BALGUY, JOHN. - English Protestant theologian, b. at Sheffield in 1686 and d. in 1748. He studied at the University of Cambridge. The Bishop of Bangor, Benjamin Hoadly, having noticed his keen intellect, wanted him at his side and procured a prebend for him. During this time arose the famous Bangorian controversy (v.) caused by the sermon preached by the said bishop on 31 March 1717, in which he asserted that individual sincerity was the only requirement for a Christian, and maintained that Jesus Christ had not delegated his power to any ecclesiastical authority. The controversy did not end with the suppression of the "Convocations" (v.) but continued unofficially for some years between Whigs and Tories, between non-jurors and jurors, between High and Low Church, and extended to the legality or illegality of State intervention in ecclesiastical affairs, to the visibility or invisibility of the Church. Throughout the controversy B. showed himself a valiant polemicist and faithful to his bishop.
Among B.'s various works are to be noted: A Letter to a Deist concerning the Beauty and Excellence of Moral Virtues, and the Second Part of the Foundation of Natural Goodness, in which he replies to the critics of the letter. Two volumes of sermons also survive (3rd ed., London 1890), many of them on moral subjects. He is reproached for giving too much importance to reason and for almost excluding every supernatural element from perfection.
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Camillo Crivelli