The Bishops and Baptism: Colonial Reverberations of a Tractarian Controversy

Abstract

One of the great controversies arising during the later days of the Oxford (or Tractarian) Movement was the dispute concerning the nature and effects of Baptism. In England the controversy came to a head in the Gorham judgement of the Privy Council in 1850. The six Anglican bishops in Australasia (five of whom were in some sense “Tractarian”) were drawn into the issue with consequences that had little impact on the issue at home, but added fuel to acrimonious colonial debates. Colonials might import and re-play debates from the home countries, but they did so with more reference to local issues.