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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Congregationalists
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The main group of English *Puritans other than the *Presbyterians. In the 16C they rejected the presbyterian hierarchy of elders, who together had authority over more than their own immediate church, insisting that every Christian congregation must be entirely independent (they were known also as the Independents). It was from a group of English Congregationalists that the *Pilgrim Fathers came; and it was with the support of the largely Congregationalist army that Oliver *Cromwell took sole power in 1653. In the *Restoration they suffered with Presbyterians and others the restrictions placed upon *Nonconformists. English Congregationalists and Presbyterians came together in 1972 in the *United Reformed Church.
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