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Publication Date

1986

Keywords

Anglican England, Restoration, Allestree, Vives

Abstract

Following the civil strife of the 1640s and the Interregnum of the 1650s, Anglican England felt the necessity of spiritual housecleaning to tighten its hold on the godly and to ferret out dissenting influences. Evidence of renewed authoritarianism is seen in Richard Allestree's early appointment in the 1660s as a lecturer for the city of Oxford, where his task was to establish the faith and to root out schismatical opinions propagated by "false" teachers of the Interregnum. In 1662 Charles was to pass measures, albeit reluctantly, requiring strict conformity concerning practices in the church not unlike those enforced by Laud. The surplice and the organ re-entered the church at Oxford and adherence to a stricter prayer book was a requisite for a preacher's position in the church. Further, the two thousand "schismatics" who were ejected at this time were, in 1665, forbidden to come within five miles of their former parishes. As Nicholas Jose has stated in his recent book on "ideas" of the Restoration,

The backlash against the rule of the saints, and even against the moderate presbyterians who, despite their loyalism, were suspiciously regarded as instigators of the rebellion, was triumphant, forceful and authoritarian...(21).

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