Abstract
‘Notwithstanding that our civil wars are through the mercy of God ended,’ lamented a Nonconformist in 1668, ‘yet our religious jars and rents are not healed’.1 Healing England’s religious wounds was not as easy as bringing the monarchy back, but everyone knew that it was essential: religious differences had led the country into civil war once and might easily do so again. But how was religious harmony to be regained? The answer that sprang to many, if not most, minds was to impose religious uniformity on the nation. Since religion was the foundation of all government, justice and virtue, it was clear that there should only be one religion in one state: ‘uniformity is the cement of both Christian and civil society’.2 Others, however, objected ‘that the requiring of greater uniformity in opinion and practice in the things of religion, than the church of God is capable of, is no means of union, peace or concord, but a most effectual and certain means of division, separation, strife and contention’.3 Unity would emerge by recognizing and permitting diversity of religious belief and practice. So religious unity might be restored either through uniformity or through a regulated diversity. Few of the English had as yet considered a third option, which was to remove these questions from the political arena altogether, and treat religion as a purely private matter.
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Bibliography
The best account of the restoration of the Church of England is I. M. Green, The Re-establishment of the Church of England, 1660–1663 (Oxford, 1978),
which qualifies R. S. Bosher’s The Making of the Restoration Settlement 1649–62 (London, 1951),
and for the political dimension P. Seaward, The Cavalier Parliament and the Restoration of the Old Regime, 1661–1667 (Cambridge, 1989) is indispensable.
J. Spurr, The Restoration Church of England, 1646–1689 (New Haven and London, 1991), attempts to portray the church’s view of itself and its mission and to synthesize much recent and unpublished work.
Many insights into clerical life can be gained from J. H. Pruett, The Parish Clergy under the Later Stuarts — The Leicestershire Experience (Urbana, Illinois, 1978);
The Rector’s Book, Clayworth, ed. H. Gill and E. L. Guilford (Nottingham, 1910);
Bishop Fell and Nonconformity: Visitation Documents from the Oxford Diocese, 1682–3, ed. M. Clapinson (Oxfordshire Record Society, lxii, 1980);
and The Diary of Ralph fosselin, 1616–83, ed. A. Macfarlane (London, 1976).
On the history of the Church of England, see: N. Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker — Aspects of English Church History 1660–1768 (Cambridge, 1959);
A. Whiteman (ed.), The Compton Census of 1676: A Critical Edition (London, 1986);
R. A. Beddard, ‘The Commission for Ecclesiastical Promotions, 1681–84: An Instrument of Tory Reaction’, HJ, x (1967); and G. F. Nuttall and O. Chadwick (eds), From Uniformity to Unity (London, 1962).
The laity’s response to the church is discussed by D. A. Spaeth, ‘Common Prayer? Popular Observance of the Anglican Liturgy in Restoration Wiltshire’, in S.J. Wright (ed.), Parish, Church and People — Local Studies in Lay Religion 1350–1750 (London, 1988);
M. Spufford, Contrasting Communities — English Villagers in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1974);
J. D. Ramsbottom, ‘Presbyterians and “Partial Conformity” in the Restoration Church of England’, JEH, xliii (1992); E. Duffy, ‘The Godly and the Multitude in Stuart England’, The Seventeenth Century, i (1986); and some of the essays in T. Harris, P. Seaward and M. Goldie (eds), The Politics of Religion in Restoration England (Oxford, 1990).
The best introduction to Restoration Dissent is contained in M. R. Watts, The Dissenters — From the Reformation to the French Revolution (Oxford, 1978; paperback reprint 1985).
C. E. Whiting, Studies in English Puritanism from the Restoration to the Revolution, 1660–1688 (London, 1931; 2nd impression 1968) remains valuable.
More specialized studies include: N. H. Keeble, The Literary Culture of Nonconformity in Later Seventeenth-century England (Leicester, 1987);
J. T. Cliffe, The Puritan Gentry Besieged, 1650–1700 (London, 1993);
G. R. Cragg, Puritanism in the Period of the Great Persecution 1660–1688 (Cambridge, 1957).
The character of Dissent may best be appreciated in works such as John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666; Everyman paperback reprint, 1976);
The Diary of Roger Lowe, ed. W. L. Sachse (London, 1938);
or The Autobiography of Richard Baxter, abridged by J. M. Lloyd Thomas and edited by N. H. Keeble (London, 1974).
N. H. Keeble and G. F. Nuttall have also edited a Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter, 2 vols (Oxford, 1991).
The political involvement of Dissent is the subject of D. R. Lacey, Dissent and Parliamentary Politics in England 1661–1689 (New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1969),
and R. L. Greaves’ trilogy: Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660–1663 (Oxford, 1986), Enemies Under His Feet: Radicals and Nonconformists in Britain, 1664–1677 (Stanford, California, 1990) and Secrets of the Kingdom: British Radicals from the Popish Plot to the Revolution of 1688–89 (Stanford, California, 1992).
Roman Catholicism can be approached through J. Bossy, The English Catholic Community 1570–1850 (London, 1975);
J. Miller, Popery and Politics in England 1660–1688 (Cambridge, 1973); J. A. Williams, ‘English Catholicism under Charles II’, Recusant History, vii (1963); and J. J. Hurwich, ‘Dissent and Catholicism in English Society: A Study of Warwickshire, 1660–1720’, JBS, xvi (1976).
On the many intellectual developments which impinged on religion, see: M. Hunter, Science and Society in Restoration England (Cambridge, 1981);
S. I. Mintz, The Hunting of Leviathan (Cambridge, 1962);
H. R. McAdoo, The Spirit of Anglicanism (London, 1965);
L. I. Bredvold, The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Chicago, 1934);
G. R. Cragg, From Puritanism to the Age of Reason (Cambridge, 1950);
G. Reedy, The Bible and Reason (Philadelphia, 1975);
P. Harth, Contexts of Dryden’s Thought (Chicago, 1968);
I. Rivers, Reason, Grace and Sentiment: A Study of the Language of Religion and Ethics in England, 1660–1780 (Cambridge, 1991).
The debate on toleration can be approached through the essays in O. P. Grell, J. I. Israel and N. Tyacke (eds), From Persecution to Toleration — The Glorious Revolution and Religion in England (Oxford, 1991)
and in J. R. Jones (ed.), Liberty Secured? Britain Before and After 1688 (Stanford, California, 1992).
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Spurr, J. (1997). Religion in Restoration England. In: Glassey, L.K.J. (eds) The Reigns of Charles II and James VII & II. Problems in Focus Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25432-3_5
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