The N.P.C.U. was founded in 1893.

In 1906 it combined with the Church of England League to form the National Church League.

According to Volume IV of the Church Standard (new series):

"The object of the Union is to promote the principles of the Reformation as set forth in the Prayer-Book and Thirty-Nine Articles, not to set up any sect or party within the Church of England; and Churchmen who can loyally and honestly subscribe to this are eligible for membership. Then, the policy of the N.P.C.U. is educational. It seeks to make known the real character of the principles of the Church of England, their history and meaning, and to arouse Churchmen to a sense of the danger by which those principles are now being threatened. To influence public opinion in the right direction is, after all, the ultimate means by which right principles can be extended or maintained, and this influence is exerted by means of lectures, public meetings, sermons, and the publication of books, pamphlets and other literature."

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