19. Religious divisions and conflicts 1660 - 78 Flashcards
(14 cards)
Dissenters
Protestants who felt unable to attend Church regularly or take Anglican communion (like Catholic recusants) - preferred to worship in separate, often private meetings - religious radicals e.g. Millenarians, Quakers + Baptists
Restoration of Church of England 1660
1) Charles + Clarendon wanted a broad Anglican church
2) Savoy house Conf Apr-June ‘61 saw clerics of Presbyterians + Anglicans meet to try compromise on Bishops + the Prayer Book, but negotiations broke down
3) Cavalier parliament removed 1,000 Presbyterian ministers, reinstated Bishops into HoL + instated a conservative, strict Anglican church (through Clarendon code) - C2 wasn’t in strong enough position to actively fight these measures
4) Cavalier parliament ordered MP’s to take communion by Anglican rite
Effect of Church Restoration (+ Clarendon code) in 1660 (3)
1) Barely even represented the nation anymore
2) Less power to enforce conformity due to removal of prerogative courts
3) Dissenters strong in urban settings, Anglicans in rural areas - pushed underground by intolerant approach
Venner’s uprising
Jan ‘61 - Evidence of backlash to Clarendon code - led by Fifth Monarchist Venner - the potential danger reinforced opinion among Anglicans that religious dissenters were a threat to stability of Church + State - slogan ‘King Jesus, and their heads upon the gates!’
3 aspects of the Clarendon Code
1) 1661 - Corporation Act barred from municipal office anyone who wouldn’t swear allegiance to the Crown, renounce the Solemn League + Covenant and worship according to the rites of the Anglican Church
2) 1662 - Act of Uniformity required all clergymen (+teachers) to be practiced Anglicans - c.1800 ministers refused to take it + ‘deprived of livings’
3) 1662 - Quaker Act decreed harsh punishments for members of this especially feared sect - 15,000 punished
Threat of Quakers from 1660 (6)
1) Non-conformist - opposed the central church + state gov - no need for hierarchy since all are equal (God’s inner light in everyone)
2) Rejected taking legal oaths since didn’t believe social + religious legislation is necessary (above)
3) Professionals / Business owners (like merchant class - just below gentry) - have money + are educated - can spread quickly through pamphlets + had wide appeal through being v peaceful
4) Met privately in meeting houses or people’s homes - dangerously secretive
5) by the ’50s, 50k in number, peaked at 60k in c.74
6) 15k punished after the Quaker Act (but Clarendon Code didn’t successfully enforce conformity - maj. just pushed underground
C2’s changes to the Clarendon code in 1662
Sought more tolerance for Catholics + dissenters
1) Issued Dec. of Indulgence to dispense individuals from the Clarendon Codes’ penalties (forced by Pment - needed finance - to withdraw it) - pressured into…
2) 1664 Conventicle Act - made it illegal to hold non-conformist meetings w/ 5+ adults - targets Quakers (also in response to the Northern Rising)
3) 1665 5 Mile Act - prohibited clergymen + teachers expelled under the Act of Uniformity travelling within 5 miles of their former parishes/town (in response to 2DW)
4) Second conventicle act in 1670 reinforced persecution of dissenters (C2 even removed JPs who weren’t harsh enough against conventicles)
Dissenter numbers under C2
1) ‘76 Compden census 100,000/2.25 million in England were dissenters - 1.5% of pop (most likely this is higher at 200-300k)
Attitudes towards Dissenters under C2 (5)
1) Limited appeal: high level of spiritual commitment required, emphasis on Bible excluded the illiterate, sermons were too long (lasted for hrs) - ‘61 Quaker declaration of ‘absolute pacifism’ failed to have impact as an act of self-preservation following the restoration
2) 1664 conventicle act expired in 68, allowing more freedom of worship
3) In ‘69, however, £300,000 denied to C2 unless he accepted the act’s renewal, forced to enforce it in ‘70
4) Mar 15 ‘72, Dec. of Indulgence but withdrawn in ‘73 w/ the Test act introduced
5) Even following the Clarendon code, Danby reverted to a more rigid church policy to protect against France
Persecution of Dissenters ‘60 - ‘78
1) 450 Quakers died in prison under C2
2) Height of persecution in early ’70s + early ’80s w/ several thousands of dissenters dying from persecution
3) 5th Monarchist MG Thomas Harrison - hung, drawn + quartered in 1660 (1st brought to trial + defense was Pment authorised regicide - dismissed arg)
4) 1662 show trials of millenarian non-regicides Henry Vane (refused to seek mercy - executed) - bias juries kept w/o food + water till guilty verdict (+ music played so can’t hear Vane’s last words), Lambert requested mercy - imprisoned for 22 yrs (until his death in ‘84)
-Many persecuted and executed
-Vane and Lambert tried, Vane killed, Lambert imprisoned until his death in 84
Latitudinarianism
Belief that reason and personal judgement more useful than church doctrine - rose under C2
Millenarians post-‘60
1) lack of republican activism - ‘never had been numerous’
2) Conditioned to see events as God’s actions + reacted to the restoration with ‘either perplexity or fatalism’ (time of spiritual renewal pre 2nd coming instead of political revolution?)
3) John Milton’s Paradise Lost (finished ‘65) represents millenarian’s despair + disillusionment w/ the Anglican maj. post-Restoration
4) fundamental part of the Restoration settlement was to secure the monarchy from the threat of millenarians + those immediately opposed C2
Catholic influence in C2’s court
1) Mother HM (not as vocal but still present)
2) Wife Catherine Braganza (Portuguese)
3) J2 (EXCLUSION CRISIS)
4) Earl of Bristol
5) CABAL - Clifford + Arlington (catholic sympathiser)
6) C2 attempted to emulate Louis XIV of France (jealous of his absolutism)
7) Mistresses e.g. Duchess of Portsmouth
8) Catholic architecture + artistic expression at court - baroque
Although didn’t let Catholics take control of policy-making (knew this would be destabilising)
Court of Charles II
-Pragmatic and drunken, like that of his Grandfather
-Earl of Rochester died of syphillis at age 33
-French/Catholic fashions and ideas
-Reassembled Charles I’s art collection
-Party
