King James II Stuart’s policy in the confessional issue: counter-reformation or total tolerance?
Abstract
This article deals with one of the most controversial problems in the history of Britain in the Early Modern Time. Hardly any personality of this period provoked such heated debates among historians and contradictory assessments of contemporaries as King James II Stuart. He was the last Catholic on the British throne. The main aim of this article is to identify the main direction of church reforms of this monarch, show the confessional groups that benefi ted from this direction and who considered themselves aggrieved. The article also attempts to identify the reasons for the “black legend” of James II as a blood-covered representative of Counter-Reformation. Based on a large evidence of sources, the article proves that James II strived after a broad religious tolerance rather than elimination of Protestantism in his reign. One of the conclusions is that in the 17th century the Catholic community in England and Scotland was so small that did not pose any threat to the confessional system dominating in each of these countries (Anglicanism in England, Presbyterian Church in Scotland). Persecution of Catholics was a remnant of Reformation, which should have been overcome for the sake of overcoming political tension in Britain’s society. The article identifi es the main stages in church reforms of James II, his strategy in the religious question, and sheds light on the attempts to fi nd at least temporary allies. The main conclusion of the article is that the vision of James II was broader than that of his contemporaries and that he was ahead of his time (the emancipation of the Catholics only took place in Great Britain in the late 18th — early 19th centuries), which was the reason why his contemporaries did not understand him. Besides, the social basis of the king was very limited. All these factors led to the overthrow of James II during the Glorious Revolution of 1688‒1689.
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