Professor William Gibson

The eighteenth-century bishops of the Church of England and its sister communions had immense status and authority in both secular society and the Church. They fully merit fresh examination in the light of recent scholarship, and in this volume leading experts offer a comprehensive survey and assessment of all things episcopal between the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 and the early nineteenth-century. These were centuries when the Anglican Church enjoyed exclusive establishment privileges across the British Isles (apart from Scotland). The essays collected here consider the appointment and promotion of bishops, as well as their duties towards the monarch and in Parliament. All were expected to display administrative skills, some were scholarly, others were interested in the fine arts, most had wives and families. All of these themes are discussed, and Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the American colonies receive specific examination. -- Supplied by publisher.

• Offers a reappraisal of the life and work of Samuel Wesley
• Examines Wesley's life through key turning points, including his decision to join the Church of England in 1684; his marriage breakdown in 1701; his imprisonment for debt in 1705; a series of disagreements with the bishop of his diocese; his leadership of Tory clergy in Convocation; and the haunting of his rectory by a poltergeist in 1716
• Considers these turning points as moments in which his Tory and High Church principles were tested
• Advances the idea of the 'long Glorious Revolution' between 1685 and 1720

The main and original contribution of this volume is to offer a discussion of teleology through the prism of religion, philosophy and history. The goal is to incorporate teleology within discussions across these three disciplines rather than restrict it to one as is customarily the case. The chapters cover a wide range of topics, from individual teleologies to collective ones; ideas put forward by the French aristocrat Arthur de Gobineau and the Scottish philosopher David Hume, by the Anglican theologian and founder of Methodism, John Wesley, and the English naturalist Charles Darwin; it criss-crosses intellectually and conceptually from a discussion of morality to that of the sacralisation of politics.

The eighteenth century is often mischaracterized as a time of widespread religious apathy. Modern scholarship has also challenged as simplistic—though not without foundation—the concept of an ‘Age of Enlightenment’ when reason supplanted faith. It was an age of deep political division between Whigs and Tories, underpinned by differences over religion and the royal succession. While the Whigs gradually became dominant, Wesley remained instinctively Tory. Britain was overwhelmingly Protestant, with established churches in England, Scotland and Wales. There was considerable hostility to Catholics, but Protestant Dissenters were tolerated. The presbyterian Church of Scotland was prey to secession; in Wales the weak Established Church was enlivened by an evangelical movement. It was an age of moral and social improvement, seen in a plethora of charitable foundations, and organized efforts to encourage agricultural and industrial advances. The end of censorship led to a vibrant popular print culture. Economic developments included an expanding consumer economy served by improved transport systems, including the turnpike roads which facilitated the travels of Wesley and his preachers. While many enjoyed higher living standards there was also social dislocation, including internal migration, but the Church of England and—within it—Methodism sought to meet spiritual and social needs.

Bishops, as lords spiritual, land owners and diocesan ordinaries, exerted considerable authority and control in a number of spheres. Some bishops, by reputation, longevity and force of personality were dominant figures. Bishops Henry Compton (1632-1713) and Jonathan Trelawny (1650-1721) are examples of churchmen who by the first decade of the eighteenth century had, over more than twenty years, established such a strong record in national politics as well as diocesan leadership that they were commanding churchmen. Other bishops, especially when they were new in their posts were more open to challenge and confrontation. Moreover the nature of religious and political settlement of the Revolution of 1689 was such that national and local political issues were almost inevitably religious ones also. As aspects of conflict in their intellectual and theological roles and in the exercise of their diocesan duties are dealt with elsewhere in this book, this chapter will focus on electoral politics, defending the Church in parliament, conflict with cathedrals and legal contests. The ability of a bishop to deal with conflicts depended principally on the strength of their opponents and their willingness to press on with their aims. But bishops often deployed a wide range of strategies in advancing their causes.