Religious Changes (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Religious changes
The myth of religious toleration after 1689
Despite widespread assumptions, the Glorious Revolution did not inaugurate an era of complete religious freedom in which Protestant Dissenters could worship without state interference. The position of the Church of England and the treatment of those outside its communion remained contentious, dividing Whigs and Tories and generating parliamentary disputes throughout this period. Between 1688 and 1702, some progress towards greater tolerance emerged, yet the most important development by 1702 may have been not religious toleration itself, but the broader secularisation of society.
Secularisation refers to the gradual process by which religious institutions and beliefs lose their influence over political, social, and cultural life. In this context, it suggests that society was becoming less dominated by religious concerns, even as religious disputes continued to shape politics.
The religious settlement reached in 1689 proved incomplete and disappointing to those who hoped for genuine pluralism. Parliament faced two bills that year: a Comprehension Bill designed to broaden the Church of England sufficiently to accommodate Dissenters through a more flexible liturgy, and a Toleration Bill offering freedom of worship to all Protestants. The Church of England opposed comprehension, causing the bill to fail. Although the Toleration Act passed into law, the Test and Corporation Acts remained operative, meaning Dissenters could not hold public office. Parliament reconsidered the religious question only in the following decade.
The Failure of Comprehension
The rejection of the Comprehension Bill in 1689 represented a crucial turning point. Rather than creating a broad, inclusive national church, England retained a narrow Anglican establishment with merely limited toleration for Dissenters. This failure ensured that religious divisions would continue to fuel political conflict throughout the period.
William III's approach to religious settlement
William III worked to prepare detailed proposals for a comprehensive religious settlement, attempting to reassure Anglicans of his support whilst arranging terms acceptable to Dissenters. When Convocation—the assembly of Church of England clergy—met to consider these proposals, it rejected any measures that would ease conditions for Dissenters. The 'Catholic threat' having diminished following the revolution, the Church of England had recovered its traditional resistance to dissent.
Convocation was the representative body of the Church of England's clergy, divided into two houses (bishops and lower clergy), which met to debate church doctrine, discipline, and its relationship with the state.
The Toleration Act 1689 and its limitations
The Toleration Act of 1689 permitted freedom of worship to all Protestants who took the oath of supremacy and allegiance, and made a declaration condemning transubstantiation to confirm they were not Catholics. In practice, many Dissenters remained subject to various penalties. Dissenting meeting houses had to keep their doors open during services to dispel fears of dangerous activities taking place within. The Unitarians—those who rejected the doctrine of the Holy Trinity—remained outlawed. To suppress growing religious conflict, William III adjourned Convocation at the end of 1689. The assembly did not meet again until 1701.
Transubstantiation is the Catholic doctrine that during mass, the bread and wine literally transform into the body and blood of Christ. Protestants rejected this belief, and denying transubstantiation became a test to exclude Catholics from public life.
Test and Corporation Acts were seventeenth-century laws requiring anyone holding public office or a commission to take Anglican communion and swear oaths denying Catholic doctrine. These acts effectively barred both Dissenters and Catholics from political participation.
Limited Toleration in Practice
While the Toleration Act is often celebrated as a milestone of religious freedom, its practical limitations were severe:
- Dissenters could worship but not hold public office
- Meeting houses had to remain open during services (a form of state surveillance)
- Unitarians were completely excluded from toleration
- Catholics remained subject to harsh persecution
This was toleration with strict boundaries, not genuine religious freedom.
Anglicans and Dissenters under William and Mary
Throughout the 1690s, Anglicans and Tories grew increasingly anxious about the state of the Church. Their fear centred on the political alliances that nonconformity had established, and whether it would prove possible to preserve the religious monopoly and political authority of the Church of England. By the early 1700s, High Anglicans had developed a rallying cry: 'the Church in danger'. This slogan aimed to mobilise conservative opinion.
High Anglicans were members of the Church of England who emphasised traditional ceremony, episcopal authority, and the church's exclusive position in English religious and political life. They opposed toleration for Dissenters and resisted any erosion of Anglican privileges.
Around the same time, memoirs from the civil war era were published, including Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion and Civil Wars in England and Edmund Ludlow's Memoirs. This renewed interest in the civil war period reflected both the frustrations of nonconformists and Anglican apprehensions. The revolution 'settlement' of 1689 had evidently failed to resolve the religious question.
The religious debate in print (1695-1696)
The national religious debate generated several publications examining religion's place in society. In 1695, John Locke published The Reasonableness of Christianity, in which he argued that reason, rather than divine revelation through sacred scripture, constituted the chief origin of Christian faith. A year later, John Toland published his more radical Christianity Not Mysterious, denying the truth of any faith based on logic. He accused the clergy of complicating straightforward ideas with specialised 'scholastic jargon', comparing them unfavourably to the legal profession.
The Deist Challenge
Deists formed a group that believed in God's existence on purely rational grounds. By definition, they rejected the importance of inspired religion or a sacred text such as the Bible. The Deists argued that the existence of God could be demonstrated through reason alone, and that God created the world but did not intervene through miracles or revelation.
This represented a fundamental challenge to traditional Christianity, which relied on revelation, scripture, and faith rather than pure reason.
