Ecclesiastical career Noel underwent training for ordination at
Chichester Theological College, an
Anglo-Catholic theological school. At first he was refused ordination into the
Church of England because of his theological views: he had been offered a
curacy at All Saints Church in
Plymouth, but on the day on which he was scheduled to be ordained, the
Bishop of Exeter refused to ordain him. In 1894, he was ordained
deacon in the
Diocese of Chester and became a curate in
Flowery Field,
Cheshire, but left following parishioners' objections to his
socialism. He also spent time as a curate at St Philip's in Newcastle, under
W. E. Moll. Also in 1894, he married Miriam Greenwood. In late 1904 he became assistant priest to
Percy Dearmer at
Primrose Hill. In 1910, he became the
vicar of
Thaxted,
Essex presented by the patron of the living
Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, who was herself a socialist. Within
Thaxted Parish Church, Noel hung the
red flag and the flag of
Sinn Féin alongside the
flag of Saint George. This led to the "Battle of the Flags" with students from Cambridge leading attacks on the church to remove the flags. Eventually, in 1922 a
consistory court ruled against displaying the flags and Noel obeyed the ruling. He founded the socialist organization Catholic Crusade in 1918, which had some impact in the origins of
Trotskyism in Britain. On Noel's perspective on the
Middle Ages, which was similar to that of
William Morris and
John Ruskin, Reginald Groves wrote:
Politics Having become a socialist shortly after finishing his university studies, he joined the
Social Democratic Federation. He joined the
Independent Labour Party, but in 1911 became a member of the newly formed
British Socialist Party. Noel also supported the British Provisional Committee for the Defence of
Leon Trotsky, and signed a letter defending Trotsky's right to asylum and calling for an international inquiry into the
Moscow Trials. ==Personal life==