Great Ejection

[1] The Act of Uniformity prescribed that any minister who refused to conform to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer by St Bartholomew's Day (24 August) 1662 should be ejected from the Church of England.

Strict religious tests of the Clarendon Code and other Penal Laws left a substantial section of English society excluded from public affairs and university degrees for a century and a half.

[4] Iain Murray argues that the issue was deeper than "phrases in the Book of Common Prayer and forms of church order," but regarded the "nature of true Christianity".

The Bishop of Liverpool, J. C. Ryle (1816–1900), referred to the Ejection as an "injury to the cause of true religion in England which will probably never be repaired".

[6] A Service of Reconciliation was held at Westminster Abbey on 7 February 2012 to mark the 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection.

Title page of a collection of Farewell Sermons preached by ministers ejected from their parishes in 1662
The Memorial Hall on Albert Square, Manchester , built to commemorate the bicentennial of the Great Ejection, at the suggestion of John Relly Beard [ 3 ]