There are many legacies which have been passed down from Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan revolutionaries. Some have continued to influence the churches in England to this day. One of the most significant and long lasting arose out of the Conventicles Act (1664) which banned Nonconformist or Puritan worship from Henry's Church of England.
There was to be one national church; other churches were not recognised after 1660.
Thus, non-Anglicans were forced to conform to the Church of England or give up public office. About 1,000 ministers (one in six) gave up their livings, and about 2,000 clergy and teachers were ejected. Charles (II)'s attempts to circumvent this legislation were blocked. Intended to restore unity, these acts on the contrary created a permanent religious schism in England, the long-term legacy of the Civil War. [Robert Tombs, The English and Their History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), p. 253.]State churches were and will ever be an oxymoron. They do not survive--at least with any evidence of sustained spiritual life. It is not drawing too long a bow to observe that the fruits of the Great Ejection are still being borne in the Church of England.
The modern Anglican church in the UK remains largely bereft of spiritual life: the one sign of spiritual life rests with the Evangelical wing.
