Chapter Eight - Pusey and the Scottish Episcopal Church: Tractarian Diversity and Divergence

Summary

Edward Bouverie Pusey became directly involved with the Scottish Episcopal Church in the 1850s and 1860s as a consequence of two major issues. The first occurred as a result of the accusation of heresy and the subsequent trial of Bishop Alexander Penrose Forbes of Brechin from 1857 to 1860, over his teaching about the ‘Real Objective Presence’ of Christ in the Eucharist. The second was the prospective relinquishing of their indigenous Communion Office by the Scottish church in the early 1860s. Both these issues were causes for Pusey and the Tractarians in England because they were seen to be threats to their doctrinal position. In examining these two Scottish Episcopalian developments not only can Pusey's attitude to the Scottish Episcopal Church be teased out, but also the existence of diversity, and even divergence, among the Tractarian leadership can be noted. This divergence is important because there has been a tendency in the historiography of Anglo-Catholicism to play down Tractarian differences in favour of presenting the Oxford Movement in a more unified way.

As with so much interpretation of the Oxford Movement, it was Dean Richard Church who did so much to cement this impression of Tractarian uniformity in his classic account. Church, with his nostalgic personal remembrance of many of the actors in the Movement, created in his book a sunlit scenario of 1830s Oxford University. The need for acting in concert was identified early on, and as long as this was upheld the Movement went forward, until John Henry Newman's separation and secession broke it apart within Oxford.