Disestablishment

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Disestablishment. The 19th cent. saw the questioning of the right and propriety of a church which represented only a minority of Christian believers to be the established church, its clergy supported and maintained by law by parishioners who did not sympathize with or belong to it.

The Irish church, with its two Anglican provinces of Armagh and Dublin, was the first to be disestablished. For some years an alliance of Irish nationalists and Roman catholics had campaigned for the removal of the privileged position of the minority Anglican church, and in 1868 this cause was espoused by Gladstone. As prime minister in 1869 he introduced a parliamentary bill to disestablish the Church of Ireland, and although strongly opposed by some—including Queen Victoria—it passed into law.

In Wales similar cultural nationalism, allied less with Roman catholicism than with nonconformity (which in the mid-19th cent. held the allegiance of almost 80 per cent of worshippers), produced a similar campaign. The growth of the Liberal Party and the widening of the franchise encouraged the movement, and after 1891 Liberals became formally committed to it. Several parliamentary bills from 1870 onwards either failed or were withdrawn, until one was passed in 1914. The First World War delayed its implementation, but the Act came into force in 1920.

The 1869 Irish disestablishment left the Church of Ireland a shadow of its former self, particularly in the overwhelmingly catholic rural areas—a fact to which the numerous derelict Anglican church buildings still dotting the landscape bear eloquent witness—though it remained strong in some towns and cities. In Wales the long delay saw a different outcome. By 1920 nonconformity was losing its dominant place in Welsh life, and the Church in Wales was able to maintain its widespread presence throughout the principality.

Revd Dr John R. Guy

disestablishment. The privileged position of the Church of Ireland had long been resented by both Catholics and Presbyterians. The Church Temporalities Act and reform of the tithe system in the 1830s had modified but not removed the anomaly of a state church whose members made up only one‐eighth of the population. Following the Fenian insurrection of 1867 Gladstone made disestablishment part of his programme for pacifying Ireland. Census returns and a series of parliamentary inquiries confirmed the image of an establishment whose wealth and political prestige contrasted vividly with its minority position and pastoral and administrative inadequacies. Despite strenuous objections by the queen and the Conservative opposition, and in the face of a policy of non‐co‐operation by the church itself, Gladstone's Irish Church Act became law on 26 July 1869.

The church was largely disendowed. Bishops and clergy were guaranteed their existing incomes for life, but most chose to commute this interest to a capital sum, vested in the Representative Church Body, which thus received a total of £7.6 million. Capital sums were also granted to the Presbyterian church and Maynooth College, in place of previous regular endowments. As from 1 January 1871 the Church of Ireland was a voluntary body, governed by the General Synod, with its property and financial affairs in the hands of the Representative Church Body.

Kenneth Milne

Disestablishment The 19th cent. saw the questioning of the right of a church which represented only a minority of Christian believers to be the established church, its clergy maintained by parishioners who did not belong to it. The Irish church was the first to be disestablished, by Gladstone in 1869. In Wales, where nonconformists accounted for 80 per cent of worshippers, a similar campaign was waged. Several parliamentary bills from 1870 onwards failed, until one was passed in 1914. The First World War delayed its implementation, but it came into force in 1920. The 1869 Irish disestablishment left the Church of Ireland a shadow of its former self, particularly in the overwhelmingly catholic rural areas. In Wales the delay saw a different outcome. By 1920 nonconformity itself was losing its dominant place in Welsh life, and the Church in Wales was able to maintain a widespread presence throughout the principality. Disestablishment of the Church of England has been frequently mooted, sometimes from within, but has failed to become a dominant issue.