Presbyterian

The Puritan emphasis on individualism, however, made the establishment of a national Presbyterian Church during the Interregnum impossible, and the Restoration of the Monarchy under Charles II in 1660 facilitated the re-establishment of the Anglican Church, purged of Puritans, who split into various dissenting factions. It remained the official state church until the passage of the Toleration Act in 1690, which permitted Dissenters to hold meetings in licensed preaching houses. Thereafter it grew both politically and spiritually weaker, and the eighteenth century found it largely unprepared for the serious spiritual challenge which was implicit in the appearance of Methodism.