Nonconformity cannot, clearly then, be traced to anj^ sect that may have found shelter ia England, and it is
necessary to review the early history of the establish- ment to find traces of its origin. It will be remembered that it was ia the reign of king Edward VI that the English Reformed Church first received a definite con- stitution. During the time of Henry VIII it remained in a great measure unsettled, and was subject to con- tinual variation, according to the caprice of the king. As organized by Edward, while Calvinistic in its creed, it was Episcopalian in its government, and retained ia its worship many of those forms and observaaces which had been introduced in the days of Roman Catholic as- cendency. In the first of these particulars it resembled, aad in the last two it differed from the Genevan Church. During the temporary restoration of the Roman Catho- lic faith under the administration of Philip and Marj', great numbers of the persecuted disciples of the Re- formed faith sought refuge ia Fraace, the Netherlands, Switzerlaad, and other parts of the Continent. Of those who fled to Germany, some observed the ecclesi- astical order established by Edward; others, aot without warm disputes with their brethren, which had their beginning at Frankfort, adopted the Swiss mode of worship, preferriag it as more siaiple, aad more agree- able to Scripture aad primitive usage. Those who composed the latter class were called Nonconformists. The distinction has been permaaeat, aad the name has been perpetuated. Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, in 1558, opened the way for the return of the exiles to the land of tlieir fathers. It was natural for each of the parties of these forced exiles to advocate at home the systems of worship to which they had been respectively attached while abroad; aad the coatro- versy which had been agitated by them in a foreign country immediately became a matter of coatention with the great body of Protestaats ia their owa. It suited aeither the views aor iacliaations of that princess to realize the wishes of the Nonconformists, or Puritans, as they began to be called, by giviag her sanction to the opinions which they maintained, and assenting to the demands which they made. The plain and uaos- teatatious method of religious service which they rec- ommeaded did not accord with that love of show and pomp for which she was remarkable ; and the policy of the earl}' part of her reign, in which she was supported by the high dignitaries both in the Church and State, was to conciliate her Roman Catholic subjects, who, in rank, wealth, and numbers, far exceeded the Noncon- formists. The liturgy of Edward VI having been sub- mitted to a committee of divines, and certain altera- tioas betraying a leaning to Popery rather than to Puritanism having been made, the Act of Uaiformity was passed, which, while it empowered the queen and her commissioners to " ordain and publish such further ceremonies aad rites" as might be deemed advisable, forbade, under severe penalties, the pcrformaace of diviae service except as prescribed ia the Book of Common Prayer. For some j-ears the contest had turned principally on the question of ecclesiastical dress; but this action of the queen caused separate con- gregations to be formed in 15G6, in which the Prayer- book was wholly laid aside, and the service was con- ducted by the book of the English refugees at Geneva. Among the leaders of these separatists, Cartwright held that presbyters assembled in synod had an authority the same in kind with that of bishops. He was the founder of the Presbyterians, aided in his enterprise by the influence and example of Scotland, which had well learned the lessons of Geneva. Browa found the ec- clesia in the coagregatioa, aad deaied the authority both of bishop and synod. From him descend the la- dependeats, Robiasoa being the tbunder of the separate sect. In later times the Quakers appear in consider- able numbers. There were some minor sects, such as the Family of Love, an offshoot of the Anabaptists; but the four sects — Presbyterians, Independents, Bap- tists, and Quakers — with the popish recusants, made up the great body of Nonconformists until the rise of
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Wcsleyan INIethodisra. Against these it was that can- ons and acts of Parliament were directed.
Tlie special Act of Uniformity had only been partial- ly carried into effect from the time of its being passed, in 1558, to 15G5. But in 15G5 it began to be rigidly enforced, and many of the Nonconformists were de- prived of their preferments (for, notwithstanding their sentiments, most of them had still remained in connec- tion with the Established Church, being from principle averse to an entire separation) ; many also were com- mitted to prison. The High Commission Court, tyran- nical in its very constitution, became still more severe in the exercise of its functions; and at length, in 1593, the Parliament declared that all persons above sixteen years of age who should absent themselves for one month from the parish church should be banished from the kingdom; and if they returned without license, should be sentenced to death as felons. These provis- ions, though directed principally against the Roman Catholics, affected the Protestant Nonconformists with equal severity; and, with reference both to Koman Catholics and Protestants who dissented from the Church of England, were unjust and impolitic. The Nonconformists during the reign of Elizabeth are not to be regarded as an unimportant faction. Both among the clergy and the laity they were a numerous body ; and they would have been powerful in proportion to their number had they only been more closely united among themselves. A motion made in 1561, at the first convocation of the clergy which was held in Eng- land, to do away with the ceremonies and forms to which the Puritans objected, was lost by a majority of only one, even though the queen and the primate, Parker, were well known to be opposed to such a change. In the Commons the Puritan influence was strong; and if that house be supposed, in anj' adequate degree, to have represented the people for whom it legislated, their numerical force throughout the country generally must necessarily have been great. Without presump- tion, therefore, they might have expected that their remonstrances would be listened to and their griev- ances redressed. Certainly it would have been wiser in the government to endeavor to secure their sup- port than to awaken their discontent and provoke their opposition, more especially when the hostile aspect of foreign nations is considered, and when we remem- ber that the English Roman Catholics, whose num- bers and power rendered them particularly formida- ble, were eagerly watching ever}' sj-niptom favorable to the re-establishment of the ancient faith. Nor would it have been a difficult matter to yield to the claims of the Nonconformists. The moderate among them sought not the overthrow of the ecclesiastical constitution, but contended merely that certain rites and observances, which they regarded as departures from the purity and simplicity of Christian worship, should be dispensed with; and, generally, that matters commonly recog- nised as things indifferent should not be insisted on as indispensable. Doubtless many were less reasonable in their demands, and injustice and persecution tended much to increase their number. A party, at the head of which was professor Cartwright, of Cambridge, de- sired a change, not only in the forms of worship, but in Cliurch polity also, and would have substituted Presby- tery in the room of Episcopacy. Another party, viz., the Independents, or Brownists, as they were termed, going still farther, wished the disseverment of the con- nection between Church and State altogether. Still there is every reason to believe that a slight concession to the demands of the less violent, and the display of a spirit of forbearance, would have satisfied many, would have allayed the dissatisfaction of all, and would have been the reverse of disagreeable to the country gener- ally. Unfortunately an opposite course of policy in this and subsequent reigns was chosen; which ulti- mately conducted to the horrors of a civil war, the sub- version of the regal authority, and those disastrous