HOADLY, h6d'li, BENJAMIN: English bishop;
b. at Westerham (15 m. s.s.e. of London), Kent,
Nov. 14, 1676; d. at Winchester Apr. 17, 1761. He
studied at Catherine Hall, Cambridge (B.A.,
1696;
M.A., 1699), where he was fellow (1697-1701) and
tutor (1699-1701). After his ordination in 1701 he
was lecturer at St. Mildred's, London, till 1711.
Meanwhile he had received in 1704 the rectory of
St. Peter-le-Poer, London. It was as an opponent
of Edmund Calamy (q.v.) in the discussion
regarding conformity at the beginning of the eighteenth century that he first established his reputation as a controversialist. In 1706 he began a
controversy with Francis Atterbury (q.v.) on the interpretation of
I Cor. xv. 19.
Against Atterbury's view that Christians are compensated in a future
world for their unhappiness in this, Hoadly took the
ground that the greatest happiness in this
life is
attained by those who lead a Christian life. In 1709
he became the leader of the Low-church party in a
controversy with Atterbury and other supporters
of hereditary right and passive obedience. In recognition of his strenuous assertion of the "Revolution principles," particularly in his
Measures of Submission to the Civil Magistrate
(London, 1706) and Original and Institution of Civil Government
(1709), parliament presented an address to Queen
Anne in Dec., 1709, praying her to bestow some
dignity upon him. Through the accession of the
Tories to power Hoadly's preferment was indefinitely postponed, though he was presented by a
private patron to the rectory of Streatham in 1710.
In 1715 he was made a royal chaplain and elevated
to the bishopric of Bangor. In 1716 he published
his famous treatise, A Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Nonjurors both in Church and
State, in which he attacked the divine authority of
kings and clergy. On Mar. 31, 1717, he continued
his attack in a sermon preached before the king on
John xviii. 36,
in which he denied pointblank that
there is any such thing as a visible Church of Christ,
and maintained that, since Christ was the only authoritative lawgiver, no
one has the right to make
new laws for Christ's subjects, or to interpret or
enforce, old laws, in matters relating purely to conscience. This sermon, which was at once printed
by royal command, precipitated what is commonly
called the Bangorian Controversy. The Highchurch party sought to proceed against Hoadly in
convocation, but the king prevented this by proroguing that body on Nov. 22, 1717. This controversy, which raged for three years, produced more
than 200 tracts by fifty-three different writers,
and caused such intense excitement among all
classes that for a time business in London was
practically at a standstill. Hoadly's most important
contribution to this controversy was
The Common Rights of Subjects Defended
(London, 1719). Among his more prominent opponents were Andrew Snaps,
Thomas Sherlock, and William Law (qq.v.). Hoadly
was translated to the see of Hereford in 1721, to
that of Salisbury in 1723, and to the rich see of
Winchester in 1734. He was an aggressive Latitudinarian (see
Latitudinarians) and the recognized
leader of the extreme Latitudinarian party in Church
and State. He was the friend and admirer of
Samuel Clarke (q.v.), and was almost in entire
accord with Clarke's refined Arianism. Though his
writings are heavy, dull, and devoid of originality,
they did excellent service in their
day for the cause
of civil and religious liberty. Hoadly's works were
edited by his son, John Hoadly (3 vols., London,
1773).
Bibliography:
John Nichol, Literary Anecdotes of
the 18th Century, vols. i. v., 9 vols., London, 1812-15; John Hunt,
Hia. of Religious Thought
in Englnd, vol. iii., i5,.
1873;
C. J. Abbey, The English Church and its Bishops, 17oo-
Hobart
Hodge
1800, ii. 1-20 ib. 1887; J. H. Overton The Church in
England, ii. 203, 217-218 227-229, ib. 1897; idem and F.
Ftelton, The English Church
171.ยข-1800, pp. 14-18 et
passim, ib. 1906; DNB, xxvii. 16-21.
