English Dissenters

Why are there so many English Dissenters? What was so special about the 15, 16, and 1700s that they produced so many different religious groups in Britain at the time?

Some of the more interesting groups:

Adamites--supposedly went around naked.

Diggers--religious communists who tried to farm on common lands, hence the name.

Enthusiasts--a dirty word for anyone with strong feelings about religion. Or politics.

Family of Love--kind of like modern hippies (see previous post.)

Fifth Monarchists--wanted to turn the English government into a new Sanhedrin to usher in the Apocalypse. Actually convinced Cromwell to try the idea. No apocalypse happened.

Muggletonians--named Muggletonians. What else do you need?

And of course, there were some famous groups you've probably already heard of, like the Puritans and the Quakers.

Family of Love

If the "Family of Love" were a modern religious group, they'd inevitably end up infamous for some sort of sex-related scandal. But since they're a branch of English religious dissenters from the 1500s, they're more like proto Quakers.

Familists were pacifists, believed that the world was governed by the laws of nature rather than divine intervention, and denied the trinity.

Unsurprisingly, just like modern movements of this nature, Familists were primarily students, scholars, and artists, and the faith was concentrated near the University of Cambridge.

Familists managed to escape execution and persecution by not generally telling anyone outside of the Family about their beliefs, ("The first rule of Family Club is don't talk about Family Club,") and proper respectable members of other, respected churches. They believed it was important to at least act outwardly like everyone else.

Nevertheless, we do know of a few Familists who've come to historical attention, including Phillip II of Spain's printer (he printed Catholic documents by day, and Familist ones by night,) and some of the Yeomen of Elizabeth I's guards.

Familists seem to have disappeared in the early 1700s--their low-key approach to spreading their theology had always made the group's long-term survival unlikely.