Overview

Six pen-portraits describe the lives and ministry of the six men who served as Archbishop of Canterbury during Queen Victoria’s long reign. Each of the archbishops has a dedicated chapter, so the book provides a chronological narrative following the life and career of each, and describes the individual primate's involvement and management of the Church of England in the years in which he was called to office. Each chapter looks at the way the Church developed under the leadership of each archbishop as well as the life and work of the individual Primate. It describes the ecclesiastical and political controversies which occurred in Church life in the Victorian period and also the Church's political interaction with the establishment.   The book shows how the Victorian Church engaged with the issues of its day, both political and ecclesial, and how, under the leadership of these six remarkable men, Anglicanism became a worldwide church.

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9781789590593

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Reviews

This is an informed, measured and insightful contribution to our understanding of an era which saw the Church of England and Wales move to the centre of national life, and Anglicanism acquire an international identity centred on the See of Canterbury. ... In his Introduction, Bishop John Pritchard commends Chandler's 'fluent insights, telling anecdotes and well-chosen quotes'. This lightness of touch, coupled with a profound grasp of the historical context, enables him to furnish us with a humane, sympathetic yet objectively critical account of an era in our ecclesiastical history which still impacts on the Church - for better and for worse. -- The Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee * Rural Theology * This detailed, erudite book provides good biographies of each [archbishop], probing their personal lives and previous careers, but more importantly showing how the church evolved in policy and character through the 19th century. ... This readable and comprehensive work is recommended as a carefully crafted and helpful addition to the history of the Anglican church. -- Peter Clough * Transforming Ministry * The Victorians were a weird bunch, imbued with an enthusiasm, energy, and obsessiveness that seem alien to our louche late-Elizabethan ways. Their Archbishops, as Michael Chandler's excellent new study shows, were no exception. ... The supporting characters are larger than life and worthy of any novel (or Crown-like Netflix series). ... This is an exceptionally well-researched piece of scholarship, and is also entertaining and readable. Until we get our Netflix series, this, for me, will sit worthily alongside Chadwick et al. as an annal of the mix of seriousness, strangeness, and the sublime which was the Victorian Church. -- Fergus Butler-Gallie * The Church Times * The mini-biographies provide a useful way in to the great ecclesiastical controversies which accompanied a period of enormous demographic and societal change. ... Chandler's book is a good and accurate introduction to the church history of the period and is easier to read than many textbooks. -- Mark Chapman * Modern Believing *

The Victorians were a weird bunch, imbued with an enthusiasm, energy, and obsessiveness that seem alien to our louche late-Elizabethan ways. Their Archbishops, as Michael Chandler's excellent new study shows, were no exception. ... The supporting characters are larger than life and worthy of any novel (or Crown-like Netflix series). ... This is an exceptionally well-researched piece of scholarship, and is also entertaining and readable. Until we get our Netflix series, this, for me, will sit worthily alongside Chadwick et al. as an annal of the mix of seriousness, strangeness, and the sublime which was the Victorian Church. -- Fergus Butler-Gallie * The Church Times *

Author Information

Michael Chandler is an historian and author of several books on the Church of England in the nineteenth century. He is a former Dean of Ely and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

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