The end of divine right monarchy and a confessional state Flashcards
What was divine monarchy and the confessional state?
complete uniformity of practice was not enforced, or enforceable, the concept of a single national religion, upheld by government power.
was so widely accepted as to be unchallengeable. The number who opposed the concept non-existent, and even those who could not conform accepted the right of the state to punish them and paid their fines.
accepted ejection or left the country
The vast majority of those who avoided conforming did so not because they disagreed with the idea of uniform practice, but because they disliked the particular version that was being imposed.
How successfully was it being challenged in the 17th Century?
- those questioning the confessional state were sufficiently numerous and organised to bring about the collapse
debate alternatives to the Church of England of Charles I
. the concept of uniformity itself began to be seriously challenged and, although the confessional state was restored in 1660, the intervening years of increased freedom and toleration had strengthened the opposition to the point where it could not be eradicated.
growing number of thinkers questioned the necessity, or even the desirability, of compulsion and argued that political loyalty did not. and need not, depend upon agreement over religion
What were the results of this challenge by 1688?
688, the confessional state was no more and that any attempt to re-impose it would fail.
Glorious Revolution there could be no doubt that the monarchy had changed forever.
monarch was now subject to Jaw; an idea that was espoused by philosophers such as John Locke.
Tories and Whigs in parliament continued to argue however. about the monarch’s place in both Church and government.
