DISSIDENTS (DISSENTING PERSONS). — This term is applied to those who are separated from the Catholic Church for disciplinary or doctrinal reasons. In particular, it refers to the Christians of the separated Eastern Churches, improperly called Orthodox (v. SCHISM AND SCHISMATICS, CHRISTIAN EAST).
In England, this name is given to all who dissent from the doctrine or discipline of the established or state-recognized Church, namely the Anglican Church. They are also called nonconformists, although some reserve this term only for those who did not accept the Act of Uniformity of 1662; and recusants, although this term is now more frequently applied to Catholics and sometimes to the non-jurors.
Thus, under the name of dissidents are generally included Catholics, Independents, Congregationalists, Baptists, Puritans, English Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists, and some lesser-known English sects.
In Scotland, those who separated from the state Presbyterian Church, such as the Cameronians, Seceders, Burghers, Antiburghers, the Relief Synod, the United Presbyterian Church, the Free Church, etc., are also called dissidents by some authors. However, they reject this name and prefer to be called simply “Seceders,” because they claim never to have dissented from the doctrine of the established Church, namely the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, but only from its discipline or ecclesiastical governance.