Introduction

Britain’s experiment with republican government ended in 1660 with the demise of the Commonwealth and the restoration of the Stuart dynasty. With the restoration of the monarchy came a return of episcopacy and the end of Puritan rule. The freedom enjoyed by Presbyterians and Congregationalists came to an end, as they moved from rulers to Dissenters. Although some among the ranks of the Presbyterians, such as John Tillotson, were able to make the change to episcopalianism, many were left in religious exile. England and Wales returned, at least on the surface, to its previous state as an Anglican regime. As Geoffrey Holmes claims of the restored Church:

It was a Church to which the allegiance of all the King’s English and Welsh subjects was legally bound by a state-imposed policy of uniformity. It had episcopally ordained ministers and a traditional system of ecclesiastical government and discipline. It was furnished with a Prayer Book in obvious line of descent from that of Cranmer and Parker, with church courts, and with most of the other external trappings of the Church of 1641.1

On the surface, the nation had returned to the way things had been before the Puritan revolution but, for many, going back was not possible, and so Protestant Dissent and Nonconformity joined with Catholic recusancy as a potent force beneath the surface of society. Suppression and oppression helped solidify this movement, some of which moved in theologically heterodox directions, although at least early on most Protestant Dissent remained orthodox.2 Thus, the old regime may have been restored, but the religious and political dynamics of Britain were transformed.