The Politics of Religion: Disestablishing the Irish Church

Peterson, Stephen J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-97996-0_3

Stephen J. Peterson²

120 Accesses

Abstract

Gladstone was propelled into his first premiership in 1868 on the issue of Irish Church disestablishment. The American press from all religious and political backgrounds celebrated his accomplishment. Peterson demonstrates how Gladstone’s bill found palpable resonance in the United States. Many viewed it as emblematic of their aspirations for the global expansion of modern democracy and as a sign that the US system of government was destined to spread across Europe. Overt expressions of American exceptionalism were published as a result. Evangelicals and Catholics were jubilant in their belief that it was a providential act. The event was also a catalyst for numerous written expressions of anti-Catholicism, with evangelical commentators being the most vociferous.

In the removal of this establishment I see the discharge of a debt of civil justice, the disappearance of a national, almost a world-wide reproach, a condition indispensable to the success of every effort to secure the peace and contentment of that country: finally relief to a devoted clergy from a false position, cramped and beset by hopeless prejudice, and the opening of a freer career to their sacred ministry.

William Gladstone (Quoted in Morley, Gladstone, vol 2, 257)

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Notes

1.
P. M. H. Bell, Disestablishment in Ireland and Wales (London: SPCK, 1969), 26.
2.
Morley, Gladstone, vol 2, 258.
3.
“Our Correspondence,” NYE, March 25, 1869, 2.
4.
NYH, July 23, 1869, 4.
5.
Bell, Disestablishment in Ireland and Wales, 4, 5.
6.
Donald Harman Akenson, The Church of Ireland : Ecclesiastical Reform and Revolution, 1800–1885 (London: Yale University Press, 1971), 227.
7.
Parsons, “Irish Disestablishment,” 131–32.
8.
For a thorough examination of Fenian influences on Irish nationalism, see M. J. Kelly, The Fenian Ideal and Irish Nationalism, 1882–1916, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2006.
9.
Bell, Disestablishment, 81.
10.
Lawrence J. McCaffrey, The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976), 144.
11.
McCaffrey, Irish Diaspora, 157.
12.
Gladstone’s thinking on disestablished was influenced in part by Thomas Chalmers. See Stewart Brown “Gladstone, Chalmers, and the Disruption of the Church of Scotland,” 10–28, in David Bebbington and Roger Swift, eds., Gladstone Centenary Essays (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000)
13.
WEG, “Letter to John Bright,” Dec 10, 1867, in Lathbury, D. C., Correspondence on Church and Religion of William Ewart Gladstone, 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1910) I, 154–155.
14.
J. P. Parry, Democracy and Religion: Gladstone and the Liberal Party, 1867–1875 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 153.
15.
WEG, “The Irish Church,” Speeches on Great Questions of the Day, 2nd ed (London: John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly, 1869), 153.
16.
Parry, Democracy and Religion, 153.
17.
For a thorough discussion on Gladstone and Irish nationalism, see Alan O’Day “Gladstone and Irish Nationalism: Achievement and Reputation,” 163–183, in Bebbington and Swift, Gladstone Centenary Essays.
18.
Bebbington , William Ewart Gladstone, 147.
19.
WEG, Speeches on Great Questions of the Day, 2nd ed., (London: John Camden Hotten, 1869.), 155–156.
20.
WEG, “Letter to Sir R. Phillimore”, 4 April 1868, in Lathbury, Correspondence on Church and Religion, vol 1, 153.
21.
Akenson, Church of Ireland , 234.
22.
WEG, “State of Ireland, House of Commons, 16 March 1868,” Speeches on Great Questions, 109.
23.
Bebbington , William Ewart Gladstone, 149.
24.
Bebbington , William Ewart Gladstone, 149.
25.
Matthew, Gladstone, 194.
26.
Quoted in J. L. Hammond, Gladstone and the Irish Nation, 2nd ed (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1964), 81.
27.
Quoted in Matthew, Gladstone, 194.
28.
“A Settlement of the Irish Church Bills,” The Times , July 23, 1869, 9.
29.
WEG, Chapter of Autobiography (London: J. Murray, 1868), 21.
30.
WEG, “Speech Delivered in the Town Hall, Warrington 12 October 1868,” in Speeches of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.: Delivered at Warrington, Ormskirk, Liverpool, Southport, Newton, Leigh, and Wigan in October 1868 (London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., 1868), 15.
31.
Quoted in Bell, Disestablishment, 75.
32.
Parry, Democracy and Religion, 178.
33.
Parsons, Religion in Victorian Britain, vol 2, 27.
34.
