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© Revd Patrick Comerford Holy Trinity, Bordesley in 2023 (Church closed in 1968) |
Bordesley, Birmingham in the 1860s-1880's
In
1865, Fr James Pollock was invited by Dr. Oldknow, the well-known
Tractarian Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, to start a Mission among
the newcomers in a part of his parish. Eventually, to ensure continuity
of the Mission it was necessary to set up a separate District for St
Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Fr James Pollock was soon joined by his brother Fr Tom
Pollock to assist him in this new parish.
After Dr Oldknow died in 1874, and partly through Fr Tom Pollock of St Alban’s private influence, Dr Oldknow’s successor at Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was the Rev. Richard Enraght, a priest in every way in sympathy with the aims of his Tractarian predecessor. The two Birmingham parishes enjoyed close connections with their Anglo-Catholic traditions and the friendship of the three priests. The Pollock brothers and Fr. Enraght were former graduates of Trinity College, Dublin. [16] [17]
An indication of Fr Enraght’s popularity and support of his use of ritualism in worship at Holy Trinity, was the attendances for Holy Communion, Sunday mornings would attract a congregation of between 400 to 500 while the Sunday Evensong (with sermon) would attract even more at 700 to 800 parishioners.
With his parish’s support he was even able
to introduce weekday celebrations of Holy Communion. Fr Enraght brought
an increase of life and beauty to the services at Holy Trinity, together
with a hearty loving kindness and helpfulness that made the vicarage
and its residents most deeply loved. No one could say that Fr Enraght
did not do his utmost; there were no aggrieved parishioners, not one of
these parishioners complained of the services or wished them altered. [18].
After Dr Oldknow died in 1874, and partly through Fr Tom Pollock of St Alban’s private influence, Dr Oldknow’s successor at Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was the Rev. Richard Enraght, a priest in every way in sympathy with the aims of his Tractarian predecessor. The two Birmingham parishes enjoyed close connections with their Anglo-Catholic traditions and the friendship of the three priests. The Pollock brothers and Fr. Enraght were former graduates of Trinity College, Dublin. [16] [17]
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| Image Credit the Hathi Trust Digital Library and The University of Michigan Library The Old & New Birmingham by Robert Kirkup Dent (1880) Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham. (Church closed in 1968) |
An indication of Fr Enraght’s popularity and support of his use of ritualism in worship at Holy Trinity, was the attendances for Holy Communion, Sunday mornings would attract a congregation of between 400 to 500 while the Sunday Evensong (with sermon) would attract even more at 700 to 800 parishioners.
In 1875 a group of men from Fr Enraght’s congregation who played for the Church's cricket team formed a football club called the Small Heath Alliance F.C., eventually over the years this football club was to be renamed Birmingham City F.C.
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copyright
© PCC of
St Alban and St Patrick, Highgate,
Birmingham.
Fr
Enraght at Bordesley
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Birmingham
was the equal to Brighton in hostilities to Anglo Catholics from the
Church Association, a radical group of Protestants, who had unlimited
funds to mount prosecutions. The Church Association sort to separate
Priests from their congregations by registering its members in these
parishes, so as to become “aggrieved parishioners” and therefore the
clergy could be prosecuted under the new PWR Act.
In one parish in the north of England they resorted to bribing parishioners to speak out against their priest, in one instance a churchwarden was offered £10,000 to give evidence, (a fortune in the Victorian era) [19] [20]. The Church Association was essentially aggressive. Its avowed object was ‘to uphold the Principles and Order of the United Church of England and Ireland’, which meant, in practice, fighting Ritualism by legal action wherever it occurred in the Country.
In one parish in the north of England they resorted to bribing parishioners to speak out against their priest, in one instance a churchwarden was offered £10,000 to give evidence, (a fortune in the Victorian era) [19] [20]. The Church Association was essentially aggressive. Its avowed object was ‘to uphold the Principles and Order of the United Church of England and Ireland’, which meant, in practice, fighting Ritualism by legal action wherever it occurred in the Country.
The
Church Association earned the nickname, given by Bishop Magee (a
non-ritualist Bishop and future Archbishop of York) as the ‘Persecution
Company Limited’, because they employed special agents to seek out
ritualist priest, [21] while many other opponents of The Church Association simply labelled it as, ‘ The Church Ass’ [22].
