Editing Nonconformist (Protestantism) (section)

==England==
===Origins===
{{see also|Independent (religion)}}
[[File:Bunyan Meeting Free Church - geograph.org.uk - 809801.jpg|thumb|Bunyan Meeting Free Church, a Nonconformist [[chapel]] in [[Bedford]]. Dissenter [[John Bunyan]] purchased a barn in 1672 for a meeting place. A [[meeting house]] replaced it in 1707 and this chapel was built in 1850.]]
The [[Act of Uniformity 1662]] required churchmen to use all rites and ceremonies as prescribed in the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]''.<ref name="Choudhury">{{Harvnb|Choudhury|2005|p=173}}</ref> It also required [[Episcopal polity|episcopal]] [[ordination]] of all ministers of the Church of England—a pronouncement most odious to the [[Puritans]], the faction of the church which had come to dominance during the [[English Civil War]] and the [[History of the Puritans from 1649#English Interregnum, 1649-1660|Interregnum]]. Consequently, nearly 2,000 clergy were "ejected" from the established church for refusing to comply with the provisions of the act, an event referred to as the [[Great Ejection]].<ref name="Choudhury"/> The Great Ejection created an abiding public consciousness of nonconformity.

Thereafter, a Nonconformist was any English subject belonging to a non-[[Anglican]] church or a non-Christian religion. More broadly, any person who advocated [[Freedom of religion|religious liberty]] was typically called out as Nonconformist.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reynolds|2003|p=267}}</ref> The strict religious tests embodied in the laws of the [[Clarendon Code]] and other [[Penal law (British)#Further penal laws in Great Britain|penal laws]] excluded a substantial section of English society from public affairs and benefits, including certification of university degrees, for well more than a century and a half. Culturally, in [[England and Wales]], discrimination against Nonconformists endured even longer.

[[Presbyterian]]s, [[Congregationalists]], [[Baptist]]s, [[Calvinist]]s, 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 [[Methodist]]s, [[Unitarianism|Unitarians]], [[Quaker]]s, [[Plymouth Brethren]], and the [[Moravian Church|English Moravians]] were officially labelled as Nonconformists as they became organised.<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Nonconformist (Protestant)|url=http://www.com/EBchecked/topic/417591/Nonconformist|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=30 January 2014}}</ref>

The term "[[dissenter]]" came into particular use after the [[Act of Toleration 1689]], which exempted those Nonconformists who had taken oaths of allegiance from being penalised for certain acts, such as for non-attendance at Church of England services.<ref>{{Harvnb|Cross|1997|p=490}}</ref>

A [[1851 United Kingdom census#Census of religion|census of religion in 1851]] revealed Nonconformists made up about half the number of people who attended [[church service]]s on Sundays. In the larger manufacturing areas, Nonconformists clearly outnumbered members of the Church of England.<ref name="Oxford">{{Harvnb|Mitchell|2011|p=547}}</ref>

===Trends within Nonconformism===

Nonconformists in the 18th and 19th century claimed a devotion to hard work, temperance, frugality, and upward mobility, with which historians today largely agree.{{clarify|date=September 2020}} A major [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] magazine, the ''Christian Monthly Repository'' asserted in 1827:

{{blockquote|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.  These are manufacturers, merchants and substantial tradesman, or persons who are in the enjoyment of a competency realised by trade, commerce and manufacturers, gentlemen of the professions of law and physic, and agriculturalists, of that class particularly who live upon their own freehold.  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.<ref>Richard W. Davis,  "The Politics of the Confessional State, 1760–1832". ''Parliamentary History'' 9.1 (1990): 38–49, {{doi|10.1111/j.1750-0206.1990.tb00552.x}}, quote p.&nbsp;41</ref>}}

