Toleration Act

Eng. Hist.

See Act of Toleration.

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(1689) Act of the British Parliament that granted freedom of worship to Nonconformists, allowing them their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers.

The act did not apply to Catholics and Unitarians and continued the existing social and political prohibitions, such as exclusion from political office, that applied to dissenters from the Church of England.

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▪ Great Britain [1689]

      (May 24, 1689), act of Parliament granting freedom of worship to Nonconformists (i.e., dissenting Protestants such as Baptists and Congregationalists). It was one of a series of measures that firmly established the Glorious Revolution (1688–89) in England. It allowed Nonconformists (Nonconformist) their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to acceptance of certain oaths of allegiance. The act did not apply to Catholics and Unitarians and maintained the existing social and political restrictions (including exclusion from political office) for dissenters.

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