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This study examines the nature and extent of various forms of anti-Catholicism which existed on Tyneside and in County Durham between 1845 and 1870. Previous studies that have touched upon anti-Catholicism in the North East of England have tended to argue that local cultural factors reduced the anti-Catholic feeling which was more evident in other areas of the country during this period. However, in applying and expanding upon previous theories of anti-Catholicism, the study will take a multi-faceted and broader perspective, rather than simply a manifestation of one specific type, to argue that local cultural conditions actively encouraged different forms of anti-Catholicism in different areas within Tyneside and in County Durham. It will demonstrate this through an examination of the major tenets of anti-Catholic ideology and their appeal among the wider population; the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various political campaigns which drew on ‘Conservative’ and ‘Liberal’ anti-Catholic thought; the Protestant response to the resurgence of Catholicism at the local level and the role played by the local Catholic communities in increasing anti-Catholicism; and, finally, the varieties of religious violence, both English and Irish and intra-Irish, which were greatly influenced by local conditions and circumstances. This study has wider implications for our understanding of the pervasive and all-encompassing nature of nineteenth-century English anti-Catholicism generally. It also contributes towards the wider debate on North East regional identity by questioning the continued credibility of a paradigm which views the region as exceptionally tolerant and coherent.

This thesis investigates the legends of saintly widows within Medieval Castilian prose, specifically the lives of Saints Paula and Cecilia, in hagiographical works known as Compilation A and Compilation B. These Castilian legends have been reworked from their appearance in the Latin Legenda aurea of c. 1264, composed by Jacobus de Voragine. Chapter One works as an introduction to the thesis. It observes the history of the hierarchy of married, widowed, and virginal women, debating which category of female, if any, was able to attain the highest level of eventual celestial purity. Chapter Two concentrates more specifically on manuscript context. It notes the composition of the original Latin Legenda aurea, in terms of male and female composition as well as looking at the constitution of different categories of saints. Following this the composition of the Castilian Compilations is discussed, including the purposes for writing these filiations and destined audience type. Chapter Three focuses on the reworking of the legend of Saint Paula from the Latin to Compilation A, commenting principally upon textual omissions, alterations, and other significant modifications. Chapter Four undertakes an in-depth thematic analysis of the legend for the same saint. Chapter Five works in much the same way as Chapter Three, here focusing on Saint Cecilia, and Chapter Six mirrors Chapter Four, again looking at the symbolic significance of Saint Cecilia in Medieval Castilian hagiography. Chapter Seven operates as a concluding section to the work, bringing together the concepts at the heart of the saintly widow, and asking if a common ethos can be established between such apparently disparate legends. In an appendix, complete editions of each text are presented for the first time, along with xeroxes of the manuscripts and their Latin sources.

The present work seeks to explore the nature of law and legality in the Byzantine canonical tradition through a careful reading of the central texts of the Byzantine canonical corpus. The principal topics to be considered include the shape and growth of the corpus as a whole, the content and themes of the traditional prologues, the language, genre and style of the canons themselves, and the traditional thematic rearrangements of the canonical corpus. As a cultural-historical exploration of law, this work has as its goal throughout to trace the fundamental contours of how the tradition conceives, frames and "imagines" itself as a legal system: central themes and concepts, basic presuppositions, recurring patterns, and prominent contextualizations. Drawing on categories of modern legal theory and legal anthropology, this work is particularly interested in the nature of legal norms and their relationship to other normative systems, the place and role of technical rule-discourse, and mechanisms of change, development and interpretation. The relationship of the canons to the secular law will also be taken into account. The central argument of this work is that the picture of law that emerges from the Byzantine material is fundamentally at odds with many formalist/positivist expectations of modern western legal culture. This dissonance had traditionally made it very easy to dismiss Byzantine canon law as "primitive" or "decadent". If approached more sympathetically, however, this strange legal world can be read as constituting a surprisingly coherent and rich legal system that is characterized by 1) a deep investment in embedding itself in broader value-narratives; 2) the centrality of the idea of law as a sacred (and relatively inviolable) tradition; and 3) a strong orientation towards the realization of substantive justice, not formal consistency. If taken seriously, this picture of law has a number of important implications for contemporary Orthodox canonical legal theory, the broader history of church law, and the study of late antique and Byzantine law generally.