In
London, the situation was no better. Fr. Lowder, the founder of the
Society of the Holy Cross, was threatened with prosecution under the
Public Worship Regulation Act but escaped legal action by the
intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury who feared the consequences
of such a high profile Anglo-Catholic being put on trial.
On
the 1st August 1880, Fr. Richard Enraght was invited to London to
preach at the Church of St Peter’s, London Docks, by Fr. Charles Fuge
Lowder, for High Celebration to mark the 4th anniversary of The Church
of England Working Men’s Society. Sadly this was the last major service
at St. Peters that Fr. Lowder would attend, as he died a few weeks later
while on holiday for health reasons in Austria [23].
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'Black
Sheep' from Punch,
18 December 1874:-
Archbishop Tait has a crook which reads PUBLIC WORSHIP REGULATION BILL, the black sheep have RITUALISM written on their backs, the wall is called the ESTABLISHED CHURCH, and the sign post is TO ROME. |
Prosecution
Fr
Enraght practices at Holy Trinity, Bordesley included, adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament, the use of Eucharistic lights, chasuble and alb, the
use of wafer bread in Holy Communion, the ceremonial mixing of water
and communion wine, making the sign of the Cross towards the
congregation during the Holy Communion service, bowing his head at the
Gloria and allowing the Agnus Dei to be sung, all of which his Bishop,
Dr. Philpott forbade. These illegal practices resulted in Fr Enraght
having to face the full force of the Law from its defenders, the Church
Association's lawyers and the presiding Judge, Lord Penzance [24] [25].
"If
the English Church be true portion of the one Catholic Church of
Christ," argued Fr. Enraght, "is it not only reasonable that her Church
buildings and services should resemble those of other branches of the
Church Catholic. " [26]
Fr
Enraght refused to attend his own trial on 12th July 1879 on the
grounds, “as I could not recognize Lord Penzance or his court, which
derives its authority - not from "this Church and Realm," but solely
from an Act of Parliament, as having any spiritual jurisdiction over me,
I was unable conscientiously to defend myself before it.” [27]
He was convicted on the 9th August 1879 in his absence under the Public
Worship Regulation Act by Judge Lord Penzance at the Arches Court on 16
counts of breaking the Law.
Fr
Enraght's prosecution became known nationally as the “ Bordesley Wafer
Case”, the collection of one of the pieces of evidence used in Court is
documented here in a narration from “The History of the English Church
Union”,: On August 31st, 1879, Mr Enraght denounced from the altar the
conduct of a person who, on February 9th, had carried off from the altar
a Consecrated Wafer, obtained under the pretence of communicating, in
order to file It as an exhibit in the law courts as evidence of the use
of wafer-bread.
A feeling of intense horror and indignation was excited when the fact of this fearful sacrilege became known. It was difficult to credit the fact that a Consecrated Wafer, after having been sacrilegiously secreted by a pretended communicant, had actually been delivered to Mr Churchwarden Perkins, the prosecutor, produced in Court as evidence, marked with pen and ink and filed as an exhibit! Thanks to some members of the Council of English Church Union, the Consecrated Wafer was obtained from the court and given over to the care of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who reverently consumed it in his private chapel at Addington on Friday December 12th, 1879.
It may be added that the indignant parishioners at the next ensuing vestry rejected Mr. Perkins when nominated as, churchwarden [28].
A feeling of intense horror and indignation was excited when the fact of this fearful sacrilege became known. It was difficult to credit the fact that a Consecrated Wafer, after having been sacrilegiously secreted by a pretended communicant, had actually been delivered to Mr Churchwarden Perkins, the prosecutor, produced in Court as evidence, marked with pen and ink and filed as an exhibit! Thanks to some members of the Council of English Church Union, the Consecrated Wafer was obtained from the court and given over to the care of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who reverently consumed it in his private chapel at Addington on Friday December 12th, 1879.
It may be added that the indignant parishioners at the next ensuing vestry rejected Mr. Perkins when nominated as, churchwarden [28].
