Episcopalian Identity, 1640-1662

This chapter describes how the religious revolution of 1640–60 forced episcopalians—those who held fast to the old order of royal supremacy, episcopal government, and the Prayer Book—to develop and own a distinct identity. This was a process not an event, stretching across the unsettled 1640s, and in the stable period of the 1650s, complexities and ambiguities emerged as episcopalians came to terms with the new order. The unexpected and rapid Restoration in 1660–2 saw the working out of those complexities as episcopalianism was again reshaped, eventually resulting in the creation of a new identity that can be described as Anglican.