Hoadly, Benjamin (1676–1761)

English prelate. An eminent theological controversialist, he stoutly upheld the doctrines that the church is subject to the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate, and that its authority cannot in the last resort claim to override the individual conscience. Hoadly anticipated many of the modern Unitarian views, and in his own day was both praised and blamed as a Latitudinarian and as a rationalist.

Hoadly was born in Westerham, Kent, England. He was educated at Cambridge University. He expounded his theories in his ‘Measures of Submission to the Civil Magistrate, etc.’ and his celebrated sermon on the Kingdom of Christ. The latter gave rise to the Bangorian Controversy and caused so great a dispute between the upper house (the bishops) and lower house (the clergy) of convocation that this assembly was prorogued by the Crown in 1717 and subsequently met only rarely for formal business until 1847. Hoadly's works were edited by J Hoadly in 1773.