Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England, 1558-1689. (Shorter Notices).

by John Coffey (Harlow: Longman (Pearson Education) 2000; pp. 244. 55 [pounds sterling]).

After a period of eclipse, the history of toleration is once more in fashion, thanks partly to the stimulus provided by the tercentenary of the 1689 Toleration Act. John Coffey aims here to replace W. K. Jordan's multi-volume and `Whig' account of the development of religious toleration in England, published during the 1930s, with a `survey' that is some `ten times shorter' and written from a `post-revisionist' perspective. Whereas Jordan stopped in 1660, Coffey takes the story up to 1689, but, like his predecessor, is concerned essentially with religious toleration. He agrees …