Anglican Evangelicals: Protestant Secessions from the Via Media, C. 1800-1850

This study examines, within a chronological framework, the major themes and personalities which influenced the outbreak of a number of Evangelical clerical and lay secessions from the Church of England and Ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century. Though the number of secessions was relatively small between a hundred and two hundred of the 'Gospel clergy' abandoned the Church during this period their influence was considerable, especially in highlighting in embarrassing fashion the tensions between the evangelical conversionist imperative and the principles of a national religio.