Protestant Bishops in Restoration England (Three Old Norse Saga Studies) (Essay‪)‬

Introduction During the seventeenth century in England individual bishops and the episcopate in general came under increasingly intense censure for being a popish dreg. As a Romanist relic, the episcopate was perceived by its detractors more as a problem than a solution to the settlement of the English Church. Attacks against bishops culminated in the abolition of episcopal government by the Long Parliament in the 1640s, leaving episcopacy in abeyance until the Restoration of 1660. During the seventeenth century, other challenges came from the often drastic reductions in episcopal revenues made by royal authorities, which themselves impacted on the capacity of bishops to fulfill their functions and exercise their authority. (2)