The name was used in the early part of the 18th century as the
equivalent of "Latitudinarian," i.e. one who was prepared to concede
much latitude in matters of discipline and faith, in contradistinction
to "High Churchman," the term applied to those who took a high view of
the exclusive authority of the Established Church, of episcopacy and of
the sacramental system. It subsequently fell into disuse, but was
revived in the 19th century when the Tractarian movement had brought the
term "High Churchman" into vogue again in a modified sense, i.e. for
those who exalted the idea of the Catholic Church and the sacramental
system at the expense both of the Establishment and of the exclusive
authority of Scripture. "Low Churchman" now became the equivalent of
"Evangelical," the designation of the movement, associated with the name
of Simeon, which laid the chief stress on the necessity of personal
"conversion." "Latitudinarian" gave place at the same time to "Broad
Churchman," to designate those who lay stress on the ethical teaching of
the Church and minimize the value of orthodoxy. The revival of
pre-Reformation ritual by many of the High Church clergy led to the
designation "ritualist" being applied to them in a somewhat contemptuous
sense; and "High Churchman" and "Ritualist" have often been wrongly
treated as convertible terms. Actually many High Churchmen are not
Ritualists, though they tend to become so. The High Churchman of the
"Catholic" type is further differentiated from the "old-fashioned High
Churchman" of what is sometimes described as the "high and dry" type of
the period anterior to the Oxford Movement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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