Society of the Holy Cross
The Society of the Holy Cross is an Anglo-Catholic society for priests in the Anglican tradition. It ought not be confused with the Roman Catholic Priestly Society of the Holy Cross which is an order of Opus Dei priests. It is abbreviated SSC from the initials of the Latin name for the society, Societas Sanctae Crucis. It includes priests who are within the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as some priests who are in the so-called Continuing Anglican jurisdictions.
The current Master General of the order is Father David Houlding SSC.
Founding and Early History
The society was founded on February 28, 1855 in the Chapel of the House of Charity, Soho, London by six Anglican priests: Charles Fuge Lowder, Charles Maurice Davies, David Nicols, Alfred Poole, Joseph Newton Smith and Henry Augustus Rawes. These six priests were some of the earliest adherents to the ideals and philosophies of Anglo-Catholicism within the Church of England. The society they formed was initially intended as a secret association for their own personal advancement and edification, but it soon came to be the driving force behind the Anglo-Catholic movement within Anglicanism, particularly after the first phase of the Oxford Movement had played its course and John Henry Newman had converted to Roman Catholicism. Like Newman three of the founding members of the SSC eventually converted to Roman Catholicism: Davies, Nichols and Rawes.
Father Lowder was undoubtedly the true founder of the society and he served as its first Master. While visiting France in 1854 he had first conceived of the idea of an order of Anglo-Catholic priests based on the Lazarists, a Roman Catholic priestly order founded by St Vincent de Paul. The society expanded almost immediately as other Anglo-Catholic priests in London joined the original six. The priests of the society ministered in parishes characterised by poverty and working class membership in some of the poorest slum areas of London. These included the parishes of: St Barnabas' PimlicoSt Peter's London Docks (formerly St George's in the East). Many of these areas were so dangerous that successive Bishops of London refused to visit the parishes and missions served by SSC priests, although their refusal was also often motivated by a distaste for the practices of the Anglo-Catholic clergy.
The practices of the priests of the society were to lead to persecution, lawsuits, rioting and even imprisonment of some of the members. The society was committed to practices which were very close, and in some cases indistinguishable, from practices in the Roman Catholic Church. This included a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, a commitment to the celebration of the Mass, the practice of auricular confession, the wearing of eucharistic vestments, the use of incense, the use of liturgical hand bells, the use of wafer breads at the celebration of the Mass and other Catholic practices. While these practices were not completely unknown in the Church of England since the Reformation most of them had not been in general use for hundreds of years as the Church of England had become increasingly Protestant in its liturgical practice in most places since the reign of Elizabeth I. It is important to note that the priests of the SSC considered these practices an outward, necessary and physical expression of belief and doctrine and not as simply aesthetic adornments to worship.
Many Low Church and Latitudinarian churchmen viewed the practices of the SSC priests with horror and dismay. In many cases, Mass and the Divine Office in Anglo-Catholic parishes were disrupted by rioting and shouting during the reading of lessons and the sermon. Furniture, books and cushions were commonly hurled at priests, choristers and altars during and after services and public assault on priests by their opponents was also frequent. Lawsuits were filed against priests for (among other things): hearing confessions, 'false teachings on the Eucharist' as well as for the use of candles, incense and the wearing of eucharistic vestments. In many cases, priests were suspended from their ministries and some of these prosecutions were successful, but priests of the society resisted the actions of their opponents and the civil courts and in many cases continued to practice their religion in keeping with their own consciences. Other actions brought in the civil courts had split decisions, where some Catholic practices were permitted by the courts while others were ruled illegal. Still other practices were sometimes ruled by the civil courts not to be illegal per se but that their continued use would require direct authorisation by the diocesan Bishop.
The Public Worship Regulation Act
See: Public Worship Regulation Act
In 1867 a government commission was established to "inquire into the rubrics, orders and directions for regulating the course and conduct of public worship" which was presented to Parliament. The recommendations of this commission eventually led to the passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act by the Disraeli government in 1874 with the stated aim of "putting down the Ritualists". The Act was framed by a number of Low Church clergymen and politicians, most notably Archibald Tait Archbishop of Canterbury who had previously served as the Bishop of London and had refused visitation to the parishes served by priests of the SSC. Tait introduced the bill to the House of Lords himself as a Private Member's Bill. After the Act came into force on July 1st, 1875 the period of the most severe legal persecution against priests of the SSC began as prosecutions were carried out against them under the auspices of the Act. A Low Church organisation, the Church Association, which had been responsible for some the initial lawsuits brought against SSC priests before the Act was passed, now vigourously prosecuted priests who persisted in Anglo-Catholic practices. A total of seventeen priests were prosectued by the Church Association under the provisions of the Act for "offenses" including: The 'Eastward Position', use of eucharistic vestments, use of wafer bread, commixture, altar lights/candles, the singing of the Agnus Dei, processions, the installation and devotion of Stations of the Cross, and the erection of a crucifix on the rood screen. The prosecutions brought against these priests had mixed results. In many cases, prosecuted priests negotiated with their bishop and compromised and abandoned some practices, while others served time in prison for either not acknowledging the right of the courts to judge them on matters of worship or were convicted for violations of the Act. Occasionally bishops (including Archbishop Tait) would intervene to stop prosecutions in order to avoid continuing embarassment resulting from the proceedings, particularly as outrage grew at the blatant interference in spiritual matters by secular courts.
See also
- Priestly Society of the Holy Cross (Roman Catholic)