INTRODUCTION: SETTLING THE CHURCH, 1660–1665

None of the issues confronted by king and kingdom in 1660 would prove more divisive than that of church settlement. The irenic spirit that brought Presbyterians and Anglicans together in the city of London and in many counties in 1659–60 was genuine, but it was also founded on the common fear of the sects. As the sects were subdued, Anglicans and Presbyterians discovered they feared each other as much as they feared the opponents of monarchical and parochial structures in church and state. Presbyterians hoped to preserve as much as possible of the reformation of the 1640s in the restored church; but Anglicans sought instead to return the church to its pre-1642 hierarchical orders, forms, and patterns. As Anglican royalists gained the upper hand in the country and in parliament, they imposed their church settlement on Reformed Protestants, on the city, and on the king himself. The result was a rigidly episcopal national church that was exclusivist in its personnel and uncompromising in its practice. Reformed Protestant parochial clergy were given the choice of conformity or expulsion. The restored church was also anchored on the magistrate's sword: new statutes forbade worship outside the established order, under various pains, and even regulated the place of residence of expelled clergy.

The Anglican royalist church agenda was, however, constructed upon two unrealistic expectations that reflected the pre-revolutionary world of the early Stuart ecclesia.