Public Worship Regulation Act
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| Long title | An Act for the better administration of the Laws respecting the regulation of Public Worship. |
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| Citation | 37 & 38 Vict. c.85 |
| Introduced by | Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Campbell Tait, 20 April 1874, private member's bill |
| Territorial extent | England, Channel Islands, Isle of Man |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 7 August 1874 |
| Commencement | 1 July 1875 |
| Repealed | 1 March 1965 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by | — |
| Repealed by | Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measures of 1963 (No.1), art.87, Sch.5 |
| Relates to | — |
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Status: Repealed
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The Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c.85) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Campbell Tait, to limit what he perceived as the growing ritualism of Anglo-Catholicism and the Oxford Movement within the Church of England.
Tait's bill was controversial. It was given government backing by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who called it "a bill to put down ritualism". He referred to the practices of the Oxford Movement as "a mass in masquerade." Queen Victoria was supportive of the Act's Protestant intentions.Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone, a high church Anglican whose sympathies were for separation of church and state, felt disgusted that the liturgy was made, as he saw it, "a parliamentary football."
Before the Act, the Church of England regulated its worship practices through the Court of Arches with appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Act established a new court, presided over by former Divorce Court judge Lord Penzance. Many citizens were scandalised by parliamentary interference with worship and, moreover, by its proposed supervision by a secular court. The act gave bishops the discretionary power to order a stay of proceedings.
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