RITUAL LEGISLATION IN THE VICTORIAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND Antecedents and Passages of the Public Worship Regulation Act, 1874

Author:	Graber, Gary
Year:	1993
Pages:	204
ISBN:	0-7734-2216-1 978-0-7734-2216-2
Price:	$179.95

This book traces the history of anti-ritualist legislation that led to the Public Worship Regulation Act and its results. Its goal is not only the better understanding of this particular Act, but appreciation for the problems encountered during the ritualistic controversy as well. It examines events and issues in Parliament, the church, the ecclesiastical court system, and the country at large. Specific bills, judgments, and reports are categorized and placed in historical context, and the story of the Public Worship Regulation Act is followed from initial draft to Royal Assent. Finally, the events that followed passage are considered to round out the work.

Reviews

"The novelty of Graber's book lies in its method, the construction almost of a genealogy of legislation by which the failed Parliamentary bills of the late 1860s and early 1870s are shown to have influenced the shape and content of Archbishop Tait's successful measure. In the process, as Graber ably demonstrates, there was fundamental shift in the tactics of those who hoped, by legislative action, to defeat the growth of Ritualism in the church. . . . Graber's text is supported by succinct summaries of each chapter, and by an appendix setting out the full text of the 1874 measure, and summary contents of its precedents. All of this supporting material, and Graber's narrative of legislative action, will indeed be useful to future historians of Ritualism and the campaign against it." - Anglican and Episcopal History