====Women====
{{Further|Separate spheres}}
The emerging middle-class norm was for women to be excluded from the public sphere—the domain of politics, paid work, commerce and public speaking. 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Robyn Ryle |title= Questioning gender: a sociological exploration |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=CHHz_p-j9hMC&pg=PA342 |year= 2012 |publisher= SAGE/Pine Forge Press |location= Thousand Oaks, Calif. |isbn= 978-1-4129-6594-1 |pages= 342–43}}</ref> Religiosity was in the female sphere, and the Nonconformist churches offered new roles that women eagerly entered. They taught [[Sunday school]], visited the poor and sick, distributed tracts, engaged in fundraising, supported missionaries, led Methodist [[class meeting]]s, prayed with other women, and a few were allowed to preach to mixed audiences.<ref>Linda Wilson, {{"'}}Constrained by Zeal': Women in Mid‐Nineteenth Century Nonconformist Churches". ''Journal of Religious History'' 23.2 (1999): 185–202. {{doi|10.1111/1467-9809.00081}}.</ref>

===Politics===
====Disabilities removed====
[[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] had imposed a series of disabilities on Nonconformists that prevented them from holding most public offices, that required them to pay local taxes to the Anglican church, be married by Anglican ministers, and be denied attendance at Oxford or degrees at Cambridge.<ref>Owen Chadwick, ''The Victorian Church, Part One: 1829–1859'' (1966) pp.&nbsp;60–95, 142–58</ref> Dissenters demanded removal of political and civil disabilities that applied to them (especially those in the Test and Corporation Acts). The Anglican establishment strongly resisted until 1828.<ref>G. I. T. Machin, "Resistance to Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, 1828". ''Historical Journal'' 22#1 (1979): 115–139. {{JSTOR|2639014}}. {{doi|10.1017/S0018246X00016708}}.</ref> The [[Test Act 1673]] made it illegal for anyone not receiving [[Eucharist|communion]] in the Church of England to hold office under the crown. The [[Corporation Act 1661]] did likewise for offices in [[Local government in the United Kingdom|municipal government]]. Although the Test and Corporation Acts remained on the statute-book, in practice they were not enforced against Protestant nonconformists due to the passage of various [[Indemnity Act]]s, in particular the [[Indemnity Act 1727]], which relieved Nonconformists from the requirements in the Test Act 1673 and the Corporation Act 1661 that public office holders must have taken the [[Eucharist|sacrament of the Lord's Supper]] in an [[Church of England|Anglican]] church.<ref>E. Neville Williams, ''The Eighteenth-Century Constitution, 1688–1815: Documents and Commentary'' (Cambridge University Press, 1965), pp. 341–343.</ref> In 1732, Nonconformists in the [[City of London]] created an association, the [[Protestant dissenting deputies|Dissenting Deputies]] to secure repeal of the Test and Corporation acts. The Deputies became a sophisticated pressure group, and worked with liberal [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]] to achieve repeal in 1828. It was a major achievement for an outside group, but the Dissenters were not finished.<ref>Richard W. Davis, "The Strategy of 'Dissent' in the Repeal Campaign, 1820–1828". ''Journal of Modern History'' 38.4 (1966): 374–393. {{JSTOR|1876681}}.</ref>

Next on the agenda was the matter of [[church rate]]s, which were local taxes at the parish level for the support of the parish church building in England and Wales. Only buildings of the established church received the tax money. Civil disobedience was attempted but was met with seizure of personal property and even imprisonment. The compulsory factor was finally abolished in 1868 by [[William Ewart Gladstone]], and payment was made voluntary.<ref>[[Olive Anderson]], "Gladstone's Abolition of Compulsory Church Rates: a Minor Political Myth and its Historiographical Career". ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' 25#2 (1974): 185–198. {{doi|10.1017/S0022046900045735}}.</ref> While Gladstone was a moralistic evangelical inside the Church of England, he had strong support in the Nonconformist community.<ref>G. I. T. Machin, "Gladstone and Nonconformity in the 1860s: The Formation of an Alliance". ''Historical Journal'' 17 (1974): 347–364. {{doi|10.1017/S0018246X00007780}}. {{JSTOR|2638302}}.</ref><ref>Jacob P. Ellens, ''Religious Routes to Gladstonian Liberalism: The Church Rate Conflict in England and Wales 1852–1868'' (2010).</ref> The marriage question was settled by [[Marriage Act 1836]] which allowed local government registrars to handle marriages. Nonconformist ministers in their own chapels were allowed to marry couples if a registrar was present. Also in 1836, [[Civil registration#United Kingdom|civil registration of births, deaths and marriages]] was taken from the hands of local parish officials and given to local government registrars. Burial of the dead was a more troubling problem, for urban chapels rarely had graveyards, and sought to use the traditional graveyards controlled by the established church. The [[Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880]] finally allowed this.<ref name = "Helmstadter1979">Richard Helmstadter, "The Nonconformist Conscience" in Peter Marsh, ed., ''The Conscience of the Victorian State'' (1979)</ref>{{rp|144–147}}

