Before the act, the Church of England regulated its worship practices through the Arches Court with an 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.[10]
That in such church any alteration in or addition to the fabric, ornaments, or furniture thereof has been made without lawful authority, or that any decoration forbidden by law has been introduced into such church; or,
That the incumbent has within the preceding twelve months used or permitted to be used in such church or burial ground any unlawful ornament of the minister of the church, or neglected to use any prescribed ornament or vesture; or,
That the incumbent has within the preceding twelve months failed to observe, or to cause to be observed, the directions contained in the Book of Common Prayer relating to the performance, in such church or burial ground, of the services, rites and ceremonies ordered by the said book, or has made or has permitted to be made any unlawful addition to, alteration of, or omission from such services, rites and ceremonies
Illustration of Fr. Richard Enraght entering Warwick Prison in 1880
The bishop had the discretion to stay proceedings but, if he allowed them to proceed, the parties had the opportunity to submit to his direction with no right of appeal. The bishop was able to issue a monition, but if the parties did not agree to his jurisdiction, then the matter was to be sent for trial (section 9).[12]
Graber, Gary W. Ritual Legislation in the Victorian Church of England: Antecedents and Passage of the Public Worship Regulation Act, 1874 (1993) online review; a standard scholarly history of the act.
Janes, Dominic. "The 'Modern Martyrdom' of Anglo-Catholics in Victorian England." Journal of Religion and Society 13 (2011) online.
Janes, Dominic. Victorian Reformation: The Fight over Idolatry in the Church of England, 1840-1860 (Oxford University Press, 2009).
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age: The 19th century in Europe volume 2 (1959) p. 270-279.
Reed, John Shelton. Glorious Battle: The Cultural Politics of Victorian Anglo-Catholicism (London: Tufton Books, 1998).
Roberts, Andrew. Salisbury: Victorian Titan (1999) pp. 135–138.
Shannon, Richard. The Age of Disraeli, 1868-1881: The Rise of Tory Democracy (1992) pp. 199–210.
Great Britain (1874). "Ch. 85". The Public General Statutes passed in the thirty-seventh & thirty-eighth years of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode at the Queen’s Printing Office.