Nonconformist (Protestantism)
[1][2] Use of the term Nonconformist in England and Wales was precipitated after the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, when the Act of Uniformity 1662 renewed opposition to reforms within the established church.
By the late 19th century the term specifically included other Reformed Christians (English Presbyterians and Congregationalists), plus the Baptists, Brethren, Methodists, and Quakers.
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Calvinists, other "reformed" groups and less organised sects were identified as Nonconformists at the time of the 1662 Act of Uniformity.
Following the act, other groups, including Methodists, Unitarians, Quakers, Plymouth Brethren, and the English Moravians were officially labelled as Nonconformists as they became organised.
[9] A census of religion in 1851 revealed Nonconformists made up about half the number of people who attended church services on Sundays.
[10] Nonconformists in the 18th and 19th century claimed a devotion to hard work, temperance, frugality, and upward mobility, with which historians today largely agree.
[clarification needed] A major Unitarian magazine, the Christian Monthly Repository asserted in 1827: Throughout England a great part of the more active members of society, who have the most intercourse with the people have the most influence over them, are Protestant Dissenters.
The virtues of temperance, frugality, prudence and integrity promoted by religious Nonconformity...assist the temporal prosperity of these descriptions of persons, as they tend also to lift others to the same rank in society.
Instead, it was considered that women should dominate in the realm of domestic life, focused on care of the family, the husband, the children, the household, religion, and moral behaviour.
They taught Sunday school, visited the poor and sick, distributed tracts, engaged in fundraising, supported missionaries, led Methodist class meetings, prayed with other women, and a few were allowed to preach to mixed audiences.
[15] The Test Act 1673 made it illegal for anyone not receiving communion in the Church of England to hold office under the crown.
[16] In 1732, Nonconformists in the City of London created an association, the Dissenting Deputies to secure repeal of the Test and Corporation acts.
[21]: 144–147 Oxford University required students seeking admission to submit to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England.
In a political context, historians distinguish between two categories of Dissenters, in addition to the evangelical element in the Church of England.
[22] The "Nonconformist conscience" of the Old group emphasised religious freedom and equality, pursuit of justice, and opposition to discrimination, compulsion, and coercion.
The New Dissenters (and also the Anglican evangelicals) stressed personal morality issues, including sexuality, family values, and temperance.
(In Scotland, the Presbyterians played a similar role to the Nonconformist Methodists, Baptists and other groups in England and Wales.
[30] By 1914 the linkage between the Nonconformists and Liberal Party was weakening, as secularisation reduced the strength of Dissent in English political life.
