During the Restoration period English Dissenters were subject to systematic judicial persecution in which paid informers played a crucial role in arresting and bearing witness against preachers and their congregations. Their victims reacted boldly with a campaign of pamphlets, sermons and satires attacking these traditionally despised instruments of the law. After the Revolution of 1688, however, these same informers were used by the Societies for the Reformation of Manners, many of whose members were Dissenters, to prosecute in courts of law blasphemers, prostitutes, and other 'disorderly persons' who, it was feared, were bringing God's judgement down upon the heads of the English.
Perseguitati/persecutori. Dissenzienti, delatori e il movimento per la riforma del costume tra ‘600 e ‘700
CLEGG, Jeanne Frances
2006-01-01
Abstract
During the Restoration period English Dissenters were subject to systematic judicial persecution in which paid informers played a crucial role in arresting and bearing witness against preachers and their congregations. Their victims reacted boldly with a campaign of pamphlets, sermons and satires attacking these traditionally despised instruments of the law. After the Revolution of 1688, however, these same informers were used by the Societies for the Reformation of Manners, many of whose members were Dissenters, to prosecute in courts of law blasphemers, prostitutes, and other 'disorderly persons' who, it was feared, were bringing God's judgement down upon the heads of the English.
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