Rational Dissent in the Late Eighteenth Century with Particular Reference to the Growth of Toleration.
Dissertation, The University of Wales (United Kingdom) (
1982)
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Abstract
Available from UMI in association with The British Library. ;This is a study of the attitudes of the Rational Dissenters toward toleration and of their practical involvement in the campaigns for wider toleration in the late eighteenth century. It begins by examining the attitudes towards toleration of the more liberal Dissenters in mid-eighteenth century. It finds their dissatisfaction with their position in the state to be minor in comparison with their enthusiasm for the British constitution. Britain was viewed as God's most favoured nation, and Her victories in the mid-century wars as presaging the downfall of Anti-Christ. Even the most radical Dissenters had high hopes for Britain under George III. These expectations were swiftly dashed and Britain lost her place as the modern Zion. The brooding anti-Catholicism of Thomas Hollis and his 'connection' came to the fore, and Francis Blackburne published his Confessional in part to strengthen Protestantism against Catholicism and its allies at Court. The suspicions of the Hollisites were ultimately confirmed by the Quebec Act of 1774, which established Catholicism in Canada. The Confessional, however, led to a campaign for church reform, which, in turn, revived Dissenting concern for toleration. In the process of campaigning first for relief for their ministers, tutors and schoolmasters from subscription to most of the Thirty-nine Articles, and for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts they began to move away from the anti-Catholic ideas of the Hollisites, and eventually, in 1791, supported relief for the Catholics. The role of the Rational Dissenters, who developed in self-confidence and coherence in the 1760s and 1770s, in effecting this change is examined and found to be crucial. Provoked by Joseph Priestley, they abandoned their anti-Catholicism, adopted ideas of universal liberty, and promoted Catholic Relief. The reasons for their change of heart are found primarily in their confidence in candid free inquiry and in the ultimate triumph of truth.