This thesis looks at the Jerusalem Conference and Antioch dispute as described by Paul in Galatians (2.1-14) and Acts (15). A new approach to the topics is used, that of using models derived from socio-psychological research. The Jerusalem Conference and Antioch dispute are concerned with group interactions and dynamics; socio-psychological research studies the behaviour of individuals in social groups and so is well suited to study this aspect of early church history. I argue that the emergence of Gentile leadership at Antioch precipitated the need for the Jerusalem Conference. Whereas ‘sympathizers’ to Judaism, lacking circumcision, were not fully integrated into Jewish communities, Gentile believers at Antioch underwent the initiation rite of baptism. Thus Gentile believers had a greater sense of belonging than did ‘sympathizers’ in Judaism. Also Gentiles entered the Antiochene church in numbers, forming a distinct subgroup within the community. These two factors provided ideal conditions for Gentile leadership to emerge. However, leadership inferred a certain status for Gentile believers. This was opposed by some Jewish believers who insisted on complete Torah observance, including circumcision, for full membership of the early church. The Jerusalem Conference met to resolve the issue. Paul’s claim that nothing was added to his gospel implies that the Jerusalem Conference accepted Gentile membership of the church, including Gentile leadership, without circumcision. This would be unacceptable to the Law-observant Jewish believers. To avoid schism the Conference needed a compromise which appeased the Jewish believers. I suggest that the compromise was the ‘two missions’; Gentile believers were accorded the status of full membership as Gentiles, but provision was made for those Jewish believers, who experienced threats to their Jewish identity by associating with Gentile believers under these conditions, to avoid such Gentile contacts. The test of the ‘two missions’ came at Antioch. Peter, in eating with Gentiles, accepted their status as full members of the church. However, the ‘people from James’ did not accept the Gentile believers on equal terms and insisted on their right to avoid such contact with Gentiles. Peter and the other Antiochene Jews had to choose – offer hospitality to their fellow Jews and withdraw from Gentile contact or maintain table fellowship with Gentiles and isolate their fellow Jews. They opted to extend hospitality to the Jews, but this decision implied a rejection of the Gentiles’ status within the early church.

The thesis establishes that the political liberty proposed by the Levellers during the English Civil Wars of the 1640s was derived from a theological doctrine of Christian liberty, rooted in Christology and Ecclesiology, and informed by various legal and philosophical traditions. The work is structured around an examination of the sources of Leveller political thought and a discussion of some implications of this for modern understandings of political liberalism. The thesis argues that a major key to understanding the Levellers is to see the way in which they utilised existing streams of thought, whilst both synthesising and modifying these. These diverse intellectual currents include the English common law, free grace theology, early General Baptist ecclesiology, and natural law and canon law traditions. The Levellers combine these to give rise to the idea that the state should be strictly limited by the individual’s freedom, rights, and contractual consent. The thesis takes great care with the religious sources, in order to avoid a number of current misreadings, especially with respect to theological ideas, ecclesial groupings, and terminology, particularly in relation to Puritanism. The opposition to fundamental elements of Puritanism will be shown to be a hermeneutic key that unlocks our understanding of the Levellers. The research calls into question particular socialist readings of the Levellers. It also implicitly shows that the rejection of liberalism by certain modern Christian thinkers is based on an unnuanced view of political liberalism. Equally, the work provides a corrective to some recent secular accounts of political liberalism that see the historical roots of liberalism in a reaction to the church and religion.

