English Dissenters
Dissidents (dissenters) was the name given to the different Protestant religious groups that disagreed with the "established church" in England and the Anglo-Saxon countries (Established Church, the Church of England "established by law" -established by law-, an expression that also led to the use of the term establishment - "the established"-) during the Modern Age (16th, 17th and 18th centuries). Those who, within Anglicanism, expressed a lesser degree of opposition were known as "nonconformists" (nonconformists). Catholics, especially discriminated against, are not applied to the denominations "nonconformist" or "dissidents", but the term "recusants" (or "popish recusants" -Popish recusants-). However, all these denominations were used with little uniformity, extending to other situations, so that they became practically interchangeable with each other, and were even used for some non-Christians (particularly for Jews).
The English Dissenters were “reformers” (supporters of the Protestant Reformation) who opposed state interference in the Church, even in non-religious matters, and founded their own communities, which sought to be autonomous from episcopal and political power. This differentiation is also expressed by the name “Presbyterians” as opposed to “Episcopalians”. Some groups opted for exile (the Mayflower Puritans, considered the "Pilgrim Fathers" of the United States).
The successive reforms of the English Church carried out by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I (Anglican Reformation) disappointed the supporters of a “purer reform”, considering them insufficient or even negative. The intervening reigns involved violent alternations: the most satisfying for the “dissidents” were the brief reign of Edward VI, and the even more short-lived reign of Joan Gray ("the nine-day queen", who was executed at relate it to Thomas Wyatt's Protestant rebellion); while that of María Tudor meant a return to Roman Catholicism and a very strong repression. The so-called Marian exiles (because they took place during the reign of Mary) renewed contacts between British Protestants and those from different parts of the European continent.
The “Elizabethan religious settlement” meant the settlement of the Established church. The determination of what were considered officially acceptable versus unacceptable opinions and rituals determined the final classification of the groups as “dissidents”. ”; not without some doubts and debates (the Marprelate controversy -Martin Marprelate was a pseudonym under which views opposed to the Anglicans were presented-, the vestarian controversy or vestarian controversy).
The English Revolution of the 17th century provided an opportunity for the multiplication of dissident groups. The expression of the opposition of the factions was largely religious, as well as political, summed up in the phrase of James I of England: "if there are no bishops, there is no king". There was also a strong social component in the religious affiliation: dissidents were particularly numerous among the urban middle classes (merchants, artisans). The impossibility of reconciling positions between cavaliers and roundheads led to armed confrontations (Bishops' War, Wars of the Three Kingdoms, English Civil War). The final defeat of the Commonwealth meant the new imposition of the Established Church, with the Act of Uniformity (Act of Uniformity, 1662).
Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Act of Toleration 1689 was introduced as "a law to exempt Her Majesty's Protestant subjects who dissented from the Church of England's penalties of certain laws" (An Act for Exempting their Majestyes Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes). It did not apply to either Catholics or Quakers. In a similar vein, the Nonconformist Relief Act of 1779 allowed freedom of worship and education for dissidents who declared they were Christians and Protestants and swore allegiance (Oath of Allegiance).
The presence of dissidents among the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century was significant.
English splinter groups
Most dissident groups present themselves as “reformers” or “evangelicals”. For others, the differentiation between the Episcopalianism of the Established Church and the Presbyterianism of the dissident groups is important; but there are even other positions, such as the Congregationalist. Not a few groups are called Puritans, although the definitions of Puritanism are very varied.
At the end of the XVII century the Quakers (George Fox) reached great diffusion. As early as the 18th century, John Wesley's attempt to reform the Church of England gave rise to the Methodist movement. With the name of Rational Dissenters (rational dissidents) is known a movement that, since the century XVIII, tries to purify Christianity of dogmas that it considers irrational and opposes the hierarchical structure of the Anglican Church, although they are considered closer to it than other "dissident" groups;.
