The Great Ejection followed the

Act of Uniformity 1662 The Act of Uniformity 1662 (14 Car 2 c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of England. (It was formerly cited as 13 & 14 Ch.2 c. 4, by reference to the regnal year when it was passed on 19 May 1662.) It prescribed the form of public prayers, adm ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Several thousand

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

ministers were forced out of their positions in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

, following

The Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

of Charles II. It was a consequence (not necessarily intended) of the Savoy Conference of 1661.

History

The Act of Uniformity prescribed that any minister who refused to conform to the 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'' by

St Bartholomew's Day Bartholomew (Aramaic: ; grc, Βαρθολομαῖος, translit=Bartholomaîos; la, Bartholomaeus; arm, Բարթողիմէոս; cop, ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ; he, בר-תולמי, translit=bar-Tôlmay; ar, بَرثُولَماو� ...

(24 August) 1662 should be ejected from the Church of England. This date became known as 'Black Bartholomew's Day' among Dissenters, a reference to the fact that it occurred on the same day as the

St Bartholomew's Day massacre The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (french: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wa ...

of 1572. Oliver Heywood estimated the number of ministers ejected at 2,500. This group included

Richard Baxter Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymnodist, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he ...

, Edmund Calamy the Elder, Simeon Ashe,

Thomas Case Thomas Case (1598–30 May 1682) was an English clergyman of Presbyterian beliefs, a member of the Westminster Assembly, where he was one of the strongest advocates of Christian government. Although earlier a strong defender of the Parliamentary ...

, John Flavel, William Jenkyn, Joseph Caryl, Benjamin Needler, Thomas Brooks, Thomas Manton, William Sclater, Thomas Doolittle and Thomas Watson. Biographical details of ejected ministers and their fates were later collected by the historian Edmund Calamy, grandson of the elder Calamy. Although there had already been ministers outside the established church, the Great Ejection created an abiding concept of non-conformity. Strict religious tests of the Clarendon Code and other Penal Laws left a substantial section of English society excluded from public affairs, and also university degrees, for a century and a half. Culturally, in England and Wales,

nonconformism Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

endured longer than that.

Historiography

The bicentennial in 1862 led to a sharp debate, with the nonconformist agenda being questioned, and the account in Calamy being reviewed. Iain Murray argues that the issue was deeper than "phrases in the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

and forms of church order," but regarded the "nature of true Christianity."

Legacy

The Bishop of Liverpool,

J. C. Ryle John Charles Ryle (10 May 1816 – 10 June 1900) was an English evangelical Anglican bishop. He was the first Anglican bishop of Liverpool. Life He was the eldest son of John Ryle, private banker, of Park House, Macclesfield, M.P. for Maccles ...

(1816–1900), referred to the Ejection as an "injury to the cause of true religion in England which will probably never be repaired". A Service of Reconciliation was held at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

on 7 February 2012 to mark the 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection. Rowan Williams, then

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, preached at the service which was attended by clergy and laity of the Church of England and the United Reformed Church.

History

Historiography

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading