Religion in Victorian England was a major factor in society and politics. Historian G. Kitson Clark says that apart from the 17th century, "In no other century did the claims of religion occupy so large a part in the nation's life, nor did men speaking in the name of religion contrived to exercise so much power." He emphasizes major social reforms and argues the main motivating force was the evangelical revival movement inside and outside the Church of England.G. Kitson Clark, The Making of Victorian England (1962) p. 20. Controversies raged over the established status of the Church of England, as minority denominations, especially Catholics, demanded equality. There were theological disputes, particularly about the truth of the Bible. Moral standards were high in Britain and how to maintain morality became a factor in issues such as education. The rapid growth of the British Empire overseas inspired very active missionary programs.
Controversies Religion was politically controversial during this era, with Nonconformists (also called "Dissidents") pushing for the disestablishment of the Church of England. Nonconformists comprised about half of church attendees in England in 1851 and were a clear majority in Wales. Scotland and Ireland which had separate religious cultures. Gradually the legal discrimination that had been established against them outside of Scotland was removed. Legal restrictions on Roman Catholics were also largely removed. The number of Catholics grew in Great Britain due to conversions and immigration from Ireland. Secularism and doubts about the accuracy of the Old Testament grew among people with higher levels of education. Northern English and Scottish academics tended to be more religiously conservative, whilst agnosticism and even atheism (though its promotion was illegal) gained appeal among academics in the south. Historians refer to a 'Victorian Crisis of Faith', a period when religious views had to readjust to accommodate new scientific knowledge and criticism of the Bible.
Church of England: Crisis and expansion
Despite its lofty status as the official legally established church in England, The Church of England faced an acute crisis in the early 19th century. This led to major reforms in the 1830s and 1840s. The bishops were widely disliked, a sentiment vividly demonstrated by the public outcry in 1832 against William Howley the Archbishop of Canterbury. Non-Anglican Dissenters --especially the Methodists--intensified their campaign for disestablishment, seeking to strip the Church of its official state status and privileges. The public was troubled about the Church's shocking abuses and anomalies, including a grossly unequal distribution of its wealth and a clergy often absent from their parishes. A small but increasingly vocal group of radicals advocated for reducing the Church's political power (de-ecclesiasticisation), while the governing Whig Party was, at best, apathetic toward the Church's welfare. Activists inside the Church recognized the growing disconnect between their institution and the general public. Against the escalating internal and external threats, the Church survived largely due to the foresight of churchmen who promoted greater tolerance and successfully drove through significant institutional reforms. In retrospect, this survival wasn't a miracle: the radicals pushing for fundamental change were not close to gaining political power, and Dissenters only achieved real influence in Parliament later on. Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church part one. 1966. pp 7–102. Anthony Armstrong, The Church of England, the Methodists and Society. 1700–1850 (1973) pp.162–166. Anthony Hugh Manchester, "The Reform of the Ecclesiastical Courts". The American Journal of Legal History 10#1, 1966, pp. 51–75.
During the 19th century, the established Church of England expanded greatly at home and abroad.Owen Chadwick, The Victorian church. Part 1 (1966) online; also Owen Chadwick, The Victorian church. Pt. 2 (1970) online It enrolled about half the population, especially in rural areas where the local gentry dominated religious affairs. However it was much weaker in the fast-growing industrial cities. It was an established state church, and starting with Prime Minister Robert Peel in 1835 the government used Ecclesiastical Commissioners to make policy. Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church part one (1966). pp 126–141.
For centuries rich men had endowed local parishes with funding the bishops could not touch. Available Church of England funding came largely from voluntary contributions. Bishops used this money to doubled the number of active clergyman, and built or enlarged several thousand churches. Around mid-century it was consecrating seven new or rebuilt churches every month. It proudly took primary responsibility for a rapid expansion of elementary education, with parish-based schools, and diocesan-based colleges to train the necessary teachers. In the 1870s, the national government assume part of the funding; in 1880 the Church was educating 73% of all students. In addition there was a vigorous home mission, with many clergy, scripture readers, visitors, deaconesses and Anglican sisters in the rapidly growing cities.Sarah Flew, Philanthropy and the Funding of the Church of England: 1856–1914 (2015) excerpt
In addition to local endowments and pew rentals,J.C. Bennett, "The Demise and—Eventual—Death of Formal Anglican Pew-Renting in England". Church History and Religious Culture 98.3–4 (2018): 407–424. Church financing came from a few government grants,Sarah Flew, "The state as landowner: neglected evidence of state funding of Anglican Church extension in London in the latter nineteenth century". Journal of Church and State 60.2 (2018): 299–317 online. and especially from voluntary contributions. The result was that some old rural parishes were well funded, and most of the rapidly growing urban parishes were underfunded.G. Kitson Clark, The making of Victorian England (1962) pp. 167–173.