Throughout the 18th century the name dissenters was increasingly applied to groups whose relationship with theological thought is increasingly weak, and they focus on secular issues, identifying with the most radical groups that propose political and social reforms (Wilkes and Liberty of 1763-1769, Bowood Circle of 1769-1779; on three occasions between 1787 and 1790 the abolition of the Test and Corporation Acts -Corporation Act of 1661 and Corporation Act of 1661 and Test Act of 1673, which restricted the activities of splinter groups).
Dissident voices supported both the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789, against the government and parliament. strong harassment (Birmingham riots of 1791). The slogans against them were explicit: Destruction to the Presbyterians... Church and King for ever ("destruction of the Presbyterians... Church and King forever").
- Adamites
- Anabaptists
- Baptists
- Moravian
- Socinians
- Fifth Monarchists ("quintomonarchists")
- Levellers (“levelrs”)
- Diggers (“cavators”) or “true” levellers”
- Ranters
- Seekers
- Familists
- Brownists
- Grindletonians or Grindletonists
- Philadelphia
- Sabbatarian
- Behmenistas
- Enthusiasts
- Muggletonians
- Unitarian
English dissidents
In 1540 Robert Barnes, William Jerome and Thomas Garret (or Gerrard) were burned. They were "reformers" protégés of Thomas Cromwell, who was quietly executed in the Tower of London.
His religious stance went far beyond what Henry VIII was willing to accept, since the king's claims were limited to becoming head of the Church in England (which implied the separation of the Pope from Rome -which happened to being the object of all kinds of execrations-), as well as reforming the clergy (especially dissolving religious orders) and eliminating devotional practices that he considered superstitious; but his theological differences with Catholicism were actually minimal.
The initial positions of the Archbishop of Canterbury himself, Thomas Cranmer, were perhaps not very different from those of the reformers, although he prudently tried not to disagree with the king; instead, he was burned during the period of return to Catholicism under Queen Mary. Nearly three hundred were burned in that reign (Marian Persecutions "Marian persecutions"). See also Oxford martyrs and Coventry martyrs.
- Joan Bocher (burnt in 1550, under the reign of Edward VI; curiously, John Rogers, the royal chaplain who refused to consider the clemency requested by John Foxe, considering that the bonfire was "too soft for a crime as terrible as heresy," was subsequently the first heretic burnt under the reign of Mary in 1555).
- Patrick Pakingham (burned in 1555, under the reign of Mary).
- Francis Kett (burned by his heterodox Christological opinions in 1589, under the reign of Isabel I)
- Bartholomew Legate (in 1612, the last burned in London)
- Edward Wightman (idem, the last burned in England)
- Abiezer Coppe
- Gerrard Winstanley
- Roger Brereley
- Gerrard Winstanley
- John Pym
- Oliver Cromwell
- John Lilburne
- Hugh Peters
- John BunyanThe progress of the pilgrim1678)
- Lodowicke Muggleton
- Praise-God Barebone
- Thomas Venner
- Henry Barrowe
- John Biddle
- Jakob Böhme
- John Carew (regid), one of Carlos I's regicides.
- Robert Browne
- Henry Nicholis
- Thomas Harrison
- John Rogers
- Robert Barclay
- Vavasor Powell
- Jane Leade
- George Fox
- William Penn
- Daniel Defoe
- Joseph Johnson
- Caleb Rotherham
- Matthew Henry
- John Wesley
- Richard Price
- Theophilus Lindsey
- John Wilkinson (entrepreneur)
- Joseph Priestley
It is under discussion whether the complex religious position of John Milton (Paradise Lost, 1667) was compatible with that of the established Church or should be classified, to some degree, as “dissident” or “ maverick.” Those of some philosophers, scientists and political theorists of the second half of the XVII century, such as Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Thomas Hobbes or John Locke, were not closer to that of any dissident group than to that of the official church; because in reality they were equally distant from any of the Christian churches (religious indifferentism), anticipating the problematic religious sensibility of the Enlightenment (crisis of European conscience), which has even been accused of atheism, but which can more properly be described as deist or pantheist.