was a
Dissenter, a term used for English people in his period who were not members of the Church of
England but instead belonged to other Protestant denominations; in Defoe's case, the
denomination was Presbyterian. Dissenters in this period incurred many civil disabilities: they
were unable to attend the English universities of Oxford or Cambridge and barred from holding
many government offices.
A key distinction between Dissent and the Roman
Catholic and Anglican churches in this period was the dissenting belief in the "priesthood
of all believers." In other words, rather than believing that salvation could only be
obtained within the Church through regular participation in sacraments offered by the clergy,
Dissenters saw salvation as a matter of individual faith and as a direct personal relationship
with God. Thus Crusoe, rather than being saved by attending Church, confessing his sins, doing
penance during Lent, and then taking Easter Communion, instead develops his...
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