The Church of England, 1662–1714

Abstract

Although the Church of England was formally re-established by the Act of Uniformity (1662), the narrow terms of the religious ‘settlement’ dismayed many and prompted a very significant schism in English Protestantism. The Revolution of 1688/9 prompted a further parting of the ways, with many refusing to recognize William and Mary as sovereigns and thus becoming ‘non-jurors’. Nevertheless, if the later Stuart Church was often buffeted by external threats, and locked in internecine polemical warfare, it was also boosted by phases of renewal that found expression in both physical fabric and devotional activity. In this chapter two approaches to the later Stuart Church are adopted in successive sections: a descriptive account of events and issues, and a definitional analysis of what, ultimately, ‘the Church of England’—its character and compass—meant in this period.