Zoom
Trash
English Dissenters 3/3. English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.[1] They originally agitated for a wide-reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell. King James I of England, VI of Scotland had said "no bishop, no king";[2] 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.
Rational Dissenters[edit] List of Dissenting groups[edit] Historical Dissenting groups[edit] Adamites[edit] Ranters. The Ranters were a sect in the time of the English Commonwealth (1649–1660) who were regarded as heretical by the established Church of that period. Their central idea was pantheistic, that God is essentially in every creature; this led them to deny the authority of the Church, of scripture, 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 immortality and in a personal God, and in many ways they resemble the Brethren of the Free Spirit in the 14th century.[1] The Ranters revived the Brethren of the Free Spirit's beliefs of amoralism and followed the Brethren's ideals which “stressed the desire to surpass the human condition and become godlike.”[2] Further drawing from the Brethren of the Free Spirit, the Ranter embraced antinomianism and believed that Christians are freed by grace from the necessity of obeying Mosaic Law.
More recently, the historian J. C. See also[edit] References[edit] English Dissenters 2/3. Sabbatarians. English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.[1] They originally agitated for a wide-reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell. King James I of England, VI of Scotland had said "no bishop, no king";[2] 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.
Rational Dissenters[edit] List of Dissenting groups[edit] Historical Dissenting groups[edit] Adamites[edit] British Anabaptism. During the late Tudor period (1530–1603) many English dissenting sects were lumped together under the term Anabaptism (even William Tyndale, the Bible translator, was charged with Anabaptist heresy), so it is hard to know about the groups of Anabaptists present in the British realms.[1] History[edit] Dutch and Flemish Anabaptists founded congregations in England as early as 1534, but for the next ten years they were heavily persecuted; large numbers of foreign Anabaptists were executed or burned at the stake.
After 1550 popular Anabaptist literature became available in English and eventually preachers and congregations appeared. The doctrine was disseminated among businessmen, aborers, women, and artisans. In 1590 Anabaptists were ordered to leave England or join the Anglican Church (or the Strangers Church). A family named Legatt or Legate was active in London about 1590-1612. It is generally assumed that the Baptist and other dissenting groups absorbed the British Anabaptists. Barrowists. Henry Barrowe (or Barrow) (c. 1550 – 6 April 1593) was an English Separatist Puritan, executed for his views. Life[edit] Greenwood was imprisoned in The Clink, and Barrowe came from the country to visit him.
On 19 November 1586 he was detained by the gaoler and brought before Archbishop John Whitgift.[3] He insisted on the illegality of this arrest, refused either to take the ex officio oath or to give bail for future appearance, and was committed to the Gatehouse Prison.[1] After nearly six months detention and several irregular examinations before the high commissioners, he and Greenwood were formally indicted (May 1587) for recusancy under an act originally directed against Roman Catholics. They were ordered to find heavy bail for conformity, and to remain in the Fleet Prison until it was forthcoming. He was subjected to several more examinations, once before the Privy Council at Whitehall on 18 March 1588, as a result of petition to the Queen.
Views[edit] References[edit] Attribution H. Fifth Monarchists. Title page of A Brief description of the Fifth Monarchy or Kingdome (1653) by William Aspinwall. Overview[edit] English Commonwealth and Protectorate[edit] A number of Fifth Monarchists took a leading part in the events of the time. Thomas Harrison and John Carew were Commissioners (judges) at the trial of Charles I and signed the death warrant. Following Charles' death, Oliver Cromwell set up the Commonwealth as a more pure form of government to replace the existing monarchy.
Cromwell had not intended it, but not too long after establishing the Commonwealth, he dismissed the Parliament, and in effect, became a military dictator. The Republican governments of England were introduced after the English Civil War during the Interregnum (1649–60). Nominated Assembly and Protectorate[edit] Restoration[edit] Ian Bone speaking at the installation of the Thomas Rainsborough memorial plaque (12 May 2013), championing Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchy Men. See also[edit] References[edit] Grindletonians. Coordinates: The Grindletonians were a Puritan sect that arose in the small community of Grindleton in Lancashire, England, around 1610. The sect remained active in the north of England until the 1660s. The most notable leader was Roger Brearley (or Brereley). Grindletonian beliefs were Antinomian. History[edit] Grindleton in May 2007 Brearley was brought before the York High Commission in October 1616 to answer charges that he was a radical nonconformist, that he relied on the motion of the spirit and that he thought that all doubt about their salvation would be removed from believers.
Beliefs[edit] Some of Brearley's ideas would have been drawn from the Theologia Germanica. Influences[edit] The community of Grindleton is below Pendle Hill, where George Fox (1624–1691), the founder of Quakerism, received the visions that convinced him to launch this sect. References[edit] Citations Sources. Behmenism. Definition[edit] Modern use[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ An early English language example is provided in Anderdon, John.
