The English Constitution and the English Church

Political Stability

• "Responsible" landowning class
• Rising Agricultural Prices/Output
• Successful Management of Political Conflict by Elites
• Successful Management of Religious Conflict

Monarch

• Ministers in Parliament

House of Lords

• 160 Hereditary Peers
• 24 Bishops of Church of England

House of Commons

• 92 County Seats
• 417 Borough Seats
• 45 Scottish Seats
• 4 University Seats

Patronage (Influence/Corruption)

• Crown 200-230
• Peers 100-150

The Church of England

• Protestant Dynasty--1689
• Act of Toleration--1689. Religious Liberty
• Protestant Dissenters and Whigs

Episcopal

• Archbishops of Canterbury and York
• Lambeth Palace
• Bishops (House of Lords)
• Cathedrals
  • Salisbury

Parochial

• Clergymen-c. 11,000
• Patronage
• Oxford and Cambridge
• Tenure
• The Parish Church
• Curates
• Tithes and Church Rates
• Pluralism
• Non-residence
• "Latitudinarianism"

Sacraments

• Baptism
• Confirmation
• Marriage
• "Churching of Women"
• Burial

Anglicans vs. Protestant Dissenters

• Presbyterians/Unitarians
• Congregationalists
• Baptists
• Quakers link
• Civil Liberties

Urban Politics

Why was the established Church of England important?

What did it mean to be a "Dissenter" in the eighteenth century?