Abstract

Historians have consistently underestimated the importance of religion in eighteenth century England, assuming that the Church of England's power had waned in the face of economic development, the spread of rationalism and clerical indifference. This study shows that the Church was actually thriving in this period, enjoying an unprecedented degree of popular support, political influence and effective social discipline in the county of Lancashire, where a rapidly developing economy created just those conditions long thought antithetical to Anglican success. ;The methodologies of social, political and cultural history are employed in examining religion's impact upon the lives of the English at every level of society. Part 1 explores the social history of Anglicanism through a statistical and analytical study of the Church's parochial structure, church building initiatives, patronage, clergy, attendance patterns, deanery courts, and the educational, charitable and recreational opportunities it provided in local communities. The Church of England possessed the single largest governmental structure in the country; and its geographical ubiquity helped to create a subtext that defined much of England's social and political culture. ;Part 2 analyzes the role of religion in political conflict. In the first half of the eighteenth century, Whig/Tory party alignments remained vital and the High and Low Church parties acted as the repositories of competing political ideologies. For the enfranchized portion of the nation religion lay at the heart of party allegiances. For the unenfranchized, the churches provided the most consistent source of political education and information many people ever received, and religiously inspired party allegiances and antipathies led to numerous outbreaks of plebeian violence. Lancashire was one of the most religiously heterogeneous counties in England; and interdenominational rivalries between the Church and surrounding Dissenting, Roman Catholic and Methodist minorities fuelled political conflict. The end of the age of party led to a rapid erosion of the political and social prominence of the Church of England, and a consequent redefinition of English culture