English Dissenters

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A broadsheet catalogue of dissenters in 1647

English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.[1] Dissenters opposed state interference in religious matters, and founded their own churches, educational establishments,[2] and communities; some emigrated to the New World. They originally agitated for a wide-reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell.

King James VI of Scotland, I of England & Ireland had said "no bishop, no king";[3] Cromwell capitalised on that phrase, abolishing both upon founding the Commonwealth of England. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the episcopacy was reinstalled and the rights of the Dissenters were limited: the Act of Uniformity 1662 required Anglican ordination for all clergy, and many instead withdrew from the state church. These ministers and their followers came to be known as Nonconformists, though originally this term referred to refusal to use certain vestments and ceremonies of the Church of England, rather than separation from it.

List of Dissenting groups (17th century)[edit]

In existence during the English Interregnum (1649–60):


An illustration of Adamites being rounded up by men with guns





Main article: British Anabaptism

Anabaptist (literally, "baptised again") was a term given to those Reformation Christians who rejected the notion of infant baptism in favour of Believer's baptism.[8]

It is generally assumed that during the Interregnum, the Baptists and other dissenting groups absorbed the British Anabaptists. Despite this, evidence suggests that the early relations between Baptists and Anabaptists were quite strained. In 1624, the then five existing Baptist churches of London issued an anathema against the Anabaptists.[9] Even today there is still very little dialogue between Anabaptist organisations (such as the Mennonite World Conference) and the Baptist bodies.


Main article: Henry Barrowe

Henry Barrowe maintained the right and duty of the Church to carry out necessary reforms without awaiting the permission of the civil power; and advocated congregational independence. He regarded the whole established church order as polluted by the relics of Roman Catholicism, and insisted on separation as essential to pure worship and discipline.






Main article: Brownist



Main article: Diggers




Several Protestant sects of the 16th and 17th centuries were called Enthusiastic. During the years that immediately followed the Glorious Revolution, "enthusiasm" was a British pejorative term for advocacy of any political or religious cause in public. Such "enthusiasm" was seen in the time around 1700 as the cause of the previous century's civil war and its attendant atrocities, and thus it was an absolute social sin to remind others of the war by engaging in enthusiasm. During the 18th century, popular Methodists such as John Wesley or George Whitefield were accused of blind enthusiasm (i.e., fanaticism), a charge against which they defended themselves by distinguishing fanaticism from "religion of the heart."[15]


The Familia Caritatis ("Family of Love", or the "Familists"), were a religious sect that began in continental Europe in the 16th century. Members of this religious group were devout followers of a Dutch mystic named Hendrik Niclaes. The Familists believed that Niclaes was the only person who truly knew how to achieve a state of perfection, and his texts attracted followers in Germany, France, and England.[16]


The group were considered heretics in 16th century England.[19] Among their beliefs were that there existed a time before Adam and Eve, Heaven and Hell were both present on Earth, and that all things were ruled by nature and not directed by God.[17]


Fifth Monarchists[edit]

Main article: Fifth Monarchists



Main article: Grindletonians



Main article: Levellers

The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil War that emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. Levellers tended to hold fast to a notion of "natural rights" that had been violated by the king's side in the civil wars (1642–1651). At the Putney Debates in 1647, Colonel Thomas Rainsborough defended natural rights as coming from the law of God expressed in the Bible.


Main article: Muggletonianism


Muggletonians have avoided all forms of worship or preaching and, in the past, met only for discussion and socialising amongst members. The movement has been egalitarian, apolitical, and pacifist, and has resolutely avoided evangelism. Members attained a degree of public notoriety by cursing those who reviled their faith. This practice, which proved uncannily effective, ceased in the mid-19th century and one of the last to suffer was the novelist Sir Walter Scott.


Main article: Puritan



Main article: Philadelphians

The Philadelphians, or the Philadelphian Society, were a Protestant 17th-century religious group in England. They were organised around John Pordage (1607–1681), an Anglican priest from Bradfield, Berkshire, who had been ejected from his parish in 1655 because of differing views, but then reinstated in 1660 during the English Restoration. Pordage was attracted to the ideas of Jakob Böhme, a Lutheran theosophist and Christian mystic.


Main article: Quakers

The Quakers were a loosely knit group of teachers that grew out of the Seekers. George Fox's journal attributes the name "Quaker" to a judge in 1650 calling them Quakers "because I bid them tremble before the Lord".


Main article: Ranter



Sabbatarians were known in England from the time of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Access to the Bible in English allowed anyone who could read English to study scripture and question Church doctrines, including challenging the Christian day of worship (sabbath) being on Sunday rather than the Judaic and early Christian Saturday. Some Dutch Anabaptists embraced Sabbatarianism, and may have helped to introduce these practices into England. Socinians and Reformed Church members were also known to hold Sabbatarian beliefs. Sabbatarian practitioners were also to be found within the Church of England in one form or another. Even the Puritans were known to harbour Sabbatarian views. English Sabbatarianism is generally associated with John Traske (1585–1636), Theophilus Brabourne (1590–1662) and Dorothy Traske (c. 1585–1645), who also played a major role in keeping the early Traskite congregations growing in numbers.



Seekers considered all churches and denominations to be in error, and believed that only a new church established by Christ upon his return could possess his grace. Their anticipation of this event was found in their practises. For example, Seekers held meetings as opposed to religious services, and as such had no clergy or hierarchy. During these gatherings they would wait in silence and speak only when felt that God had inspired them to do so.[28]

Furthermore, to this, the Seekers denied the effectiveness of external forms of religion such as the sacraments, baptism and the Scriptures as a means of salvation.[29]


The followers of Socinianism were Unitarian or Nontrinitarian in theology and influenced by the Polish Brethren. The Socinians of 17th century England influenced the development of the English Presbyterians, the English Unitarians and the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland.

Rational Dissenters (18th century)[edit]


Dissenting groups continuing today[edit]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (13 March 1997). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. p. 490. 
  2. ^ Parker, Irene (1914). Dissenting academies in England: their rise and progress, and their place among the educational systems of the country (2009 2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-74864-3. 
  3. ^ "James I and VI (1566–1625)". BBC. Retrieved 29 May 2011. 
  5. ^ Dobrovský, Josef (1978). Dĕjiny českých pikartů a adamitů. 
  8. ^ "What is an Anabaptist". Retrieved 5 September 2014. 
  10. ^ "Boehme, Jakob". Columbia Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 26 July 2008. .
  12. ^ Campbell 2009, p. 129.
  14. ^ "Acts 4:32". Today's English Version. The group of believers was one in mind and heart. No one said that any of his belongings was his own, but they all shared with one another everything they had. 
  15. ^ Hume, David. "Essay X:Of Superstition and Enthusiasm". Essays Moral, Political, and Literary (1742–1754) (1st ed.). 
  20. ^ Bernard, Capp (1913). Fifth Monarchy Men: Study in Seventeenth Century English Millenarianism. ISBN 0-571-09791-X. 
  23. ^ Mencken, H. L. (1916). A Book of Burlesques. Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy 
  27. ^ Tommasi, Chiara Ombretta (2005). Orgy: Orgy in Medieval and Modern Europe. Encyclopedia of Religion 10. 
  28. ^ "Seekers". Exlibris.org. Retrieved 22 February 2009. 
  29. ^ Seeker. Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 February 2009. 
  30. ^ Philip, 36.


  • ExLibris, Early English dissenters

Further reading[edit]
