The first study of lay people and parish clergy in the nineteenth-century Church of England.

Church-of-Englandism and its Catechism Examined, printed in 1817 and published in 1818, was part of Bentham's sustained attack on English political, legal, and ecclesiastical establishments. Bentham argues that the purpose of the Church's system of education, in particular the schools sponsored by the Church-dominated National Society for the Education of the Poor, was to instil habits of insincerity into the population at large, and thereby protect the abuses which were profitable both to the clergy and the ruling classes in general. Bentham recommends the 'euthanasia' of the Church, and argues that government sponsored proposals were in fact intended to propagate the system of abuse rather than reform it. An appendix based on original manuscripts, which deals with the relationship between Church and state, is published here for the first time. This authoritative version of the text is accompanied by an editorial introduction, comprehensive annotation, collations of several extracts published during Bentham's lifetime, and subject and name indexes.

This book is about Mrs. Sarah Trimmer and her charitable work. It is a principal source of reference for the work she undertook as an author, philanthropist and pioneer in the promotion and institution of educational opportunities for impoverished children in the early nineteenth century.

The integrative theme of this collection of essays is change and transformation explored in the context of diverse expressions within the context of Anglican Church history. It addresses some central themes--notably the sacraments, liturgy, biblical interpretation, theological education, the relationship of church and state, governance and authority, and Christian education. The volume traces Anglican Church history chronologically. It includes a comparative study of penance in the thought of John Wyclif and Thomas Cranmer. The book also treats the dispersal of authority evident in the development of the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible, consensus in eucharistic theology in the seventeenth century, and developments in biblical interpretation in the early eighteenth century. This book also discusses a vision for the Christian education of children, change in theological education in the 1830s, the metanarrative of continuity developed by High Church historians in the late nineteenth century, increasing self-government in the Church at the outset of the twentieth century, and models of governance at the outset of the twenty-first. While this collection highlights aspects of change and transformation as an integrative theme, it is not its premise that change was normative or pervasive, perpetual or constant, within Anglicanism. Nevertheless, these essays raise some new lines of inquiry, make some suggestive interpretations, or propose revision of accepted views.

In this wide-ranging and richly detailed book Alan Richardson addresses many issues in literary and educational history never before examined together. The result is an unprecedented study of how transformations in schooling and literacy in Britain between 1780 and 1832 helped shape the provision of literature as we know it. In chapters focused on such topics as definitions of childhood, educational methods and institutions, children's literature, female education, and publishing ventures aimed at working-class adults, Richardson demonstrates how literary genres, from fairy tales to epic poems, were enlisted in an ambitious program for transforming social relations through reading and education. Themes include literary developments such as the domestic novel, a sanitized and age-stratified literature for children, the invention of 'popular' literature, and the constitution of 'Literature' itself in the modern sense. Romantic texts - by Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake, and Yearsley among others - are reinterpreted in the light of the complex historical and social issues which inform them, and which they in turn critically address.

Originally published in 1938, this book presents a social history of eighteenth-century elementary education. The main focus is on the different reactions of philanthropists in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to the movement for establishing schools on a religious basis for the children of the poor. Intended to draw attention to an often marginalised area, the text provides a detailed analysis of the ideologies behind charity schools and the various difficulties they encountered. A detailed bibliography, appendices and illustrative figures are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in eighteenth-century history and the role of charity schools in the development of education.