Bangorian Controversy, religious dispute in the Church of England during the early part of the reign of George I. Benjamin Hoadly, bishop of Bangor, Wales, delivered a sermon (1717) before the king in which he denied that the church had any doctrinal or disciplinary authority. Advocates of ecclesiastical authority (among them William Law) attacked Hoadly's position, and a sharp controversy ensued, in which some 50 writers participated and about 200 pamphlets were issued. Attacks on Hoadly in convocation, the church assembly, led the king to suspend that body in 1717; it was not allowed to meet again until 1852.