Disestablishment of the Anglican Church in England in the Late Nineteenth Century: Reasons for Failure

Abstract

Yesterday we asked for toleration, today we ask for religious equality; tomorrow we shall demand the disestablishment of the Church of England.1 This statement made at a conference of Non conformists in 1872 expressed the sentiments of many outside the Anglican Church who associated religious equality with disestablish ment. In the opinion of the more vocal advocates of separation between church and state, religious equality was not possible until this relationship was severed, since establishment, in their view, was based on inequality.2 The desire of those outside the Anglican Church to achieve religious equality by abolishing privileges enjoyed by churchmen because of religious affiliation was one of the major themes of the late nineteenth century in England. Many of the specific grievances of Nonconformists such as church rates and university tests had been eliminated by Gladstone's Liberal Government from 1868 to 1874. The 1870s was a decade of optimism for Nonconformists who hoped to continue this momentum until all their goals including the dis establishment of the Anglican Church were accomplished. Despite many hopeful signs of progress toward disestablishment in the 1870s and early 1880s, the Anglican Church remained the Established Church of England at the dawn of the twentieth century. The failure to disestablish the Church at a time when the friends of religious