Committee for Plundered Ministers

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In August 1643, after the start of the English Civil War, the Puritan party party appointed a committee for the purpose of replacing and effectively silencing those clergy who were loyal to the King Charles I. These displaced clergy were described as 'scandalous', which meant that their political and theological attitudes were Catholic. The committee would hear evidence, often from local parishioners, of the errors in doctrine of the parish priest. If the allegations were proved, the rector was replaced and his property forcibly sequestered, which he could only recover by buying it back. Local parishioners sometimes used the committee's activities as an opportunity to get rid of any clergy they did not like.

The Committee also acted as trustees, allocating money collected from rent of rectory lands to support priests in their roles throughout Britain.

[edit] Sources

• Senate House Library, University of London http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=1216 Accessed 1 April 2008.