In what ways did the situation over religion change over the period as a whole? Between 1485 and 1688, did England become a more Catholic or Protestant country?
In 1485, England was a Catholic country. By 1688 she had become firmly Protestant. The Bill of Rights of 1688 said that the monarch must uphold the position of the Protestant religion, stating that “it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a popish prince.” It should perhaps be noted that The Tories considered the Toleration Act of 1689 to be flawed because thereafter the monarchy was much less careful, or felt less obliged to uphold the Protestant church (by which they meant the Church of England), and thus saw it as encouraging irreligion. By the start of the Eighteenth Century, the majority of the population was suspicious of any attempt to restore Catholicism (“No popery” was a popular slogan).