An Anglican in the Attic

It is an all too common mistake in some quarters of the Anglican Church to characterize as “Romanists” or “Romanizers,”  anyone who exhibits an interest in the early practices of the Christian Church and its early rites and services and to describe their interest as “Romanism.” This mislabeling may be a result of insufficient knowledge and understanding of the history of both the Early Church and the English Church, but it also may be the result of longstanding prejudices which have their origins in the seventeenth century and earlier. It may owe more to seventeenth century politics and to the propaganda of the period. Politics and religion were closely intertwined in seventeenth century England and Jesus’ command to love your enemies and do good to them very often went unheeded. The Puritans and Presbyterians of the seventeenth century were not beyond portraying those with whom they disagreed in the worst possible light and demonizing them. Archbishop William Laud’s enemies went ...