Uniformity
ACT OF, in English Church history, history, the Act 13 & 14 Car.
II., c. 4, designed to regulate the terms of membership in the Church of England and in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. Both the Anglican and the Puritan parties had desired their faith to be that of the Church of England, and Charles II., who, as a step to obtaining his father's throne, wished to stand well with both parties, promised at Breda to use his influence to bring about a certain measure of comprehension. But the Parliament was in no mood to vote for such a scheme, and the Act of Uniformity required the clergy to sign the Thirty-nine Articles and to use the Book of Common Prayer. The enforcement of these regulations led to the secession from the Church of England of upward of 2,000 clergymen, and laid the foundation of modern dissent. The Act of Uniformity Amendment Act, passed July 18, 1872, somewhat modified that Charles, as the University Test Act, passed June, 1871, had done the year before.