RELIGION POLICY OF ENGLISH PARLIAMENT IN TIMES OF THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION

Author(s):  O.E. Shmeleva, Ivanovo State University, Ivanovo, Russia, shmelevaoe@gmail.com

Issue:  Volume 45, №1

Rubric:  Topical issues of world history

Annotation:  This article presents the religion policy of English parliament in times of the Glorious Revolution on the basis of laws. Statutes related to the religious policy of this period are analyzed in detail. The summary is provided. The author comes to a conclusion that, parliament is toughening the basis of religious policy towards people of Catholic faith, but there is another tendency, manifested in increasing loyalty towards people of other faiths. A feature of modern foreign historiography is that researchers have ceased to per-ceive and evaluate this phenomenon only as exclusively English, characterized by the struggle of court parliamentary groups. In modern national historiography, this problematics has been studied insufficiently and is represented, in the main, by works on border topics. Unquestionable is the fact that the revolution arose both because of the reasons for the political nature and the reasons for religious ones. James II, be-gan to strengthen the position of the Catholic minority in England: in particular, Catholics again got the right to hold public office and head educational institutions. Similarly, the king markedly increased his army, mainly with the help of Scottish and Irish officers of the Catholic faith. Parliament under James II was dissolved. Both parties of the parliament were dissatisfied with the prevailing situation in the country and paved the way for a prepare the riot, as a result of which William III of Orange, the Protestant, be-came king. An extremely important task in connection with this was to study the changes in the legisla-tive framework with respect to religion in general and to Catholicism in particular. What changes have taken place in the religious sphere, after the King-Protestant ascended to the throne? The author tried to answer these Author is trying answer the questions in this article, and concludes that the parliament is toughening the basis of religious policy towards people of Catholic faith, but at the same time, another tendency is manifested in the manifestation of increasing loyalty towards individuals other denomina-tions. It is also interesting that, despite the adoption of laws that clearly infringe upon the rights of Cathol-icism, the parliament acts very cautiously, sometimes without impeding the activities of the recusants.Thus, the question of the interaction between the Church of England and Catholicism remains.

Keywords:  religion policy, Glorious Revolution, English parliament, statutes of the realm, Catholicism, William III of England, James II Stuart, Church of England, Mary II Stuar.

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