Editing Nonconformist (Protestantism) (section)

===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>