What was the impact of the Toleration Act of 1689

Question 1

Why in 1689 were Anglican Churchmen concerned?

Answer 1

Concerned with ensuring that worship within the Church remained uniform and was not modified.

Question 2

Early 1689 - William urged removal of…

Answer 2

sacramental test for public office holders - meant repealing Test Act - that expected all office holders to take Anglican Communion.

As a compromise - William suggested that a Toleration Act be passed - with promise for Tory and Anglicans demands for uniformity to be referred to Convocation later in the year.

Question 3

How, religiously, was compromise important?

Answer 3

William well aware of need to maintain good relations with both dissenters and Anglicans - attempted to pursue a middle path.

Question 4

Define Convocation.

Answer 4

Assembly of the Church - members of clergy - including bishops and representatives of the ordinary clergy
- Met to discuss issues surrounding the future policy of the Church - collection of Church taxes and the content of sermons

Question 5

What influenced the passing of the Toleration Act of 1689, by reluctant Tories?

Answer 5

Influenced most obviously by Locke’s ‘A Letter Concerning Toleration’ - printed in 1689 - prepared in years before

Question 6

Why was William met with confrontation from the Tories?

Answer 6

William favoured toleration - but was originally suspicious of the Anglican Church

Tories fearful that William wanted to impose Dutch Calvinism.

Question 7

How did the Toleration Act impact dissenters?

Answer 7

Under terms of the Act - dissenters exempted from punishments if they took oath of allegiance to the Crown and accepted the 1678 Test Act

• They could not enter public office - without swearing loyalty to the Anglican Church
• Dissenters not expected to attend an Anglican church - but meeting closely monitored - doors of their meeting places couldn’t be locked

Question 8

Why did the Toleration Act make special dispensations for certain dissenting groups?

Answer 8

Quakers refused to take oaths - allowed to declare, rather than swear, the pope’s authority

Question 9

How did the Toleration Act evidently make it easier for dissenters to worship freely?

Answer 9

By 1714 - there were around 400,000 dissenters in England.

Question 10

The Toleration Act served to humiliate…

Answer 10

the Anglican clergy and Tories in the Commons.

• Whigs majority in parliament - keen for Act to be passed - insisted that the clergy take oath of allegiance to William and Mary
• Many of those who swore allegiance to James and believed in passive obedience to his royal authority troubled by this demand

Question 11

How did the Toleration Act affect parish priests?

What did this lead to?

Answer 11

Over 400 refused to swear an oath and were deprived of their livings - gave the Whigs a perfect excuse to attack the Tories and High Church clergy

• Accused them of being more loyal to James than William
• Clergy that were removed from office replaced by more moderate men - sympathetic to the Whig cause

Question 12

Who was excluded from the Act’s provisions?

Answer 12

• Non-Trinitarians and Jews - as Test Act wasn’t repealed - non-Anglicans could still not sit in parliament or hold public office

Question 13

How were those who didn’t swear allegiance to the Anglican Church affected?

Answer 13

Couldn’t attend university, work in the legal profession or practise medicine

Question 14

Why weren’t the dissenting groups that were tolerated under the terms of the Act not fully equal to Anglicans?

Answer 14

Still had to pay tithes to a Church to which they didn’t attend - and didn’t belong

Question 15

How did the Toleration Act impact Catholics?

Answer 15

In reality - had nothing to fear from William - he had effectively guaranteed their safety by entering into an alliance with a number of Catholic powers - against the French in the League of Augsburg in 1686.

Question 16

What evidence is there that Catholic were really the group that gained the most from the Revolution?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Who is a non-Trinitarian?

Answer 17

Someone who doesn’t believe in the doctrine of the Trinity - notion that divinity exists within God, Jesus and the Holy Spirt equally.

Question 18

In what ways did the Toleration Act and events of 1688-1701 serve to undermine the established Anglican Church?

Answer 18

1) Accepted that the Church of England couldn’t enforce complete uniformity - some allowances had to be made for dissenters - 8% of pop/ by 1714
2) Catholics enjoyed reasonable degree of freedom - despite exclusion from provisions of Toleration Act
3) William used royal authority to influence judges - and curb Church interference in lives of Catholics and dissenting sects - not covered by the Act
4) Power of Church courts - crucial in upholding authority of confessional state earlier in century - severely restricted by the Act

Question 19

What reasons are there that the Anglican Church still had an important role?

Answer 19

1) Crucially - statutes enforcing uniformity - passed under earlier Stuart monarchs - not repealed - public officials still duty-bound to swear allegiance to Church
2) To gain public employment or join parliament - no choice but to swear allegiance to the Crown and take Anglican Communion
3) No great theological debate between MPs and peers before Toleration Act - can be seen as a reactionary attempt to maintain order and preserve Anglican Church
4) Further Toleration Acts passed in Scotland and Ireland - didn’t give dissenters opportunity to participate in national or local government