the earl of shaftesbury (1801-1885) a case study in conservative evangelical social concern solent...

The Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885)A case study in conservative evangelical social concern

Solent Gospel Partnership

Revd Dr Richard Turnbull

12th March 2012

“I know what constituted an Evangelical in former times. I have no clear notions what it constitutes now.”

The Earl of Shaftesbury, circa 1884


‘Were Arius alive now, he would be promoted to Canterbury.’

Lord Ashley, Diaries, 19 October 1838


‘I am not such a lover of episcopacy as to think it necessary to salvation.’

Shaftesbury, CPAS Abstract 1873


“such will be the religion of the future, in which Vishnu, Mahomet, Jupiter and Jesus Christ will all be upon a level.”

Diaries, 18th March, 1868.


Introduction

• The problem of Christian social concern

• Christian socialism or compassionate Conservatism?

• Individual versus corporate responsibility

• Conservative Evangelical concern for society


The Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885)

• Birth and upbringing

• Protestant campaigner

• Parliamentary reformer


“Anna Maria Millis, the old Housekeeper, to whom, under God, I owe the first thoughts of Piety and the first actions of Prayer.”

Shaftesbury Manuscripts.


‘In such rites as these the soul has no share; the Papists have re-imposed upon themselves the Jewish burdens, and renew the painful and imperfect worship of the Temple at Jerusalem. Walked home, read the Bible and all the prayers for the day…’

Lord Ashley, Diaries, 25 December 1833


Shaftesbury’s Protestant campaigning

• Maynooth

• Sunday Post Office opening

• The Papal Aggression and Ecclesiastical Titles Act

• The campaign against Anglo-Catholicism


‘Let us turn our eyes to that within, from Popery to Popery in the bud; from the open enemy to the concealed traitor; from the menace that is hurled at our Church, to the doctrine that is preached from our pulpit; from the foreign assailant, to the foes of our own household’

Hodder, volume 2, pages 331-334


‘There is no power on earth that shall induce me to assist in elevating the writer of that paper to the station of public teacher. I see very little difference between a man who promulgates false doctrine and him who suppresses the true. I cannot concur in the approval of a candidate whose writings are in contravention of the inspired Apostle…I will not consent to give my support, however humble, towards the existence of exoteric and esoteric doctrines in the Church of England, to obscure the perspicuity of the Gospel by the philosophy of Paganism’

Letter from Ashley to Selborne, December 1841 in Hodder v1, pp389-390


“false and heretical doctrines…auricular confession – the most monstrous perhaps of all the monstrous practices of the Roman system…a deep-seated corruption of faith and doctrine, enticing, and intending to entice, the people from the simplicity of the Gospel, and to lead them to submit to the sacerdotal forgery of a sacrificing priesthood, and the inevitable train of abominable superstitions.”


‘Abundance of servitors, etc., in Romish apparel. Service intoned and sung, except the Lessons, by priests with white surplices and green stripes. This being ended, a sudden clearance. All disappeared. In a few minutes, the organ, the choristers, abundant officials, and three priests in green silk robes, the middle priest having on his back a cross embroidered, as long as his body. This was the beginning of the Sacramental service (quarter-past eleven), the whole having begun at half-past ten. Then ensued such a scene of theatrical gymnastics, of singing, screaming, genuflections, such a series of strange movements of the priests, their backs almost always to the people, as I never saw before even in a Romish Temple. Clouds upon clouds of incense, the censer frequently refreshed by the High Priest, who kissed the spoon, as he dug out the sacred powder, and swung it about at the end of a silver chain.’


‘The priests in the chancel, and the priest when he mounted the pulpit, crossing themselves, each time, once on the forehead, and once on the right and left breast. A quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, sufficed to administer to about seventy Communicants, out of perhaps six hundred present. An hour and three-quarters were given to the histrionic part. The Communicants went up to the tune of soft music, as though it had been a melodrama, and one was astonished, at the close, that there was no fall of the curtain. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.’ Is our blessed Lord obeyed in such observances and ceremonials? Do we thus lead souls to Christ or to Baal?’

Shaftesbury, Diaries, 23rd July, 1866


‘The Ritualistic system adopted in many of our churches has altogether changed their Protestant character and given to them the appearance of Popish places of worship, so as scarcely, and oftentimes not at all, to be distinguishable from those of the Church of Rome.’

Shaftesbury, House of Lords, Clerical Vestments Bill,14 May 1867


Shaftesbury and Parliament

• Factory Reform

• Industrial reform and employment

• Public health

• Lunacy reform

• Foreign affairs

• Protestantism

• Education

• Ecclesiastical matters




‘..some of the evils of so hideous a nature, they will not admit of delay – they must be instantly removed – evils that are both disgusting and intolerable – disgusting they would be in a heathen country, and perfectly intolerable they are in one that professes to call itself Christian.’

Lord Ashley, Hansard, 1840



‘…I have been bold enough to undertake this task, because I must regard the objects of it as being created, as ourselves, by the same Maker, redeemed by the same Saviour, and destined to the same Immortality…’

Lord Ashley, Hansard, 1840

the earl of shaftesbury (1801-1885) a case study in conservative evangelical social concern solent...

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