But Luther and Calvin were by no means the earliest of the reformers.

In England the Wycliffites, or followers of John Wycliffe (born 1324, died 1387), became known as Gospellers, after their leader had completed the translation of the Bible in 1377. Eventually they adopted the title of Lollards, in imitation of a sect of German reformers headed by Walter Lollard, a dissolute priest, who turned theologian and was publicly burned for heresy at Cologne in 1322. In France the precursors of the Huguenots were the Albigenses of Languedoc, so called because their capital was Albi, and its people were called the Albigeois, early in the twelfth century; and in 1170, the Waldenses, inhabiting the wooded districts of Valdois and Piedmont. The latter received their designation in accordance with the German walden, forests. The Camisards, or wearers of the Camisè, a peasant’s smock, to conceal their armour, comprised a body of Protestant insurgents who took up arms in the district of the Cevennes after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., October 22, 1685. As these always conducted their attacks upon the soldiery under cover of the darkness the term “Camisard” in military parlance soon came to imply a night attack. The Protestants of Bohemia were styled Hussites, after John Huss (born 1373, burned 1415); they were also known as Bethlemites from the Church of Bethlehem in Prague, in which Huss used to hurl forth his denunciations against the Church of Rome. The Moravians, otherwise The United Brethren, who were driven by persecutions from Moravia and Bohemia in the last century, claimed to be descendants of the original Hussites.

Having now traced the rise of Protestantism generally, let us at once dispose of the various sects and denominations before confining ourselves to the Established Church and its offshoots.

The Adamites were the fanatical followers of one Picard, in Bohemia, self-styled “Adam, Son of God,” who, about the year 1400, proposed to reduce mankind to a state of primitive innocence and enjoyment. No clothes were worn, wives were held in common, and many other violations of Nature were committed ere they finally disappeared from the face of the earth. A similar sect were the Libertines, in Holland, These contended that nothing could be regarded as sinful in a community where each was at full liberty to act up to his natural dictates and passions. The Jansenists favoured the doctrines of Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres, in France (born 1585, died 1638). For a long period these maintained an open warfare with the Jesuists, properly, soldiers of the “Society of Jesus” [see Religious Orders], until they were finally put down by Pope Clement in 1705. The Gabrielites were a sect of Anabaptists of Germany in the sixteenth century, named after Gabriel Scherling, their founder. The Labadists were a sect of Protestant ascetics of the seventeenth century who conformed to the rules laid down by Jean Labadie, of Bourg, in Germany. The Socinians, a sect corresponding to the modern Unitarians, owed their existence to Lælius Socinus, an Italian theologian in 1546. The anti-Calvinists of Holland were styled Arminians, after the Latinized name (Jacobus Arminius) of their leader, James Harmensen (born 1560, died 1609). The New Christians comprised a number of Portuguese Jews in the fifteenth century, who, although they consented to be baptized under compulsion, still practised the Mosaic rites and ceremonies in secret. The Old Catholics of Germany are the followers of the late Dr. Döllinger, of Munich (born 1799, died 1890), who refused to accept the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope promulgated July 18, 1870.

In our own country the Scotists were those who adopted the opinions of John Duns Scotus (born 1272, died 1308), concerning the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception, in opposition to the Thomists, or followers of St. Thomas Aquinas (born 1227, died 1274), who denied that the Virgin was conceived without sin. The Sabbatarians, known also as the Seventh Day Baptists, founded by Brabourne, a clergyman who, about the year 1628, maintained that the seventh day was the real Sabbath as ordained at the beginning. The Fifth Monarchy Men, who came into existence during the reign of Charles I., believed in the early coming of Jesus Christ to re-establish the four great monarchies of the ancient world, viz., the Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman, contemporaneously with the fifth, the Millennium. The Muggletonians were the followers of one Ludovic Muggleton, a journeyman tailor, who set himself up as a prophet in 1651. The Society of Friends originally styled themselves Seekers, because they sought the truth after the manner of Nicodemus, the Jewish ruler, as narrated in St. John iii. 1-21. They were first designated Quakers by Justice Bennet of Derby, in 1650, in consequence of George Fox, the founder, having admonished him and all present to quake on hearing the Word of the Lord. The Seekers came into existence in 1646. The White Quakers, who seceded from the main body about 1840, are distinguished by their white clothing. The original sect of the Shakers, first heard of in the time of Charles I., received its name from the convulsive movements indulged in by its members as part of their peculiar form of worship. The modern sect sprang from a body of expelled Quakers, headed by James Wardley, in 1747. They emigrated to America in May, 1772, and formed a permanent settlement near Albany, New York, two years afterwards. The Mormons derived their designation from “The Book of Mormon,” claimed to be a lost portion of the Bible written by the angel Mormon, the last of the Hebrew line of prophets, and found inscribed in Egyptian characters upon plates of gold by Joseph Smith, the founder of the sect, in the year 1827. This work was really written by the Rev. Solomon Spalding, who died in 1816. Joseph Smith died in 1844. The Peculiar People are so styled because they believe in the efficacy of prayer on the part of their elders, and the anointing with oil in the name of the Lord for the cure of sickness as set forth in James v. 14. This sect was first heard of in London in 1838. The Faith Healers, or those who uphold the doctrine of Healing by Faith, lately sprung up in our midst, may be regarded as an offshoot of the Peculiar People. The Irvingites are the followers of Edward Irving, a Scottish divine (born 1792, died 1834), who maintained that Christ was liable to commit sin in common with the rest of mankind. The Humanitarians incline to the same belief. The Sacramentarians are those who deny the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist: the Calvinists were originally known by this title. The Plymouth Brethren first appeared at Plymouth about the year 1830; they so style themselves because they confess Christ as a fraternal community and do not recognize any order of priesthood. The Perfectionists of North America are so called owing to their rejection of civil laws, on the plea that the guidance of the Holy Spirit suffices for all earthly as well as spiritual affairs. Another body of co-coreligionists peculiar to North America are the Hopkinsians, named after Samuel Hopkins, of Connecticut, their founder. The doctrines which they hold are mainly Calvinistic.

