The two ancient universities in England, Oxford and Cambridge, had historically only permitted members of the established Church. (The two universities had slightly different rules on this: at Oxford, students had to subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles on matriculation, whereas at Cambridge this was a requirement for graduation.) Most of the teachers at the universities were required first to be ordained Anglican priests, and fellowships were only open to members of the Church of England. In 1834, however, a debate was raised in Parliament proposing that nonconformist Protestants might be allowed to study at these two institutions. In the wake of the Catholic Emancipation of 1829, Church and State were no longer in absolute parallel, a…
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Oxford and Cambridge in debate about admitting Dissenters". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=4731, accessed 23 November 2024.]