John Rylands University Library, Manchester
27-28 June 2012

Call for Papers

2012 marks the 350th anniversary of the Act of Uniformity of 1662. Widely regarded as the act which both defined what it was to be a member of, or a dissenter from, the Church of England, it was of vital importance for English political, social, and cultural, as well as religious, history.  Politically, for example, during the next twenty five years, major pieces of legislation were passed which either enforced or softened the implementation of the act, and within nonconformist historiography this is often seen as ‘the age of persecution’. While there is no doubt that dissenters could be treated harshly in this period, nevertheless, as some recent research has indicated, the history of dissent was more nuanced and multi-faceted than this blanket label assumes. Moreover the terms ‘Church of England’ and ‘dissent’ are complicated by the fact that a growing body of evidence suggests that people were not simply members of one or the other, and that boundaries between ‘the Church’ and ‘dissent’ were more fluid than some older research implied. This conference will explore the history of all Protestant nonconformist denominations in the period between 1662 and the so-called ‘Toleration Act’ of 1689, when they were given (some) relief, and their relations with the established Church. Some questions contributors might ask include: what was the relationship between ‘the Church’ and ‘dissent’; how did the different nonconformist denominations fare; and what were the social and cultural consequences of and for dissent during these years?

Keynote speakers:

Dr Jacqueline Rose (University of St Andrews)

Dr George Southcombe (Brasenose College, Oxford)

The Conference will coincide with a major exhibition at The John Rylands Library, Deansgate, on ‘St Bartholomew’s Day 1662: the triumph of bigotry and the birth of toleration’.

Proposals are invited for individual papers (20 mins), fully comprised panels of three papers, roundtable sessions, and for ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising. Please send proposals by 1 March 2012 to:   hannah.mansell@manchester.ac.uk

Organiser: Professor Jeremy Gregory, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, jeremy.gregory@manchester.ac.uk

It is hoped that a selection of the conference papers may subsequently form the basis of a theme issue of the BULLETIN OF THE JOHN RYLANDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MANCHESTER. The conference webpage is at: http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/religionstheology/newsevents/uniformity/