The thesis aims to show that the Western tradition has its own vibrant, rich, profoundly significant and enduringly relevant concept ofmystery which can best be seen to be present in the evolution of its liturgy and in associated intellectual culture in the first millennium CEo The significance of mysterium in western liturgical texts and theological writing of the second half of this period has been particularly neglected in liturgical and wider scholarship, and in the tendency to assume that the Christian East has the stronger theology of mystery, but it needs to be noticed and acknowledged for its intrinsic value and ifmodem issues in liturgical change and reconstruction are to be properly understood. In this recovery and its interpretation lies the overall originality of the thesis. Part I discusses modern approaches to mystery in the context of liturgy, highlighting and challenging some assumptions and misURderstandings that have arisen in, for example, the translation of liturgical texts. The value of the classic approaches of Baumstark and Casel is acknowledged; that of Casel is argued to be an insufficient response in itself to the importance of liturgical mystery. Three modern writers are deployed to show that mystery has a significance across disciplinary boundaries. There follow discussions of mystery as religious language, in relation to knowledge, revelation and visual art, drawing critically on and originally juxtaposing a diverse range of theological scholarship and literary geme in order to point to a common theme of what is here termed the 'moreness' of God, and the ultimate inability of language to fully describe or make known the initiative and activity of God, and to propose that, paradoxically, mystery is a necessary form of language used to indicate these very limitations. Liturgy is the supreme locus of mystery in these terms. Part II' embeds this argument first in a critical re-evaluation of the origins and background of mystery in its Greek (mysterion) and Latin (mysterium) forms and of scholarly opinion on these in late antique religious and early Christian contexts, including a fresh assessment of the notion that mystery language tended to be avoided in a sacramental context until about the fourth century CE because of its perceived associations with pagan mystery cults. The relationship between mysterium and sacramentum is then discussed and evaluated in the light of existing scholarship and new research which concentrates especially on those instances where the terms appear in the same sentence, in order to dispel the common and hitherto insufficiently challenged assumption that they . are synonymous. Their interplay shows mysterium itself to be a critically important and polyvalent term in emerging sacramental and liturgical discourse. The relatively few instances of mystery as a term in surviving early liturgical forms of eastern and western provenance are evaluated, and the original argument made that the wider use ofmystery language in the Latin tradition from the fourth century needs to be seen alongside the transition of liturgical formulae from the largely improvised to the fixed written text:. mysterium is the link, since it represents in textual terms the divine initiative assumed by the practice of improvisation. The continuing importance, richness and theological significance of the term is shown by a detailed analysis of its use in selected examples of the texts which emerged from this process. It is further shown to be a significant notion in an example of an intellectual context in which texts of this type were used, the Carolingian era and in its theological writers including the liturgist Alcuin and the allegorist Amalarius, in the Expositio Antiquae Liturgiae Gallicanae, in the debate surrounding Adoptionism, and in the so-called, but here argued to be misinterpreted, eucharistic 'controversy' between Ratrarnnus and Paschasius Radbertus. Carolingian responses to visual art lead to the original proposal that in this period text effectively functions much as art does in expressing 'moreness'. This has implications for liturgical text in the modern era and suggests a more creative approach to issues surrounding liturgical change. Mystery is the necessary language which lies at the centre of this approach.

Theodore Stoudite (759-826) was at the centre of a revival of patristic learning which equipped him to apply the weight of the Christian tradition to the Byzantine image controversy of the eighth and ninth centuries. In this recovery of the tradition Theodore discovered how the epistemological and ontological demands of both radical divine transcendence and divine active agency in the creative order are met in the incarnate Christ. He concluded that the liturgical expression of this developed theology requires the presence of the Christ- єikwv. The structure of this thesis reflects the single argument of the three-part ‘Avtρρητικοι κατα єικουομάxwv(c. 816). Antirr I and II describe the content of the 754 and 787 Councils, revealing the causes of the theological impasse which prevented the resolution of the controversy. In Antirr I and II Theodore also establishes the ground for his argument in Antirr III by distancing the eighth century Christ- єikwv from its function in former centuries as symbol, pure narrative painting and relic. Theodore defines its contemporary function as liturgical, devotional and doctrinal in character. Written in response to the 815 Council, Antirr III is Theodore's apology for this Christ- єikwv as a legitimate object of лροσκύvησs-. The argument is established within the parameters of the tradition as Theodore carefully defends the circumscribability of Christ in accordance with Chalcedonian Christology. My analysis of the Antirr, assisted by a reading of his letters, reveals that Theodore understands the Christ- єikwv as playing a key role both in the ascetic struggle to free the mind from λογισμοι (distracting thoughts), and in the practice of θєwρια(contemplation) within the Liturgy. The liturgical, doctrinal and devotional Christ- єikwv has become a revealed and formal means by which the worshipper receives a Dionysian άυαγwγη(spiritual uplifting) to the divine presence.

In the context of Gibraltar's own history a description is given of how Methodism was taken to Gibraltar by soldiers who met together in small groups and founded the first Methodist Society there in 1769. After meeting with considerable opposition and persecution from the Established Church and others, the Methodist Conference decided to support the work by providing missionary ministers. The early work of building a chapel, fighting for their rights and gaining a degree of official sanction and protection is part of the story. The purpose of the church was always evangelism and a ministry to soldiers was justified because the soldiers and sailors travelled around the world and took the gospel message with them. Links with the British and Foreign Bible Society were established in 1807 as Bible distribution was seen to be an important goal and a useful means of evangelism. There was always an interest too in converting the local inhabitants of Gibraltar and this aim was furthered by the appointment of William Barber in 1824, as a second missionary, solely to work with them. This work was later developed by William Harris Rule who founded the first Mission schools in Gibraltar, which led to considerable opposition from the Roman Catholic population. In the 1830's Rule also attempted to establish Missions in Spain itself This was the time when George Borrow and James Graydon were also working in Spain for the Bible Society. A brief account is given of the work of all three, in the context of the political and religious situation in Spain, thus exploring the reasons why they were all eventually forced to leave the country and why a permanent Protestant foothold was not established in Spain at this time.

