Measures Against Dissent
The monarch, then as now, was the official head of the Church of England. Queen Elizabeth I followed a largely tolerant policy toward the Puritans and Separatists. When James I succeeded her in 1603, however, he quickly instituted a policy designed to enforce religious conformity. The Puritans would, he warned, adhere or he would "harry them out of the land". It was the King's belief that his throne depended on the Church hierarchy: "No Bishop, no King".
James I vigorously enforced The Act Against Puritans (1593), 35 Elizabeth, Cap. 1, making it illegal for separatists to hold their own services. Anyone who did not attend the services of the Church of England for forty days, and who attended private services
- “contrary to the laws and statutes of the realm and being thereof lawfully convicted shall be committed to prison, there to remain without bail mainprise until they shall confirm and yield themselves to same church.”
The King’s campaign to suppress religious freedom ended academic freedom at the universities.
Read more about this topic: John Robinson (pastor)
Famous quotes containing the words measures and/or dissent:
“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The rightful claim to dissent is an existential right of the individual.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)