a term which has come into use in quite recent times as a general designation of Protestant Dissenters (q.v.). It is sometimes given in a general sense to all sectaries who, at any period in English history since the establishment of Protestantism, have refused to conform to the doctrine and practices of the Episcopal Church. It is, however, more frequently used in a restricted sense to denote the two thousand clergymen who, in 1662 — two years after the Restoration — left the Church of England, rather than submit to the conditions of the Act of Uniformity. (See NONCONFORMITY).