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Durham E-Theses The church in England and the eect of the French revolution upon it, 1789 - 1830 Jones, Rebecca Cynthia Myfanwy How to cite: Jones, Rebecca Cynthia Myfanwy (1987) The church in England and the eect of the French revolution upon it, 1789 - 1830, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6780/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Rebecca C.M. Jones "The Church in England and the Effect of the French Revolution upon it, 1789-1830" M. A. in Theology. 1987. The aim of this thesis is to make clear the effect of the French Revolution on Christianity in England. The principal religious bodies studied in this thesis are: the Established Church; the Anglican Evangelicals; the Methodists; the Nonconformists; and the English and Irish Catholics. Each chapter describes the political and social background of each denomination before 1790, and reports its reactions to the outbreak of revolution in France. The chapter on the Church in France and reactions in England to the French Revolution describes events during the period from 1790-1830 both in England and France. The chapters following this are mainly concerned with the denominations in England, with the exception of the chapter on the Irish Catholics. Each chapter describes the development of the denomination, its political stance and the repressive or supportive measures undertaken by the government towards it. In the case of the English and Irish Catholics, the French Revolution had direct consequences upon them, in the form of the French emigre clergy and the French invasion of Ireland. Each chapter illustrates the political campaigns of the denomination concerned and how far reaching the effects of the events in France were upon their political aspirations. Nearly all the chapters follow the progress of the denominations until the late 1820s when the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts was passed and the Act for Catholic Emancipation. "THE CHURCH IN ENGLAND AND THE EFFECT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION UPON IT, 1789 - 1830" Rebecca Cynthia Myfanwy Jones M.A. in Theology University of Durham Department of Theology 1987 I The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The Church in France during the Revolution and the Reactions to it in England during 1789 - 1801 8 Chapter 2 The Church of England 1790 - 1830 63 Chapter 3 The Evangelicals 1790 - 1830 91 Chapter 4 Methodism from 1790 - 1830 112 Chapter 5 The Protestant Dissenters 137 Chapter 6 The English Catholic Church and the French Emigres during the years 1790 - 1829 169 Chapter 7 The Irish Catholics 1790 - 1829 199 Bibliography 236 ILLUSTRATIONS Page Pla:te 47 'The Zenith of French Glory' 80 Plate 65 'Prornis'd Horrors of the French Invasion' 82 I confirm that no part of the material offered has previously been submitted by ~e for a degree in this or in any other University. STATEMENT OF COPYRIGHT "The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged." 1 INTRODUCTION The French Revolution and its impact on England in the early nineteenth century have been topics of perennial historical interest, as has the relationship between the French Revolution and the history of Christianity in England. The aim of this thesis is to make clear the effect of the French Revolution on the major denominations which constituted the Church in England, and to discover how these groups withstood the pressures of government upon them. The principal religious bodies included in this thesis are: the Established Church and especially the High Church tradition within it; the Anglican Evangelicals; the Methodists; the Nonconformists; and the English and Irish Catholics. Each chapter describes the political and social background of each denomination before 1790, and reports its reactions to the outbreak of revolution in France. In each case where there was persecution or support for the denomination, there is an attempt to show how this obstructed or quickened the growth of the denomination concerned. Primarily, however, the thesis seeks to define how far the government's reactions to the French Revolution blighted hopes for a reform of State and Church, thus leaving such reforms until the late 1820's. The political campaigns of the Dissenters, both Protestant and Catholic, have formed a great part of the argument, as they bore the brunt of the increasingly conservative attitude of the Established Church and Government towards all religious 2 and political reform following the French Revolution. David 1 Hempton in his work Methodism and Politics in British Society points out that it was not from the rising political power of the radical Nonconformists like Price and Priestley that the Church of England was threatened, but from the itinerant Evangelizing societies and the Established Church's own inability to adapt to social and religious change. This argument has been followed in the chapters on the Protestant Dissenters and the Methodists. In all of the chapters there has been an attempt to show that the denominations disagreed with one another, and that within each there were factions which varied in composition and attitude according to social status and geographical position. The congregations of the northern towns were quite different from those of rural areas in the south. Again, a great part of the Nation's reaction to the events of the French Revolution influenced the development of the Church in England. Of course the emigration of large numbers of the French clergy and the French invasion of Ireland did have direct implications for the ecclesiastical situation, and these are also described. The role of religion in the revolutionary period has always been a matter of lively debate. Across much of Europe the Revolution opened up the gulf between reactionary religiosity and radical irreligion, and the religious character of many of the counter-revolutionary movements provoked by 1 David Hempton, Methodism ahd Politics in British Society 1750-1850 (Hutchinson and Co., 1984), p. 57. 3 the Revolution have been the subject of recent study. All over Europe, in Poland, the Rhineland, Italy and in parts of France, counter-revolutionary groups were fighting for 2 their faith and fatherland. However, in parts of Italy and Ireland, republicanism meant more than faith, or coalesced with it to stoke the revolutionary flame. Yet while many Irish Catholics rose in 1798, the Irish Catholic Church opposed the rising, and a similar counter-revolutionary mentality can be seen among English Catholics as well as French emigre clergy exiled by the Revolution. Moreover, in England the Methodist and Evangelical claims to have prevented revolution impressed French historians like Elie Halevy, who was anxious to discover the secret of that political stability and continuity in England which was lacking in modern France. Halevy thought that 'Methodism was the antidote to 3 Jacobinism•. According to Halevy, Methodism had a great influence over other Dissenters, steering them towards 2 see T.W. Blanning, 'The role of religion in European Counter- Revolution, 1787-1815', in Derek Beales and Geoffrey Best (eds.), History, Society and the Churches: Essays in Honour of Owen Chadwick (Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 195-214; Owen Chadwick, The Popes and European Revolution (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1981), pp. 471-481. 3 E. Halevy, A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, 6 vols (Ernest Benn Ltd., London, 1964), p. 591. 4 conservative views, although the majority of Dissenters were politically Whigs. Halevypraisedthe Evangelical movement for infusing the working classes with a respect for social order and obedience to the instructions of their superiors. Thus Methodists and Nonconformist Sects effectively blocked any revolutionary activity in England. Indeed the counter-revolutionary check of Methodism is a reason for radical historiographical hostility towards it, in the writings of Socialist historians like the Hammonds 4 and E.P. Thompson. Both the Hammonds and Thompson regard the contribution of religious groups, especially that of the Methodists, as having a repressive effect on the lower classes, thus turning them into ideal workers for the manu- facturers, millowners and landlords, and offering one explanation for the lack of revolutionary action in industrial areas. The Hammonds regarded Methodism as a drug stupefying the labouring classes, by helping a worker to escape from the harsh realities of ordinary everyday life and by giving his life an illusory significance and moment. Both Thompson and the Hammonds saw Methodism as a work discipline, weakening the poor from within, thus making the labourer his own slave driver, working for virtue and salvation's sake. Methodism instilled within the worker 'the psychic component of the 5 work discipline of which manufacturers stood most in need' . 4 J.L. and B. Hammond, The Town Labourer, 1780-1832: The New Civilization ..