A Monthly Publication

AND A DISTRUBANCE AT ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

By Jim Welham

The religious census of Sunday 30^th March 1851 was an attempt to count the number of attendances at each service in every place of worship in England, and the extent of the seating provided.

              The upper and middle class Victorians needed information about the emergence of various protestant nonconformist societies, new sects such as the Mormons, and the rapid expansion of Roman Catholicism. Norfolk was then almost entirely agricultural and the lower classes were often indifferent to matters of religion. Contemporary descriptions of the population included, ‘They were living a mere animal life, ignorant of God, and many of them being awfully depraved.’ and  ‘A more wild wicked uncultivated lot I think would be difficult to find in the back settlements of America or the wilds of Africa.’

For those who wished to attend a church or chapel there was no shortage of opportunity. All the parishes neighbouring Hunstanton had a church dedicated to St Mary. The splintering of the protestant denominations was clearly shown.          Holme-next-the-Sea had a Wesleyan Chapel and a Primitive Methodist Chapel, Heacham an Independent Union Chapel, a Primitive Methodist chapel, and a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, and Sedgeford a Primitive Chapel and Wesleyan Methodist Reformers Chapel.

The census showed Hunstanton to have a population of 490, and gave the following information:-

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Consecrated about AD 1290

240 free seats and 115 rented seats   Total 355

The morning attendance was 62 worshippers plus 50 Sunday school children.

The afternoon attendance was 134 worshippers plus 52 Sunday school children.                                                          

The Vicar William Fearon added that the Church might easily be so seated as to hold from 700 to 800 if needful.

The Wesleyan chapel, Sea Lane, erected about the year 1836

All the pews were free

There were 27 Morning worshippers and 60 in the evening.

The form was signed by Miles Hamerton, Hunstanton Post Office, a druggist and earthenware dealer.

The Victorians were shocked to find that less than half the population attended church at all, and of those who did, only half chose to worship at the Anglican Church. The remainder were Nonconformists, mostly Methodists, or Baptists. Even those attendance figures may have been inflated as they took no account of domestic servants who were required to attend church with their masters, but who might also later attend a chapel of their choice. Some farmers only paid their men after they attended church; ‘Hence a lot of rough fellows came tramping in late and looking bewildered.’ Only one person in every 200 was a Roman Catholic.

Pews were a relatively new invention; previously the congregation would stand, although some stone seats would be put against the walls for use by the elderly or infirm, hence the saying ‘The weakest will go to the wall.’ After the Reformation sermons became ever lengthier and seating was required. Most churches created extra income by having seats available for rent. The free pews were often in inconvenient corners or behind pillars, thereby excluding the poor from much of the building and creating what was described as an English Caste system

Henry Le Strange was a devout church goer, and believed that all seats in church should be free to show everyone was equal. He had the door removed from his family pew. He made other changes, such as installing an organ and heating for the first time. Men sat to the south of the aisle, and women to the north.

Henry was inspired by the revival of solemn medieval ritual and joined those who became known as a High Anglicans or Ritualists. He ensured that the new church of St Edmund, King and Martyr respected the Anglo-Catholic traditions.

In the 1840 s Ritualism had meant little more than intoning prayers, lighting candles on the communion table, and preaching in a surplice, but by 1860 a distinct form of high churchmanship had evolved in a section of the Anglican Church. The High Churchmen developed greater and ever more elaborate ceremonies much of which was similar to contemporary catholic displays – ‘The bells and smells.’ It was believed that spectacle would make a powerful contrast to the drabness of the lives of the poor. No two churches were the same, but some of the new practices were:-

· The Preacher not only took communion from an eastward position, but his back was to the congregation so he could face God, and the chalice contained a mixture of wine and water

· There were statues displayed in the church and the Stations of the Cross were arrayed around the walls churches showing the condemnation and death of Jesus.

· Robes were worn by the preacher, and choral music was sung with the choir dressed in surplices.

· A wafer replaced unleavened bread, and the sign of the cross was made during baptisms.

· Six candles were placed on the high altar which was often made of stone, the congregation bowed at the name of Jesus, and incense was used.

· Confessions could be heard and absolution declared.

