Everything about Bangorian Controversy totally explained
The Bangorian Controversy was a
theological argument within the
Church of England in the 18th century. The origins of the controversy lay in the
1716 posthumous publication of
George Hickes's Constitution of the Catholic Church, and the Nature and Consequences of Schism. In it, Hickes,
Bishop of Thetford, excommunicated all but the
non-juror churchmen.
Benjamin Hoadly, the
Bishop of Bangor, wrote a reply entitled,
Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Non-Jurors, in which his own
Erastian position was sincerely proposed as the only test of truth. However, the controversy commenced most visibly and vocally when Hoadly delivered a sermon on
March 31,
1717 to
George I of Great Britain on
The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ. His text was
John 18:36, "My kingdom isn't of this world," and from that Hoadly deduced, supposedly at the request of the king himself, that there's no
Biblical justification for
any church government of any sort. He identified the church with the kingdom of Heaven—it was therefore not of this world, and
Christ hadn't delegated His authority to any representatives.
Sermon and aftermath
The sermon was immediately published and instantly drew counter-attacks.
William Law (
Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor) and
Thomas Sherlock (dean of Chichester), in particular, gave vigorous defences of church polity. Hoadly himself wrote
A Reply to the Representations of Convocation to answer Thomas Sherlock, Andrew Snape, provost of
Eton, and
Francis Hare, then dean of Worcester. These three men, and another opponent,
Robert Moss, dean of Ely, were deprived of their royal chaplaincies by the king. Hoadly did not, however, attempt to answer William Law.
In May 1717, the
Convocation appointed a committee to study the sermon. When the report was ready for synodal sanction against Hoadly, the king dismissed the convocation, which didn't meet again for over 130 years.
Importance
The controversy may seem esoteric to contemporary observers, but the stakes were quite high. Two competing visions of government were in play. On the one hand, there was a vision of
God appointing the king and the bishops to be leaders, selecting them from all others and imbuing them with special characters, either through
grace or in creation. This view held that the king, as the head of the
Established Church, wasn't merely a secular leader of a state, but also a religious primate. Power and regulation flowed downward from God to the people. This was the aristocratic model that was favoured by the
Tory party and which had been used to propose the
divine right of kings. The other view was that power flowed up from the people to the leaders, that leaders were no more
intrinsically better than those led, and that God gives out revelation freely. This
Whig view was also the view of the
Puritans and the "Independents" (ie, the various
Baptist churches,
Quakers, etc).
George I favoured the Whig party in
Parliament and favoured a
latitudinarian ecclesiastical policy in general. This was probably not due to any desire to give up royal prerogative, but rather to break the power of the aristocracy and the
House of Lords. A significant obstacle to all kings of England had been the presence of bishops in the Lords. While a king could create peers, it was much more difficult for him to move bishops into and out of the Lords.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bangorian Controversy'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://bangorian_controversy.totallyexplained.com">Bangorian Controversy Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