The Diocese of Durham was in considerable need of vigorous pastoral and administrative effort in 1721. When William Talbot was translated from Salisbury to Durham, he brought with him much that was required, both in his own person and in those whom he preferred. Especially fortuitous, was his collation of Thomas Sharp to the Archdeaconry of Northumberland in 1723. Wholeheartedly attempting both the restoration of the fabric of those churches under his jurisdiction and the reformation of the spiritual life of the clergy and laity as well, Sharp laboured indefatigably for thirty-five years. Simultaneously, the Archdeaconry of Durham was suffering under the maladministration of George Sayer. There too, marry of the wealthiest livings in England were situated, which tended to draw clergy more interested in financial gain and ecclesiastical advancement than in sacrificial service. Edward Chandler succeeded Talbot in 1730, though he was not to oversee any significant improvement in the quality of diocesan life during his episcopate. Nor was Joseph Butler, for all his learning and reputation, able to do anything to alleviate the malaise he inherited in 1750, for he was dead within two years. Richard Trevor succeeded him in 1753, and at last we find some measure of the pastoral and administrative zeal so necessary in the diocese. Assisted by two exemplary archdeacons, Samuel Dickens and John Sharp, he brought significant consolidation and reform to his bishopric. Particularly was this so in Northumberland, where John Sharp's zeal and determination fell little short of his father's. Nevertheless, the social, cultural, economic, and religious changes affecting the country, especially the North East, were fast out-distancing the efforts being made in the diocese. By 1771, the disparity between the pastoral needs of the church and the provision made to fill them was widening.

This thesis consists of seven chapters focusing chiefly on the Arabian Mission and its activities in the Arabian Gulf region. It begins with a first chapter briefly describing Arabia and its people; and since the missionaries of the Arabian Mission went to the region with the idea that Arabia was once influenced by Christianity and with the aim of regaining it, this chapter deals also with the influence of Christianity on Arabia from the earliest times. It also discusses the impact of Islam. In addition it discusses modern times and the attempts on their relationship with the growing imperialism of the Western powers, and the way in which this imperial expansion helped the missionaries to reach many remote areas, among which was the Arabian Gulf. Chapter II gives a survey of the Arabian Mission, its birth and plan of work, and the opening of its stations and substations, with some account of the difficulties which faced the Mission in its earlier years. This chapter also deals with the contact of the Moslems of the Gulf with East Africa. In Chapter III there is an attempt to discuss and survey the Mission's medical approach to evangelisation, this being the main way in which it attempted to preach the Gospel. Chapter III begins with some account of the health of the people in the region before the Mission came. Chapter IV discusses another of the Mission's evangelistic methods, education, and it begins with the concept of missionarr education and Islamic education, then gives some idea of educational conditions in the region in the past. Chapter V deals with the centrally important activity of the Mission, its evangelism, in the context of the Bible-shops, hospitals and dispensaries, and the Churches. The tours made by the missionaries are discussed, and the kind of personal contact made with the natives. Chapter VI analyses the political involvement of the Mission, giving some idea of the relationship between the Missionary work and imperialist expansion. There is a discussion of the relationship between the Mission and the political powers in the region : the Ottoman authorities, the British, the American Consulates and the local governments. Finally, in Chapter VII, an attempt is made to consider three important questions: What firstly has the Arabian Mission accomplished? Secondly, what are the prospects for a dialogue between Christians and Moslems - what are the motives for such a dialogue, and what the obstacles facing it? Thirdly what is the future of missionary work in general and particularly in Arabia? This last question is considered from the missionaries' point of view and from the point of view of the Moslem inhabitants of the region, and not least, finally from the author's own point of view.

