HOADLY, BENJAMIN (1676-1761), an English bishop, who was born at Westerham, Kent, on the 14th of November, 1676. In 1691 he entered Catharine Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. and was for two years tutor, after which he held from 1701 to 1711 the lectureship of St. Mildred in the Poultry, and along with it from 1704 the rectory of St. Peter-le-Poor, London. His first important appearance as a controversialist was against Edmund Calamy "the younger" in reference to conformity (1703-1707), and after this he came into conflict with Francis Atterbury, first on the interpretation of certain texts and then on the whole Anglican doctrine of non-resistance. His principal treatises advocating civil and religious liberty were the of Submission to the Civil Magistrate and The Origin and Insti tution of Civil Government discussed. In 1710 he was presented by a private patron to the rectory of Streatham in Surrey. In 1715 he was appointed chaplain to the king, and the same year he ob tained the bishopric of Bangor. He held the see for six years, but never visited the diocese. In 1716, in reply to George Hickes (q.v.), he published a Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Non jurors in Church and State, and in the following year preached before the king his famous sermon on the text, "My Kingdom is not of this world," in which he maintained that Christ had not delegated his powers to any ecclesiastical author ities. The sermon was immediately published by royal command. The bishops at once resolved to proceed against him in convo cation. The king therefore prorogued the assembly, a step which had vital consequences on the history of the Church of England, since from that period Convocation ceased to transact business of a more than formal nature.
As Convocation was thus debarred from taking action against Hoadly, the dispute took the form of a war of pamphlets known as the Bangorian Controversy, in which the main issues of the dispute were concealed almost beyond the possibility of dis covery. But however vague and uncertain might be the mean ing of Hoadly in regard to some of the questions around which he aroused discussion, he was explicit in denying the power of the Church over the conscience, and its right to determine the conditions of grace. His own most important contribution to the controversy was his Reply to Representation of Convocation. William Law was his ablest opponent ; others were Andrew Snape, of Eton, and Thomas Sherlock, dean of Chichester. In July 1717 as many as seventy-four "Bangorian" tracts appeared. Hoadly, being not unskilled in the art of flattery, was translated in 172I to the see of Hereford, in 1723 to Salisbury and in to Winchester. He died at his palace at Chelsea on April 17, 1761. His controversial writings are vigorous if prolix and his theological essays have little merit.
The works of Benjamin Hoadly were collected and published by his son John in 3 vols. (1773). To the first volume was prefixed the article "Hoadly" from the supplement to the Biographia Britannica. See also L. Stephen, English Thought in the 18th Century.