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catalogue of dissenters in 1647
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the
in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Dissenters , and founded their own churches, , some emigrated to the . They originally agitated for a wide-reaching
of the , and triumphed briefly under .
had said "no bishop, no king"; Cromwell capitalised on that phrase, abolishing both upon founding the . After the
in 1660, the
was reinstalled and the rights of the Dissenters were limited: the
required Anglican
for all clergy, and many instead withdrew from the . These ministers and their followers came to be known as , though originally this term referred to refusal to use certain vestments and ceremonies of the Church of England, rather than separation from it.
In the eighteenth century, one group of Dissenters became known as "Rational Dissenters". In many respects they were closer to the Anglicanism of their day than other D however, they believed that state religions impinged on the freedom of conscience. They were fiercely opposed to the hierarchical structure of the Established Church and the financial ties between it and the government. Like moderate Anglicans, they desired an educated ministry and an orderly church, but they based their opinions on reason and the Bible rather than on appeals to tradition and authority. They rejected doctrines such as the
and , arguing that they were irrational. Rational Dissenters believed that Christianity and faith could be dissected and evaluated using the newly emerging discipline of science, and that a stronger belief in God would be the result.
In existence during the
(1649–60):
An illustration of
being rounded up by men with guns
took their name and practises from a North African
that first existed between the 2nd and 4th centuries. The Adamites that emerged in the 17th century held similar beliefs, believing that they existed in a state of grace, claiming to have regained the innocence that Adam and Eve possessed prior to .
The Adamites were said to have associated with each other in the , professing that a person could reattain the innocence and purity held by Adam through being unburdened by clothing.
Very little is known about these English Adamites, as most information on them comes from their critics, who believed them to be radicals.
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Literally, "baptised again", was a term given to those Reformation Christians who rejected the notion of infant baptism in favour of .
It is generally assumed that during the , 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
against the Anabaptists. Even today there is still very little dialogue between Anabaptist organisations (such as the ) and the Baptist bodies.
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Henry Barrowe maintained the right and duty of the Church to carry out necessary reforms without awaiting the permissio and advocated congregational independency. 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.
religious movement began on continental Europe and took its ideas from the writings of
(Behmen being one of the adaptations of his name used in England), a German mystic and theosopher who claimed . In the 1640s, his works appeared in England and English Behmenists developed. Eventually, some of these merged with the
of the time.
B?hme's writings primarily concerned the nature of ,
and . Consistent with
theology, B?hme believed that humanity had fallen from a state of divine grace into a state of sin and suffering, that the forces of evil included fallen angels who had rebelled against God, and subsequently that God's goal was to restore the world to a state of grace.
However, in some ways, Behmenist belief deviated significantly from traditional Lutheran belief. For example, B?hme rejected the concepts of
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By 1580, Robert Browne had become a leader in the movement for a congregational form of organisation for the
and attempted to set up a separate
in , Norfolk, England. He was arrested but released on the advice of , his kinsman. Browne and his companions moved to
in 1581. He returned to England in 1585 and to the Church of England, being employed as a schoolmaster and parish priest.
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The Diggers were an English group of
, begun by
as True Levellers in 1649, who became known as Diggers due to their activities.
Their original name came from their belief in economic equality based upon a specific passage in the . The Diggers tried (by "levelling" ) to reform the existing
with an agrarian lifestyle based on their ideas for the creation of small
rural communities. They were one of a number of
dissenting groups that emerged around this time.
Several Protestant sects of the 16th and 17th centuries were called enthusiastic. During the years that immediately followed the , "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
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
were accused of blind enthusiasm (i.e. fanaticism), a charge against which they defended themselves by distinguishing fanaticism from "religion of the heart."
The , 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
named . 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.
The Familists were extremely secretive and wary of outsiders. For example, they wished death upon those outside of the Family of Love, and
after the death of a spouse could only take place between men and women of the same Familist congregation. Additionally, they would not discuss their ideas and opinions with outsiders and sought to remain undetected by ordinary members of society: they tended to be members of an established church so as not to attract suspicion and showed respect for authority.
The group were considered heretics in 16th century England. Among their beliefs were that there existed a time before , Heaven and Hell were both present on Earth, and that all things were ruled by
and not directed by God.
The Familists continued to exist until the middle of the 17th century, when they were absorbed into the Quaker movement.
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The Fifth Monarchists or Fifth Monarchy Men were active from 1649 to 1661 during the , following the
of the 17th century. They took their name from a prophecy in the
that four ancient monarchies (Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian and Roman) would precede Christ's return. They also referred to the year 1666 and its relationship to the biblical
indicating the end of earthly rule by carnal human beings. They were one of a number of
dissenting groups that emerged around this time.
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In a sermon preached at
on 11 February 1627, and published under the title of The White Wolfe, 1627, Stephen Denison, minister of , charges the 'Gringltonian (sic) ' with holding nine points of an
tendency. These nine points are repeated from Denison by
in his Heresiography (2nd ed. 1645, p. 89), and glanced at by , Πανσεβεια (2nd ed. 1655, p. 365). In 1635 , curate at , was before a church court charged with being a Grindletonian, and simultaneously in
thought that
was one. The last known Grindletonian died in the 1680s.
