ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the wide support given by the Established Churches for the war and the varying opinions of Dissenting ministers, based on their political theology and its application to the war, and the attitudes and actions this led them to urge upon their congregations. Liberals and Evangelicals within the Established Churches, however, were sometimes less vocal in their support, and a small minority expressed opposition to the war. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland regularly assured the King of its clergy's undeviating perseverance in their exertions to preserve sound doctrine and to advance genuine piety, for the benefit of public order. The war against revolutionary France was interpreted ideologically by Establishment churchmen, from both Burkean and purely theological standpoints. Not all Dissenting ministers supported the armed struggle against revolutionary France, and a significantly higher proportion of them openly opposed it than was the case in the Established Churches.
