Jeremy Collier

Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) was an English clergyman and controversialist. Educated at Cambridge, he refused to swear allegiance to William and Mary after 1688 and became one of the nonjurors, the clergy who stayed loyal to James II. He was imprisoned more than once and was outlawed after he publicly absolved two conspirators on the scaffold in 1696. His Short View of the Immorality, and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698) provoked replies from Congreve and Vanbrugh and helped turn the theater away from the license of Restoration comedy. He later wrote an Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain and was consecrated a nonjuring bishop.