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The
Seven Bishops were seven bishops of the
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
. When
James IIJames II & VII was King of England and Ireland as James II, and Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
issued his second
Declaration of IndulgenceThe Declaration of Indulgence was made by King Charles II of Great Britain, on the April 4, 1687. It was a first step at establishing freedom of religion in England. It was later revised, by King James II, on April 27, 1688 to include further text...
in 1688 - which granted expansive religious freedoms by suspending penal laws enforcing conformity to the Church of England, allowing persons to worship in their homes or chapels as they saw fit, and ending the requirement of affirming religious oaths before gaining employment in government offices - the Seven Bishops petitioned the King against it.
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The
Seven Bishops were seven bishops of the
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
. When
James IIJames II & VII was King of England and Ireland as James II, and Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
issued his second
Declaration of IndulgenceThe Declaration of Indulgence was made by King Charles II of Great Britain, on the April 4, 1687. It was a first step at establishing freedom of religion in England. It was later revised, by King James II, on April 27, 1688 to include further text...
in 1688 - which granted expansive religious freedoms by suspending penal laws enforcing conformity to the Church of England, allowing persons to worship in their homes or chapels as they saw fit, and ending the requirement of affirming religious oaths before gaining employment in government offices - the Seven Bishops petitioned the King against it. James ordered them imprisoned in the
Tower of LondonHer Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic fortress and scheduled monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames...
for
seditious libelSeditious libel is a criminal offence under English common law. Sedition is the offence of speaking seditious words with seditious intent: if the statement is in writing or some other permanent form it is seditious libel...
. They were brought to trial before the Court of
King's BenchThe Queen's Bench is the superior court in a number of jurisdictions within some of the Commonwealth realms...
, with Sir Thomas Powys the Attorney General prosecuting and
John PowellSir John Powell was a Welsh judge, who was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas and of the Court of King's Bench. He presided over the trial of the Seven Bishops in 1688.-Life:...
as the presiding judge, and they were found not guilty.
Shortly thereafter, James was deposed by his nephew
William IIIWilliam III was a sovereign Prince of Orange by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland, and as William II over Scotland...
in the
Glorious RevolutionThe Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians with an invading army led by the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau who, as a result, ascended the English throne as William III of England...
. The right to petition the king and the illegality of commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning were enshrined in the
Bill of Rights 1689The Bill of Rights is an act of the Parliament of England, whose title is An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown...
.
The Seven Bishops were:
William SancroftWilliam Sancroft , was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury.- Life :Sancroft was born at Fressingfield in Suffolk, son of Francis Sandcroft and Margaret Sandcroft née Butcher . He was educated at Bury St Edmunds school before being admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge in September 1633 and...
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Archbishop of CanterburyAlso see Leaders of ChristianityThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be...
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| Thomas Ken Thomas Ken was an English cleric who was considered the most eminent of the English non-juring bishops, and one of the fathers of modern English hymnology.-Early life:...
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Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.The present diocese covers the vast majority of the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in...
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| John Lake John Lake was a 17th century Bishop of Sodor and Man, Bishop of Bristol and Bishop of Chichester in the British Isles.-Life:He was born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire and educated at St John's College, Cambridge...
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Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
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William LloydWilliam Lloyd was an English divine who served successively as bishop of St Asaph, of Lichfield and Coventry and of Worcester.-Life:...
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Bishop of St Asaph The Bishop of St Asaph heads the Church in Wales diocese of St Asaph.The diocese covers the counties of Conwy and Flintshire, Wrexham county borough, the eastern part of Merioneth in Gwynedd and part of northern Powys. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of St Asaph in the town of...
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| Jonathan Trelawny |
Bishop of Bristol The Bishop of Bristol heads the Church of England Diocese of Bristol in the Province of Canterbury, in England.The present diocese covers parts of the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire together with a small area of Wiltshire...
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| Francis Turner Francis Turner, D.D. , was Bishop of Ely, one of the seven bishops who petitioned against the Declaration of Indulgence and one of the nine bishops who refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III.-Family and education:...
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Bishop of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
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| Thomas White -Life:He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. Having been a vicar of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Newark-on-Trent since 1660, he was chosen bishop of Peterborough in 1685...
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Bishop of Peterborough The Bishop of Peterborough is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Peterborough in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire and has its see in the City of Peterborough, where the seat is...
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Despite their petition and their trial, five of these bishops (all but Lloyd and Trelawny) remained loyal to James II after the
Glorious RevolutionThe Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians with an invading army led by the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau who, as a result, ascended the English throne as William III of England...
and were among the nine bishops who became
non-jurorThe nonjuring schism was a split in the Church of England in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, over whether William of Orange and his wife Mary could legally be recognised as King and Queen of England.-History:...
s, refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to
William and MaryThe phrase William and Mary usually refers to the joint sovereignty over the Kingdom of England, as well as the Kingdom of Scotland, of King William III and his wife Queen Mary II, a daughter of James II...
, and losing their bishoprics as a result.
External links
- Chapter VIII of Macaulay's
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was a British poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history...
History of EnglandThe History of England from the Accession of James the Second is the full title of the multi-volume work by Lord Macaulay more generally known as "The History of England"....
- the last third of this chapter describes the circumstances surrounding the Petition and Trial of the Seven Bishops
- Petition of the Seven Bishops
- Documents by and about the Nonjurors from Project Canterbury
Project Canterbury is an online archive of material related to the history of the Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard J. Mammana, Jr. in 1999, and is hosted by the non-profit Society of Archbishop Justus...