Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Traditional religious distinctions gradually eroded in eighteenth-century England under the impact of enlightenment rationalism: reason replaced revelation as the criterion for belief, order ousted enthusiasm in worship, and interdenominationalism blurred sectarian boundaries in philanthropic endeavors. But the French Revolution, economic troubles and radical political activity after 1815, and intellectual Romanticism put an end to co-operation and encouraged the growth of denominational self-consciousness. That rise of denominationalism led to the greatest conflict between the sects and the Establishment since perhaps the mid-seventeenth century. The clash began on the local level in the 1820s when the Church attempted to use its legal powers to collect rates; the events of 1828-1829 ushered in a period of conflict on the national level, as well. The Church turned to the state for support, only to find that Whigs and Liberals, in power for most of the period before 1874, were erastians and latitudinarians. So the Church in its turn became militant; high-churchmen in particular came to distrust Parliament and to emphasize the independent sources of clerical authority in sacerdotalism and the apostolic succession.
The period from roughly 1830 to 1870 was one of heightened religious tension. Nonconformists, having gained civil equality, now attempted to eliminate other symbols of the Anglican hegemony. Roman Catholics, sloughing off anglo-gallicanism for ultramontanism, asserted their spiritual claims and talked of converting England.
I thank Professor Irby C. Nichols, Jr., North Texas State University, who suggested that the topic was worth enquiry; Professor Josef L. Altholz, University of Minnesota, Ms. Eileen Mitchell, Ms. Susan Wood Paz, and Dr. Richard Rockwell, Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development, critiqued drafts of the paper. Computer funds from the University of Nebraska at Omaha assisted research; Mr. Steven L. Strong, University of Nebraska Computer Network, gave advice on programming. I read earlier versions of the paper at the Missouri Valley History Conference, Omaha, March 1978, and at the Graduate Social History Seminar, University of Birmingham, May 1978; I thank Dr. Dorothy Thompson and the members of the seminar for their comments.
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14 For announcements and reports of meetings, see The Times for November and December 1850, under the heading “The Papal Aggression.”
15 Ibid., 11, 15, 21, 29, 30 Nov. 1850; Illustrated London News, 30 Nov. 1850.
16 Rev. John Goodacre to the Ven. George Wilkins, 12 Nov. 1850. Archdeaconry of Nottingham Manuscripts, University of Nottingham Library, Misc. 281a.
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31 See Fraser, Derek, “Voluntaryism and West Riding Politics in the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Northern History, 13 (1977): 199–231CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the correspondence dealing with efforts to organize the county meeting in the Wharncliffe Muniments, Sheffield City Library, Wh.M. 526(d).
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34 The only way to judge the proportion of “repeaters” is to be alert to the bodies that produce the petitions. If one finds petitions coming from “the Wesleyan congregation of X,” “the Wesleyan Sunday school of X,” and other variations of the theme, then the odds are that one has “repeaters.” Such a practice apparently was common in the petition drive against Graham's Factory Bill of 1843; see my “Politics of Public Education in Britain, 1833-1848: A Study of Policy and Administration,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1974), p. 274–276.Google Scholar
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48 The anti-catholic sentiment of Lancashire may also be understated for the same reason: Liverpool's memorial was signed only by the chairman.
49 Old Dissent includes Independents, Baptists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Quakers, and Plymouth Brethren.
50 I distinguish between Wesleyans and other Methodists (i.e., Welsh Calvinists, Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, Primitive Methodists, and the other small secessions from Wesley's conference).
51 Besides the independent congregation that Horace Mann aggregated (the identities of which are unknown), I include Mormons, Sandemanians, the Catholic Apostolic Church, and the foreign protestant congregations in London. I have excluded Jews and the handful of Orthodox congregations from the calculations. (Mann counted synagogue attendances that Sunday; presumably the results in no sense reflect Jewish strength.)
52 Beds, Hunts, arid Northants omitted.
53 Northants omitted in these last three categories.
54 Surrey and Cornwell omitted.
55 Notts omitted.
56 The negative correlation between memorialists and other Methodists (-.23) is due to Northants having scored highest among memorialists and third from the bottom with respect to other Methodist church attendances. With it eliminated, a coefficient of -.16 shows a much weaker relationship.
57 Norfolk, Suffolk, Herts, Berks, Oxford, Dorset, Hereford, and Rutland.
58 Berks, Hereford, Northants, Suffolk, East Riding.
59 Cornwell, Gloucester, and Surrey omitted.
60 Notts, Surrey, Gloucester, Lanes, Kent, Westmoreland, Staffs, and Derby omitted.
61 Cornwell, Durham, and Norfolk omitted; if Kent, Gloucester, and Surrey are also ommitted, r= +.62.
62 Derby, Gloucester, Notts, and Surrey omitted.
63 But Wesleyans generated only nine memorials and less than a quarter of a percent of the signatures. The paradox is resolved by recollecting that nothing prevented Wesleyans from initiating or attending public town or parochial meetings.
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