[[Oxford University]] required students seeking admission to submit to the [[Thirty-nine Articles]] of the Church of England. [[Cambridge University]] required that for a diploma. The two ancient universities opposed giving a charter to the new [[London University]] in the 1830s, because it had no such restriction. London University, nevertheless, was established in 1836, and by the 1850s Oxford dropped its restrictions. In 1871 Gladstone sponsored legislation that provided full access to degrees and fellowships. The [[Universities in Scotland|Scottish universities]] never had restrictions.<ref name = "Helmstadter1979"/>{{rp|147}}

====Impact on politics====
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|caption1=Methodist minister [[Hugh Price Hughes]] encouraged Nonconformists to support the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]
|image2=David Lloyd George c1911.jpg
|caption2=Liberal prime minister [[David Lloyd George]] assiduously cultivated Nonconformist support
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Since 1660, Dissenters, later Nonconformists, have played a major role in English politics. In a political context, historians distinguish between two categories of Dissenters, in addition to the [[evangelical Anglicanism|evangelical]] element in the Church of England. "Old Dissenters", dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, included [[Baptists]], [[Congregational church|Congregationalists]], [[Quakers]], [[Unitarianism|Unitarians]], and [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]] outside Scotland. "New Dissenters" emerged in the 18th century and were mainly Methodists. The "[[Nonconformist conscience]]" was their moral sensibility which they tried to implement in British politics.<ref name="Bebbington">D. W. Bebbington, ''The Nonconformist Conscience: Chapel and Politics, 1870–1914'' (George Allen & Unwin, 1982).</ref> 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 movement in the United Kingdom|temperance]]. Both factions were politically active, but until mid-19th century the Old group supported mostly [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]] and [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberals]] in politics, while the New, like most Anglicans, generally supported [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]]. By the late 19th century, the New Dissenters had mostly switched to the Liberal Party. The result was a merging of the two groups, strengthening their great weight as a political pressure group.<ref>Timothy Larsen, "A Nonconformist Conscience? Free Churchmen in Parliament in Nineteenth-Century England". ''Parliamentary History'' 24#1 (2005): 107–119. {{doi|10.1111/j.1750-0206.2005.tb00405.x}}.</ref><ref name = "Helmstadter1979"/>{{rp|135–72}}

After the Test and Corporation Acts were [[Sacramental Test Act 1828|repealed in 1828]], all the Nonconformists elected to Parliament were Liberals.<ref name="Oxford" /> Relatively few MPs were Dissenters. However the Dissenters were major voting bloc in many areas, such as the East Midlands.<ref>Henry Pelling, ''Social Geography of British Elections, 1885–1910'' (1967) 89–90, 206,</ref> They were very well organised and highly motivated and largely won over the Whigs and Liberals to their cause. Gladstone brought the majority of Dissenters around to support for [[Irish Home Rule movement|Home Rule for Ireland]], putting the dissenting Protestants in league with the [[Irish Catholics]] in an otherwise unlikely alliance. The Nonconformist conscience was also repeatedly called upon by Gladstone for support for his moralistic foreign policy.<ref name="Bebbington"/> In election after election, Protestant ministers rallied their congregations to the Liberal ticket. (In Scotland, the Presbyterians played a similar role to the Nonconformist Methodists, Baptists and other groups in England and Wales.)<ref>David L. Wykes, "Introduction: Parliament and Dissent from the Restoration to the Twentieth Century", ''Parliamentary History'' (2005) 24#1 pp. 1–26. {{doi|10.1111/j.1750-0206.2005.tb00399.x}}.</ref> Many of the first MPs elected for the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in the 1900s were also nonconformists.<ref>{{Citation |last=Thorpe |first=Andrew |title=Creation and Early Years, 1900–14 |date=1997 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0_2 |work=A History of the British Labour Party |pages=20 |place=London |publisher=Macmillan Education UK |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0_2 |isbn=978-1-349-25305-0 |lccn=96031879 |oclc=1285556329 |access-date=2022-06-20}}</ref>

