Fifteen comprehensive essays by leading historians on the careers and duties of those eminent figures in eighteenth-century English society: the bishops of the established Church. Bishops in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the colonies all have their own chapters.
Preface Introduction –Nigel Aston & William Gibson THE POLITICS OF CHURCH AND STATE 1. Securing the Mitre: the promotion and progress of a Bishop, Nigel Aston, University of Leicester 2. Lord Bishops: the episcopate in national politics, Ruth Paley, History of Parliament 3. Bishops and the monarchy, Grayson Ditchfield, University of Kent PERFORMANCE 4. Pastors of their flock: visitation, ordination, confirmation, Colin Haydon, University of Winchester 5. Authority, conflict, and consensus: bishops, their clergy, and diocesan government, William Gibson, Oxford Brookes University 6. Bishops and patronage, Daniel Reed, Oxford Brookes University CULTURES 7. Wives and families: the domestic life of bishops, Nigel Aston, University of Leicester & William Gibson Oxford Brookes University 8. Bishops and eighteenth-century intellectual life, Robert Ingram, University of Ohio 9. Bishops, taste and culture, Matthew Craske, Oxford Brookes University BEYOND ENGLAND 10. Anglican bishops in Wales, John Morgan-Guy, University of Wales: Trinity St David. 11. The other establishment: bishops in the Church of Ireland, Toby Barnard, University of Oxford. 12. Episcopacy in Scotland, Rowan Strong, Murdoch University 13. Anglican Bishops, the wider world and the other Christian churches, Ted Campbell, Southern Methodist University Appendix: Episcopal Incomes by Ruth Paley
Fifteen comprehensive essays by leading historians on the careers and duties of those eminent figures in eighteenth-century English society: the bishops of the established Church. Bishops in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the colonies all have their own chapters.
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 were married with families. All of these themes are discussed, and Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the American colonies receive specific examination.
