World of Ranters: Religious Radicalism in the English Revolution

The Ranters came into prominence after the defeat of the Levellers at Burford in 1649 had put a final end to the most serious political and military challenge to Cromwell from the left. With their direct appeal to the outcast urban poor, coupled with a flagrant and often blasphemous defiance of tradition Christian morality, the Ranter sect provide a striking illustration of the continuing radical political and theological opposition to the Cromwellian Commonwealth.