NONCONFORMITY 



5758 



NONCONFORMITY 



thoroughly Erastian, two parties 

 came into being : the Presbyter- 

 ians, led by Cartwright, who re- 

 jected episcopacy but retained 

 their belief in and love for the 

 establishment ; and the Separa- 

 tists; represented by the Congre- 

 gationalist Robert Browne. He 

 dismissed the whole notion of a 

 state-established Church, and ad- 

 vocated the setting up of indepen- 

 dent and autonomous Churches, 

 composed only of genuine Chris- 

 tians. For a long time Noncon- 

 formity was divided into these two 

 sections, both of which were re- 

 garded by the law as dissenters 

 from the Established Church and 

 subjected to pains and penalties. 

 Policy of Laud 



Meanwhile, in 1604, the Hamp- 

 ton Court Conference was held in 

 the hope of securing an agreed 

 ecclesiastical settlement. But the 

 compromise then suggested by the 

 Puritans was rejected, and the 

 cleavage between the Established 

 Church and both Puritans and 

 Separatists became more pro- 

 nounced. It was further accen- 

 tuated by the policy of Archbishop 

 Laud, who insisted on the divine 

 right and apostolic succession of 

 the episcopate, and so cut off the 

 Anglican Church from communion 

 with the Protestant Churches of 

 the European continent. This 

 policy, coinciding as it did with 

 the growth of Arminian theology 

 in the Establishment, drove to- 

 gether the various types of non- 

 conforming Christians and gave 

 them a common interest. 



The religious intolerance of 

 Charles I and his advisers was one 

 of the chief sources of the Civil War. 

 It was a real straggle for liberty 

 and an uprising of Protestantism 

 against prelacy in the Church, as 

 well as against despotism in the 

 state. The first period of the war 

 saw the triumph of Presbyterian- 

 ism through the Westminster 

 Assembly and the Long Parlia- 

 ment, and the adoption of the 

 Solemn League and Covenant in 

 England. But the country, as a 

 whole, was never really Presby- 

 terian at heart, and the attempt to 

 make it so came to nothing. The 

 Independents stood out against it, 

 and when the Commonwealth was 

 set up under Cromwell they sup- 

 ported him in a much more com- 

 prehensive policy. He threw uni- 

 formity to the winds, and allowed 

 Congregationalists, Presbyterians, 

 Episcopalians, and even Baptists 

 to remain in possession of parishes, 

 so long as they were godly men. 



The Restoration, though largely 

 brought about by the Presbyter- 

 ians in their fear of the republican 

 tendencies of some of the Inde- 



pendents, was an event of evil 

 omen for Nonconformity, and in- 

 deed for religion generally. Charles 

 II was profuse in promises, and 

 undertook to maintain religious 

 toleration and respect tender con- 

 sciences. But the country was tired 

 of the excessive strictures of the 

 Puritans. Episcopacy soon re- 

 gained its ascendancy, and the 

 king himself had no mind to pro- 

 tect those who frowned on his 

 pleasures and the licence of his 

 court. The excesses of the Fifth 

 Monarchy men gave a pretext for 

 severe measures, and the old laws 

 against Nonconformists were speed- 

 ily revived and led to an outbreak 

 of renewed persecution. The Savoy 

 conference between Anglicans and 

 Presbyterians accomplished noth- 

 ing for unity, and the Parliament 

 of 1661 emphasised the disabilities 

 of Nonconformists. 



In 1662 was passed the Act of 

 Uniformity, which required of all 

 ministers unfeigned assent and 

 consent to all and everything con- 

 tained and prescribed in and by 

 " the book of common prayer." 

 This Act was clearly intended to 

 drive the Puritans out of the 

 Church, and it succeeded in its aim. 

 It resulted in the ejectment from 

 the Church of some 2,000 ministers, 

 many of them the most learned and 

 faithful of her servants. They were 

 compelled to join the ranks of the 

 Congregationalists and Baptists, 

 who had maintained a precarious 

 existence under persecution, and 

 though by no means at one with 

 them in opinion, to form a compact 

 body of Nonconformity over against 

 the Established Episcopal Church. 

 Dissenting chapels were set up all 

 over the country, but were not 

 allowed to remain in peace. The 

 Conventicle Act of 1664 made it a 

 penal offence to attend their ser- 

 vices, and the Five Mile Act pro- 

 hibited ministers from exercising 

 their vocation within five miles of 

 any city or corporate town, and 

 also from keeping schools. 

 Toleration Act of 1689 



In spite of these hindrances, or 

 rather perhaps because of them, 

 Nonconformity continued to 

 flourish. Meetings were held in 

 secret, and the numbers of the re- 

 calcitrants grew steadily, so that in 

 1672 Charles had to admit that the 

 policy of persecution had failed. 

 Both he and James were inclined 

 to a policy of indulgence, more from 

 their desire to relieve R.C.'s than 

 from any higher motives. But Non- 

 conformists were by no means 

 willing to accept favours at the 

 hands of the Stuarts. The accession 

 of William and Mary, and the pass- 

 ing of the Toleration Act in 1689, 

 brought much more substantial 



relief. This Act did not repeal any 

 of the previous legislation against 

 the Nonconformists, but simply did 

 away with the penalties of dis- 

 obedience. Under it 2,418 licences 

 for meeting-houses were taken out 

 in the next ten years. 



During the whole of th, 18th 

 century the history of Noncon- 

 formity was a miserable struggle 

 for existence, marked by repeated 

 hostile measures, but also by a 

 gradual escape from many of the 

 disabilities under which it was 

 suffering. The Occasional Con- 

 formity Act in 1711 effectively 

 excluded Nonconformists from the 

 public life of the country, and the 

 Schism Act of 1714 from all op- 

 portunities of higher education. 

 Both these measures, however, 

 were repealed in 1719, and under 

 the House of Hanover a more 

 tolerant religious spirit came to 

 prevail. Unfortunately this coin- 

 cided with a spiritual decline in 

 which the religious life of the whole 

 country shared, and which did far 

 more harm to Dissent than any 

 persecution. It did not come to an 

 end until the Evangelical revival 

 at the close of the century. 

 Though some Nonconformists 

 looked askance at the revival at 

 first, their Churches were ulti- 

 mately swept into the movement, 

 and the final separation of the 

 Methodists from the Establishment 

 led to a greater strengthening of the 

 Nonconformist position. 



Repeal of Penal Act* 

 The struggle for religious liberty 

 was now entered upon with fresh 

 energy, and the 19th century wit- 

 nessed a gradual but sure process 

 of emancipation. The Conventicle 

 Act, the Five Mile Act, and the 

 Test and Corporation Act were all 

 repealed in the first quarter of the 

 century ; though, -curiously enough, 

 the original Act of Uniformity, the 

 parent of them all, still remains on 

 the Statute Book. At the same 

 time began a definite campaign for 

 securing complete religious liberty 

 by the disestablishment of the 

 Church. The first-fruits of this were 

 seen in the disestablishment of the 

 Church in Ireland in 1868, and this 

 was followed in 1920 by the dis- 

 establishment of the Church in 

 Wales. In 1871 came the measure 

 which threw open the ancient seats 

 of learning to Nonconformists. The 

 founding of the Free Church Council 

 in 1892 marked a further advance 

 in the history of Nonconformity. 



Bibliography. A Popular History 

 of the Free Churches, C. S. Home, 

 1903 ; History of English Non- 

 conformity : From Wyclif to the 

 Close of the 19th Century, H. W. 

 Clarke, 1911; Nonconformity: Its 

 Origin and Progress, W. B. Selhie, 

 1912. 



