106 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



also much of its hold over the imagination of the 



villagers, was suffering from internal difficulties, due 



largely to the growth of the Presbyterian 



The Church movement. Early in the century writers 

 and Noncon- , , , r ' , . . . . 



formity. to 'd * a g rou P of people standing outside 



the church, called the ' Children of Light,' 

 the name first assumed by the Society which afterwards 

 took the title of * The Friends/ and was derisively 

 called 'The Quakers/ Independents and Baptists also 

 came into prominence as the century progressed. 

 Finally, members of these and of other religious bodies 

 became completely detached from the National Church. 

 This occurred in 1662, when the Act of Uniformity 1 

 laid down that no one could hold a living who was not 

 prepared to give ' unfeigned assent and consent ' to the 

 contents of the Anglican Prayer Book. As a result, 

 some 2,000 ministers of religion, who had at that time 

 charge of parishes, gave up their positions and withdrew 

 from the National Church ; from that time onward 

 the religious life of the country districts has been divided 

 into two sections, the Anglicans and the Nonconformists. 

 The Anglican preachers and divines of ability of that 

 time collected in the towns, whilst the country parsons 

 seem to have been poor and ill-educated and to have 

 attached themselves more and more to the ruling 

 families, the country squires ; as this tendency deve- 

 loped the Established Church finally ceased to have the 

 democratic character noticeable in the Middle Ages. 

 This alliance between squire and parson resulted in the 

 latter attaining a definite social position in the village : 

 he belonged to the gentry, and thus became even further 

 detached from the people as a whole. On the other 

 hand, some, at least, of the Nonconformist bodies from 

 * See Appendix, p. 176. 