Imprisonment
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| (Illustration from the Birmingham Daily Post 28th November 1880)
Fr Richard
Enraght entering Warwick Prison in chains, handing a bag entitled,
"Paraphernalia of Ritualism" to his Curate, the Revd Warwick Elwin
(later
to become the Vicar of St. Andrew the Apostle, Worthing, Sussex.) (Although not factually correct, the artist has added the names of the Revd T. P. Dale and Revd F. Green above the other cell doors, under the heading of 'Religious Liberty'. Revd Dale was actually sent to Holloway Prison in London and the Revd Green to Lancaster Castle Prison) |
After several preliminary failures by Lord Penzance over the course of the following year to imprisoned Fr Enraght, the Prosecutor at last succeeded on the 27th November 1880 and Fr Enraght was finally arrested at his vicarage and taken to Warwick Prison to serve his sentence. [29]
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| Image from the New Catholic World v.33 (1881) The above noticed was posted on walls around the Parish of Holy Trinity, Bordesley |
A Mr. G. Wakelin’s recollections of the events surrounding Fr Enraght’s imprisonment where such:-
“To
describe his leaving the vicarage where his people had ever found in
himself and Mrs. Enraght helpers in all times of need and trouble, is
beyond my power; most pathetic and touching was the going to Warwick
Prison. His friends, and even those who had to carry out the sentence,
were far more touched and overcome than was the vicar himself, who went
through it with a calm fixed patience, with thorough cheerfulness and
resignation.
The Governor of Warwick Prison, who was no High Churchman,
said of Fr Enraght to one of his visitors: "The sooner that gentleman is
out, sir, the better, for he is altogether in the wrong place". For
nearly two months he was kept in Warwick Prison, and during that time a
great meeting was held, when Birmingham Town Hall was filled from end to
end, and so many came from far and near to protest against the
imprisonment; the singing of the " Church's one Foundation " at the end
was something impressive and touching.” [31]
Fr.
Enraght’s imprisonment became widely known in the USA. On the 19th
December 1880, a sermon was preached in St. Ignatius Church in New York, by the Revd Dr.
Ewer, S.T.D
on the subject of 'The Imprisonment of English Priests for Conscience Sake', he praised the English priests stand, as "simply a
determined resistance to a violation of Magna Charta, and was proud to
make common cause with them, so far as is possible, from this distance,
and feeling that when one member of the Catholic Church suffers, all the
members suffer with him". the text of this sermon was printed in full
in the New York Herald and New York Tribune the following morning,
(there were also four other priests who served prison sentences in
England, Arthur Tooth, T. Pelham Dale, Sidney Faithorn Green and James
Bell Cox) [32]
While
in prison Fr Enraght received a letter of support from the Conference
of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament in the USA, "to express
the sympathy of the Conference for Fr R. W. Enraght in his incarceration
for conscience’s sake." [33]
In England, the Revd Prof. Edward Bouverie Pusey wrote a letter to the editor of The Times defending
both Fr Richard Enraght and Fr Alexander Heriot Mackonochie saying,
they have not been struggling for themselves but for their people. The
Ritualists do not ask to interfere with devotion of others ….only to be
allowed, in their worship of God, to use a Ritual which a few years ago
no one disputed. [34] Over the
Christmas period of his imprisonment Fr Enraght also received many
letters of support and goodwill from his own and former parishioners
around the Country as well as Christmas Cards from children in Bordesley [35]
See the full transcription of 'My Ordination Oaths' (1880) pamphlet written by Fr Enraght while incarcerated in Warwick Prison.
See the full transcription of 'My Ordination Oaths' (1880) pamphlet written by Fr Enraght while incarcerated in Warwick Prison.
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Released from Warwick Prison
As
Fr Enraght's prison sentence progressed , the English Church Union took
steps to quash the proceedings that had been taken against him. Their
case seemed unanswerable to an unprejudiced mind, but it was soon clear
that the judges meant at all costs to stand by Lord Penzance. Fr Enraght
was, however, released on the 17th January 1881 after 49 days in prison
by the Court of Appeal upon the grounds of a technical informality in
the writ for committal. The Prosecutor, by the advice of the Church
Association, at once endeavoured to have Fr Enraght re-committed, but
the English Church Union, by taking further legal proceedings,
frustrated his attempts. [36] [37].
On
the Revd Enraght’s release from Warwick Prison he was met at the New
Street station Birmingham, by his solicitor Mr. Jacob Kowlands; the
Revd. Warwick Elwin and many friends
and well-wishers.
Revd Warwick Elwin, Fr Enraght's curate, later became the Vicar of St. Andrew's, Worthing and was the son of the Revd Whitwell Elwin, the critic and editor of the Quarterly Review.