Donald Harman Akenson, The Church of Ireland : Ecclesiastical Reform and Revolution, 1800–1885 (London: Yale University Press, 1971), 227.
35.
Matthew, Gladstone, 195.
36.
Justin McCarthy, ‘Irish Church Dethroned’, Galaxy, 8 (1969) pp. 399–404.
37.
Akenson, Church of Ireland , 268–273.
38.
“Great Ministerial Defeat,” NYO, April 9, 1868, 114.
39.
“Great Ministerial Defeat,” NYO, April 9, 1868, 114.
40.
“An Ecclesiastical Cancer Removed,” IND, April 9, 1868, 4.
41.
CA, May 14, 1868, 156.
42.
“Disestablishment and Disendowment,” Western Christian Advocate , April 22, 1868, 132.
43.
Caledonia, “The Disestablishment of the Irish Church,” NYE, April 30, 1868, 1.
44.
Caledonia, “The Disestablishment of the Irish Church,” NYE, April 30, 1868, 1.
45.
“The English Revolution,” Boston Investigator , August 11, 1869, 117.
46.
NYH, April 8, 1868, 6.
47.
“The Great Ministerial Defeat,” NYO, April 9, 1868, 114.
48.
“The Irish Presbyterian Church,” NYE, July 2, 1868, 2.
49.
“A Peaceful Revolution,” NYE, March 25, 1869, 1.
50.
“Disestablishment and Disendowment,” Western Christian Advocate , April 22, 1869, 132.
51.
“The Irish Church Act of 1869,” CW, 50 (1869), 238.
52.
“Mr. Gladstone’s Resolutions on the Irish Church,” NYH, March 25, 1868, 6.
53.
“Mr. Gladstone’s Resolutions on the Irish Church,” NYH, March 25, 1868, 6.
54.
“The Irish Church Bill-the Revolution Averted-the Compromise,” NYH, July 23, 1869, 4.
55.
Goldwin Smith, “Ecclesiastical Crisis in England,” NAR, 110 (1870), 159.
56.
“The Irish Church Bill,” ZH, July 8, 1869, 318.
57.
“The Doomed Establishment,” NYE, July 16, 1868, 1.
58.
“The Irish Church Disestablished-What Next in Great Britain?,” NYH, August 1, 1869, 6.
59.
“Democratic Movements in England,” CT, April 4, 1868, 0_2.
60.
“Democratic Movements in England,” CT, April 4, 1868, 0_2.
61.
“The Crisis in England,” CT, 23 July 1869, 0_2.
62.
“Foreign Religious Intelligence,” MR, 21(1869), 601–602.
63.
“The Divorce of Church and State,” Round Table, 204 (1868), 399.
64.
“The Divorce of Church and State,” Round Table, 204 (1868), 399.
65.
“Disestablishment,” Princeton Review , 2 (1869), 267.
66.
“The Irish Church Bill”, NYH, July 23, 1869, 4; and “The Irish Church and the Progress of Religious Liberty,” NYH, April 8, 1868, 6.
67.
“Irish Church Bill”, NYH, July 23, 1869, 4.
68.
“Mr. Gladstone and the Reform League,” NYT, September 2, 1866, 4.
69.
“Mr. Gladstone and the Reform League,” NYT, September 2, 1866, 4.
70.
“England,” TN, January 20, 1870, 41.
71.
“England,” TN, January 20, 1870, 41.
72.
HW, April 10, 1869, 227.
73.
NY.Trib, April 18, 1868, 6.
74.
NY.Trib, April 18, 1868, 6.
75.
“The Irish Church Disestablished-What next in Great Britain?,” NYH, August 1, 1869, 6.
76.
“Ireland’s Mission,” CW, 62 (1870), 1.
77.
Quoted in NYE, April 1, 1869, 6.
78.
Quoted in NYE, April 1, 1869, 6.
79.
Quoted in NYE, April 1, 1869, 6.
80.
Princeton Review , July, 3, 1868, 409.
81.
“Disestablishment,” Princeton Review , 2 (1869), 290.
82.
“An Ecclesiastical Cancer Removed,” IND, April 9, 1868, 4.
83.
“An Ecclesiastical Cancer Removed,” IND, April 9, 1868, 4.
84.
“The English Elections,” IND, December 3, 1868, 4.
85.
“The English Elections,” IND, December 3, 1868, 4.
86.
“The New British Parliament,” NYO, December 24, 1868, 413.
87.
HW, October 17, 1868, 658–659.
88.
SR, May 2, 1868, 4.
89.
SR, May 2, 1868, 4.
90.
“Great Ministerial Defeat,” NYO, April 9, 1868, 114.
91.
NYO, July 29, 1869, 238.
92.
“New British Parliament,” NYO, December 24, 1868, 413.
93.
“New British Parliament,” NYO, December 24, 1868, 413.
94.
“An Ecclesiastical Cancer Removed,” IND, April 9, 1868, 4.
95.
“The Political Result in England,” TN, November 26, 1868, 434.
96.
Jonathan Parry, The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), 258–259.
97.
George Washburn Smalley , NY.Trib, March 16, 1869, 1.
98.
George Washburn Smalley , NY.Trib, March 16, 1869, 1.
99.
American Quarterly Church Review , 1 (1870), 153.
100.
“The Irish Question,” SR, April 4, 1868, 5.
101.
“The Irish Question,” SR, April 4, 1868, 5.
102.
“The Irish Question,” SR, April 4, 1868, 5.
103.
“The Irish Question,” SR, April 4, 1868, 4.
104.
Emery, Press and America, 241.
105.
NYO, July 29 1869, 238, 149.

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Tulsa Community College, Tulsa, OK, USA
Stephen J. Peterson

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Peterson, S.J. (2018). The Politics of Religion: Disestablishing the Irish Church. In: Gladstone's Influence in America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97996-0_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97996-0_3
Published: 03 October 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97995-3
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