Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular WarAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular War
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
escaped this sentence by dying in the interim--namely, the Bishops of
Worcester and Chichester. The remaining six who were expelled were
Sancroft, the Primate, Ken of Bath and Wells, Turner of Ely, Frampton
of Gloucester, Lloyd of Norwich, and White of Peterborough. In the room
of these were appointed prelates of Whig principles, the celebrated
Dr. Tillotson being made Primate. Other vacancies had recently or did
soon fall out; so that, within three years of his accession, William
had put in sixteen new bishops, and the whole body was thus favourable
to his succession, and, more or less, to the new views of Church
administration.
Having obtained a favourable episcopal bench, King William now
endeavoured to introduce measures of the utmost wisdom and
importance--measures of the truest liberality and the profoundest
policy--namely, an Act of Toleration of dissent, and an Act of
Comprehension, by which it was intended to allow Presbyterian ministers
to occupy livings in the Church without denying the validity of their
ordination, and also to do away with various things in the ritual
of the Church which drove great numbers from its community. By the
Act of Toleration--under the name of "An Act for exempting their
Majesties' Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England
from the penalties of certain laws"--dissenters were exempt from all
penalties for not attending church and for attending their own chapels,
provided that they took the new oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and
subscribed to the declaration against Transubstantiation, and also that
their chapels were registered, and their services conducted without the
doors being locked or barred. As the Quakers would take no oaths, they
were allowed to subscribe a declaration of fidelity to the Government,
and a profession of their Christian belief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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