Irish church The campaign to disestablish the
Anglican Church of Ireland began in the 19th century with events leading up to the
Tithe War and the movement for
Catholic emancipation. A rich church, with 22 bishops drawing £150,000 a year in aggregate, and a further £600,000 going annually to the rest of the clergy, it was wholly disproportionate to the needs of its worshippers, and consisted largely of absentee
sinecurists. defence of the latter became increasingly difficult, especially after Catholic emancipation. The
Church Temporalities Act 1833 was passed, reducing the number of sees from 22 to 12, but attempts to redistribute the church's wealth failed amidst political controversy. Eventually, as
G. M. Trevelyan put it, "the disestablishment and partial disendowment of the Irish Protestant Church was carried out in a masterly and sympathetic manner by
William Ewart Gladstone, whose known position as an enthusiastic Churchman stood him in good stead during the negotiations"; and the
Irish Church Act 1869 (
32 & 33 Vict. c. 42), an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enabling the disestablishment of the
Church of Ireland was passed, coming into effect on 1 January 1871.
English developments The early 19th century saw
Radicals like
Jeremy Bentham formulating schemes for the disestablishment of the church, which received new impetus after the success of Catholic emancipation. Following the
Great Reform Act, they were increasingly joined by
dissenters and
nonconformists in a
Liberal campaign to disestablish the Church of England – dissenting ministers like T. Binney proclaiming that "the Established Church is a great national evil". There were, however, several reasons this campaign failed: parliamentary reform of the church to make it more efficient;
Whig acquiescence in a system whereby they could appoint
latitudinarian bishops with liberal views; and a dissenter focus instead on a process by which nearly all of the legal disabilities of nonconformists were gradually dismantled.
Prime Minister David Cameron, responding to Clegg's comments, said that disestablishmentarianism is "a long-term Liberal idea, but it is not a
Conservative one" and that he believed having an established church works well.
Welsh conflicts The triumph of
Methodism in Wales led by the 19th century to a situation where the vast majority of Protestants were
not members of the Church of England, which in turn fuelled a long and bitter struggle for disestablishment, only resolved in the wake of the
Welsh Church Act 1914 when in 1920 the Church of England was disestablished in Wales, becoming the
Church in Wales. ==Presbyterian disestablishment==