Alexander Heriot Mackonochie
Encyclopedia
Society of the Holy Cross
The Society of the Holy Cross is an international Anglo-Catholic society of priests with members in the Anglican Communion, the Continuing Anglican Movement and the Roman Catholic Church's Anglican Use...
(August 11, 1825 – December 14, 1887) was a Church of England clergyman and mission priest known as "the martyr of St Alban's" on account of his prosecution and forced resignation for ritualist practices.
Early life
Mackonochie was born at Fareham, Hampshire, the third son of George Mackonochie (1775/6–1827), a retired colonel in the service of the East India CompanyEast India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, and his wife, Isabella Alison. Through his mother he had a traditional Low Church
Low church
Low church is a term of distinction in the Church of England or other Anglican churches initially designed to be pejorative. During the series of doctrinal and ecclesiastic challenges to the established church in the 16th and 17th centuries, commentators and others began to refer to those groups...
upbringing and his family were opponents of the early Catholic Revival. Mackonochie was educated at private schools in Bath and Exeter. Early on he felt a call to the Ministry of the Church and gained the nickname "the boy-bishop" among his contemporaries. He attended lectures at Edinburgh University before matriculating at Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...
in 1844. He graduated B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1848 and M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in 1851.
Oxford was the centre of the two-decades-old Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
, the leading force in English Anglo-Catholicism
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
. There are conflicting accounts of his theological opinions while at Oxford. Some describe Mackonochie as having "pronounced Low Church
Low church
Low church is a term of distinction in the Church of England or other Anglican churches initially designed to be pejorative. During the series of doctrinal and ecclesiastic challenges to the established church in the 16th and 17th centuries, commentators and others began to refer to those groups...
views", but he heard Pusey
Edward Bouverie Pusey
Edward Bouverie Pusey was an English churchman and Regius Professor of Hebrew at Christ Church, Oxford. He was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement.-Early years:...
preach and was on personal terms with many of the other leading Anglo-Catholics
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
of the day, especially Charles Marriott. However, we can be sure that during his time at the University he came into contact with the vanguard of the Oxford Movement, though he may not have shared its views at this early stage in his life.
Ordination and early parish ministry
Mackonochie was ordained in Lent 1849 and became a curate at Westbury, WiltshireWestbury, Wiltshire
Westbury is a town and civil parish in the west of the English county of Wiltshire, most famous for the Westbury White Horse.-Name:The most likely origin of the West- in Westbury is simply that the town is near the western edge of the county of Wiltshire, the bounds of which have been much the same...
. In 1852 he became a curate of W. J. Butler at Wantage
Wantage
Wantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
. Butler was a Tractarian and at Wantage Mackonochie followed a typical Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
pattern of ministry. Mackonochie taught in the Church schools and had special responsibility for the nearby district of Charlton, preaching forcefully.
London Docks and Holborn
In 1858 he moved to become a curate at St George's-in-the-EastSt George in the East
St George in the East is an Anglican Church and one of six Hawksmoor churches in London, England, built from 1714 to 1729, with funding from the 1711 Act of Parliament...
, London. There he worked with Charles Fuge Lowder
Charles Fuge Lowder
Charles Fuge Lowder was a priest of the Church of England. He was the founder of the Society of the Holy Cross, a society for Anglo-Catholic priests.-Early life:...
as a mission priest in the slum areas of London Docks. At this time St George's-in-the-East was a focus for anti-Ritualist rioting which including services being interrupted and stones being thrown at the mission's priests.
In 1862 Mackonochie became perpetual curate
Perpetual curate
A Perpetual Curate was a clergyman of the Church of England officiating as parish priest in a small or sparsely peopled parish or districtAs noted below the term perpetual was not to be understood literally but was used to indicate he was not a curate but the parish priest and of higher...
at St Alban the Martyr, Holborn
Holborn
Holborn is an area of Central London. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running as High Holborn from St Giles's High Street to Gray's Inn Road and then on to Holborn Viaduct...
. In a letter to the patron, J. G. Hubbard, he explained his theological opinions, which included endorsing the (for that time) radically Catholic eucharistic doctrine of G. A. Denison
George Anthony Denison
George Anthony Denison was a Church of England priest.-Life:Brother of politician John Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington, he was born at Ossington, Nottinghamshire, and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford...
