[Cf. HIGH CHURCHMAN.] A member of the Church of England holding opinions which give a low place to the authority and claims of the episcopate and priesthood, to the inherent grace of the sacraments, and to matters of ecclesiastical organization, and thus differ relatively little from the opinions held by Protestant Nonconformists.
The term, invented as an antithesis to High Churchman, was in the early part of the 18th c. used as equivalent to LATITUDINARIAN. Afterwards it fell into disuse, but was revived in the 19th c., when the designation High Churchman had obtained a new currency as applied to those who inclined to the theology and ritual of pre-Reformation times. In this later use, Low Churchman has for the most part been viewed as equivalent to EVANGELICAL, and has rarely been applied to members of the Broad Church School.
1702. Charac. Church-Man, 18. He is for shewing the Low Church Men in their own proper Colours.
1703. De Foe, Short. Way Peace, Misc. 463. We have had it Printed, with an Assurance I have wondred at, That the moderate Members of the Church of England, calld Low Church Men, are worse than the Dissenters.
1708. Phenix, II. Pref. 13. It shows the first rise of that party which were afterwards called Latitudinarians, and are at this day our Low-Churchmen.
1710. H. Bedford, Vind. Ch. Eng., 132. He is known to be so wretched a low Churchman, as to dispute all the Articles of the Christian Faith.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1734), II. 347. All [of the clergy] that treated the Dissenters with temper and moderation were called Low Churchmen.
1845. Bp. Wilberforce, in A. R. Ashwell, Life (1879), I. 314. Taking as your prominent subject Baptismal Regeneration, and its side against Low Churchmen.
Hence Low-Churchmanism = Low-Churchism.
1829. [see HIGH-CHURCHMANISM].