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LOW CHURCHMAN , a See also: term applied to members of the See also: Church of
See also: England or its daughter churches who, while accepting the hierarchical and sacramental See also: system of the Church, do not consider episcopacy as essential to the constitution of the Church, reject the See also: doctrine that the sacraments confer See also: grace ex opere operato (e.g. baptismal regeneration) and See also: lay stress on the See also: Bible as the See also: sole source of authority in matters of faith
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They thus differ little from orthodox Protestants of other denominations, and in general are prepared to co-operate with them on equal terms
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The name was used in the early See also: part of the 18th century as the See also: equivalent of " Latitudinarian," i.e. one who was prepared to concede much latitude in matters of discipline and faith, in contradistinction to " High Churchman," the term applied to those who took a high view of the exclusive authority of the Established Church, of episcopacy and of the sacramental system
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It subsequently See also: fell into disuse, but was revived in the 19th century when the Tractarian See also: movement had brought the term " High Churchman " into vogue again in a modified sense, i.e. for those who exalted the idea of the Catholic Church and the sacramental system at the expense both of the Establishment and of the exclusive authority of Scripture
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" Low Churchman " now became the equivalent of " Evangelical," the designation of the movement, associated with the name of Simeon, which laid the chief stress on the See also: necessity of See also: personal " conversion." " Latitudinarian " gave place at the same See also: time to " Broad Churchman," to designate those who lay stress on the ethical teaching of the Church and minimize the value of orthodoxy
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The revival of pre-See also: Reformation ritual by many of the High Church See also: clergy led to the designation " ritualist " being applied to them in a some-what contemptuous sense; and " High Churchman " and " Ritualist " have often been wrongly treated as convertible terms
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Actually many High Churchmen are not Ritualists, though they tend to become so
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The High Churchman of the " Catholic " type is further differentiated from the " old-fashioned High Churchman " of what is sometimes described as the " high and dry " type of the See also: period anterior to the See also: Oxford Movement
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