ABSTRACT
In the early nineteenth century the 'State Church' – the Church of England – had ranged itself unhesitatingly, if not unthinkingly, against a growing movement for reform. Radical writers, including Richard Carlile, William Sherwin and the ex-Anglican London clergyman Robert Taylor, characterised the Established Church as the corrupt and bloated lackey of the unreformed system. The logic of the radical case would have led to disestablishment of the Church and its replacement by religious organisations, financially supported by voluntary contributions of the faithful. The tide had been flowing strongly against Anglican traditionalists since the late 1820s. The Commission's work bore legislative fruit between 1836 and 1840 with the Established Church Act, the Pluralities Act and the Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Act. The Oxford Movement, despite its political storms, was one of many agencies which stiffened the sinews of Anglicanism and rendered its clergy more dutiful, devotional and self-confident. Politically, they swam against a rising tide of lay interference.
