HIGH CHURCH ("Chiesa Alta"). - With this designation in the 17th and 18th centuries, that is, before the "Oxford movement" (1833), those Anglicans are indicated who, faithful to the "non-jurors" bishops (v.), remained loyal to the deposed king, James II, for which reason they were also called Jacobites; while those who recognized the new dynasty formed the so-called "Low Church" (v.). In the first thirty years of the 19th century, the H. C. had greatly diminished in number and importance.
Once the "Oxford movement" arose, the bishops of the H. C. at first showed themselves tolerant toward it; indeed some realized that by adopting the same methods they could emerge from the religious apathy in which they lived. But afterward, suspicious of the too-Roman tendency of the "movement" and dismayed by the notable conversions that were taking place toward the Catholic Church, they opposed it, though without condemning it as a whole, indeed preserving many good elements of it. The present representatives of the "Oxford movement" are the Anglo-Catholics, and while it may be said that all Anglo-Catholics belong to the H. C., the converse is not true. Here are some points of contact and others of divergence among those who make up the H. C.: 1) All believe, despite the bull of Leo XIII Apostolicae curae (v. ANGLICAN ORDINATIONS) that their ordinations are valid and that they have apostolic succession; 2) All are Erastian (v. ERASTUS), but the Anglo-Catholics deny the jurisdiction of the king or queen of England in ecclesiastical matters; 3) All have usurped the name of Catholics, but the Anglo-Catholics have at the same time made their own all Catholic ceremonies and doctrines, except the primacy and infallibility of the pope; 4) All, but the Anglo-Catholics more than the others, uphold the theory of the three branches (v. ANGLICANISM, in the 19th and 20th centuries); 5) The Anglo-Catholics hope for corporate union and oppose private conversions; the others do not think at all of such a reunion; 6) All claim to be Catholics and are Protestants; the Anglo-Catholics want to be Anglican-Catholics but without the pope, and they too remain Protestants.
All these doctrines, whether concordant or discordant, must not be understood categorically; there are nuances, border-crossings, infiltrations not only between the two groups indicated, but also with the doctrines of the "Low Church" and even of the "Broad Church."