Global InformationNonjuring schism information
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The Nonjuring schism refers to a split in the established churches of England, Scotland and Ireland, following the deposition and exile of James II and VII in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. As a condition of office, clergy were required to swear allegiance to the ruling monarch; for various reasons, some refused to take the oath to his successors William III and II and Mary II. These individuals were referred to as Non-juring, from the Latin verb iūrō, or jūrō, meaning "to swear an oath".
In the Church of England, an estimated 2% of priests refused to swear allegiance in 1689, including nine bishops. Ordinary clergy were allowed to keep their positions but after efforts to compromise failed, the six surviving bishops were removed in 1691. The schismatic Non-Juror Church was formed in 1693 when Bishop Lloyd appointed his own bishops. His action was opposed by the majority of English Non-Jurors, who remained within the Church of England and are sometimes referred to as "crypto-Non-Jurors". Never large in numbers, the Non-Juror Church rapidly declined after 1715, although minor congregations remained in existence until the 1770s.
In Scotland, the 1690 religious settlement removed High Church practices and Episcopal bishops, and restored a Presbyterian-structured Church of Scotland, popularly known as the kirk. Those ministers who refused to accept these changes were expelled, leading to a divide recognised by the Scottish Episcopalians Act 1711, which created a separate Scottish Episcopal Church. When George I became king in 1714, most Scottish Episcopalians refused to swear allegiance to the Hanoverian regime, creating a split that lasted until the death of Charles Stuart in 1788.
The Non-Juring movement in the Church of Ireland was insignificant, although it produced the Jacobite propagandist Charles Leslie. The Episcopal church in North America was then part of the Church of England, but largely unaffected until after the American Revolution when the Scottish non-juror liturgy influenced that of the new U.S. Episcopal Church.