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Ex Libris: Annotating Books from the William A. Clark Memorial Library

Page 67 of William Nicholson's A Plain, but Full Exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England

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Anglican Preeminence in 17th-Century England: Supremacy at the Expense of Britain's Catholic Subjects
Alongside revolutionary Enlightenment ideas, brutal warfare across Europe, and global colonization, religion played a crucial role in defining English history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Using the Church of England, British kings consolidated their power after decades of religious and political chaos, hoping to avoid the anarchy of the English Civil War and insurrection from Britain's Catholic minority. Contemporary books provide a wealth of information about the topics that dominated English theological discourse at the time, helping historians to better understand such a complex time period.
Written at the peak of anti-Catholic sentiment in the British Isles, A Plain, but Full Exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England and its annotations showcase English society’s efforts to bolster Anglican authority there. This book’s publication date, pro-Anglican content, and annotations place it into a larger historical context of anti-Catholic hostility in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After acquiring the book in 1763, an English clergyman named William Chambers, alongside other notable religious officials, attempted to purify the Anglican Church of its ancient Catholic roots.
First, the 1678 publication date of A Plain, but Full Exposition reveals the book as part of an anti-Catholic historical movement. In the century prior to the book’s publication, England fought numerous wars against Catholic France and Spain, and participated in the Thirty Years’ War which pitted Protestant and Catholic states against one another. At the same time, infamous English leaders such as Mary Tudor and Oliver Cromwell enacted bloody purges of Protestants and Catholics alike. In 1660, after years of political anarchy and civil war, King Charles II was restored to the English monarchy. To prevent future turmoil, he consolidated his power through church and state. First, he established the overwhelmingly-Anglican and royalist "Cavalier Parliament" to support his efforts toward Anglican dominance. Second, his Parliament passed four acts from 1661 to 1665, collectively called the Clarendon Code. In essence, the Clarendon Code accomplished four goals: it required government officials to swear allegiance to Church of England; it made the Anglican Common Book of Prayer compulsory in churches; it prohibited non-Anglican religious assemblies of more than five people; and it banished non-conforming clergymen from entering within a five-mile radius of their parishes. The Clarendon Code effectively hindered the practice of Catholicism in Great Britain. In 1666, a year after the Clarendon Code assumed its final form, Protestant Londoners blamed Catholics for the Great Fire of London. The events preceding 1678 provide a historical backdrop of anti-Catholicism for A Plain, but Full Exposition.
William Nicholson, Lord Bishop of Gloucester, published the book in 1678 - the same year anti-Catholic sentiment reached its crescendo. Great Britain descended into mass hysteria as an Anglican clergyman named Titus Oates accused 35 innocent Catholic Jesuits of conspiring to assassinate King Charles II, in a web of false allegations known as the “Popish Plot.” Much of this “anti-popery” threatened England’s political stability, and events like the Popish Plot demonstrate the British monarchy’s constant struggle to maintain order amidst religious fervor. A Plain, but Full Exposition emerged at the height of English anti-popery, likely as a way to ensure the supremacy of Anglican doctrine in the future generation’s collective conscience. After all, teaching Anglican values to every child would seem like an effective way to eradicate Catholicism from England and guarantee future religious peace.
Second, the book’s content further places A Plain, but Full Exposition in a historical epoch of anti-Catholicism in England. Three major focal points of this book are worthy of observation: its definition of “Catholic” in the Nicene Creed; its emphasis on obedience to the “National Church;” and its explicit directions to obey the English king. The first section of the catechism covers the Nicene Creed, which the early Roman Catholic Church established at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, and which almost every Christian denomination has since used as a profession of faith. A Plain, but Full Exposition focuses on the line of the Nicene Creed which states, “I believe the Holy Catholick Church.” On page 64 of A Plain, but Full Exposition, Nicholson breaks this sentence down, defining Catholic to mean “universal” and Church to mean “the people themselves,” instead of an establishment. The following page states inwardly there is one church (one Christian people), but outwardly there are a variety of established churches (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican Communion, etc.) with different rites and ceremonies. This effectively distinguishes the Anglican Communion from the Roman Catholic Church, and justifies the creation of new doctrine for the Anglican Church. The second focal point of the book’s contents is its emphasis on obeying the Church of England. In further analyzing the Nicene Creed, the author prioritizes “that we be obedient to the Church, and… National Church”. Essentially, this catechism stresses obedience to the Christian community and especially to the Church of England (special attention to the italicized "National Church"), and not to Rome. The book’s third notable characteristic is its examination of the Fifth Commandment, specifically where it derives from it the duty to “honour and obey the King and his Ministers”. A defining feature of the Anglican Church is the primacy of the Crown instead of the Pope, which became even more prominent with the notion of the “divine right of kings.” This catechism instills obedience to the king, likely to guarantee English children's loyalty to the Anglican British Crown, and to prevent conversion to Catholicism. During this period of intense hostility toward Catholics, A Plain, but Full Exposition is ultimately an explicit reinforcement of Anglican doctrine.
