|
The Toleration Act 1689 (1 Will & Mary c 18), also referred to as the Act of Toleration,〔Mews, John. The Digest of English Case Law Containing the Reported Decisions of the Superior Courts: And a Selection from Those of the Irish Courts (1557 ) to the End of 1897. Sweet and Maxwell. 1898. Volume 12. Page 101.〕 was an Act of the Parliament of England, which received the royal assent on 24 May 1689.〔(House of Lords Journal: 24 May 1689: record of royal assent ) British History Online〕〔(Text of the Act ) British History Online〕 The Act allowed freedom of worship to Nonconformists who had pledged to the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and rejected transubstantiation, i.e., Protestants who dissented from the Church of England such as Baptists and Congregationalists but not to Catholics. Nonconformists were allowed their own places of worship and their own teachers, if they accepted certain oaths of allegiance. It purposely did not apply to Catholics, nontrinitarians and atheists.〔 The Act continued the existing social and political disabilities for Dissenters, including their exclusion from political office and also from universities. Dissenters were required to register their meeting locations and were forbidden from meeting in private homes. Any preachers who dissented had to be licensed. Between 1772 and 1774, Reverend Doctor Edward Pickard gathered together dissenting ministers in order that the terms of the Toleration Act for dissenting clergy could be modified. Under his leadership, Parliament twice considered bills to modify the law. Both were unsuccessful and it was not until Pickard and many had lost interest that a new attempt was made in 1779.〔John Stephens, ‘Pickard, Edward (1714–1778)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed 18 Feb 2010 )〕 The Act was amended (1779) by substituting belief in Scripture for belief in the Anglican (doctrinal) articles, but penalties on property remained. Penalties against Unitarians were finally removed in the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813. ==Background== With fears that James II of England and his male heir would establish a Catholic dynasty the previous violent divisions among different English Protestant sects were put aside to focus on their common enemy - Catholicism. A political and religious elite among this coalition invited William, the Stadholder of the Netherlands who was married to James' daughter Mary (who had been raised Protestant) to invade the nation and seize the crown. The resulting Revolution of 1688 (commonly referred to as the Glorious Revolution) resulted in success for William and Mary who became sovereigns. A series of legal act assured a constitutional settlement of this new situation; these include the Bill of Rights 1689, the Mutiny Act (1689), the Act of Toleration (1689), and later the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Act of Union 1707. Historians (like Kenneth Pearl) see the Act of Toleration as "in many ways a compromise bill. To get nonconformists' (Protestants who were not members of the Church of England) support in the crucial months of 1688".〔 Both the Whig and Tory parties that had rallied around William and Mary had promised nonconformists that such an act would be granted if the revolution succeeded. James II had issued an act of toleration but the nonconformists believed their future more secure if the Sovereign was a Protestant.〔 Catholics and Unitarians were not hunted down after the Act was passed but they still had no right to assemble and pray.〔 As there still remained a Test Act, non-Anglicans could not sit in Parliament (this included all Protestant non-Conformists, Jews, Catholics, and Unitarians). The Test Act remained in force until the nineteenth century.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Toleration Act 1688」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|