ILOADLEY, BENJAMIN, D.D., an eminent English prelate, was the son of the rev. Samuel Iloadley, master of the Norwich grammar school, and was b. at Westerham. in Kent, Nov. 14, 1676. In 1691 he entered Catherine Hall, university of Cambridge, where he became tutor after taking his degree of M.A. In 1701 lie was chosen lecturer of St. Mildred in the Poultry, London, and from this time began to attract attention as a controversial wriver. His Reasonableness of Conformity to the Church of England, appeared in 1703, which, like all his other performances, though agreeable to the senti ments of the educated laity of the church of England, was exactly the reverse to the great body of the clergy, both established and dissenting. Next year, he obtained the rectory of St. Peter-le-Poor, London, and soon after engaged in a controversy with Dr. Atterbury (q.v.) on the extent of the obedience due to the civil power by ecclesias tics. This contest was conducted by Hoadley in such a way as to secure for him the applause of the house of c.onimons, who in their address-to the queen (Anne), referred to the important services he had rendered to the cause of civil and religious liberty. In 1710 liondley Mis the rectory of Streatham, in Surrey; and in 1715, when the accession of George T. had secured the triumph of Whig principles, was made bishop of Bangor; but it is affirmed that he never visited this see, for fear of exciting a "party fury." He was, however, far from remaining idle. In 1717 he preached the
king a sermon on the text, "Idy kingdom is not of this world," in which he endeavored to show that Christ had not delegated his powers to any ecclesiastical authorities. Ile carried out this idea to great length, and maintained that it was the best and safest ground to take up in attempting to refute both Roman Catholics and dissenters. Hence originated the famous 13angorian controversy, regarding which Ilallam says, that it was " managed. perhaps on both sides, with all the chicanery of polemical writers, and dis gusting both from its tediousness, and from the manifest unwillingnessof the disputants to speak ingenuously what they meant." Hoadley's principal opponent was William Law. Hallam speaks of having read 40 or 50 pamphlets on the question. In 1721 Iloadley was transferred to the see of Hereford; in 1723 to that of Salisbury; and in 1734 to that of Winchester. In 1735 he published a Plain Account of the _Aaiun and Rod of the Lord's Supper; and in 1754-55 two volumes of sermons, which were highly esteemed. He died April 17, 1761, in the 85th year of his age.