Nonconformists (English Protestant group)

Nonconformists (English Protestant group), name given to sectarian English Protestants who have refused to conform to the regulations governing ceremonies and doctrines of the Church of England. It is used in a restricted sense to denote the clergy ejected from the church in 1662 for their refusal to submit to the conditions of the Act of Uniformity; the act required that all clergy in England receive Episcopal reordination regardless of what Protestant sect they belonged to before this act.