Nonconformists were angered by the [[Education Act 1902]], which provided for the support of [[denominational school]]s from taxes. The elected local [[School boards in England and Wales|school boards]] that they largely controlled were abolished and replaced by county-level [[local education authorities]] that were usually controlled by Anglicans. Worst of all the hated Anglican schools would now receive funding from local taxes that everyone had to pay. One tactic was to refuse to pay local taxes. [[John Clifford (minister)|John Clifford]] formed the [[National Passive Resistance Committee]]. By 1904 over 37,000 summonses for unpaid school taxes were issued, with thousands having their property seized and 80 protesters going to prison. It operated for another decade but had no impact on the school system.<ref>{{cite book|author=Donald Read|title=The age of urban democracy, England, 1868–1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEcTAQAAIAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Longman|page=428|isbn=9780582089211}}</ref><ref>D. R. Pugh, "English Nonconformity, education and passive resistance 1903–6". ''History of Education'' 19#4 (1990): 355–373. {{doi|10.1080/0046760900190405}}.</ref><ref>N. R. Gullifer, "Opposition to the 1902 Education Act", ''Oxford Review of Education'' (1982) 8#1 pp. 83–98. {{doi|10.1080/0305498820080106}}. {{JSTOR|1050168}}.</ref> The education issue played a major role in the Liberal victory in the [[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906 general election]], as Dissenter Conservatives punished their old party and voted Liberal. After 1906, a Liberal attempt to modify the law was blocked by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]-dominated [[House of Lords]]; [[Parliament Act 1911|after 1911]] when the Lords had been stripped of its veto over legislation, the issue was no longer of high enough priority to produce Liberal action.<ref>Élie Halévy, ''The Rule of Democracy (1905–1914)'' (1956).  pp 64–90.</ref>

By 1914 the linkage between the Nonconformists and Liberal Party was weakening, as [[secularisation]] reduced the strength of Dissent in English political life.<ref>John F. Glaser, "English Nonconformity and the Decline of Liberalism". ''American Historical Review'' 63.2 (1958): 352–363. {{doi|10.1086/ahr/63.2.352}}. {{JSTOR|1849549}}.</ref>

===Today===
Today, Protestant churches independent of the Anglican [[Church of England]] or the Presbyterian [[Church of Scotland]] are often called "[[free church]]es", meaning they are ''free'' from state control. This term is used interchangeably with "Nonconformist".<ref>{{cite book |author=Christopher Wakeling |title=Nonconformist Places of Worship: Introductions to Heritage Assets |date=2016 |publisher=Historic England |isbn=978-1-84802-395-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5wzMQAACAAJ |language=en}}</ref>

The steady pace of secularisation picked up faster and faster during the 20th century, until only pockets of nonconformist religiosity remained in England.<ref>Steve Bruce, and Tony Glendinning, "When was secularization? Dating the decline of the British churches and locating its cause". ''British Journal of Sociology'' 61#1 (2010): 107–126. {{doi|10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01304.x}}.</ref><ref>Callum G. Brown, ''The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation, 1800–2000'' (2009)</ref><ref>Alan D. Gilbert, ''The making of post-Christian Britain: a history of the secularization of modern society'' (Longman, 1980).</ref>