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Why did John Dryden join the Roman Catholic Church in 1685?
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John Dryden
John Dryden, oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1693; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
John Dryden converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1685, a decision that occurred after the newly acceded King James II appeared to be moving toward a policy of Catholic toleration.1
While some of his contemporaries accused him of opportunism due to his shifting religious and political allegiances, Dryden remained committed to his new faith even after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which resulted in the loss of his public offices. Following his conversion, he defended his adopted church against the Church of England and various sects in his allegorical beast fable, The Hind and the Panther (1687). This marked a significant departure from his earlier work, Religio Laici (1682), which had argued for the consolations of Anglicanism.12