English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. A dissenter (from the Latin dissentire, “to disagree”) is one who disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. English Dissenters opposed state interference in religious matters, and founded their own churches, educational establishments, and communities; some emigrated to the New World. They originally agitated for a wide-reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell.