Bangorian Controversy

Bangorian Controversy a title derived from the bishop of Bangor (Hoadley), who, in the reign of George I, wrote "A Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Non-Jurors;" and afterward preached and published a sermon from the passage, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Joh 18:36), in which he maintained the supreme authority of Christ as king in his own kingdom; and that he had not delegated his power, like temporal lawgivers during their absence from their kingdom, to any persons as his vicegerents and deputies. The publication of this sermon by order of the king led to the controversy above named, in which Dr. Snape and Dr. Sherlock, the king's chaplains, took a prominent part as the opponents of Hoadley, maintaining that there were certain powers distinctly vested in the church by Christ, its king, of which the ministers of the church were the constitutionally- appointed executive. This controversy lasted many years, and led to the discontinuance of the Convocation. The pamphlets on the subject are very numerous; one of the most important is, William Law, Three Letters to Bishop Hoadley, to be found in Law's Scholar Armed, 1:279, and also in Law's Complete Works (Lond. 1762), vol. 1. SEE ENGLAND, CHURCH OF; SEE HOADLEY.