I do (not) protest – The Anglezarke Protestation return of 1642

The seventeenth century was a time of massive religious upheaval in England. In 1642 came civil war between king and parliament. Between 1600 and the start of the civil war in 1642, the population of Lancashire rose from 100 000 to 150 000. James I, who succeeded Elizabeth in 1603, believed in his divine right to rule and forced everyone to attend Church of England services. The ‘new’ church had retained its bishops, ceremony and vestments of Catholicism and a growing number wanted a simpler ‘purer’ form of worship. These puritans wanted to rid the church of England from its

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