Toleration Act

Question 1

Toleration Act:

Date

Answer 1

1689

Question 2

Toleration Act:

Summary

Answer 2

Provisions:

• Dissenters were exempted from punishments if they took the oath of allegiance to the Crown and accepted the 1678 Test Act.
• Made special provisions for certain dissenting groups like Quakers- refused to take oaths, so allowed to declare, rather than swear, that they denied the pope’s authority.
• Excluded Catholics, non-Trinitarians and Jews.

Undermined Anglican Church + confessional state:

• Now accepted that the CofE could not enforce complete uniformity and that some allowances had to be made for dissenters.
• Catholics enjoyed a reasonable degree of freedom despite being excluded.
  
  • William used royal authority to influence judges and curb Church interference in the lives of Catholics and dissenting sects not covered by Act.
• The power of Church courts was severely restricted.

DID NOT undermine Anglican Church + confessional state:

• Previous Test Act and Act of Uniformity NOT repealed, which mean that public officials were duty-bound to swear allegiance to the Church.
  
  • Meant that they could STILL NOT enter public employment or sit in parliament without swearing loyalty to the Anglican Church. Also, could not attend uni., work in legal profession or practice medicine.
• No great theological debate between MPs and peers before the Toleration Act was passed
  
  • Reactionary attempt to maintain order and preserve Anglican Church.

Question 3

Toleration Act:

Significance

Answer 3

Made it easier for dissenters to worship freely:

• By 1714, there were around 400,000 dissenters in England (approx. 80%)
  
  • BUT dissenting groups were not fully equal to Anglicans, as they still had to pay tithes to a Church to which they did not attend/belong.

Act humiliated the Anglican clergy and Tories in the Commons, but Whigs happy.

LED TO Whigs insisting that the clergy take an oath of allegiance to William and Mary:

• BUT clergy sworn allegiance to James + believed passive obedience to his royal authority.
  
  • Over 400 parish priests refused and were deprived of their livings.
• Whigs now able to accuse Tories and High Church clergy of being more loyal to James than William:
  
  • Clergy that were removed from office were replaced by more moderate men, sympathetic to the Whig cause. > able to maintain toleration and undermine Anglican Church

Revolutionary as the religious settlement that came about as a result of the Toleration Act had widespread support from leading bishops and political figures, and its basic terms were not fully repealed until the 20^th century.

Question 4

Toleration Act:

Whig view

Answer 4

Whigs commented that Catholics were the group that gained most from the Revolution:

• Frenchman Henri Misson commented on the state of England in the 1690s and noted that, despite legal limitations, Catholics appeared to enjoy universal toleration.

Question 5

Toleration Act:

Marxist view

Answer 5

Role of religion in local government and the legal system was also reduced- Hill.

• Further Toleration Acts were passed in Scotland and Ireland, and these did not give dissenters the opportunity to participate in national or local government.