The 16th century Borders have been viewed traditionally as violent, feudal and catholic, but their feudalism is now questioned. The verdict on their religion seems often to be based either on general impressions or on lack of evidence. Recently the value of studying the social and political life of the English and Scottish Borders together has been recognised, and this approach is also viable for their religious life. The scattered evidence shows that in terms of material wealth and personnel the Border church was badly served, and that the changes of the Reformation often made the situation worse. Moreover it suffered from too close an association with the violent aspects of Border society. Popular religion in the area seems to have been more concerned with the magical aspect of the church's ceremonies than with orthodox Catholicism or Protestantism. At the same time there was a realisation of the problems, and there were educative and civilising influences at work. By the end of this period they were beginning to have some little effect, while at the same time the weakened traditional Catholicism was declining through lack of organised support. The 1569 revolt, which at first sight might suggest that the situation had changed little since 1536, in fact by its failure demonstrates the changes which had occurred. However the problems of the Border ' church went too deep to be solved easily, and the Borderers' independence in matters social, political, and religious would have to be overcome to achieve any great measure of success. Throughout this period both English and Scottish governments were by turn unable or unwilling to effect the necessary changes, and the inadequate church organisations were left to struggle on alone.

The 'Disputation of Sergius the Stylite' is a Christian anti-Jewish work, written sometime between 730-770 A. D., and ascribed to Sergius the Stylite, an otherwise unknown Syrian ascetic, v/ho lived in Gousit, a town not far from Antioch in Syria. The work purports to report a dialogue between Sergius and an anonymous Jew. This dialogue has been incorporated into the framework of an anti-Jewish treatise possibly by Sergius himself. The work begins with a long series of biblical texts quoted in order to show that all the events of Jesus Christ's life were prophesied or prefigured in the Old Testament. The two participants in the dialogue then discuss such subjects as the Crucifixion and the Cross, the Incarnation, the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Dispersion of the Jews, Christian worship of the Cross and saints' relics. Christian consumption of swine's flesh, and finally, the problem of Christians who were attracted by Jewish forms of worship. In the Introduction to this edition of the 'Disputation' a description of the manuscript is given. The date and authorship of the work are then considered, and its literary sources discussed. Some interesting biblical agrapha which are found in the 'Disputation' suggest that it stands in a stream of tradition going back to what is thought to be the earliest Christian literary activity, the composition of 'testimonies'. The work also contains some valuable quotations from an otherwise lost Syriac version of Flavius Josephus's 'War of the Jews'. The final chapter of the Introduction discusses the contents of the 'Disputation', the nature of the dialogue contained in it, the portrait which it gives of the Jewish participant, and the purpose for which the work was written.

The object of the thesis is to trace the doctrine of the Church in Norway during the 19th century, a period of unique Importance both in the thought and Church-life of the country. An attempt will be made to show that the problems Involved in the doctrine had a profound effect upon the whole current of Norwegian Church-life. On the basis of a theocentric approach and a dynamic, personal conception of Revelation, Martin Luther adopted a dialectical view of Christian doctrine as a whole and the doctrine of the Church In particular, and a functional concept of the Ministry. Through the re-Introduction of an Intellectualist conception of Revelation, however, these insights were lost in the later history of Lutheranism. The unity of the doctrine of the Church was broken, and a dualism of "Objectivism" and "Subjectivism" arose. Informed by an Idealist metaphyeic but virtually dependent upon an Empiricist epistemology, 19th century Norwegian theology was unable to overcome this dualism and to re-establish the dialectical view. It displayed a wide range of ecclesiologlcal positions, from Catholic Sacerdotalism (Krogh-Tonning) and Hegelian Erastianisra (Monrad) on the one hand, to Low-Church Orthodox-Pietism (Gisle Johnson) and Associational Independency (Sverdrup) on the other. The crisis in the doctrine of the Church was clearly reflected in the practical Church-life of the period, which was characterized by a gradual but definite trend In the Low-Church direction. The Grundtvigian party, seeking an objective authority, found it in the Church and its historic Creed. But the traditionalism and Sacramentallsm of this party were sharply opposed and finally overcome by the Orthodox-Pietists. The introduction of Revivalism, with its associational idea of the Church and charismatic concept of the Ministry, gave rise to the Inner Mission and Foreign Mission movements, and created tremendous tensions within the Church. After a protracted struggle, the "free organizations" and lay-preaching gained legal and ecclesiastical recognition. The Erastianlsm of the Church of Norway led to a reaction in the form of a vast movement for political reform. But failure to agree on a sound Lutheran doctrine of the Church within the movement and political pressure from without prevented the realization of Its objectives. The question of Church discipline within the national Church provided the occasion for several small separatist movements, which, although relatively Insignificant, illustrate the ecclesiological tensions. Thus, the unity of the Church In Norway was shattered during the 19th century. What was needed was a return to the dynamic conception of Revelation and dialectical view of Luther and the Confessions.

