Keble’s Assize Sermon of 14th July 1833



This Blog Post will give some background to the Assize Sermon preached in the University Church by John Keble in July 1833. The first stage in this is to set out the issue of Catholic Emancipation. The bill for the emancipation of Roman Catholics from civil disabilities was passed in April 1829. Some people thought that George IV would veto it, but he did not and the Government was expecting Civil War in Ireland unless it conceded to some of the Roman Catholic claims. There were various securities to uphold the protestants: The coronation oath ensured that a protestant monarch could not marry anyone other than another protestant and the number of Roman Catholic Members of Parliament from Ireland was restricted. Many offices of state could not be held by a Roman Catholic such as the King and Lord Chancellor and no Roman Catholic Bishop could take the same title as one in the established protestant church. A Roman Catholic judge or mayor could not go out in public in robes of office, nor too a monk wear his habit and religious communities were not permitted to admit new members.
When MPs took up their office the oath ensured that they promised not to subvert the established Church of England within England. Some conservative protestants opposed any of the bill of emancipation. Following the French Revolution in 1830 the Whig cabinet sought reform. Some clergy opposed this and so too did some Bishops. The result was that on Guy Fawkes night in 1831 effigies of Bishops were burned instead of a guy. The established church was attacked- the payment of tithes and income of Bishops were widely condemned by many people. Unitarians and atheists joined in the attack. The arrival of cholera in the country in 1831 was viewed as God’s judgement and in 1832 the Church proclaimed a day of fasting and humiliation. This day was described as a “farce” day by the Political Union of London, who handed out bread. Overall it was the issue of Ireland that forced the Government to emancipate the Roman Catholics. In 1833 some Irish Bishoprics and Benefices were suspended and the money went into the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
A swing towards a high churchmanship in the Church of England started and became focussed around John Henry Newman and a group(who became known as the Oxford Movement). Newman began as an evangelical but grew closer to a high church position. Keble was part of this group and his Assize sermon of July 1833 focussed on the National Apostasy, the drift of the state away from the Church and advocated a return to devotion within it.
The Oxford Movement had four main objectives:
1. upholding the apostolic succession of Bishops and Clergy within the Church of England
2. to prevent people who were not members interfering in the running of the Church
3. to enhance the popularity of the Church in a troubled time following Roman Catholic Emancipation
4. to protest at any attempts to separate the Church and State
Tracts were written to try to make high churchmanship more attractive. The basic problem remained that the Government could control the appointment of Bishops in the apostolic line.
If the Government was to contain non-members of the Church, then it could not be guaranteed that appointments commensurate with the apostolic succession would be made. This illustrates why Keble (speaking in his Assize sermon) wished that the State would uphold the life of the Church of England. As a result of this Sermon and the growing Oxford Movement, public meetings were held in larger cities to declare unwavering attachment to the Established Church.
The role of the Established Church in the life of a state remains a potent issue in the twenty first century. For example how involved do you think the Church should be in the Government should there be Bishops in the House of Lords?

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