Toleration Act

In May 24, 1689 Parliament passed an act granting religious freedom to Protestants. It explicitly excluded Catholics, Jews or Unitarians. The Act was established by Parliament and the joint monarchs, William of Orange and Mary II and can be seen as consolidation of the settlement after the Glorious Revolution.

The Toleration Act allowed non-conformists to have their own places of worship including their own teachers and priests.In return, they had to take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and also had to reject transsubstantiation (which is the Catholic belief of bread and wine turning into the Body of Christ during mass.) The dissenters were only allowed to meet in registered, unlocked houses, religious meetings in private homes were forbidden. Although the law was a step in the direction towards religious tolerance, dissenting Protestants still had to suffer from social and political restrictions imposed by the Clarendon Code, such as exclusion from political office.

Primary source

An Act for Exempting their Majesties Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes[1]

Secondary sources

Marshall, William M. "Toleration Act." The Oxford Companion to British History, Oxford University Press, January 01, 2009, Oxford Reference, http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199567638.001.0001/acref-9780199567638-e-4216, Accessed 21 May 2009.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Toleration Act." Encyclopædia Britannica, first published online 20 July 1998, https://www.britannica.com/event/Toleration-Act-Great-Britain-1689, Accessed 21 May 2009.

"The Toleration Act of 1689" Associated Content. 2008. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1206742/the_toleration_act_of_1689_pg2.html?cat=37, accessed 21 May 2009.