Savoy conference

views updated May 14 2018

Savoy conference, 1661. This was an attempt to reach a compromise at the Restoration between the presbyterians and the Anglicans. Twelve clerics from each side met at the Savoy hospital in April 1661 under the chairmanship of Sheldon, bishop of London and a future archbishop of Canterbury. The negotiations broke down and in July the delegates reported that ‘they could not come to any harmony’. The revised Prayer Book did little to ease puritan consciences, the bishops were reinstated in the House of Lords, and a thousand presbyterian ministers resigned or were ejected from their livings. The dream of a comprehensive church had faded.

J. A. Cannon