TRUE BRITISH CATHOLIC CHURCH, THE. A Church founded at Manchester by Thomas Deacon (1697 1753), one of the Nonjurors (q.v.). In 1733, with the aid of Scotch bishops, Deacon was consecrated a nonjuring bishop. In 1734 he published a " Complete Collection of Devotions, both Public and Private," in two parts. The first part was devoted to the " Public Offices of the Church," the second part to a " Method of Daily Private Prayer." The Collection of Devotions is founded upon two principles. 1. That the best method for all Churches and Christians to follow is to lay aside all modern hypo theses, customs, and private opinions, and to submit to all the doctrines, practices, worship, and discipline, not of any Particular, but of the Ancient and Universal Church of Christ, from the beginning to the end of the fourth century. 2. That the Liturgy in the Apostolical Constitutions is the most ancient Christian Liturgy extant; that it is perfectly pure and free from interpola tion; and that the book itself, called the Apostolical Con stitutions, contains at large the doctrines, laws, and settlements, which the three first and purest ages of the Gospel did with one consent believe, obey, and submit to, and that as derived to them from Apostolical men : that therefore the said book, where it does not disagree with the tradition of the Primitive Catholic Church (as upon examination it will hardly ever be found to do, but on the contrary may be corroborated thereby, and by the consentient testimony of the holy Fathers of the three first centuries), ought to be received, submitted to, and allowed its due authority. If these two principles were
once put in practice, Deacon believed, a truly Catholic union would be restored among all Christian Churches. " That I may contribute my mite towards so desirable an end, I have here ventured to present the world with what in my humble opinion will be the only means to attain it; which is what some will call a new, but which I presume to recommend to every pious Christian as the oldest, and therefore the best, Collection of Devotions extant in the whole Christian world. This I dare ven ture to say, because I have omitted no practice or cere mony that appears to be supported by antiquity, univer sality, and consent; and because I have taken in all the Devotional part of the Apostolical Constitutions (except a few particulars foreign to the present purpose), at the same time that I have herein included such parts of the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England, as were necessary to complete the design." See Peter Hall, Fragmenta Liturgica, 1848, and the D.N.B.