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The Anglican Church and the Conservative Movement of 1792-3

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The Anglican Church and the Conservative Movement of 1792-3 RELIGIOUS LOYALISM: THE ANGLICAN CHURCH AND THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT OF 1792-3 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History University of Regina by Greg Koabel Regina, Saskatchewan March 2009 Copyright 2009: Greg Koabel Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your We Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-55019-9 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-55019-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ••• Canada UNIVERSITY OF REGINA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE Mr. Gregory Vaughan Koabel, candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in History, has presented a thesis titled, Religious Loyalism: The Anglican Church and the Conservative Movement of 1792-3, in an oral examination held on March 23, 2009. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material. External Examiner: Dr. Jeanne Shami, Department of English Co-Supervisor: Dr. Robin Ganev, Department of History Co-Supervisor: Dr. Ian Germani, Department of History Committee Member: Dr. Yvonne Petry, Department of History Committee Member: Dr. Thomas Bredohl, Department of History Chair of Defense: Dr. Catherine Tite, Luther College ABSTRACT In the wake of the French Revolution, the early 1790s proved to be a riotous period in British social and political history. Radicals, seeking to implement many of the reforms being established in France, challenged conservatives, seeking to maintain the status quo. Since that time historians have been similarly divided on the issues of the early 1790s, particularly in terms of the political legacy of the period. However, the one element largely missing from these interpretations is how religion served to complement, and at times trump, these political and class interpretations of events. A large reason for this exclusion has been the perception that the Anglican Church of this period was weakened by political sycophancy and its clergy unable to express, or elicit, any degree of religious enthusiasm. This thesis will explore the role Anglican clergymen had in expressing and exploiting religious sentiment during 1792-3, and attempt to make the events of the early 1790s more coherent by placing them in the context of religious attitudes. The details of Anglican clerical perspective had on the political, social and religious events surrounding them in 1792-3 can be gleaned from several different sources. The sermons delivered by Anglican churchmen that relate to reform, radicalism and the state of religion in Britain, as well as their involvement in local politics, are examined in the thesis in order to demonstrate that clergymen saw affairs in a particularly religious context. Similarly, the thesis investigates the clergy's role in popular expressions of loyalism, at times resulting in loyalist riots. Through a precise examination of specific popular disturbances i in Oxford and Cambridge, I demonstrate that religious tensions between Anglicans and Dissenters, exploited by conservative Anglican clergymen, provided the primary impetus for these riots. This thesis presents the case that evaluations of Anglican clergymen in the early 1790s, and religious tensions as a whole in British society, need to be reconsidered. Historical debates about the 1790s have been largely centred upon narratives of political or social conflict. By failing to treat the religious concerns of British society equally in the discussion of the crisis years of the 1790s, historians have simplified our understanding of the period. While an elevation of the religious element in the social history of the 1790s should not displace the political or class elements, it can more effectively explain certain events that do not fit into a strictly political interpretation of the period. II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to convey my deepest appreciation to my co-supervisors, Dr. Robin Ganev and Dr. Ian Germani, for all their assistance, both in researching and writing this thesis. Dr. Ganev's deep knowledge and passion for eighteenth century social history certainly impacted my work. I would also like to thank Dr. Thomas Bredohl and Dr. Yvonne Petry for their assistance in completing this thesis and for taking part in the panel committee. In addition, I wish to thank Dr. Robin Swales for introducing me to the absorbing world of early modern Britain, and instilling in me the passion necessary to complete this project. Financial support was provided by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Regina, and by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada. Without their backing this would not have been possible. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: Politics from the Pulpit: The Myth of the Secular Sermon 7 2: Organized Religion: Clerical Participation in Loyalist Associations 35 3: Religious Loyalism in Action: Clerical Involvement in Anti-Radical Disturbances and Repression 67 CONCLUSION 98 BIBLIOGRAPHY 102 iv INTRODUCTION Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice stands as a remarkable, and still amusing, portrayal of the social hierarchy of early nineteenth-century England. One of the most comic figures in the novel is Mr. Collins, an ironically irreligious man of the Church, whose ambitions exist purely in the material world. His main concerns appear to be toadying to his social superiors, securing his financial station in life and being largely ignorant of theological matters, so long as they do not bring him social gain. Austen's initial description of Collins captures this image of a clergyman seeing his Church position as being important only so far as it identified his social superiors and inferiors. A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he felt for her high rank and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his rights as a rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.1 Mr. Collins stands as a somewhat familiar figure to historians of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He is an Anglican clergyman hopelessly devoted to his master, whose primary goal in life appears to be the furthering of his worldly life through sycophancy and advantageous marriage, and whose understanding of theological concerns is at best limited. Although Austen did not implicate Collins in any conservative political repression, his general sycophancy represents the popular perception of Anglican clergymen to this day. Unfortunately, while Mr. Collins makes for an entertaining character in Pride and Prejudice, many historians have been all too willing to view Austen's portrayal of the Anglican clergy as typical. There is perhaps no more unfairly maligned figure in the history of the late 1Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993), 47-48. 1 2 eighteenth century than the Anglican clergyman. Alternately accused of laziness, sycophancy, political opportunism and corruption, the parish vicar has been seen as an almost wholly secular figure, existing merely to further the cause of the authoritarian state. The interpretation of the clergyman as secular figure is especially true of the politically divisive 1790s, where traditional histories have portrayed clergymen as motivated purely by a desire to further their own careers. These interpretations usually take the form of generalizations, such as John Dinwiddy's that the sermons of the 1790s were merely the stale
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