and Elizabeth I. SSC priests considered these practices an outward and necessary and physical expression of belief and doctrine and not merely as aesthetic adornments to worship. The society was primarily concerned with improving the spiritual life of priests and people. For example, the now common practice of retreats was introduced to the Church of England in those given by SSC priests, beginning in 1856. Many Low Church and Latitudinarian Anglicans viewed ritualism and the accompanying teaching with horror. It was not unusual for Mass and the Divine Office in SSC parishes to be disrupted by Protestant protesters, some hired for the occasion, shouting during the readings and sermon or hurling furniture and books. Lawsuits were filed against priests for Catholic practices. Some of these prosecutions were successful and priests were suspended from their ministries. In other actions, some Catholic practices were permitted by the courts while others were ruled illegal. Still other practices were sometimes ruled by the civil courts not to be illegal per se but that their continued use would require direct authorisation by the diocesan bishop. Public Worship Regulation Act The legal inconsistencies led to the passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act by the Disraeli government in 1874 with the stated aim of "putting down the Ritualists". The act was introduced in the House of Lords as a Private Member's Bill by Archibald Tait, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had previously served as the Bishop of London. After the act came into force, on 1 July 1875, the Church Association, which had been responsible for some the pre-act lawsuits, began vigorously prosecuting those who persisted in Anglo-Catholic practice and teaching. Seventeen priests were prosecuted under the act. In some cases these priests served time in prison for either not acknowledging the right of the courts to judge them on matters of worship or after being convicted. Occasionally some bishops (including Archbishop Tait) would intervene to stop prosecutions, particularly as public outrage grew at the blatant interference in religious matters by secular courts. The prosecution of SSC priests Arthur Tooth, Alexander Heriot Mackonochie and Richard William Enraght are among the most notable episodes in the early history of the society. In the 20th century The prosecutions, however, were battles won in a losing war. In 1906, a royal commission effectively nullified the act by admitting that more pluralism in public worship was needed. The selfless example