The failure of the Established Church in Wales to provide adequate spiritual provision for the greatly increased population, particularly in South Wales, during the early years of the nineteenth century, provides the backcloth against which the nonconformist grievances found expression. The numerical ascendancy of nonconformity during the early nineteenth century led to demands for religious equality and a just redistribution of the endowments of the Established Church. These demands became less religious and more political as the issue of disestablishment began its long journey through parliament in 1870. Church defence was a reaction to this. It began officially in 1859/60 with the formation of the Church Institution which soon became the Church Defence Institution. Its campaign against disestablishment and disendowment lasted until 1920 when disestablishment created the Church in Wales. This study concentrates on a detailed examination of all the manuscript sources relating to this with particular emphasis on the records of the Church Defence Institution. The records of the Church in Wales are examined together with the diaries and papers of the archbishops of Canterbury and other leading Church figures in the campaign. The views of the episcopate are examined by means of the minutes of their regular meetings at Lambeth. It also examines the papers of the various prime ministers and leading politicians of the time and evaluates their contribution to the debate on the disestablishment and disendowment of the Established Church in Wales. It concludes with a detailed examination of the process by which the Church in Wales was created and use is made of the papers and documents of the Representative Body and the Governing Body.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:637944 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Lodwick, B. M. |
| Publisher | Swansea University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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