The remainder of the protestant community shared a common horror of the Roman Catholic Church and was appalled by some Anglicans imitating their ceremonies. To be a Catholic was looked on as being an agent of a foreign power. It was widely believed that Britain had inherited a special relationship with God by virtue of keeping the protestant faith since the Reformation, therefore Rome and the catholic states of Europe were at the root of all evil, and responsible for all disasters, even the great fire of London. The Monument to the great fire was inscribed, ‘But Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors is not yet quenched.’ Those words were removed in 1831 when Catholics were granted equal rights. Today little remains of this antagonism. Members of Parliament no longer have to take the oath which described Roman Catholics as damnable and idolatrous, but still, any member of the royal family who is, or is married to a Catholic is barred from the Succession, and the catholic Guy Fawkes is still burnt in effigy on the 5th November.

Several hymns showed the benefits of being British, for example:

‘Tis to thy sovereign grace I owe, that I was born on British ground,

Where streams of heavenly mercy flow and words of sweet salvation sound’

And

‘Let Babylon’s proud altars shake, and light invade her darkest gloom,

The yoke of iron bondage break, the yoke of Satan and of Rome’.

The Protestants objected to everything that the High Church stood for including their displays of flowers, which were deemed to be of pagan origins. The Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli tried to introduce a Public Worship Act to ‘put down ritualism which was a just a mass in masquerade.’  These matters were serious enough to cause major public disturbances, but some made individual protests.

George Campion was born at Ramsey in 1845, the son of an ironmonger. By 1877 he was listed in Harrods Norfolk Directory as a machine maker and general ironmonger at Hunstanton. He also had businesses at Sutton Bridge and Ramsey.

About 4 pm on Saturday 24^th March 1883 the Easter Eventide service commenced before a congregation of over a 1,000 at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. A few minutes later Campion, who was described as a tall man dressed respectably in black, left his seat walked quickly up the centre aisle under the dome, and stepped over the crimson cord at the entrance to the chancel. He avoided members of the choir who tried to stop him, ran past the clergy, jumped onto the communion table and hurled the large gilded cross to the ground, breaking it. He threw down the massive silver candle sticks and candles, and kicked in every direction the floral decorations which had been specially designed for Easter Sunday. He shouted something unintelligible to the congregation and although the soloist ceased singing, the organist and choir continued, thereby preventing panic. Several worshippers rushed towards Campion and seized him despite his violent struggles. He shouted ‘Protestants to the rescue,’ but Canon Gregory silenced him by trusting a handkerchief into his mouth. He was taken out through a side door and handed over to the City of London Police. During a sermon shortly afterwards, the Revd Shuttleworth said that the unfortunate man who had so insulted God and outraged the feelings of the worshippers could not be in his right mind and the best course would be to remember him in their prayers.

At the Bridewell Place Police Station Campion, who was perfectly sober, described himself as an inventor, patentee and export agent. He said that some years ago he was prosperous, but due to his crusade against the Ritualists, who by their practices were insulting his God and ‘infecting the nation with a leprosy which must end in the destruction of the country,’ he was utterly ruined. He had been driven from his places of business including Hunstanton by the Ritualistic party. All his friends had deserted him and during the last 3 years he, his sickly wife and their 5 children had suffered the greatest privations. Nothing awaited him apart from the workhouse and he preferred prison where he was sure he would get food and shelter.

Campion was charged with disturbing the congregation of St Paul’s and wilful damage and appeared at the Mansion House Court Room on the following Monday before Alderman Sir Thomas Owden.  Canon Gregory related what had occurred and was cross-examined by Campion, who asked him questions such as ‘Why were ornaments placed on what you call the altar, but I as a Protestant call the Communion table?’ and ‘Why were candles lit when they were not required for the giving of light, which makes them illegal ornaments to have in a Protestant Cathedral.” He then wished to ask about the cross, but Sir Thomas said that he would not allow him to go on with such a parcel of nonsense. The prisoner said that part of his defence was the soul-destroying Jesuitical spirit of idolatry. There was a heated exchange between Campion who insisted he had not committed any offence as the items damaged should not have been there, and Sir Thomas who insisted that it was not right to disturb any religious meeting. Campion said that he was determined to strike a blow at the idolatrous mummeries at the Cathedral of the Metropolis. ‘As an Englishman and a lover of my country and my God I have a right to protest about popish and idolatrous ornaments being placed in a Protestant place of worship.’ There was applause from members of the public.

Sir Thomas said that he disliked Ritualism as much as the prisoner himself, and would not go into a church where it was practiced, but he must uphold the law. He fined Campion £5 or one months imprisonment. Campion said that he was penniless, but the fine was paid by a friend.