This is the first attempt to provide a detailed description of the different types of devotional literature (excluding all liturgical books, biblical translations, doctrinal and polemic works, saintS lives and sermons) available in print to English readers in the years immediately preceding England's break with Rome. It shows that there were far more Catholic works of devotion, many of them written or printed for the first time 1520 - 35, than has previously been recognized. It is also clear that this flourishing literature came to a sudden and decisive end in 1535, although the tradition lived on unofficially to be taken up by the English Recusants. The leading themes of this traditional literature are indicated in chapters on treatises about confession and prayer, the mass, the life and Passion of Christ, on tribulation, death and the Last Things, while more general teaching about the Christian life addressed to religious, contemplatives and lay people, and the humanist and Protestant contribution to this literature is also discussed. The treatises are doctrinally sound and on the whole advocate moderation and common-sense; they avoid many of the weaknesses of popular non-literary devotion, including the Marioleatry and excessive morbidity for which the late middle ages are often condemned. Some of the weaknesses of the Catholic tradition are suggested by comparison with the more rational and secular attitudes of Christian humanist , authors, notably Erasmus, available during the 1530s. The Protestants, whose treatises become increasingly common, despite official censorship, during the decade until they dominate its second half, carry the humanist~ reform much further, and break with the Catholic Church. Traditional devotional topics and audiences are displaced by doctrinal and biblical teaching addressed to lay people. The Bible replaces the Church's authority and there is more emphasis on the spiritual and social dimensions of religion.

This thesis provides the first comprehensive study of the role of an Elizabethan Cathedral in society, perhaps doubly significant because it deals with the only diocese in which, according to Dr Collinson, the puritans had 'unfettered control'. How this outpost of radicalism came to be located at Durham and the way in which the puritans used their positions of authority are both questions which are dealt with, but the scope of the study is much wider than this. The Cathedral is examined as a complete unit by following the interests and activities of the individual prebends as well as of the corporation in general: indeed, it is only when these 2 aspects of the Cathedrals work are examined together that meaningful conclusions can be drawn. The involvement of the Cathedral in national and local politics and the contributions which it made to the spiritual and economic life of the diocese are examined in some depth, and in this way a picture is built up of a vigorous organisation with involvements in many aspects of government and society often far removed from prevailing notions both of Cathedrals and of the Elizabethan clergy in the localities. The reign of Elizabeth was in many ways the vital formulative period for the attitudes and institutions which came to characterise the Church of England and the Cathedral represents one area which up until now has been largely ignored: the conclusion which emerges is of an institution which was still basically rooted in the past yet which became in itself something new, owing little to traditional concepts of either the monastic or collegiate life.

The Ecclesiastical history of the diocese of Durham in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is a most neglected suhject. It has long "been supposed that the whole corpus of manuscripts relating to diocesan administration was destroyed by fire a generation ago, but a magnificent series of Episcopal visitations has been discovered at Auckland Castle, and supplemented by the resources of the Church Commissioners, it is not possible to fill this gap. In 1774 the Diocese of Durham consisted of the counties of Northumberland and Durham and was divided into three archdeaconries. The former was divided into the archdeaconries of Northumberland and Lindis farne, while County Durham itself formed the third archdeaconry. Thus size of the diocese has compelled concentration on one archdeaconry only. The parochial system of the archdeaconry was under no strain through the eighteenth century, a fact born out by the rife non-residence and plurality of its clergy, especially in those livings in the patronage of the Bishop and the Dean and Chapter of Durham, With the turn of the century the parochial system was suddenly faced with the problem of a fast rising population which severely strained the medieval parochial structure. The population growth of the Archdeaconry accelerated, and by 1830 had begun t o grow more rapidly than any other county in England and faster than the urban centres of Manchester and Liverpool. In these circumstances the parochial system had to serve for more people and cope with the movement of population away from medieval centres and face the challenges of a rigorous Methodism, radical social discontent and the resurgence of Catholicism, The vast endowments of the Chapter, its social pretensions and the non-residence of the clergy encouraged the growth of a particularly virulent hostility to the church. The growing public cry for church (as well as political) reform, coupled with the intransigent political attitudes of the Durham clergy, gave rise to strained relationships between clergy and lay people which severely complicated the process of church reform. By comparing Durham experience with the results of studies of Derby, Devon, and Oxford, it is hoped to illuminate the complexities of church reform at the parochial level and the relationships between parson and people during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century.