Evolution of the nonjurors in England from the Glorious revolution to separate theological movement
The article deals with the evolution of the nonjurors, which movement arose as a response of part of the Anglican clergy to the violent change of the monarch in England following the Glorious revolution of 1688-1689, when Archbishop of Canterbury, eight bishops and over 400 other Anglican clerics refused to swear allegiance to sovereigns William III of Orange and Mary II, wishing not to violate their previous oaths to the dethroned James II. The author marks two stages of the movement’s development. The first stage coincides with the rule of William III and Anne, and it is characterized by the dominance of political problems within nonjurors, when the doctrines of the divine right of kings and non-resistance to power became part of the ideological basis of the opposition to the Whig interpretation of the Glorious revolution. The second stage, which began after the establishment of the Hanover dynasty, was associated with the strengthening of theological searches by members of the movement, when political issues became secondary. The article concludes that the nonjuring movement, which began as a protest based on personal beliefs, quickly found itself in the center of a sharp ideological religious and political confrontation between different party groups and interpretations of the Glorious revolution, which was complicated by the growing problems within the Church of England. However, as the political struggle against the calling of the new Hanover dynasty in England decreased, nonjurors were able to unleash their purely religious protest potential, becoming more and more like a religious sect that wanted to renew the Church of England, but did not break with its basic canons.