The Bangorian Controversy was a theological

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 argument within the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 in the early 18th century, with strong political overtones. The origins of the controversy lay in the 1716 posthumous publication of George Hickes's

George Hickes

George Hickes was an English divine and scholar.-Biography:Hickes was born at Newsham, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, in 1642...

 Constitution of the Catholic Church, and the Nature and Consequences of Schism. In it, Hickes, on behalf of the small minority faction who had broken away from the Church of England after the Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

, as Bishop of Thetford

Bishop of Thetford

The Bishop of Thetford is an episcopal title which takes its name after the market town of Thetford in Norfolk, England. The title was originally used by the Normans in the 11th century, and is presently used by a Church of England suffragan bishop....

 excommunicated all but the non-juror

Non-juror

A non-juror is a person who refuses to swear a particular oath.* In British history, non-jurors refused to swear allegiance to William and Mary; see Nonjuring schism...

 churchmen. Benjamin Hoadly

Benjamin Hoadly

Benjamin Hoadly was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy.-Life:...

, the Bishop of Bangor

Bishop of Bangor

The Bishop of Bangor is the Ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Bangor.The diocese covers the counties of Anglesey, most of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire and a small part of Montgomeryshire...

, wrote a reply entitled, Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Non-Jurors; in it his own Erastian

Thomas Erastus

Thomas Erastus was a Swiss physician and theologian best known for a posthumously published work in which he argued that the sins of Christians should be punished by the state, and not by the church withholding the sacraments...

 position was sincerely proposed as the only test of truth.

The controversy itself began very visibly and vocally when Hoadly delivered a sermon on 31 March 1717 to George I of Great Britain

George I of Great Britain

George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....

 on The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ. His text was John 18:36, "My kingdom is not of this world," and from that Hoadly deduced, supposedly at the request of the king himself, that there is no Biblical

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 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

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

 had not delegated His authority to any representatives.

Background

Two competing visions of government were in play. On the one hand, there was a vision of God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 appointing the king and the bishops to be leaders, selecting them from all others and imbuing them with special characters, either through grace

Divine grace

In Christian theology, grace is God’s gift of God’s self to humankind. It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to man - "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" - that takes the form of divine favour, love and clemency. It is an attribute of God that is most...

 or in creation. This view held that the king, as the head of the Established Church, was not 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

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

 party and which had been used to propose the divine right of kings

Divine Right of Kings

The divine right of kings or divine-right theory of kingship is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God...

.

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

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 view was also the view of the Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

s and the "Independents" (i.e., the various Congregational and Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 churches, Quakers, etc.).

George I favoured the Whig party in Parliament

Parliament of Great Britain

The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland...

 and favoured a latitudinarian

Latitudinarian

Latitudinarian was initially a pejorative term applied to a group of 17th-century English theologians who believed in conforming to official Church of England practices but who felt that matters of doctrine, liturgical practice, and ecclesiastical organization were of relatively little importance...

 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

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

. A significant obstacle to all kings of England had been the presence of bishops in the Lords. While a king could create peers

Peerage of Great Britain

The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain after the Act of Union 1707 but before the Act of Union 1800...

, it was much more difficult for him to move bishops into and out of the Lords.

Sermon and aftermath

The sermon was immediately published and instantly drew counter-attacks. William Law

William Law

William Law was an English cleric, divine and theological writer.-Early life:Law was born at Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire in 1686. In 1705 he entered as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge; in 1711 he was elected fellow of his college and was ordained...

 (Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor) and Thomas Sherlock

Thomas Sherlock

Thomas Sherlock was a British divine who served as a Church of England bishop for 33 years. He is also noted in church history as an important contributor to Christian apologetics.-Life:...

 (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

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

, and Francis Hare

Francis Hare (bishop)

Francis Hare was an English churchman and classical scholar, bishop of St Asaph from 1727 and bishop of Chichester from 1731.-Life:...

, 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. It has been claimed that, in all, over 200 pamphlets linked to the controversy were published, by 53 writers; of those, 74 were published in July 1717.

In May 1717, the Convocation

Convocation of the English Clergy

The Convocation of the English Clergy is a synodical assembly of the Church of England consisting of bishops and clergy.- Background and introduction :...

 appointed a committee to study the sermon. When the report was ready for synodal sanction against Hoadly, the king dismissed the convocation, which did not meet again for over 130 years.

Timeline of publications

Year	Author	Publication	Position	Replies
1716	George Hickes George Hickes George Hickes was an English divine and scholar.-Biography:Hickes was born at Newsham, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, in 1642...  (died 1715), posthumously published by Thomas Deacon Thomas Deacon Thomas Deacon was an English non-juror bishop, liturgical scholar and physician.He was born to William and Cecelia Deacon. After his mother married the non-juror bishop Jeremy Collier, the young Deacon was introduced to many of the leading Jacobite and non-juror figures including George Hickes...	The Constitution of the Catholick Church and the Nature and Consequences of Schism	Non-juror	Benjamin Hoadly Benjamin Hoadly Benjamin Hoadly was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy.-Life:... , ‘A Preservative against the Principles and Practices of the Nonjurors both in Church and State, 1716.
1717	Andrew Snape	Letters to the Bishop of Bangor	High Church
1717	Thomas Sherlock Thomas Sherlock Thomas Sherlock was a British divine who served as a Church of England bishop for 33 years. He is also noted in church history as an important contributor to Christian apologetics.-Life:...	Remarks on the Bishop of Bangor's Treatment of the Clergy and Convocation and other works	High Church
1717	William Law William Law William Law was an English cleric, divine and theological writer.-Early life:Law was born at Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire in 1686. In 1705 he entered as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge; in 1711 he was elected fellow of his college and was ordained...	Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor, from 1717.	Non-juror of the Hanoverian succession
1718	Robert Moss	The Report Vindicated from Misreports	High Church
1719	Francis Hare Francis Hare (bishop) Francis Hare was an English churchman and classical scholar, bishop of St Asaph from 1727 and bishop of Chichester from 1731.-Life:...	Church Authority Vindicated	High Church	Hoadly, An Answer to Dr. Hare's Sermon, intituled “Church Authority vindicated,” 1720.

Further reading

• Cross, F. A., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 1964. London: Oxford University Press.
• Church of England and the Bangorian controversy, 1716-1721. Andrew Starkie: 2007: Boydell Press.