The term given to the response by English Protestants who could find not room in their conscience to conform to the demand for religious conformity demanded by the English parliament upon the restoration of Charles II to the throne after the Civil War and the Commonwealth. The fateful decision for them was made to a very significant extant by the passing of the 1662 Act of Uniformity which required their personal affirmation. Many of them refused and were thus "ejected" (Great Rejection) from the nation's official church. This finally pushed these "non-conformists" to rebuild ecclessiastical structures as they thought conformed to Scriptures as they understood them; thus came into existence the Reformed Churches (Presbyterians and Congregationalists) as well as the Baptist, Brethren, Methodist, and Quaker.
Resources:
Barry Coward, "Was Oliver Cromwell the father of English Protestant Nonconformity?" Congregational History Circle Magazine 4.3 (2001): 159-169.
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