A name which, in its most general acceptation, denotes those
refusing to conform with the authorized formularies and rites of
the Established Church of England. The application of the term
has varied somewhat with the successive phases of Anglican
history. From the accession of Elizabeth to the middle of the
seventeenth century it had not come into use as the name of a
religious party, but the word "conform", and the appellatives
"conforming" and "nonconforming", were becoming more and more
common expressions to designate those members of the Puritan
party who, disapproving of certain of the Anglican rites
(namely, the use of the surplice, of the sign of the cross at
baptism, of the ring in marriage, of the attitude of kneeling at
the reception of the sacrament) and of the episcopal order of
church government, either resigned themselves to these usages
because enjoined, or stood out against them at all costs.
However from 1662, when the Fourth Act of Uniformity had the
effect of ejecting from the benefices, a