is protestant and church of england the same
With the Restoration of Charles II, Parliament restored the Church of England to a form not far removed from the Elizabethan version. One difference was that the ideal of encompassing all the people of England in one religious organisation, taken for granted by the Tudors, had to be abandoned. The religious landscape of England assumed its present form, with the Anglican established church occupying the middle ground, and those Puritans and Protestants who dissented from the Anglican establishment, having to continue their existence outside the national church rather than trying to influence or trying to gain control of it. One result of the Restoration was the ousting of 2,000 parish ministers who had not been ordained by bishops in the Apostolic Succession or had been by presbyters (ministers in presbyter's orders). Continuing official suspicion and legal restrictions continued well into the 19th century. Roman Catholics, perhaps 5% of the English population (down from 20% in 1600) were grudgingly tolerated, having had little or no official representation after the Pope's excommunication of Queen Elizabeth in 1570, though the Stuarts were sympathetic to them. In the 18th century they dwindled to 1% of the population mostly among eccentric gentry and their tenants and extended families.
Church of England