Bangorian Controversy

1717. A dispute in England which brought to a head the conflict between the High Church and Jacobite lower clergy and the Latitudinarian and Erastian bishops, leading to the effective suppression of Convocation for 135 years. Bishop Hoadly of Bangor preached a sermon before George I, supposedly at the king's suggestion, on “The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ,” from John 18:36. A committee of the Lower House of Convocation accused Hoadly of denying the visible nature of the true church and of ignoring the working of the Holy Spirit, upon which the whole House requested the Upper House (of bishops) to make a definite censure. A considerable war of pamphlets followed the publication of the sermon, involving such as William Sherlock and William Law,* who attacked Hoadly strongly. To save him, the king prorogued Convocation, which was to transact no more business until 1852.