Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, and was succeeded by James VI. of Scotland. From one who like him had been the member of a Presby terian church, and had on more than one occessiou expressed his decided attachment to its principles and worship, the Nonconformists, not without reason, expected more lenient treatment than they had met with in the preceding reign. But their expectations were hittetly disappointed. In compliance with their petitions, a conference was indeed appointed and held at Hampton Court, at which nine bishops and as many were present on the one side, and four Puritan ministers, by James, on the other. The king himself presided and took part in the debate. But no good results ensued. The Non conformist representatives were loaded with insults, and dismissed in such a manner as might well give birth to the darkest anticipations regarding the fate of the party to which they belonged. Shortly after, a few slight alterations of the national rubric were made, and a pro clamation issued requiring the strictest conformity. In 1604 the book of canon.' was passed by a convocation, at which Bishop Bancroft pre sided. It denounced severe temporal and spiritual penalties against the Puritan divines, and was followed up by unsparing persecutions. In spite however of all the means employed for its eradication, the cause of Nonconformity advanced. In the church itself there were many of the clergy who held the Puritan opinions, though they deemed it inexpedient to make a very open display of them, and who sighed for a change ; and the number of such was largely augmented by the alteration which James made in his creed, from Calvinism to the doctrines of Arminius.
The son and successor of James, Charles I., adopted towards the Nonconformists the policy of his predecessors. His haughty temper and despotic disposition speedily involved him in difficulties with his parliament and people. In carrying into execution his designs against Puritanism, ho found an able and zealous assistant in Archbishop Laud, under whose arbitrary administration the proceedings of the Star Chamber and High Commission Court were characterised by great severity. Many Puritans sought fur safety and quiet in emigration ; and the colony of Massachusetts Bay was founded by them in the New World. But a proclamation by the king put a atop to this self-banish ment; and thus even the miserable consolation of expatriation was denied. Hundreds of Puritan clergymen were ejected from their cures, on acaount of their opposition to the Book of Sports, published in the previous reign. Calvinism was denounced by royal authority, and severe restrictions laid on the modes and times of preaching. But a change was approaching. In 1641 Loud was declared guilty of high treason and beheaded ; and about five years after, Charles keyed the same fate. The parliament abolished Episcopacy and everything iu the Church that was ("spooked to the model of the Geuevau church.
During the Protectorate, Presbytery continued to be the established reli,ion. Independency however prevailed in the army, and was in
high favour with Cromwell. Under his government the sects of the Quakers and Baptista flourished; and other sects, sonic of which held the wildcat and most visionary tenets, sprung into existence All were tolerated. Episcopacy only was proscribed ; and the Nonconformists, in their hour of prosperity, forgetful of the lessons which adversity should have taught them, directed against its adherents severities .slmilar to those of which they themselves had been the objects. The Restoration ine1660 placed Charles i1. on the throne of his ancestors, and led to the restitution of the old system of church government and worship. The Act of Uniformity was passed in 1662, by which all who refused to observe the rites as well as subscribe to the doctrines of the Church of England were excluded from its communion, and in conse quence exposed to many disadvantages and to cruel sufferings. During the same reign were passed the Conventicle Act, which subjected all who presumed to worship God otherwise than the law enjoined to fine and imprisonment, and punished the third offence with banishment; the Firs Mile Act, which banished to that distance from every corpo rate town the Nonconformist clergy, and forbade them to officiate as schoolmasters except on condition of their taking the oath of passive obedient* - and the Test, Act, which, though directed against the Roman /lies, pressed with equal severity againat Protestant dis senter., and excluded from offices of trust in the state theme who refused to receive the euellarist according to the rubr c of the Church of England After this time dissent continued in a very depressed stale, and had to atruggle with various fortunes, until the reign of William III., when the Toleration Act gave immunity to all Protestant Dissenter*, except Soelniana, from the penal laws to which they had been subjected by the Stuart dynasty. The benefits conferred by this measure were indeed subsequently much abridged by the Occasional Communion Bill, which excluded from civil of tass those Noncon formists who, by communion at the altars of the Church, were by the provisions of the Test Act qualified to hold them ; and by the Schism /hll, which restricted the work of education to certificated churchmen. After the accession of George however, those laws were repealed, and since then, by the removal of the Test Act, and by the passing of the Acts relating to registration and marriage, dissenters have been allowed the peaceable enjoyment of the rights of conscience, and all the political privileges of their fellow-citizens. It would be a task of souse difficulty to enumerate the various sects which may be classed under the general head of Nonconformists. The chief denominations are the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Wesleyan, and Calvinistic Methodists, and Quakers. [BarrIsTs ; Mearitonten ; DISSENTERS ; QUAKERS, &C.