Lee Gatiss: The Tragedy of 1662: The Ejection and Persecution of the Puritans

In these days of spiritual ignorance in the country and doctrinal laxity in the church, many Anglicans look back to former times with a certain degree of wistfulness. Declining electoral rolls speak of a nation less focused on the things of God than seems to have been the case in centuries gone by when our ancient and airy church buildings must, we conjecture, have pulsated with activity and vibrancy. In a period of liturgical diversity and confusion, others feel the disappearance of a uniform standard of worship across the denomination to be an incalculable injury, particularly as it permits both an unfitting lack of gravity in church services and the propagation of dubious theology. In an era of polarisation in ecclesiastical politics with pressure groups and ‘turbulent priests’ disturbing the peace of the church, the search for authoritative leadership to impose order on a fractious, wayward communion is an understandable desire.

One date lingers in the collective Anglican memory as suggestive of a golden era: 1662. Were not churches full in the seventeenth century? Were not the Thirty-nine Articles chiselled into every Book of Common Prayer and subscribed to ex animo by the clergy? Did not that same book, hallowed by over a century of sacred use, ensure unity and uniformity in the public meetings of every English parish, with a reverent dignity and stylistic polish often wanting in modern expressions of church? Those were the days when bishops were bishops and weren’t afraid to excommunicate heretics and bring discipline to bear on those of notorious, scandalous life!

Yet 1662 was not a good year for those to whom the gospel and a good conscience were more precious than the institutional church. The soft-focus lens of forgetfulness has blurred the historical picture, and the shifting sands of the religious scene have deceived many into an unfounded confidence in and a too easy ownership of that Restoration settlement. There may indeed be many excellent things to learn from it. But this study will examine the tragedy of 1662, and the way in which ‘evangelical’ puritans were excluded from and then persecuted by the Established Church of England.

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