For discussion:

What shaped the Restoration monarchy’s policies towards nonconformists and Catholics? How far was government policy matched by attitudes towards religious minorities at local level?

What produced the panic over the ‘popish threat’ in the later years of Charles II?

How much did James II wish to do for the Catholics (and nonconformists)? Why did he fail?

Reading:

General:

Tim Harris, Politics under the later Stuarts (1993)

Barry Coward, Stuart England (reliable textbook)

M Watts, The Dissenters (1978), part III.

Restoration to 1685:

M G Finlayson, Historians, Puritanism and the English Revolution. The religious factor in English politics before and after the Interregnum (1983)

A J Fletcher, ‘The Enforcement of the Conventicle Acts 1664-1679, in W Sheils, ed., Persecution and Toleration (Studies in Church History 21, 1984)

R Greaves, Deliver Us From Evil 1660-63 (1986); Enemies Under his Feet 1664-77 (1990); Secrets of the Kingdom 1678-89 (1992)- important studies of nonconformist political militancy, and government fears.

T Harris et al, eds., The Politics of Religion in Restoration England (1990)

T Harris, Restoration. Charles II and his kingdoms 1660-1685 (2005)

J J Hurwich, ‘Dissent and Catholicism in English Society: a study of Warwickshire 1660-1720’, Journ. of British Studies 16 (1976)

R Hutton, The Restoration. A political and religious history,1658-1667 (1985) (on Charles II and the Restoration religious settlement)

J P Kenyon, The Popish Plot

J Miller, Popery and Politics in England, 1660-1688 (1973)

M Spufford, Contrasting Communities (1974) (dissent at local level)

John Spurr, ‘From Puritanism to Dissent, 1660-1700’, in C Durston & J Eales, eds., The Culture of English Puritanism (1996)

John Spurr, ‘Latitudinarianism and the Restoration Church’, Historical Journal, 31 (1988)

Bill Stevenson, ‘The social integration of post-Restoration rural dissenters, 1660-1725’, in M Spufford, ed., The World of Rural Dissenters 1520-1725 (1995)

R Thomas, ‘Comprehension and Indulgence’, in G F Nuttall & O Chadwick, eds., From Uniformity to Unity 1662-1962 (1962)

On the Catholics see also the works of Alan Dures and John Bossy (in full in earlier reading lists)

James II, the Glorious Revolution and the 1689 settlement:

Grell et al, eds., From Persecution to Toleration- the Glorious Revolution and religion in England (1991)

J Miller, James II. A Study in Kingship (1978/89)

J Spurr, ‘The Church of England, comprehension and the Toleration Act’, English Hist. Rev. 104 (1989)

J R Western, Monarchy and Revolution: the English state in the 1680s (1972)- the Tory reaction and the reign of James II.