Act of Toleration 1689

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The Act of Toleration was an act of the English Parliament (24 May, 1689, citation 1 Will. & Mar. c. 18), the long title of which is "An Act for Exempting their Majestyes Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes". The Act granted freedom of worship to Nonconformists i.e., Protestants who dissented from the Church of England such as Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers, but not to Catholics. It allowed Nonconformists their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to acceptance of certain oaths of allegiance. It deliberately did not apply to Catholics and non-Trinitarians and continued the existing social and political disabilities for dissenters, including their exclusion from political office and also from universities.

Dissenters were required to register their meeting locations and were forbidden from meeting in private homes. Any preachers who dissented had to be licensed.

Act of Toleration 1689

See also