Toleration Act '89

toleration act

• dissenters (prots) = x punished if took oath of allegiance to Crown (x have to attend anglican coe)

• special dispensations for certain groups

  • Quakers allowed to make declarations (x allowed oaths)

Why was it passed?

• William - provide space for dissenters within church

  • middle ground - good relations w dissenters + anglicans

• parl agreed - Whig maj in favour of it

  • Locke’s ‘A Letter Concerning Toleration’ - having diff religious groups in soc acc prevents unrest

    • minorities x feel need to protest against oppression

continued restrictions

• have to swr allegiance to coe eg to

  • hold public office (parl)

  • uni

  • legal profession

• meetings monitored, doors unlocked

• dissenters still pay tithes/religious taxes to coe

• toleration = conditional

  • x abolished existing laws (clarendon code)

    • only stated they x enforced for those who met certain conditions

• caths, non trinitarians, jews = excluded

  • had to hide religious beliefs - Isaac Newton (professor Trinity College)

confessional state remained

• x a bill - william had met resistance ⭢ suggested act as compromise

• senior coe figures able to bypass act -

  • Richard Frankland Dissenting Academy forced close down

    • clergy nearby wrote to Archbishop Canterbury ⭢ licence withdrawn (‘x required in district’)

• maj ppl remained loyal to coe

• in William’s interest to gain coe approval

  • limited act’s radicalness

why did in reality caths have little to fear?

• William league of augsberg (no. cath powers) = effectively guaranteed their safety

  • + used royal power to curb church interference in dissenting sects x covered by act

• no. whigs said caths = group that gained most from rev

• Bishop of Lichfield = ‘caths more at ease under william than under any prot king since reformation’

confessional state undermined

• freedom of worship for dissenters

• by 1714 c8% england pop = dissenters

• William appointed range prots in church

  • latitudinarians, John Tillotson later = archbishop canterbury

• Mary attended Anglican + Presbyterian churches

• Locke

• act = compromise to avoid William’s Calvinism

  • changes = pragmatic (to maintain control) as opposed to being ideological

  • predestination implies x do anything to change fate (cld encourage ppl to x pray etc)