Nonjuring schism

Nonjuring schism
Name	Nonjuring schism
Caption	Nonjuring bishops and clergy in a private ordination
Date	1689–late 18th century
Place	England, Scotland, Ireland
Outcome	Continued schismatic communities; partial reunions; influence on Anglo-Catholicism and Anglo-Jacobitism

Nonjuring schism The Nonjuring schism was a late 17th‑ and 18th‑century split within the Church of England, Church of Scotland, and Church of Ireland arising from refusals to swear allegiance after the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689. Leading clerics who declined the oaths of allegiance to William III of England and Mary II of England formed a sustained dissent that intersected with Jacobite politics, theological controversies, liturgical reform, and debates over episcopal authority. The schism produced a distinct clerical network, alternative ordination practices, and long‑running disputes with established ecclesiastical and civil institutions such as the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Parliament of Ireland, and the Scottish Convention.

Origins and Causes

The immediate trigger was the deposition of James II of England during the Glorious Revolution and the subsequent accession of William III of England and Mary II of England, which prompted the 1689 oaths mandated by the Act of Settlement 1701 and earlier settlement measures debated in the Convention Parliament (1689). High‑church figures who had close ties to the Stuart monarchy, including William Sancroft, John Tillotson, and Henry Compton, faced conflict over principles drawn from the writings of Robert Bellarmine, John Locke, and earlier Anglican theorists such as Richard Hooker. Many nonjurors invoked doctrines associated with the divine right of kings, passive obedience as articulated by Henry Ferne, and theories of apostolic succession emphasized by Edmund Gibson and George Hickes.

The 1689 Nonjuring Schism in England

In England the principal refusals came from bishops and clergy in dioceses such as Canterbury, London, and Chichester. Prominent figures who refused the oaths included William Sancroft, Thomas Ken, Henry Dodwell, and George Hickes, who thereby lost episcopal sees or benefices through parliamentary acts and ecclesiastical censures enforced by the Convocation and the Court of High Commission. The schism produced parallel liturgical gatherings, private episcopal consecrations involving bishops like Jeremy Collier and Robert Nelson (nonjuror)? and networks of lay supporters including aristocrats from families such as the Howe family, Sunderland family, and followers of the exiled court of James II of England and later James Francis Edward Stuart. Legal measures taken by the House of Commons (United Kingdom) and royal commissioners curtailed nonjuring ministers’ rights to parochial livings and led to prosecutions under statutes enacted by the Parliament of England.

Theology, Liturgy, and Ecclesiology

Nonjurors developed theological positions stressing sacramental theology and pastoral order rooted in the works of Richard Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, and patristic sources like Ignatius of Antioch and Irenaeus. Liturgically they produced alternative rites and revisions influenced by John Cosin and the Book of Common Prayer controversy; collections associated with the movement included liturgical essays by George Hickes and devotional manuals circulated by Robert Nelson (nonjuror)?. Ecclesiologically the nonjurors emphasized uninterrupted apostolic succession and episcopal legitimacy, drawing on arguments similar to those found in the writings of John Overall and William Laud. These emphases informed sacramental practice, attitudes to kneeling, eucharistic rubrics, and the role of private ordination outside the jurisdictional structures of the Convocation of the Church of England and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Leadership, Succession, and Factions

Leadership among nonjurors centered on a small episcopal college including William Sancroft, Thomas Ken, Henry Compton (earlier conflicted), George Hickes, and later figures such as Thomas Brett and William Law. Internal disputes produced durable factions: the “usagers” advocated reintroducing ancient liturgical usages modeled on Eastern Orthodox Church practices and the primitive church as represented in collections by Gibson? and Hickes, while the “non‑usagers” resisted such changes and emphasized continuity with the Book of Common Prayer. Succession controversies led to clandestine consecrations involving bishops from Scotland and England and raised challenges addressed by jurists like John Wordsworth (bishop)? and polemicists such as Jeremy Collier and Robert Nelson (nonjuror)?.

Social and Political Impact

Nonjurors influenced Jacobite political culture, forming ties with exiled courts in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and networks connecting to Catholic and Protestant Jacobites like Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton and Charles Edward Stuart. The schism affected patronage, local parish governance, and charitable institutions including ties to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Charitable Corporation, and private academies associated with families such as the Grafton family. In Scotland and Ireland, interactions with presbyterian, episcopal, and Catholic communities—linked to actors like William of Orange, Dundee (John Graham of Claverhouse), and Arthur Dillon—shaped regional politics and alignment during uprisings such as the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite risings.

Decline, Reunion Efforts, and Legacy

By the late 18th century, generational change, legal pressures from parliaments in Great Britain and Ireland, and shifting theological priorities led many nonjurors to reconcile or die out, though small continuities persisted into the 19th century influencing the Oxford Movement and thinkers like John Henry Newman, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and Anglo‑Catholic revivalists. Reunion efforts involved negotiations with the Convocation of the Church of England and private settlements mediated by figures such as Thomas Secker and later bishops of London and Durham. The nonjuring legacy persisted in debates over episcopal authority, liturgical revision, and the relationship between church and crown, leaving archival traces in private papers of William Sancroft and published tracts by George Hickes that informed later ecclesiastical scholarship.

Category:History of Christianity in the United Kingdom