The Glorious Revolution's Inglorious Religious Commitment

Steven Pfaff, University of Washington, Seattle
Parashar Kulkarni, Yale NUS College

Many scholars contend that the Glorious Revolution of 1688 restrained governmental abuses in Britain by preventing the Crown from engaging in irresponsible behavior. But the question of whether it imposed similar restraints on Parliament has received limited scrutiny. This oversight applies in particular to the religious sphere and outside of England. We analyze the institutional legacy of the Glorious Revolution on religious conflict in Scotland. Through process-tracing and systematic evaluation of legislation, we show that, rather than establish the conditions for religious toleration in Britain, the Revolution transferred power from one church faction to the other, continuing the `arbitrary' religious repression symptomatic of the pre-revolutionary Crown. Prior to 1688, the Crown and the Episcopalians suppressed the Presbyterians. After 1688, a limited monarchy brought about by an alliance between the Scottish Presbyterians and the English Parliament, led to the permanent reinstatement of Presbyterianism in the established Scottish Church. This reversal allowed the Presbyterians to suppress the Episcopalians. Religious tolerance and attendant civil rights expanded only with secularization in the 19th century when the political representation of other denominations and religions increased and the Presbyterians were weakened by splits that weakened the monopoly church. Rather than create the general conditions for liberty, we contend that the institutional legacy of the Glorious Revolution was biased toward those in the winning coalition and that its positive effect on liberty is overstated.

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 Presented in Session 224. Liberalism and Tolerance in a Comparative and Historical Perspective