Tractarianism
In 1843, Christina Rossetti, along with her sister and mother, began attending the newly established Christ Church, on Albany Street in London. This was an active high Anglican church and was considered the leading church of the Tractarian movement. With an emphasis on the importance of ritual and ceremony, it followed the celebration of festivals included in the Book of Common Prayer and drew attention to the sacraments.
Tractarianism, or the Oxford Movement, was an affiliation of high church Anglicans who wanted to re-invigorate the church by aligning it with the model of Church created in the first few centuries following Christ's crucifixion and ascension. The name Tractarianism comes from the series, Tracts for the Times that the leaders of the group, including John Keble and Edward Pusey, published between 1833 and 1841.
Typically, high church Anglicans or Tractarians put a great stress on:
- Ritual in worship
- Observing the seasons of the church year
- Saints' days
- Ornate robes worn by the clergy and choir
- Candles, incense and other aesthetic considerations.
John Henry Newman
Throughout the 1820s, 1830s and early 1840s, John Henry Newman served as an Anglican preacher. He emphasised the significance of the early church Fathers. As he was such a prominent figure in the Church of England it came as a shock to many when he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1845.
Rossetti wrote a sonnet about Newman following his death in 1890. She remembers him as a ‘weary Champion of the Cross' who ‘Chose love not in the shallows but the deep' (Cardinal Newman, lines 1, 6). Bearing in mind that she continued to honour him as a ‘Champion' in spite of his conversion to Roman Catholicism, suggests that she considered him, like herself, a pilgrim in search of the true church.
Convent life
In 1845, the first Anglican convent since the Reformation was established, in the parish of Christ Church where Rossetti worshipped each week. Since they were prohibited from entering full time ministry in the Church, many nineteenth-century women wished to devote their entire lives to God in other ways. The first Anglican convents that were established encouraged the nuns who entered to take part in work in the community with children, the poor and the sick.
Women chose to become nuns because they wished to dedicate their lives to God. When many roles in the church were denied to them because of their gender, becoming a nun was one way in which a woman could remain single, serve the community and belong to a larger, positive and affirming female network. However, because they adopted Roman Catholic customs and practices, early Anglican convents received a lot of ridicule from the Victorian public. It was believed by many that the convents were a threat to a male-run society and suspicion of Roman Catholicism was widespread.
Rossetti's depiction of nuns
Rossetti includes the figure of a nun in several of her poems and contemplates the benefits of the cloistered life. In 1873, her sister Maria joined the nearby convent of All Saints and Rossetti herself became closely involved with this order. It was an active order which emphasised the importance of education and helping the downtrodden.
In her ‘convent poems', Rossetti repeatedly depicts the contemplative rather than the active life of nuns. She articulates their spiritual struggles and their understanding of their own identity as being a part of the Bride of Christ.
Members of the Anglican Church who emphasise continuity with Catholic tradition without accepting all the teachings of the Roman Catholic church.
The Anglican church is the 'Established' or state church of England, the result of a break with the Catholic church under Henry VIII and further developments in the reign of Elizabeth I.
The name is taken from a series of tracts issued in Oxford in the mid-nineteenth century advocating Anglo-Catholicism.
The book of prayers and church services first put together by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury in the time of King Edward VI (1547-53) for common (ie. general) use in English churches.
Religious ceremony which symbolises receiving an inward spiritual grace.
The name is taken from a series of tracts issued in Oxford in the mid-nineteenth century advocating Anglo-Catholicism.
A Christian movement in the mid-nineteenth century on the part of some Anglicans to revive Catholic practices in the Church of England. It was centred on Oxford University.
Members of the Anglican Church who emphasise continuity with Catholic tradition without accepting all the teachings of the Roman Catholic church.
The Anglican church is the 'Established' or state church of England, the result of a break with the Catholic church under Henry VIII and further developments in the reign of Elizabeth I.
Title (eventually used as name) given to Jesus, refering to an anointed person set apart for a special task such as a king.
Execution by nailing or binding a person to a cross.
The withdrawal of Jesus into heaven, 40 days after his resurrection.
In the New Testament the term is used of all Christians but gradually came to describe an especially holy person.
The collective term for priests and ministers of the church (as opposed to the non-ordained laity).
Traditionally used in services of Christian worship to symbolise the presence of Jesus 'the light of the world' and the Holy Spirit.
In some church services, incense is used to symbolise worship and the presence of the holy. It is swung in a censer at certain points in the Mass.
A person within a church appointed to give a sermon at the worship services of that church. He may be the leader of that church, or someone within that church recognised as having a special ability to preach.
Term used to describe the first centuries of the growth of the Christian church, initially in Jerusalem and then across the Roman Empire.
God, the first person of the Trinity is often portrayed as God the Father; a respectful term of address for a priest.
The 'Established' or state church of England, the result of a break with the Catholic church under Henry VIII and further developments in the reign of Elizabeth I.
Member of a worldwide Christian church which traces its origins from St. Peter, one of Jesus' original disciples. It has a continuous history from earliest Christianity.
A sonnet is a poem with a special structure. It has fourteen lines, which are organised in a particular manner, usually characterised by the pattern of rhyming, which changes as the ideas in the poem evolve.
1. Instrument of execution used in the Roman Empire.
2. The means by which Jesus Christ was put to death and therefore the primary symbol of the Christian faith, representing the way in which he is believed to have won forgiveness for humankind.
Member of a worldwide Christian church which traces its origins from St. Peter, one of Jesus' original disciples. It has a continuous history from earliest Christianity.
1. Someone who undertakes a journey to a holy place (such as a biblical site or the shrines of the saints) to seek God's help, to give thanks or as an act of penance.
2. A Christian journeying through life towards heaven.
Set of buildings occupied by a female religious order.
Term given to the movements of church reform which in the sixteenth century resulted in new Protestant churches being created as an alternative to the Roman Catholic Church.
Area with its own church, served by a priest who has the spiritual care of all those living within it.
1. Doing homage and giving honour and respect, especially to God. Acts of devotion. Human response to the perceived presence of the divine.
2. The part of the Christian liturgy usually consisting of sung material and prayers of thanksgiving.
Work or acts of service performed for God and other people.
A woman who has chosen to enter a religious order for women, and taken the appropriate vows.
1. A 'closed off' place associated with the withdrawal from common life into a monastery or convent.
2. A covered walkway, often in a square around a green, where monks / nuns walked for exercise or contemplation.
A religious order is a group of men or of women who have taken vows to live a religious life in a certain way, usually by living, worshipping and working together.
a mood or state of mind arising from a period of contemplation
In the New Testament the image of a bride is used of the church and its relationship to Christ.
