The Ranters were one of a number of dissenting groups that emerged about the time of the Commonwealth of England (1649–1660). They were largely common people, and the movement was widespread throughout England, though they were not organised and had no leader.
The Ranters were one of a number of dissenting groups that emerged about the time of the Commonwealth of England (1649–1660). They were largely common people, and the movement was widespread throughout England, though they were not organised and had no leader.
==History== The chaos of the Second English Civil War, the execution of King Charles I, and the animosity between the Presbyterians and Independents during the era of the Commonwealth gave rise to many sectarian groups that attempted to make sense of their society and place within that society. The Ranters were one such group. They were regarded as heretical by the established Church and seem to have been regarded by the government as a threat to social order. The passage "the bishops, Charles and the Lords have had their turn, overturn, so your turn shall be next", published in a Ranter pamphlet, no doubt caused some concern in the halls of power. The Ranters denied the authority of churches, of Scripture, of the current ministry and of services, instead calling on men to listen to the divine within them. In many ways they resemble the 14th century Brethren of the Free Spirit. In fact, they were causing such controversy that by the early 1650s multiple anti-Ranter pamphlets were circulating throughout Britain.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).