Third, the annotations in A Plain, but Full Exposition highlight the differences between Anglican and Catholic doctrines, and indicate that the book’s owner may have specifically sought passages that reaffirmed Anglican tenets. The first notable annotation appears next to a section of text describing Christ’s offices as a priest, prophet, and king. The annotation’s author - perhaps William Chambers himself - writes that as a king, Christ has the power to make laws, punish and reward subjects, and protect His subjects from enemies. Interestingly, no annotations appear next to the explanation of Christ’s other offices. Perhaps the author wrote this annotation to underscore the similarity between Christ and the English king. It is certainly plausible, since the ideas of the Enlightenment threatened the king’s supposed mandate from God, and a religious leader might want to instill obedience to the king while catechizing the next generation of Anglicans. Additionally, the annotator provided a striking tenet of the Anglican Church on a blank page at the end of the book, which sharply contrasts with Roman Catholic tradition. The annotation summarizes the Second Commandment and its relation to icon worship, and states:
"The 2nd [Commandment] concerns ye meanes [God] by which [God] is to be worshiped. [God] prohibits ye making of any visible image or representation of. [God] worshipping him by it.”
While the Roman Catholic Church accepts the adoration of holy icons, the Anglican Church forbade the use of such “graven images” in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These annotations further prove A Plain, but Full Exposition to be a product of religious tension and post-Restoration politics, and reinforces Anglican doctrine and the king's primacy over the Church of England.
Nearly a century after Charles II’s enactment of the Clarendon Code, an Anglican clergyman named William Chambers acquired A Plain, but Full Exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England in 1763. He carved “WC” into its back cover, and wrote “William Chambers His Book/ Gave to Him By His Father/ May the 30th 1763”. Born in the East Midlands around 1724, Chambers graduated from St. John’s College in Cambridge and became a clergyman, eventually becoming the rector of Achurch in Northamptonshire. Between 1771 and 1774, he joined other Anglican clergymen as a leading advocate for the Feathers Tavern petition. The petitioners sought to purify the Anglican Church’s Thirty-Nine Articles of its Catholic-like dogmatic creeds, and create English protestant unity to defend against Roman Catholicism. It is difficult to claim with accuracy for what purpose Chambers used the book, since he would have been nearly 40 years old by the time he acquired it from his father. A likelihood exists that as the rector of Achurch, he may have used A Plain, but Full Exposition to assist in catechizing English children to the Church of England. Many of the annotations are of his own handwriting, so he may have acquired the book to highlight specific Anglican elements he considered most worthwhile to teach. Despite this uncertainty, Chambers’s acquisition of A Plain, but Full Exposition lends additional historical context to the internal theological debate within the Church of England, as well as the Anglican Church’s deeply-rooted desire to diverge from the dogmatic style of Roman Catholicism.
The publication date, pro-Anglican and anti-Catholic text, and annotations in A Plain, but Full Exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England relfect the religious tension that defined English history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These elements set the book against a historical backdrop of anti-Catholicism, and even show that the book itself played a small role in perpetuating Anglican supremacy in the British Isles. William Chambers’s acquisition of the book, when placed in the context of his own achievements and beliefs, further highlight the theological debate surrounding the role of dogmata in the Anglican Church. A Plain, but Full Exposition is a time capsule that lends tremendous insight into the religious environment of the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries in England, and stands as a crucial reminder that books preserve history for future generations.
Works Cited
Dudley, Albert Cassell. "Nonconformity Under the "Clarendon Code"." The American Historical Review 18, no. 1 (1912): 65-78. Accessed May 31, 2021. doi:10.2307/1832693.

G.M. Ditchfield. "Chambers, William (1724?-1777), Church of England Clergyman". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (2008). Accessed May 31, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/50679.

G.M. Ditchfield. "Feathers Tavern Petitioners (act. 1771-1774)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (2005). Accessed May 31, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/93823.

Sowerby, Scott. "Opposition to Anti-Popery in Restoration England." Journal of British Studies 51, no. 1 (2012): 26-49. Accessed May 31, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23265257.