Low church

Low church is a term of distinction in the Church of England or other Anglican churches initially designed to be pejorative. During the series of doctrinal and ecclesiastic challenges to the established church in the 17th century, commentators and others — who favoured the theology, worship, and hierarchical structure of Anglicanism (such as the episcopate) as the true form of Christianity — began referring to that outlook (and the related practices) as 'high church'. In contrast, by the early 18th century, those theologians and politicians who sought more reform in the English church and a greater liberalisation of church structure, were called "low church". "Low church", in an Anglican context, denotes the church's simplicity or Protestant emphasis, and "high church" denotes an emphasis on ritual or, later, Anglo-Catholicism.