2. THE WESLEYANS. Just as Walpole's repression of political enthusiasm provoked the reaction which was led by the "Patriots (see p. 307), so the general decline in religious zeal provoked reaction. Overton, Church in The Deistic attack on Christianity (see p. 301) was defeated (Wakeman 437-450.) by the arguments of reason and philosophy, but there was xviii. Cent.) little active energy for good. But Religion cannot appeal i. General Awakening solely to men's brains, it must touch their souls also. While the Bishops and higher clergy were sunk in indifference and the mechanical performance of their official duties, and frightened at enthusiasm, some of the younger and lesser Clergy and laity were moving. Though the Church as a body could do nothing to aid foreign missions (through the silence of Convocation) unofficial societies were at work, e.g. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel-founded 1701. Church Missionary Society-founded 1799 In the same way there were Societies for furthering Education, e.g. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge-founded National Society (which built Church Schools all over There were also not a few "Societies for the Improvement of Manners." (Green 737.) One of these was at Oxford. Its members were naturally ii. The “Methodists." merely junior members of the University, and they attracted notice and derision by the zeal they displayed in observing the Church's rules and methods (hence their nickname of “Methodists") in regard to frequent Communions, Feasts and Fasts, etc. In this they were much influenced by a Nonjuror, William iii. Wesley. Law, and his book called the Serious Call. Among these were John Wesley (1703-1791), his brother Charles Wesley (1708-1788), and George Whitefield (1714— 1770). The two former went out to the new Colony of Georgia as missionaries but their Church principles were too rigid to be practical and they soon returned. In London they were attracted to the Moravians—recent arrivals from the Continent full of religious zeal and with only a partial knowledge of the Catholic Faith. From them however John Wesley learnt the necessity of "conversion," i.e. the need of not looking on Baptism as a mere mechanical washing away of all sin but as entailing the need of a new birth from post-baptismal sinfulness when years of (Green 738.) a, Causes of opposition. discretion" brought a knowledge of sinfulness. The Church had provided for this by Confirmation and Absolution, but these ordinances were little practised. When he began to preach this doctrine, in a form which zeal naturally exaggerated, the novelty of the subject and of his style of preaching, so different from the dry argumentative discourses of the day, startled, while the extraordinary effects of his excited appeals to feelings alarmed, many. The general dislike of enthusiasm in any form was against him, and the lax and indifferent Bishops in particular looked on him with disfavour. The English Church has never been able to use (Macaulay's Essays enthusiasm effectively and Wesley began to find the Churches closed to him and the upper classes as a rule against him. 561-3). b, Results of opposition.) c, development of separation. iv. The Wesleyan Schism. He therefore found himself restricted to the poor, and began to organize Methodist classes and a Methodist Society, with lay preachers who went about preaching either in the open air or in meeting houses. He had no desire to supplant Church organisation: indeed he was himself what would be called nowadays a High Churchman. But everything was against him. The Meeting Houses had to be licensed as "Dissenting Meeting Houses" by the requirements of the Toleration Act of 1689. The congregations which met in these for prayer and teaching were intended of course to go to the Parish Altar for the Holy Communion. But soon unordained ministers began to administer the Holy Communion, though informally and without authority, and in direct opposition to Wesley's own wishes. The opposition of the Bishops more and more drew away the Clergy from the Wesleyans. Whitefield and others grew impatient of restraint and were also inclined to Calvinism. Lady Huntingdon took these under her patronage and they organised themselves into a distinct offshoot called "Lady Huntingdon's Connection," definitely schismatical and Calvinistic. When Wesley's Society spread to America superintendents were needed to guide and direct it but the Bishops would give no help in despair he laid his hands on two men calling them Bishops "an unfortunate lapse from Church order of which he soon saw the mistake. 66 To the end of his life Wesley struggled against any formal separation from the Church saying that "when the Wesleyans left the Church God would leave them." But on his death in 1791 separation soon came, and in 1795 laymen were "authorised to administer the Holy Communion. This of course separated the Society from the Church. The evil example bore speedy fruit. A Society which was founded in secession soon found that the spirit of secession remained in its constitution, and there are now many varieties of Methodism, each differing from the others save in a common hostility to the Church. 3. THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL. (Green 739.) i. Its character. So great a movement could not help influencing the Church. There was an awakening in the Church also. As "High Churchmen were few and insignificant the new movement, (Wakeman 427, 451.) though professing great veneration for the Bible (hence called the Evangelical Movement) had little hold on Church doctrine or order, and preaching was more valued than the Sacraments. It comprised however many able and zealous men, who ii. Its work. accomplished much good work, a. Mission Preachers-Fletcher of Madeley, Venn of Bible Students-Scott and Milner. c. Hymn Writers-John and Charles Wesley, Toplady, Cowper. d. Foreign Missions-Church Missionary Society, 1799 (Charles Simeon and John Venn). Slave Trade abolished 1807-1833 by efforts of Wilberforce, etc. e. Education-Robert Raikes started Sunday Schools 1781. But their influence was (1) entirely individual: they made no attempt to wake the iii. Its results. Church as a whole, indeed they had no idea of the Church as "the Kingdom of God." (Wakeman 450.) (2) Therefore Dissent grew rapidly, but the Church, having (Wakeman 455.) no organization by which to work (for Diocesan Synods, etc., like Convocation, had ceased), continued unmoved. (3) She remained out of sympathy with the rising activity (Wakeman 429-33.) and expansion. Churches and Services were mean and unworthy, and the Bishops and Clergy, though in general educated and respected were without any high ideal of clerical duty. (4) Though individual Evangelicals-both Churchmen and Dissenters did much valuable social work. The result was that the Church seemed doomed. Indifferent to the spirit of development which was everywhere rising, unable to meet the new demands which altered circumstances had brought about, unable to use the new revival of personal religion which Wesleyanism had begun, priding herself only on her opposition to Rome and basing her claims only on her support by the State, she stood wrapped in a chilling apathy. While Empires toppled down abroad and political revolution threatened at home, the Church of England stood "unchanged and apparently unchangeable, waiting in patience for the knell of her doom to toll." 459.. (Wakeman 462.) Y i. 2. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. The Agricultural Revolution i. Improved methods in a Agriculture b Stock-breeding Their effects I National: increase of wealth 2 Political increase of political power of Whigs a weakened the middle and lower classes ii. Unwise methods of Poor Relief a Poor Laws-Spenhamland Act' 1795 b Charitable relief iii. Unwise National Policy-the 'Mercantile Theory' Foreign policy Colonial policy Corn laws The Industrial Revolution (Cunningham, vol. ii, i. Improvements in manufactures a Early improvements 1. immigrant workmen 2. increased home manufactures b 18th Century developments ii. Effects : I. introduction of machinery' 2. introduction of water power 3. improved means of communication-roads and canals 4. application of steam 1. Industrial: a development of coalfields b stimulus to mechanical improvements. Watt. c growth of industrial localities and new centres of population. d rise of Factory system If England was spared the horror of a Revolution like that of France she passed through one which was not less important Macaulay's Hist.. and which perhaps entailed not less suffering. ch. 3.) 1. The Agricultural Revolution. It may be considered separately according as it affected (i.) the agricultural and (ii.) the manufacturing interests. The great landowners who had so largely brought about the accession of the Hanoverians profited, as has been shown, by their victory in every way. They used their power to still further increase their wealth and importance. Their political measures have already been described (p. 297). in Various improvements increased the productive power of i. Improved methods the land, such as better methods of cultivation and the intro- a, agriculture. duction of turnips and other roots. These in turn helped to b, Stock-breeding. improve the cattle. Waste lands were enclosed and made productive. The Fens were drained. Their effects. ed Whig power. 3. Social: All this of course increased the wealth of the nation, as a whole, enormously. It increased too the importance of the c, natural: Whig landowners. But it pressed heavily on the classes below Increased wealth. the aristocracy. The new methods required much capital and 2. political: increaslarge estates, so waste lands were enclosed and made productive and the smaller landowners and the yeomen-farmers very largely disappeared. The poorer labourers had been accustomed to eke out their wages by pasturing a cow or two on the b, increased poverty waste commons, and by keeping poultry who could run there. When these were enclosed and cultivated this was no longer possible, and the labourer's condition became steadily worse. Moreover the great landowners controlled both local affairs, as Justices of the Peace, and national affairs, as members of Parliament or owners of seats. These powers they used in their own interests. Poor Law. a, administration of Poor Laws. The Spenhamland b, charitable relief. Instead of raising the impoverished labourer by giving him ii. Unwise methods of a "living-wage" out of their own profits, they pauperised him, at the expense of the community, by supplementing his wretched wage by "putting him on the rates." It was the Justices of the Peace at Spenhamland in Berkshire who first hit on this expedient and their plan was largely followed. Originally perhaps the idea sprang from mistaken kindness, and this was a great age for Almshouses, Free Schools, and doles. The mistake lay in doing nothing to help the poor to better themselves. The result was to pauperise the labouring classes and to discourage self-respect and thrift, for the lower a man's honestly earned wages fell the larger the relief he received from the rates and doles. No wonder the poor rates increased enormously in one place they actually reached twenty-one shillings in the pound. : Policy. "The Mercantile Theory." National administration was similarly in the hands of the great landowners and their natural allies the wealthy merchants. iii. MistakenNational Hence the supreme importance attached to commercial interests in foreign policy (p. 299) which was dominated by the 'Mercantile Theory as it is called. This taught that all gain must be at other peoples' or nations' expense; two nations could not grow rich at the same time. It was therefore imperative to cripple France and to restrict Colonial enterprise, lest English trade should be interfered with. This policy lost us our American Colonies. Increased population needed a much larger amount of corn Foreign policy. Colonial policy. |