In the evening an enthusiastic crowded meeting welcomed him back to Bordesley. The Yorkshire Post in a piece of bias reporting on Fr Enraght's return to Holy Trinity did not mention his welcomed return but merely emphasised the comments of one bystander at New Street Station who called out “No Popery; I hope they will soon have you in again” to which Fr Enraght simply remarked to his companions, “I should not have liked that man as Governor of Warwick Prison”. [38] [39]
Eviction from Holy Trinity
Revd Warwick Elwin, Fr Enraght's curate, later became the Vicar of St. Andrew's, Worthing and was the son of the Revd Whitwell Elwin, the critic and editor of the Quarterly Review.
In the evening an enthusiastic crowded meeting welcomed him back to Bordesley. The Yorkshire Post in a piece of bias reporting on Fr Enraght's return to Holy Trinity did not mention his welcomed return but merely emphasised the comments of one bystander at New Street Station who called out “No Popery; I hope they will soon have you in again” to which Fr Enraght simply remarked to his companions, “I should not have liked that man as Governor of Warwick Prison”. [38] [39]
See the full transcription of 'My Prosecution
Under the Public Worship Regulation Act' (1883), written by Fr Enraght after his release from prison.
Eviction from Holy Trinity
It
appears that through the failure of an appeal to the House of Lords in
May 1882 by Fr Enraght, he became liable to another term of
imprisonment. Three months later, under the provisions of the PWR Act,
the benefice of Holy Trinity, Bordesley became vacant, although still
canonically held by Fr Enraght.
On St Matthew's Day, 21st September 1882, Fr Enraght attended Dr Pusey's funeral at Christ Church, Oxford.
In March 1883 Bishop Philpott revoked Fr. Enraght's Licence and appointed another clergyman to the benefice against the wishes of the congregation.
Following Fr Enraght’s dismissal and his family's eviction from Holy Trinity vicarage by order of Bishop Philpott, a crowded meeting of the Congregation and Parishioners of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was held in the Highgate Board School, on March 28th 1883, to say good-bye to Fr Enraght and Mrs. Enraght. Churchwarden Thomas Harris read the following testimonial on behalf of the Parish: -
"To the Rev. Richard William Enraght, B.A., on leaving Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Easter, 1883.
Our Dear Vicar, - The parting of friends is always sad, but the parting is made unspeakably painful by the grievous injustice which has robbed us of your ministry, together with the church and worship which we loved so well. For your ready sacrifice of yourself in submitting to persecution, imprisonment, and now casting out from your home and your work, in the cause of the Church, we may be allowed to express our unfeigned admiration; for the ungrudging labour, the great ability, and the unwearied affection with which you have for eight years and a half exercised your office as vicar of our church and parish, we can offer you no adequate thanks.
We believe that we shall show our gratitude best by bearing your many lessons in our hearts and proving them in our lives, when you are no longer here to help us. We feel that we owe Mrs. Enraght our sincerest thanks for the uniform zeal and the genial kindness with which she has always been eager to throw herself into every good work which concerned our welfare. In parting with you we ask her to accept a purse of 150 guineas which has been subscribed by us, the under mentioned members of the congregation, as a slight outward token of our love and our appreciation of the many benefits which have been conferred on us.
We pray that God may comfort you both in your suffering, and may grant you a congenial and peaceful sphere of labour, where the enemies of truth will not molest you. In reluctantly bidding you good-bye as our Pastor, we ask you still to remember us who have been bound to you by the strong tie of this common sorrow. “We are, yours most faithfully and affectionately, the Congregation and Parishioners of Holy Trinity, Bordesley” [40] [41]
When two months later Bishop Philpott (foolishly or courageously) preached at Holy Trinity on the 6th May 1883 the churchwardens handed him a formal protest condemning the removal of Enraght and stating that ‘we, the truly aggrieved, have been left as sheep without a shepherd’, and implying that the Rev. Watt’s (Fr Enraght’s replacement) actions in toning down ritual had led to a significant reduction in size of congregation [42].
See the full transcription of 'High Church & Low Church' (1883) - the congregation's rowdy protest against the installation of a new Vicar for Holy Trinity, of which the Daily News reported, "Probably the most disgraceful scene ever enacted in an English church".
The Royal Commission of 1881 and its report in 1883 marked a historic turning point for the Church of England. The sustained effort to repress ritualism in order to keep the Church in harmony with popular tastes and prejudices was abandoned. Ritualists’ policy of civil disobedience and its consequence of imprisonment had both embarrassed Evangelicals and cemented an alliance with the moderate High Church, thus posing a threat to the unity of the Church if the attempt to crush ritualism was kept up. Archbishop Tait was therefore obliged to subordinate his concern for National opinion and devote himself to mending his ecclesiastical bridges [43].
