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Defenders of the Mystery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2015
Abstract
The 1688 Revolution was the culmination of an eighteen-year campaign against James and his co-religionists as idolaters of bread. The Test Acts of 1673 and 1678 required an oath against Transubstantiation for public employment, and the parliamentary debate in 1673 showed that the ground for this was idolatry. It was a strange accusation, because the age was more inclined to atheism than idolatry and because virtually all the Christian world—Catholics, Orthodox, and Lutherans—worshiped Christ as bodily present in the Sacrament. In three recent councils between 1639 and 1672, the Orthodox Churches had accepted the term transubstantiation and condemned Calvinist teaching on the Eucharist. Stranger still, the accusation of idolatry was being raised not by Puritans, but by Anglican churchmen and a Cavalier parliament. The first Test Act of 1673 (25 Charles II, c. 2) excluded Catholics from all civil and military employment under the Crown under penalty of £500 pounds and disability in law, unless they would take this oath against Transubstantiation: ‘I do believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, or in the elements of bread and wine, at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever’.
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