English Provincial Engagement in Religious Debates: The Salisbury Quarrel of 1705–15

Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury, was embroiled in a series of disputes in his diocese from 1705 until his death in 1715. These stemmed from Burnet’s support for the toleration of religious dissent as well as his stance on the legitimacy of the Glorious Revolution and resistance to tyrants. In this essay, William Gibson shows that these debates provide insight into the links between provincial and national controversies. The actions of the mob, the electorate, the clergy, and tract writers of all persuasions in London and Salisbury reveal a complex interplay of national and local identities within a microcosm of the issues that the English confronted in the quarter century after 1688.