ABSTRACT
Contrary to the common perception of the United Kingdom as a secular society, the seat of modern democracy in which politics and religion do not generally mix,1 the history and politics of Britain have been influenced by religious cleavages for the past four centuries. The cleavages that existed in the seventeenth century were markedly different from those of more recent emergence. In spite of this, a thread of unity across time runs through them. Religious groups have all promoted their respective claims as to which particular brand of moral conscience should guide policy and the law of the land.
