THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES & THE "SECOND REFORMATION"

INTRODUCTION.  William Alexander, Anglican bishop of Derry and Raphoe.  William Ewart Gladstone.

I.  THE IRISH PROTESTANT CHURCHES AND THE BRITISH STATE.  Oxford Movement.  Church Temporalities Act (1833).  Benefices (livings): 1,120 in the late 1780s ==> 1,395 in 1832 ==>  1,518 in 1867 = 1,450 local clergyman for 540,000 Anglicans = 375 per clergyman (R.C.Ch. = 4.2 times as many).  Churches:  1,001 in 1787 ==> 1,182, plus 111chapels by 1832.  Tithes; tithe refusal.  Anglican bishop's incomes around 1830:  £14,000 (Armagh) to £4,000.  Annual expenditures on clergy:  £701,000 (Ch. of I. = 11% of pop.) vs. £500,000 (R.C.Ch. = 81% of pop.).

II.  THE PROTESTANT CHALLENGE:  THE "SECOND REFORMATION."

A.  THE SECOND REFORMATION.  Three fronts;  a Protestant British nation; against Catholic aggression; for a Protestant Ireland.  Lord John Russell to the Anglican Bishop of Durham (185)).  Germany: Otto von Bismarck; "struggle for civilization" (Kulturkampf) against R.C.Ch.; Emperor Wilhelm I.

B.  THE EVANGELIZATION OF IRELAND.  General Reformation Society (1848); Rev. Alexander Dallas (d. 1869) ==> Society for Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics (ICM); Derrygimla (Connemara).  Rev. Charles Fleury.  W. C. Plunket, Anglican archbishop of Dublin; J. C. Colquhoun.

III.  DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH OF IRELAND.  Whigs ==> Liberals; Tories ==> Conservatives.  William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898).  Disestablishment Bill (1869), became law on 1 Jan. 1871.