First published in 1984. The Victorian clergy occupied a uniquely prominent position in English society. Their church generated continual and often rancorous debate and they played an important part in the local provision of education, welfare and justice. Politically, also, they were never negligible. But, while in 1830 the clergy still constituted England’s largest and wealthiest professional body, by 1914 their position was increasingly marginal. This title examines these changes and the issues in which the clergy was facing during this transition. The Victorian Clergy will be of particular interest to students of history.

Frontcover -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Part One: Entrants to the Clerical Profession, 1780-1839 -- 1. Recruitment to the Established Church -- 2. Episcopal Ordination: Policy and Practice -- Part Two: Routes to Ordination -- 3. The Ordinand and the University -- 4. Literate Clergy and the Grammar Schools -- 5. Autodidacts, Tutors for Orders and Parish Clerical Seminaries -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1. Ordination Profiles of Bishops, 1780-1839 -- Appendix 2. A Note on Methodology -- Bibliography -- Index

This book provides the first account of an important but neglected aspect of the history of the nineteenth-century Church of England: the reform of its diocesan structures. It illustrates how one of the most important institutions of Victorian England responded at a regional level to the pastoral challenge of a rapidly changing society. Providing a new perspective on the impact of both the Oxford Movement and the Ecclesiastical Commission on the Church, The Diocesan Revival in the Church of England shows that an appreciation of the dynamics of diocesan reform has implications for our understanding of secular as well as ecclesiastical reform in the early nineteenth century.