. Mackonochie introduced daily communion, which featured Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
and significant ritual elements (e.g. the lighting of Altar candles and the cleansing of Eucharistic vessels at the Altar). St Alban's was the first Anglican Church to hold the three-hour devotion on Good Friday (in 1864) and one of the first to celebrate a Harvest Festival. Mackonochie also openly heard confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
s. Mackonochie's pastoral ministry was typical of the 19th-century ritualist "slum priest". With his two curates, Arthur Stanton and Edward Russell, and lay assistants he founded schools, soup kitchens, a working men's club, mother's meetings, clothing funds and more. Throughout Mackonochie's later persecution St Alban's remained a thriving Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
parish. From 1867 Mackonochie was also chaplain of the sisterhood of St Saviour and the sisters and sisters of the Clewer Community of St. John Baptist
Community of St. John Baptist
The Community of St. John Baptist , also known as the Sisters of Mercy, or formerly Clewer Sisters, is an Anglican religious order of Augustinian nuns.-History:...
worked in the parish.
Persecution
St Alban's increasingly became a focus of Low ChurchLow church
Low church is a term of distinction in the Church of England or other Anglican churches initially designed to be pejorative. During the series of doctrinal and ecclesiastic challenges to the established church in the 16th and 17th centuries, commentators and others began to refer to those groups...
ire, drawing the attention of Lord Shaftesbury and the ultra-Protestant and anti-ritualist Church Association
Church Association
The Church Association was an English evangelical Anglican organisation, founded in 1865.It was particularly active in opposition to Anglo-Catholicism, Ritualism and the Oxford Movement.Founded in 1865 by Richard P...
. In 1867 a prosecution was brought against Mackonochie by John Martin, supported by the Church Association, under the Church Discipline Act 1840. The charges brought were elevating the host above his head, using a mixed chalice and altar lights, censing things and persons, and kneeling during the prayer of consecration. The first decision (of the Court of Arches) was against Mackonochie on two counts and in his favour on the other three with no decision as to the payment of costs. Despite Mackonochie agreeing to comply, the anti-ritualists appealed to the Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
and Mackonochie was found against in the remaining three charges and ordered to pay all costs. Even after the prosecution the Church Association continued to pursue Mackonochie believing that he had re-introduced the prohibited ritual. This led to further judgments against Mackonochie culminating on November 25, 1870 with his suspension from office for three months. In the interim he had become a hate-figure for the Low Church
Low church
Low church is a term of distinction in the Church of England or other Anglican churches initially designed to be pejorative. During the series of doctrinal and ecclesiastic challenges to the established church in the 16th and 17th centuries, commentators and others began to refer to those groups...
; in 1869 he was banned from preaching in the diocese of Ripon and the Low Church
Low church
Low church is a term of distinction in the Church of England or other Anglican churches initially designed to be pejorative. During the series of doctrinal and ecclesiastic challenges to the established church in the 16th and 17th centuries, commentators and others began to refer to those groups...
minister Hugh McNeile
Hugh McNeile
Hugh McNeile , was an Anglican churchman in Ireland.The younger son of Alexander McNeile , he was born at Ballycastle, County Antrim. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1810...
refused to speak at the Liverpool Church Congress
Church Congress
Church Congress is an annual meeting of members of the Church of England, lay and clerical, to discuss matters religious, moral or social, in which the church is interested...
because Mackonochie would also be speaking.
A second lawsuit was brought in March 1874 repeating the old charges as well as adding new ones including the use of processions with a crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
, use of the Agnus Dei, and eastward-facing consecration (n.b. the normal practice, prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
, was to stand at the north end of the altar facing south; westward-facing consecration, as is now most common in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, was a later innovation). Mackonochie stood firm in the face of the prosecutions but on June 12, 1875 was found against on most of the charges and suspended for six weeks.
In 1878 John Martin appealed to the Dean of Arches
Dean of Arches
The Dean of Arches is the judge who sits at the ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. This appeal court is commonly called the Arches Court....
claiming that Mackonochie had not obeyed the 1875 judgement. Mackonochie was brought in front of the new court created by the Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874. Mackonochie was this time suspended for three years.
In 1882 a fresh round of prosecutions was under way when, on the deathbed request of Archbishop Tait, Mackonochie resigned from St Alban's to move to St Peter's, London Docks, the church founded 1866 by C.F. Lowder
Charles Fuge Lowder
Charles Fuge Lowder was a priest of the Church of England. He was the founder of the Society of the Holy Cross, a society for Anglo-Catholic priests.-Early life:...
. Though by 1882 the mob violence that Mackonochie had faced during his time with Lowder in the 1850s and 1860s had abated, the prosecutions continued. Despite the vibrancy of St Peter's Mackonochie was extremely unhappy, he had moved from St Alban's out of a sense of duty and missed his old parish and his self-confidence was waning. By July 1883 he faced yet another suspension. In December, knowing his suspension would be disastrous for the parish and only a year after resigning from St Alban's, he handed his resignation to the Bishop. Unlike with resignation from St Alban's, his friends almost unanimously supported his resignation knowing it was required both for the good of the parish and of his health.
