At the beginning of this period we find four religious parties in
England: (1) the Roman Catholics; (2) the Episcopalians, or supporters
of the National Church of England; (3) the Puritans, who wised to
remain members of that Church, but who sought to "purify" it from
certain Roman Catholic customs and modes of worship; (4) the
Independents, who were endeavoring to establish independent
congregational societies. In Scotland the Puritans established their
religion in a Church governed by elders, or presbyters, instead of
bishops, which on that account got the name of Presbyterians.
James I persecuted all who dissented from the Church of England; and
after the Gunpowder Plot the Roman Catholics were practically deprived
of the protection of the law, and subject to terrible oppression. In
James's reign Bartholomew Legate, a Unitarian, was burned at West
Smithfield Market, London (1612), for denying the doctrine of the
trinity. He was the last English martyr. Charles I greatly
exasperated the Puritans in the English Church by his Declaration of
Sports, which recommended games in the churchyards after service on
Sunday. Clergymen who refused to read the Declaration to their
congregation were dismissed from their places.
During the period of the Civil War and the Commonwealth,
Presbyterianism was established as the national worship of England and
Scotland by the Solemn League and Covenant. A great many Episcopal
clergymen were deprived of their parishes. At the Restoration several
laws against the Scotch Covenanters and other Dissenters were
enforced, and retaliatory legislation drove two thousand clergymen
from their parishes to starve. On the other hand, the pretended
Popish Plot caused the exclusion of Roman Catholics from both houses
of Parliament, and all persons holding office were obliged to partake
of the sacrament according to the Church of England. James II's
futile attempt to restore Catholicism ended in the Revolution and the
passage of the Toleration Act, granting liberty of worship to all
Protestant Trinitarians. Stringent laws were passed against Catholics
(1700), but they were not regularly enforced. Under Anne the
Occasional Conformity Act (1711) and the Schism Act (1714) were aimed
at Dissenters. The first of these laws punished officeholders who,
during their term of office, should attend any dissenting place of
worship; the second forbade any person's keeping a public or private
school unless he was a member of the Church of England. Both laws
were repealed a few years later (1718).