nonjuring

Nonjuring refers to individuals and groups who refused to take oaths of allegiance to William III and Mary II after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and later to their successors in the Hanoverian line. They maintained that James II remained the rightful sovereign, the king de jure, and that taking an oath to the usurper regime violated their conscience and oaths to James. In ecclesiastical terms, the Nonjurors were mainly English clergy who objected to the oath to the new regime and declined to remain within the established church under that obligation.

In England, many Nonjurors were deprived of their offices or resigned, and they formed a separate body with its own bishops and clergy, maintaining traditional liturgical forms as much as possible while refusing the oaths. The movement persisted from about 1690 into the mid-18th century, with activity concentrated in England, Ireland, and parts of Scotland, and it often aligned with Jacobite political sympathies. Over time, political pressure, dwindling support, and reconciliations with the established church led to a long decline. The Nonjurors left a literary and liturgical footprint, contributing to debates on church-state relations, oaths of allegiance, and the role of conscience in ecclesiastical obedience within Anglicanism.