curnow A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology Melbourne College of Divinity 2010 TO AUSTIN COOPER TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 1. The Glorious Legacy of the Caroline Divines ..................................................................... 12 2. The Oxford Movement........................................................................................................... 40 3. Tract 90 ..................................................................................................................................... 58 4. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β1 Articles VI & XX .............................................................................. 71 5. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β2 Article XI............................................................................................ 94 6. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β3 Articles XII & XIII .........................................................................109 7. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β4 Article XIX ......................................................................................127 8. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β5 Article XXI ......................................................................................145 9. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β6 Article XXII .....................................................................................157 10. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β7 Article XXV ...................................................................................202 11. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β8 Article XXVIII ..............................................................................210 12. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β9 Article XXXI .................................................................................236 13. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β10 Article XXXII .............................................................................252 14. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β11 Article XXXV .............................................................................263 15. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β12 Article XXXVII ..........................................................................272 16. Tract 90 Ŕ Section β13 The Concluding Section of Tract 90 ........................................288 17. Observations, Summary and Conclusion .........................................................................308 Appendix I: List of Tracts and Their Authors .......................................................................334 Appendix II: Tracts for the Times Arranged According to Their Type ............................340 Appendix III: The Thirty-Nine Articles Commented on in Tract 90 and Those Not Commented on ...........................................................................................................................342 Appendix IV: The Divines and Other Sources Quoted in Tract 90 in Parallel with Those in the Catenae Patrum ...............................................................................................................352 Appendix V: The Articles Remarked on in Tract 90 Compared with the Fourteen Objections to the Church of Rome in Tract 38 ....................................................................357 Appendix VI: The Athanasian Creed - 1662 Book of Common Prayer ............................359 Appendix VII: The Tracts for the Times Written by J. H. Newman .................................360 Appendix VIII: The Books of Homilies.................................................................................362 Appendix IX: Newmanřs Citations from the Books of Homilies ......................................364 Appendix X: The Text of Tract 90 (Section 2) Compared with Extracts from the Books of Homilies ..................................................................................................................................369 Appendix XI: The Extract from the Homily on Repentance in Tract 90 (Section 3) Compared with Original Document .......................................................................................371 Appendix XII: The Protestant, Roman Catholic and Tractarian Doctrines of Justification .................................................................................................................................375 Appendix XIII: Authorities Cited in Tract 90 Concerning the Visible Church ...............377 Appendix XIV: The Visible Church Ŕ Editions of Tract 90 Compared ...........................382 Appendix XV: Comparison Between Authorities Cited in Tract 90 and The British Critic (January 1840) .............................................................................................................................387 Appendix XVI: Citations from the Council of Trent used to Support Contentions in Tract 90 ........................................................................................................................................388 Appendix XVII: Works by Newman Published During his Anglican Period and Roman Catholic Period ...........................................................................................................................394 Appendix XVIII: The Council of Trent and the Articles Religion ....................................399 Appendix XIX: The Forty-Two Articles of Religion and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion in Tract 90 ...................................................................................................................406 Appendix XX: Tractarian Doctrine in Tract 90 cited from the Books of Homilies ........413 Appendix XXI: The Confessions of Religion ........................................................................438 Appendix XXII: The Different Editions of Tract 90, Section 4 (Indicating Alterations to the Text) ......................................................................................................................................484 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................489 A REREADING OF TRACT 90 by KELVIN F. CURNOW INTRODUCTION The Oxford Movement (1833-1845) presented the most comprehensive nineteenth- century Anglican programme of systematic theology on the nature of the Church.1 The impetus for the formation of the Movement lay in the decision by the Whig Government to pass the Irish Church Act (1833).2 Its intention was to reorganise the Anglican dioceses in Ireland, effectively reducing their number to twelve. This action shattered the unity between the civil and ecclesiastical, the notion of a balanced relationship between the Church and State which had existed from Elizabethan times. That relationship was built around the central principle that to be an Englishman was to also be a member of the Church of England. Underlying this notion was that the secular and divine served each other and the nation as one.3 It had been assumed that one would not do harm to the other. The apologist Richard Hooker (1554-1600) enunciated this concept in his work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: Ŗ… there is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is not also a member of the commonwealth; nor any man a member of the commonwealth, which is not also of the Church of England.ŗ4 To some, the Irish Church Act appeared to break the nexus between the Church and the State which caused a crisis in the Church of England. The Church had long enjoyed the protection of Parliament and was considered to be in a privileged position. The events of 1833 effectively caused some in the Church to question the provenance of its authority, one which had for so 1 C. Brad Faught, The Oxford Movement: A Thematic History of the Tractarians and Their Times (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), 33. 2 Brian Martin, John Henry Newman: His Life and Work (London: Continuum, 2001), 56. 3 Richard Hooker, The Works of Mr. Richard Hooker, in Eight Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: With Several Other Treatises and a General Index, Isaac Walton, editor (London: W. Clarke et al, 1821), III: 226. 4 Ibid. long been assured by Governments, both Whig and Tory. The question was addressed in a sermon preached by John Keble (1792-1866) to the Judges of the Assize at St. Maryřs, Oxford, on 14 July, 1833.5 Keble noted in the Advertisement to the first edition of Sermons Academical and Occasional that the government was treating the established Church Ŗ… as one sect among many…ŗ6 The comfortable balance between Church and State, a doctrine espoused by Hooker, had effectively been replaced with the doctrine of Erastianism.7 Keble proclaimed the Church could no longer look to the State for sanction but would find its authority in ŖApostolical Authority.ŗ8 John Henry Newman (1801-90) was the foremost theologian and writer of the Oxford Movement. His contributions in the areas of ecclesiology, Church history, liturgy and doctrine were significant and remain so. Notable among these were his contributions to the series of doctrinal statements, the Tracts for the Times.9 Newman reflected in his work, the Apologia Pro Vita Sua, the reason these documents (indeed all Tractarian publications) were written. … we were upholding the primitive Christianity which was delivered for all time by the early teachers of the Church, and was registered and attested in the Anglican formularies and the Anglican divines. …that the Apostolical form of doctrine