On St Matthew's Day, 21st September 1882, Fr Enraght attended Dr Pusey's funeral at Christ Church, Oxford.
In March 1883 Bishop Philpott revoked Fr. Enraght's Licence and appointed another clergyman to the benefice against the wishes of the congregation.
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© Revd Patrick Comerford Holy Trinity, Bordesley in 2023 (Church closed in 1968) |
Following Fr Enraght’s dismissal and his family's eviction from Holy Trinity vicarage by order of Bishop Philpott, a crowded meeting of the Congregation and Parishioners of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was held in the Highgate Board School, on March 28th 1883, to say good-bye to Fr Enraght and Mrs. Enraght. Churchwarden Thomas Harris read the following testimonial on behalf of the Parish: -
"To the Rev. Richard William Enraght, B.A., on leaving Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Easter, 1883.
Our Dear Vicar, - The parting of friends is always sad, but the parting is made unspeakably painful by the grievous injustice which has robbed us of your ministry, together with the church and worship which we loved so well. For your ready sacrifice of yourself in submitting to persecution, imprisonment, and now casting out from your home and your work, in the cause of the Church, we may be allowed to express our unfeigned admiration; for the ungrudging labour, the great ability, and the unwearied affection with which you have for eight years and a half exercised your office as vicar of our church and parish, we can offer you no adequate thanks.
We believe that we shall show our gratitude best by bearing your many lessons in our hearts and proving them in our lives, when you are no longer here to help us. We feel that we owe Mrs. Enraght our sincerest thanks for the uniform zeal and the genial kindness with which she has always been eager to throw herself into every good work which concerned our welfare. In parting with you we ask her to accept a purse of 150 guineas which has been subscribed by us, the under mentioned members of the congregation, as a slight outward token of our love and our appreciation of the many benefits which have been conferred on us.
We pray that God may comfort you both in your suffering, and may grant you a congenial and peaceful sphere of labour, where the enemies of truth will not molest you. In reluctantly bidding you good-bye as our Pastor, we ask you still to remember us who have been bound to you by the strong tie of this common sorrow. “We are, yours most faithfully and affectionately, the Congregation and Parishioners of Holy Trinity, Bordesley” [40] [41]
When two months later Bishop Philpott (foolishly or courageously) preached at Holy Trinity on the 6th May 1883 the churchwardens handed him a formal protest condemning the removal of Enraght and stating that ‘we, the truly aggrieved, have been left as sheep without a shepherd’, and implying that the Rev. Watt’s (Fr Enraght’s replacement) actions in toning down ritual had led to a significant reduction in size of congregation [42].
See the full transcription of 'High Church & Low Church' (1883) - the congregation's rowdy protest against the installation of a new Vicar for Holy Trinity, of which the Daily News reported, "Probably the most disgraceful scene ever enacted in an English church".
The Royal Commission of 1881 and its report in 1883 marked a historic turning point for the Church of England. The sustained effort to repress ritualism in order to keep the Church in harmony with popular tastes and prejudices was abandoned. Ritualists’ policy of civil disobedience and its consequence of imprisonment had both embarrassed Evangelicals and cemented an alliance with the moderate High Church, thus posing a threat to the unity of the Church if the attempt to crush ritualism was kept up. Archbishop Tait was therefore obliged to subordinate his concern for National opinion and devote himself to mending his ecclesiastical bridges [43].
St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham
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| copyright © PCC of St Alban and St Patrick, Highgate, Birmingham. Fr Enraght’s chasuble |
The above photograph shows Fr
Enraght’s chasuble on display at St
Alban the Martyr,
Highgate, Birmingham.
Fr Enraght was close friends with the
Vicar and Curate of St Alban’s, the Revd James Samuel Pollock and his
brother the Revd Thomas Benson Pollock, whom Fr Enraght had known since
their days together at Trinity College, Dublin. The Pollock brothers were born on the Isle of Man. Holy Trinity
Bordesley was the neighbouring Parish to St Alban the Martyr.
After Easter 1883 Fr Enraght and Family left Bordesley for Brighton.
See Revd Richard Enraght in Brighton, Sussex, from 1883 to 1884 page:-
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