The Anglicans produced their own spokesmen. In 1696, Francis Atterbury published A Letter to a Convocation Man, demanding that the King recall Convocation to enable the Church to debate the developing crisis. This sense of emergency had intensified following the death of Queen Mary in 1694, aged just 32. Her funeral provided a major state occasion, marked by funeral anthems composed by Henry Purcell that expressed national loss and constitutional anxiety. Mary's death reopened political wounds between Whigs and Tories over succession and William's right to rule. Whilst Mary lived, Tories could more readily accept William as joint sovereign, connected to the state through his wife's legitimate claim. Tories also feared that the Glorious Revolution had opened opportunities to nonconformity. If the Church of England's monopoly had been broken, what would prevent the proliferation of radical sects like those that flourished during the civil wars?
The Impact of Queen Mary's Death
Mary's death in 1694 had profound political and religious consequences:
- It weakened William III's legitimacy in Tory eyes, as he now ruled alone without the hereditary link Mary provided
- It intensified Anglican fears about the security of the Church of England
- It gave new urgency to demands for Convocation to be recalled
- It reopened succession anxieties and political divisions between Whigs and Tories
The resurgence of militant Anglicanism
Towards the final years of William III's reign, militant Anglicanism reappeared as a powerful political force allied with the Tory party. In 1697, a Blasphemy Act attempted, but failed, to suppress open discussion of religious ideas. In 1701, William summoned a new Convocation of the Church, which immediately unleashed criticism of Archbishop Tenison's liberal position on the importance of reason and his rejection of religious 'enthusiasm'.
Enthusiasm in this context referred to claims of direct divine inspiration or religious fervour, which rational Anglicans viewed with suspicion as potentially destabilising and linked to radical sectarianism.
The Anglican counter-attack on nonconformity coincided with the emergence of the 'Church in danger' cry. Tories attempted to associate dissent with the republican excesses of the Civil War and Interregnum. Dissent was presented as a threat to social and legal order, even though it had not achieved equal status with the Church of England.
Occasional conformity and its controversy
A new battleground emerged in this cultural war: the practice of occasional conformity. This was the practice developed by some Protestant Dissenters of attending Church a few times annually and taking Communion occasionally. This allowed them to circumvent the restrictions of the Test and Corporation Acts and hold public office. The practice infuriated High Anglicans, because those who retained office through this method often used it to protect other Dissenters from persecution.
Understanding Occasional Conformity
Occasional conformity was the practice developed by some Protestant Dissenters of attending Church a few times annually and taking Communion occasionally. This allowed them to circumvent the restrictions of the Test and Corporation Acts and hold public office.
Why it was controversial:
- High Anglicans viewed it as a cynical evasion of the law's spirit
- Dissenters in office could then protect other Dissenters from persecution
- It undermined the Test Acts' purpose of maintaining Anglican monopoly on power
- Tories feared it was eroding the Church of England's privileged position
Atheism was increasingly debated too. A fresh front in this cultural war questioned whether atheism could be tolerated. The Tory Anglicans feared that Dissenters were evading the spirit of the law, undermining the Church's position. As soon as William III died, the Tories demanded that an Occasional Conformity Bill outlawing the practice should be placed before Parliament.
The position of Catholics
Catholics remained persecuted throughout this period. The Anglican Church had turned against James II in 1687 precisely because it feared his toleration of Catholics aimed at returning England to the Catholic faith. This fear of Catholicism had deep roots, and it would take almost another century—and the broader secularisation of British society—before moves began to liberate Catholics from penal legislation.
By 1702, Catholics were still prevented from holding any public office, and it remained illegal for Catholics to attend mass. A range of oaths and requirements prevented them from circumventing these penal laws. For instance, they had to accept Holy Communion according to the rites of the Church of England and specifically deny the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation—the belief that bread and wine physically become the body and blood of Christ. These restrictions effectively excluded Catholics from participating in political life and practising their faith openly.
The Harsh Reality for Catholics
Despite the limited toleration granted to Protestant Dissenters, Catholics faced severe and continuing persecution throughout this period:
- Barred from all public offices
- Could not legally attend mass
- Required to take Anglican communion and deny transubstantiation
- Subject to loyalty oaths they could not conscientiously take
- Would remain under these penal laws until the late 18th century
Catholics were completely excluded from the 1689 religious settlement and remained the most oppressed religious group in England.
Key dates: the Church of England and religious nonconformity
1689
- January: Toleration Act passed
- December: Convocation adjourned; did not meet again until 1701
1694
- December: Death of Queen Mary
1695
- John Locke's The Reasonableness of Christianity published
1696
- Francis Atterbury's A Letter to a Convocation Man published
- John Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious published
1697
- Blasphemy Act attempted (failed)
1701
- February: Convocation met for the first time since 1689
1702
- March: Death of William III and succession of Queen Anne
- October: Tory demands for an Occasional Conformity Bill
Key Points to Remember:
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The Glorious Revolution did not establish full religious toleration; the settlement of 1689 proved limited and incomplete, with Test and Corporation Acts remaining in force.
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The Toleration Act 1689 granted Protestant Dissenters freedom of worship but imposed restrictions (open meeting houses, oath requirements) and excluded Unitarians entirely; Catholics faced continued persecution.
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Anglican fears intensified during the 1690s, fuelled by civil war memories, Queen Mary's death (1694), and publications challenging religious orthodoxy from both Deists (Locke, Toland) and High Anglicans (Atterbury).
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Occasional conformity—Dissenters attending Anglican services periodically to hold office—became deeply controversial by 1702, prompting Tory demands for legislation to prohibit the practice.
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By 1702, the most important development may have been secularisation—society's gradual shift away from religious dominance—rather than toleration itself, as religious disputes remained unresolved but began to lose their central place in national life.