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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: The term "spikey" for Anglo Catholics
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Vidi Aquam
Apprentice
# 18433
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Posted
I have never heard Anglo Catholics called spikey before (maybe because I'm American?). Why is this term used, and how did it come into being? Do UK ACs tend to spike their hair? Do they wear crucifixes with sharp nails sticking out? An extensive googling did not shed any light.
And is it it spikey or spiky?
Posts: 33 | From: Los Angeles | Registered: Jun 2015
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
I heard at one time (probably anecdotal) that High Church types liked lots and lots of candles. The candle holders had a nail-like spike to hold the candles, so lots of candles meant lots of spikes.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
The OED has this:
quote:
1893 W[illiam] Bright Let. 20 Oct. (1903) 348 The ultras, as they might be called, on the Catholic side, present Church ideas, too often, in a form altogether too hard to be attractive; I believe I am said to have called it ‘spiky’, in a letter to my friend the Principal of Ely College.
[I hope that's within fair use - the hosts will know what to do if I've stepped over the line.]
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
Interesting - I'd always just assumed it was because they are high up the candle.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
I am used to the term referring to people obssessed with ceremonial.
Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Yes. I don't think you'd accuse say Keble or Pusey, if they came back to earth, of being 'spikey'. On the other hand Rose Macaulay's Fr Chantry-Pigg, and his real-life models, are definitely spikes.
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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bib
Shipmate
# 13074
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Posted
I have never heard the term used in Australia. Which countries actually use the term?
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"My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring"
Posts: 1307 | From: Australia | Registered: Oct 2007
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
Well, I've learned something new.
I thought they were called spikey because they were ill-tempered towards anyone from a different expression/tradition/denomination of christianity.
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
No, that's a by-product, Sipech ... ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
I'm with leo, I've tended to hear the term in connection with anyone overly obsessed with ceremonial - rather like the 'tat-queens' we sometimes encounter on Ecclesiantics here aboard Ship.
I've never really thought much about the derivation of the term, but I am familiar with very High Church Anglicans being called 'spikes' - I've always assumed that it means that they are so high up that there's a spike on the end - rather like a paling or railing ...
I was aware of the term before my involvement with Ship have tended to use it more since I came here.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
Nothing to add about the derivation of 'spike,' but I can verify that the term was in use in and around Chicago (a diocese said to be part of the 'Biretta Belt) as long ago as 1960. In fact a group of young men in our parish were known as 'The Spike Patrol.'
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
'Spiky' always seems to me to give the impression of awkwardness.......and perhaps even nastiness....
I prefer terms relating to one's parish's position on The Candle i.e. 'high up the candle', 'nosebleed high' or 'beneath the floorboards'.
Ian J.
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
I prefer terms relating to one's parish's position on The Candle i.e. 'high up the candle', 'nosebleed high' or 'beneath the floorboards'.
Ian J.
Or "snake-belly low."
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
I have only heard the term as an insult, but then I'm low enough to be subterranean. Does anyone say spiky in a non-derogatory way?
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
I understood the term 'spikey' came about because of the coincidence of the emergence of the Oxford Movement and the flowering of the Gothic Revival: the architectural forms featured multitudinous pinnacles or spikes, hence the term.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
I can't find my copy at the moment, but the introduction to John Betjeman's 'Slick but not Streamlined,' published in 1947, includes this line IIRC
'and mildly deplored the spikiness of Aunt Maud, who attended a church with Benediction and the Silent Canon.'
I can't recall who wrote the introduction, but it's a classic in its own right!
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I have always thought it an architectural reference in comparison with Nonconformist barns.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
The Screwtape Letters has an Anglo-Catholic priest called Father Spike.
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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