The Scottish Covenanters were those who subscribed to a solemn league or covenant to stand by each other in opposition to the religious and political measures of Charles I. This occurred in 1638. In less than ten years afterwards the Covenanters, having increased in numbers and power, assumed the entire direction of their own ecclesiastical affairs and styled themselves Presbyterians, a term derived from the Greek presbuteros, an elder, because they contended that the government of the Church as set forth in the New Testament was by presbyters, equal in office, power, and order. The national Church of Scotland, therefore, when at length it was recognized by the English Parliament, bore the title of the Scottish Presbyterian Church. It was, however, not long before dissensions became rife. The strictest body of the Presbyterians adopted the style of Cameronians, after the name of their leader, Archibald Cameron, who was executed in 1688 on account of his religious opinions; while an equally numerous body, headed by John Macmillan, became known as Macmillanites, and also as The Reformed Presbytery. A much later sect was that founded in 1841 by James Morison, under the designation of the Morisonians. But the most alarming split in the Presbyterian Church took place May 18, 1843, when Dr. Chalmers, with a large following, established a separate community, entitled The Free Church of Scotland.

The Puritans of England were to the Established Church what the Pharisees were to the Jews. And not only did these Puritans profess a greater purity of doctrine, of morals, and of living, than their neighbours, but they embraced the earliest opportunity of separating themselves from the Church of England altogether. They were, in fact, the first of the Dissenters. On August 24, 1662, which date witnessed the secession of nearly two thousand ministers from the Church of England through their non-compliance with the “Act of Uniformity,” the Puritans joined forces with the latter, and the combined body assumed the name of Nonconformists. The Protestants were, consequently, divided into two great parties—the Conformists, or those who conformed to the requirements laid down in the “Act of Conformity,” and the Nonconformists. The latter have in more recent times borne the name of Dissenters, because they dissent from the Established Church. The Sectarians are Dissenters who attach themselves to one or other of the numerous sects and denominations which exist outside the Church of England. The Congregationalists and the Independents are one and the same. They maintain that each congregation is an independent religious community entitled to exercise the right of appointing its own ministers and managing its own affairs. These tenets were first publicly advanced by Robert Brown, a violent opponent of the Established Church, in Rutlandshire, as early as the year 1585. The Unitarians are the modern Socinians already alluded to. They are opposed to the doctrine of the Trinity; and, consequently, to the Trinitarians. The Baptists not only reject infant baptism, but hold that the adult subject should be baptized after the manner in which Christ was baptized by St. John. On this account the original Baptists, who arose about 1521, received the name of Anabaptists, because, having been already baptized during infancy, they of necessity went through the ceremony a second time on arriving at full age. The prefix ana is Greek, signifying twice. The followers of John Wesley (born 1703, died 1791) and his brother, Charles Wesley (born 1708, died 1788), were styled Methodists, owing to the methodical strictness of their lives and religious exercises. They were also denominated Wesleyans, or Wesleyan Methodists, in contradistinction to the Primitive Methodists, or Ranters, who separated from the original sect under Hugh Bourne, in 1810, and retained the style of open-air preaching peculiar to John Wesley in his early itinerant days.

The terms “High Church” and “Low Church” first came into prominence during the reign of Queen Anne. Nowadays, as then, that section is styled High Church which regards the Church of England as the only ark of salvation, while the less apprehensive and more moderate section is called Low Church. Those who take a still more liberal and comprehensive view of orthodox doctrine belong to what is known as the Broad Church, which is but another name for Latitudinarianism, as originally professed by a number of divines opposed alike to the Puritans and the High Church party in the time of Charles I. On the other hand, the Ritualists comprise the extreme High Church party who are anxious to return to the ritual of public worship in vogue during the reign of Edward VI. Prior to 1866, in which year the term arose, these High Churchmen bore the name of Puseyites, because they agreed with the views set forth by Dr. Pusey in his celebrated “Tracts for the Times,” published at Oxford between 1833 and 1841. Those scholars who assisted Dr. Pusey in the composition of these Oxford Tracts, as they were called, as well as the public at large who believed in their teaching, were styled Tractarians; while the great Roman Catholic revival that took place in the Church of England at this period universally bore, and still bears, the name of the Oxford Movement.