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In: History - British·History - Modern (1750+)·History - Religious
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #67727.
The work is a scholarly ecclesiastical history that continues John Stoughton’s multi‑volume survey of the English Church, focusing here on the revolutionary period of William III and Mary II. The author begins by explaining why the 1689 Comprehension Bill, long neglected in previous accounts, receives extensive treatment, and he details the painstaking use of parliamentary journals, the 1854 Commons report, and a diary from Dr Williams’s Library to reconstruct the episode. An appendix supplies the previously unpublished Lords’ Bill, while a wealth of material from the British Museum, Oxford, Lambeth, and various societies enriches chapters on nonjurors, convocation, Trinitarian disputes, and the social life of clergy. The opening pages set out a dense contents list that maps the narrative from William’s early life, through the Glorious Revolution, to the intricate legislative and theological reforms that followed.
Stoughton writes in a measured, eighteenth‑century prose style, blending meticulous documentary citation with a clear, if occasionally moralising, voice. His tone is that of a learned clergyman intent on impartiality yet rooted in his own Anglican convictions. Readers who enjoy detailed institutional histories, primary‑source analysis, and the interplay of politics and religion in late‑seventeenth‑century Britain will find this volume rewarding, especially those with a penchant for the minutiae of parliamentary procedure and the personalities of the era’s ecclesiastical figures.
The opening · free to read
JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D.
=London:= HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27 & 31, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
MDCCCLXXIV.
UNWIN BROTHERS, PRINTERS.
ADVERTISEMENT.
It will be found that in this Volume I have assigned a large space to the attempt at Comprehension in the year 1689--as it is a subject of present interest, and because the proceedings connected with it have been but inadequately described. An examination of the Bill introduced for the purpose to the House of Lords--a comparison of the Journals of both Houses, whence it appears that another Bill of the same kind was contemporaneously proposed in the House of Commons--the report of the proceedings of the Commissioners in 1689, published by order of the House of Commons in 1854--and a curious Diary preserved in Dr. Williams’ Library--together with other original sources of information, have enabled me to present a fuller, and, I hope, more accurate, account of that important but ineffective transaction than has hitherto appeared. As I believe the Lords’ Bill has never been printed, I have arranged for its insertion in the Appendix.
A large collection of Tracts in Dr. Williams’ Library, besides those in the British Museum and University Libraries--the Tanner MSS. at Oxford--the Strype and other collections belonging to the Sister University--and the Gibson Papers at Lambeth, have also afforded a number of new, if not important, illustrations touching the Nonjurors--the proceedings of Convocation--the Trinitarian controversies--the social life of the Clergy--and the character of the Nonconformist ministers.
I may add that in tracing the origin and progress of Religious Societies during the reign of William III., I have received most valuable assistance from the respected Secretaries of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, who have favoured me with interesting extracts from their earliest records.
My best thanks are also due to the Right Reverend the Bishop of Chester for a copy of the writ summoning Spiritual peers to Parliament. Sir John G. S. Lefevre, Clerk of the Parliaments, to whose usual courtesy I am indebted for a copy of the Comprehension Bill--Mr. Thoms, the Librarian of the House of Lords--the Librarians at Oxford, Cambridge, and Lambeth--the Rev. T. Hunter, librarian of Dr. Williams’ Library--and the Rev. D. Hewitt, of Exeter, have also laid me under obligations which I gratefully acknowledge.
I venture to add, that in this, as in my former volumes, I have endeavoured to maintain an honest impartiality in the estimate of characters and incidents, together with a firm attachment to my own religious and ecclesiastical principles. My aim throughout has been to promote the cause of truth and charity among Christian Englishmen.
CONTENTS.
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