Toleration Act

1689. Passed by Parliament in England after the toppling of the Stuart dynasty, this provided a limited measure of relief to Nonconformists, apart from Unitarians. They were permitted to have their own places of worship (registration by the authorities was, however, mandatory), and to have their own pastors and teachers if such were willing to take certain oaths of loyalty and accept most of the established church's Thirty-Nine Articles.* The act did not remove social and political disabilities, and Nonconformists (like Roman Catholics) were still debarred from public office.