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The Levellers were a political movement during the
that emphasised , ,
and . Levellers tended to hold fast to a notion of "natural rights" that had been violated by the king's side in the civil wars (). At the Putney Debates in 1647, Colonel
defended natural rights as coming from the law of God expressed in the Bible.
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The Muggletonians, named after , was a small
Christian movement which began in 1651 when two London tailors announced they were the last prophets foretold in the biblical . The group grew out of the
and in opposition to the . Muggletonian beliefs include a hostility to philosophical reason, a scriptural understanding of how the universe works and a belief that God appeared directly on this earth as Christ Jesus. A consequential belief is that God takes no notice of everyday events on earth and will not generally intervene until it is meet to bring the world to an end.
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, pacifist and has resolutely avoided . 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 .
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The Puritans were a significant grouping of English
and . Puritanism in this sense was founded by some
from the clergy shortly after the accession of
in 1558, as an activist movement within the . The designation "Puritan" is often incorrectly used, notably based on the assumption that
are antonyms: historically, the word was used to characterise the Protestant group as extremists similar to the
of France, and according to
in his Church History dated back to 1564. Archbishop
of that time used it and "precisian" with the sense of . T. D. Bozeman therefore uses instead the term precisianist in regard to the historical groups of England and .
Main article:
The Philadelphians, or the Philadelphian Society, were a
17th century religious group in England. They were organised around
from , Berkshire, who had been ejected from his parish in 1655 because of differing views, but then reinstated in 1660 during the . Pordage was attracted to the ideas of , a
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The Quakers were a loosely knit group of teachers that grew out of the Seekers. 's journal attributes the name "Quaker" to judge in 1650 calling them Quakers "because I bid them tremble before the Lord".
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The Ranters were a
in the time of the
() who were regarded as
of that period. Their central idea was , that God is essential this led them to deny the authority of the Church, of , of the current ministry and of services, instead calling on men to hearken to Jesus within them. Many Ranters seem to have rejected a belief in
and in a personal God, and in many ways they resemble the
in the 14th century. The Ranters revived the Brethren of the Free Spirit's beliefs of
and followed the Brethren's ideals which "stressed the desire to surpass the human condition and become godlike." Further drawing from the Brethren of the Free Spirit, the Ranter embraced
and believed that Christians are freed by grace from the necessity of obeying . Because they believed that God was present in all living creatures, the Ranters' adherence to antinomianism allowed them to reject the very notion of obedience, thus making them a great threat to the stability of the government.
Sabbatarians were known in England from the time of
(). 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 (), Theophilus Brabourne () and Dorothy Traske (c. ), who also played a major role in keeping the early Traskite congregations growing in numbers.
were not a distinct religion or sect, but instead formed a religious society. Like other Protestant dissenting groups at the time, they believed the
to be corrupt, which subsequently applied to the Church of England as well through its common heritage.
Seekers considered all churches and denominations to be in error, and believed that only a new church established by Christ upon
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.
Furthermore to this, the Seekers denied the effectiveness of external forms of religion such as the ,
as a means of .
The followers of
were Unitarian or Nontrinitarian in theology and influenced by the . The Socinians of 17th century England influenced the development of the English Presbyterians, the
(majority in Scotland but classified as dissenters in England)
Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (13 March 1997). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.). USA: . p. 490.
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. Pass the Word Services. For he that will say, I have a Will, and would willingly do Good, but the earthly Flesh which I carry about me, keepeth me back, so that I yet I shall be saved by Grace, for the Merits of Christ. I comfort myself with his Merit and S who will receive me of mere Grace, without any Merits of my own, and forgive me my Sins. Such a one, I say, is like a Man that knoweth what Food is good for his Health, yet will not eat of it, but eateth Poison instead thereof, from whence Sickness and Death, will certainly follow
. That we may work in righteousness, and lay the Foundation of making the Earth a Common Treasury for All, both Rich and Poor, That every one that is born in the Land, may be fed by the Earth his Mother that brought him forth, according to the Reason that rules in the Creation. Not Inclosing any part into any particular hand, but all as one man, working together, and feeding together as Sons of one Father, members of one F not one Lording over another, but all looking upon each other, as equals in the C
"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.
Hume, David. "Essay X:Of Superstition and Enthusiasm".
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Marsh, Christopher W. (2005). The Family of Love in English Society, . . p. 1.  .
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(1972). The World Turned Upside Down. pp. 81–4.
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(1916). A Book of Burlesques. Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy
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Bozeman, Theodore Dwight (2004). The Precisianist Strain: Disciplinary Religion and Antinomian Backlash in Puritanism to 1638.
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Fitzpatrick, Martin. "Heretical Religion and Radical Political Ideas in Late Eighteenth-Century England." The Transformation of Political Culture: England and Germany in the Late Eighteenth Century. Ed. Eckhart Hellmuth. Oxford: Oxford University P London: German Historical Institute, 1990. .
Philip, Mark. "Rational Religion and Political Radicalism." Enlightenment and Dissent 4 (1985): 35–46.
Dobrowsky, Josef, (1788). "Geschichte der B?mischen Pikarden und Adamiten", Abhandlungen der k?niglich b?hmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften.
Driver, Christopher. A Future for the Free Churches? London: S.C.M. Press, 1962.
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