Memory Aids: Lock In the Key Facts
Part of Religious Settlement — GCSE History
This memory aid covers Memory Aids: Lock In the Key Facts within Religious Settlement for GCSE History. Revise Religious Settlement in Restoration England 1660-1685 for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 4 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 13 of 15 in this topic. Use it for quick recall, then test yourself straight afterwards so the memory aid becomes usable in an answer.
Topic position
Section 13 of 15
Practice
8 questions
Recall
4 flashcards
🧠 Memory Aids: Lock In the Key Facts
The Clarendon Code — "CACU" (the four Acts in order):
- C — Corporation Act (1661) — Councillors must take Anglican communion
- A — Act of Uniformity (1662) — All clergy use Book of Common Prayer
- C — Conventicle Act (1664) — Congregations of 5+ outside Church banned
- U — (Five Mile Act) Uprooted ministers kept 5 miles from towns (1665)
"Black Bartholomew's Day" — 24 August 1662: The date when approximately 2,000 ministers were ejected under the Act of Uniformity. It was called "Black Bartholomew's Day" because it fell on St Bartholomew's Day — the same date as the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Protestants in France (1572). The connection was deliberate and bitter: Protestants were ejecting other Protestants, mirroring Catholic persecution. Remember: 2,000 ejected, 1662, Black Bartholomew's Day.
Charles's two failed toleration attempts — "1662 and 1672": Both times Charles tried to use royal prerogative to suspend the penal laws; both times Parliament said no. The second attempt (1672 Declaration of Indulgence) was more serious — Parliament made withdrawing it a condition of funding the Dutch War. After 1673, Charles gave up trying to impose toleration. Remember: two attempts, both failed, Parliament held the financial lever.
The Test Act 1673 — the moment everything changed: This is the single most important date in the religious history of the reign, because it publicly exposed James as Catholic. Once James resigned as Lord High Admiral rather than take the Test, the succession crisis became unavoidable. The Exclusion Crisis (1679-81) flows directly from the Test Act. Learn this chain: Test Act (1673) → James exposed as Catholic → Exclusion Crisis (1679-81) → Popish Plot hysteria (1678-81).