Bangorian Controversy

Bangorian Controversy, in the history of the Church of England, an offshoot of the conflict with the Nonjurors (q.v.). Bishop Hoadly, a Whig, became Bishop of Bangor in 1715, and in opposition to Dr. Hickes, a Nonjuror, who charged the Church of England with schism, he affirmed that communion with a visible church was not essential to the Christian profession. A sermon of his preached before George I. in 1717 provoked an appeal to Convocation, but, to avoid a conflict between the bishops, who mostly sympathised with Hoadly, and the clergy, who commonly agreed with Hickes, the king prorogued that body, and it did not meet again till the present reign. William Law, the author of the Serious Call, took a prominent part against Hoadly.