"One blow at Babel, in those of the People called Behmenites, Whose foundation is...upon their own cardinal conception, begotten in their imaginations upon Jacob Behmen's writings. " Muggletonianism. The Muggletonians, named after Lodowicke Muggleton, were a small Protestant Christian movement which began in 1651 when two London tailors announced they were the last prophets foretold in the biblical Book of Revelation. The group grew out of the Ranters and in opposition to the Quakers. Muggletonian beliefs include a hostility to philosophical reason, a scriptural understanding of how the universe works and a belief that God appeared directly on 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 meant to bring the world to an end. Muggletonians avoided all forms of worship or preaching, and met only for discussion and socializing.
The movement was egalitarian, apolitical and pacifist, and resolutely avoided evangelism. Members attained a degree of public notoriety by cursing those who reviled their faith. This practice ceased in the mid-nineteenth century. Origins[edit] Beliefs[edit] Seekers. The Seekers, or Legatine-Arians as they were sometimes known, were a Protestant dissenting group that emerged around the 1620s, probably inspired by the preaching of three brothers – Walter, Thomas, and Bartholomew Legate. Arguably, they are best thought of as forerunners of the Quakers, with whom many of them subsequently merged.
Seekers considered all organised churches of their day to be corrupt, and preferred to wait for God's revelation. Origins[edit] Beliefs and practices[edit] The anti-clericalism of Seekers' pioneers the Legatts was far from unique. Seekers after the Legatts were Puritan, although not Calvinist. The Seekers were not an organised religious group in any way that would be recognised today (i.e. not like a religious Cult or Denomination). In common with other Dissenters, the Seekers believed that the Roman Church corrupted itself and, through its common heritage, the Church of England as well. Clearly, Seekers anticipated aspects of Quakerism.
See also[edit] English Dissenters 1/3. Brownist. Origins[edit] There had been early advocates of a congregational form of organization for the Church of England, in the time of Henry VIII. When, on the re-establishment of the Anglican Church, after the Catholic Mary's reign, it became clear that the English government had other plans, they looked towards setting up a separate church. Browne's leadership[edit] Browne became a Lecturer at St Mary's Church, Islington, where his dissident preaching against the doctrines and disciplines of the Church of England began to attract attention.[1] During 1578, Browne returned to Cambridge University and came under the influence of Richard Greenham, puritan rector of Dry Drayton.
He encouraged Browne to complete his ordination and serve at a parish church. Browne was offered a lecturer position at St Bene't's Church, Cambridge possibly through Greenham, but his tenure there was short. He is buried in St Giles's churchyard, Northampton.[2] Shakespeare[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Puritan. The Puritans were a group of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, including, but not limited to, English Calvinists. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England. In modern times, the word 'puritan' is often used to mean 'against pleasure'.[1] Historically, the word was used pejoratively to characterise the Protestant group as extremists, similar to the Cathars of France and, according to Thomas Fuller in his Church History, dated back to 1564.
Archbishop Matthew Parker of that time used it and "precisian" with the sense of the modern "stickler".[2] Puritans were blocked from changing the established church from within, and severely restricted in England by laws controlling the practice of religion. Terminology[edit] The Godly[edit] Puritans and Separatists[edit] Puritans and killjoys[edit] Summary history[edit] Beliefs[edit] Socinianism. Restorationism. Efforts to restore an earlier, purer form of Christianity are often a response to denominationalism.
As Rubel Shelly put it, "[t]he motive behind all restoration movements is to tear down the walls of separation by a return to the practice of the original, essential and universal features of the Christian religion. "[7]:29 Different groups have tried to implement the restorationist vision in different ways; for instance, some have focused on the structure and practice of the church, others on the ethical life of the church, and others on the direct experience of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.[1]:635–638 The relative importance given to the restoration ideal, and the extent to which the full restoration of the early church is believed to have been achieved, also varies between groups. Uses of the term[edit] The terms restorationism, restorationist and restoration are used in several senses within Christianity. Historical models[edit] Middle Ages[edit] First Great Awakening[edit]
Diggers. The Diggers were a group of Protestant English agrarian socialists,[2] begun by Gerrard Winstanley as True Levellers in 1649, who became known as Diggers, because of their attempts to farm on common land. Their original name came from their belief in economic equality based upon a specific passage in the Book of Acts.[3][4] The Diggers tried (by "leveling" real property) to reform the existing social order with an agrarian lifestyle based on their ideas for the creation of small egalitarian rural communities.
They were one of a number of nonconformist dissenting groups that emerged around this time. Historical background[edit] Government through the King's Privy Council was replaced with a new body called the Council of State, which due to fundamental disagreements within a weakened Parliament was dominated by the Army. Many people were active in politics, suggesting alternative forms of government to replace the old order. Theory[edit] Practice[edit] St. Little Heath near Cobham[edit] Philadelphians. In later years, although no longer officially a functioning group, many of the Philadelphian Society's views and writings, particularly those by Jane Leade, remained influential among certain groups of Behmenists, Pietists, Radical Pietists, Christian mystics, and Esoteric Christians, such as the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness (led by Johannes Kelpius), the Ephrata Cloister, and the Harmony Society, among others.
Notable Philadelphians and others associated with them[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ Hirst, Julie. Jane Leade: Biography of a Seventeenth-Century Mystic. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. p. 27. Adamites. Familist.