Later life and death
Mackonochie did not think of taking another parish and moved into the Clergy House of St Alban's as a freelance. This was a happy arrangement for all, and there was no clash between the old priest and the new (Fr. Suckling). For a time Mackonochie undertook a fair amount of work in the parish, but he was weakening mentally. He travelled several times to the continent and often visited the Bishop of ArgyllBishop of Argyll
The Bishop of Argyll or Bishop of Lismore was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Argyll, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. It was created in 1200, when the western half of the territory of the Bishopric of Dunkeld was formed into the new diocese. The bishops were based at Lismore...
, his friend Alexander Chinnery-Haldane, in Ballachulish
Ballachulish
The village of Ballachulish in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, is centred around former slate quarries. The name Ballachulish was more correctly applied to the area now called North Ballachulish, to the north of Loch Leven, but was usurped for the quarry villages at East Laroch and West Laroch,...
, Oban
Oban
Oban Oban Oban ( is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. It has a total resident population of 8,120. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William and during the tourist season the town can be crowded by up to 25,000 people. Oban...
, a place which he loved. Increasingly his home was his brother's house at Wantage
Wantage
Wantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....
, another place very dear to his heart, where he continued to assist in parochial work as much as possible.
His mental decline continued apace until on December 14, 1887 he got lost in the Forest of Mamore while out walking near the Bishop of Argyll
Bishop of Argyll
The Bishop of Argyll or Bishop of Lismore was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Argyll, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. It was created in 1200, when the western half of the territory of the Bishopric of Dunkeld was formed into the new diocese. The bishops were based at Lismore...
's home in Ballachulish. His body was found two days later guarded by the dogs he had been with. After a packed requiem mass at St Alban's a special train took mourners to Woking where his body was laid to rest in the cemetery. A cross of Scottish granite was later raised on the spot where he had died and in the 1890s a chapel was dedicated to his memory at St Alban's.
Role in the broader Anglo-Catholic Movement
Besides his work in Holborn and London Docks, Mackonochie was also a leading member of the broader Catholic revival. He was one of the first Priest Associates of the Confraternity of the Blessed SacramentConfraternity of the Blessed Sacrament
The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament is a devotional society in the Anglican Communion dedicated to venerating the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist...
and served as Master of the Society of the Holy Cross
Society of the Holy Cross
The Society of the Holy Cross is an international Anglo-Catholic society of priests with members in the Anglican Communion, the Continuing Anglican Movement and the Roman Catholic Church's Anglican Use...
(SSC) in 1863–1875, 1879–1881 and 1885. He was a major force in the formulation of the Society's constitution and, as Master, had an important role in directing its activities. Under Mackonochie the Society increasingly represented the vanguard of the Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
movement.
See also
- Society of the Holy CrossSociety of the Holy CrossThe Society of the Holy Cross is an international Anglo-Catholic society of priests with members in the Anglican Communion, the Continuing Anglican Movement and the Roman Catholic Church's Anglican Use...
- Confraternity of the Blessed SacramentConfraternity of the Blessed SacramentThe Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament is a devotional society in the Anglican Communion dedicated to venerating the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist...
- Ritualism
- T. Pelham DaleT. Pelham DaleThomas Pelham Dale was an English Anglo-Catholic ritualist clergyman, most famous for being prosecuted and imprisoned for ritualist practices-Biography:...
- Richard William EnraghtRichard William EnraghtRichard William Enraght SSC was an Irish-born Church of England priest of the late nineteenth century. He was influenced by the Oxford Movement and was included amongst the priests commonly called “Second Generation” Anglo-Catholics.Fr...
- Sidney Faithorn GreenSidney Faithorn GreenThe Rev. Sidney Faithorn Green was a British clergyman who, during the Ritualist controversies in the Church of England, was imprisoned for 20 months for liturgical practice contrary to the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874.-Background:...
- Arthur ToothArthur ToothArthur Tooth SSC was a Ritualist priest in the Church of England and a member of the Society of the Holy Cross . Tooth is best known for having been prosecuted in 1876 under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 for using proscribed liturgical practices...
Sources
- E.A.T[owle], (ed. E.F. Russell), Alexander Mackonochie: A Memoir (New York: E. and J.B. Young, 1890)
- Michael Reynolds, Martyr of Ritualism: Father Mackonochie of St. Alban’s, Holborn (London: Faber and Faber, 1965)
- Rosemary Mitchell, ‘Mackonochie, Alexander Heriot (1825–1887)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)