Changes

The late Victorian social purity movement heralded a new phase in the history of moral regulation, generating significant levels of Anglican and Nonconformist support for male chastity and the elimination of the sexual double standard. Historians have studied the use criminal legislation and censorship to elevate standards of public morality. Morgan (2007) stresses the role of women activists who were prominent campaigners for social purity. Women purity workers exerted enormous pressure on the professional hierarchies of church and chapel, actively reworking Christian readings of the body so as to bring the moral influence of the churches to bear on public opinion. In so doing, they brought about a significant transformation in clerical attitudes that regarded discussions of sex as beyond the boundaries of civilized discourse and led in the promotion of a regulatory, but nonetheless highly public, religious discourse on sexuality. <ref> Sue Morgan, "'Wild Oats or Acorns?' Social Purity, Sexual Politics and the Response of the Late-Victorian Church," ''Journal of Religious History'' 2007 31(2): 151-168 online at [[EBSCO]]</ref>

The late Victorian social purity movement heralded a new phase in the history of moral regulation, generating significant levels of Anglican and Nonconformist support for male chastity and the elimination of the sexual double standard. Historians have studied the use criminal legislation and censorship to elevate standards of public morality. Morgan (2007) stresses the role of women activists who were prominent campaigners for social purity. Women purity workers exerted enormous pressure on the professional hierarchies of church and chapel, actively reworking Christian readings of the body so as to bring the moral influence of the churches to bear on public opinion. In so doing, they brought about a significant transformation in clerical attitudes that regarded discussions of sex as beyond the boundaries of civilized discourse and led in the promotion of a regulatory, but nonetheless highly public, religious discourse on sexuality. <ref> Sue Morgan, "'Wild Oats or Acorns?' Social Purity, Sexual Politics and the Response of the Late-Victorian Church," ''Journal of Religious History'' 2007 31(2): 151-168 online at [[EBSCO]]</ref>

===High, Low, Broad===

===High, Low, Broad===

The Church of England struggled to maintain within itself the diametrically opposed tendencies of hgih-church Anglo-Catholicism and low-church evangelicalism. Even within the broad church movement, disciples of low-church historian and Rugby headmaster Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) and former Unitarian founder of [[Christian Socialism]] Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-72), while overlapping somewhat in their membership, based their comprehensiveness on different theology.<ref> Jeremy Morris, "The Spirit of Comprehension: Examining the Broad Church Synthesis in England," ''Anglican & Episcopal History'' 2006 75(3): 423-443 </ref>

The Church of England struggled to maintain within itself the diametrically opposed tendencies of high-church Anglo-Catholicism and low-church evangelicalism. Even within the broad church movement, disciples of low-church historian and Rugby headmaster Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) and former Unitarian founder of [[Christian Socialism]] Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-72), while overlapping somewhat in their membership, based their comprehensiveness on different theology.<ref> Jeremy Morris, "The Spirit of Comprehension: Examining the Broad Church Synthesis in England," ''Anglican & Episcopal History'' 2006 75(3): 423-443 </ref>

==Leadership==

==Leadership==