Overseas the Church kept up with the expanding Empire. The Church Missionary Society founded in 1799 sponsored extensive missionary work, supporting 90 new bishoprics and thousands of missionaries across the globe. Kevin Ward and Brian Stanley, eds., The Church Mission Society and World Christianity 1799–1999 (2000).
Evangelical and Nonconformist Protestantism The Protestants outside the Church of England were divided and subdivided. For example the Baptists had divided into competing sects: Particular; General; New Connexion General; Seventh-Day; and Strict.Michael A.G. Haykin, "The Baptist Identity: A View from the Eighteenth Century". Evangelical Quarterly 67.2 (1995): 137-152. online William H. Brackney, Historical dictionary of the Baptists (1999) online Several different Methodist sects emerged and they formed the largest subgroup of evangelicals. Methodism began within the Church of England in 1739 and by 1800 Wesleyan Methodism broke away and became a separate denomination. Methodism was based theologically on Arminianism, which emphasized free will and universal salvation. It subsequently split into more militant churches such as the Primitive Methodists. Wesleyan Calvinistic Methodism was spread to older Dissenting denominations by George Whitfield who pioneered a moderate form of Calvinism which tempered the strict doctrine of Election (salvation for the elect few) with the possibility of universal redemption and which appealed many Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians.Bernard Semmel, "The Methodist Revolution" (1973) online.
The start of the 19th century saw an increase in overseas missionary work in the fast-growing British Empire and the major missionary societies were founded (see Timeline of Christian missions). In the Church of England both the Evangelical and high church factions sponsored missionaries. They functioned as powerful agents of cultural transformation, serving as the cultural wing of Western power projection. Historians have examined the complexity of the interaction, recognizing the diverse motivations of missionaries and, crucially, the agency of indigenous people in shaping the ultimate outcomes of these cultural encounters.Andrew Porter, Cultural imperialism' and Protestant missionary enterprise, 1780–1914". Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 25.3 (1997): 367-391.
In addition to stressing the traditional Wesleyan combination of "Bible, cross, conversion, and activism", the revivalist movement sought a universal appeal, designed to reach rich and poor, urban and rural, and men and women. They added work to keep the children their parents brought and to generate literature to spread God's message. David W. Bennington, Victorian Nonconformity (1992) pp. 3–5, 25, 32, 38, 40, 47. The first evangelical megachurch, the Metropolitan Tabernacle with its 6000-seat auditorium, was launched in 1861 in London by Charles Spurgeon, a Baptist.Stephen J. Hunt, Handbook of Megachurches (Brill, Leyde, 2019), p. 50.
"Christian conscience" was the target chosen by the British Evangelical movement to promote social activism. Evangelicals believed activism in government and the social sphere was an essential method in reaching the goal of eliminating sin in a world drenched in wickedness.. The Evangelicals in the Clapham Sect included figures such as William Wilberforce who successfully campaigned for the abolition of slavery.
John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) of the Plymouth Brethren was an Irish Anglican minister who devised modern dispensationalism, an innovative Protestant theological interpretation of the Bible that was incorporated in the development of modern Evangelicalism. According to scholar Mark S. Sweetnam, dispensationalism can be defined in terms of its Evangelicalism, its insistence on the literal interpretation of Scripture, its recognition of stages in God's dealings with humanity, its expectation of the imminent return of Christ to rapture His saints, and its focus on both apocalypticism and premillennialism..
Protestant Dissenters chafed under the burden of paying Anglican church rates. They achieved civil registration of marriage in 1836. Instead of the requirement to marry in the parish church.Michael J. Cullen, "The making of the Civil Registration Act of 1836". The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 25.1 (1974): 39-59. They were angered by Catholic emancipation, which came by 1829.Jack H. Hexter, "The Protestant revival and the Catholic question in England, 1778-1829". Journal of Modern History 8.3 (1936): 297-319 online.
A major battlefield was schooling. The Church of England had its own network of schools for its members, and wanted government funding. Dissenters favored secular schooling, governed in towns by elected boards of education, rather than forceable attendance at Church of England schools. Fierce battles over the religious component of schools raged well into the 20th century.G. F. A. Best, "The Religious Difficulties of National Education in England, 1800–70" Cambridge Historical Journal 12.2 (1956): 155-173. Stephen G. Parker, et al, "The Church of England and the 1870 elementary education Act". British Journal of Educational Studies 68.5 (2020): 541-565.
The religious census of 1851, taken in conjunction with the population census, showed parity of numbers between the Anglican laity and all other Christian denominations, making Britain religiously pluralistic at least within the Christian faith despite its nominal commitment to uniformity.Kenneth Stanley Inglis, "Patterns of religious worship in 1851". Journal of Ecclesiastical History 11.1 (1960): 74-86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900063223
Catholics and Anti-Catholicism