I've been working on an essay about reform of the Church of England in the nineteenth century and the Church's reaction to it. The nineteenth century saw some very major secular reforms put into place by Parliament which the Church did not always agree with. The two major acts passed by Parliament which I am going to examine are the University Tests Act of 1871 and the Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874.
The University Tests Act essentially made every person eligible to attend Oxford, Cambridge and Durham Universities without the need to formally subscribe to the Church of England's Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. This allowed Jews, Catholics, Protestants and people from other religions as well to attend these universities for the first time.
The Public Worship Regulation Act was introduced to Parliament by Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Campbell Tait to essentially limit was he saw as the problem of 'catholicising' within the Anglican Church. He felt, as many high Churchmen of his time did, that the Ritualists within the Church of England were caused the Church to become far too Catholic.
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