Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/709

ENGLAND.] PRESBYTEEIANISM 685 now that Neonomianism, or the doctrine that the gospel is a new law, promising salvation upon the condition of the abandonment of sin, began. Its first victory was when the general assembly condemned the doctrines of the Marrow of Modern Divinity, and rebuked the twelve ministers who had sent in a representation against the decision. The Patronage Act was rapidly being accepted and was showing its effects chiefly in the neglect shown to the wishes of the congregations. In 1731 the right was given to the heritors and elders to "elect and call" instead of to "name and propose the person to the whole congregation to be approven or disapproven," and was made law without having first been submitted to the pres byteries according to the Barrier Act of 1639. This led to the first great schism. Ebenezer Erskine denounced the action of the assembly in two sermons. Being rebuked by the synod of Perth and Stirling, he appealed to the assembly, who approved the rebuke. With three other ministers he protested. The four were temporarily deposed by the assembly, and on 6th December 1733 they formed the "Associate Presbytery." In 1737 their number was largely increased, and they published their manifesto, the " Declaration and Testimony." Their final deposition, and the first schism, occurred on 15th May 1740. For several years the wishes of congregations were ignored; wherever the presbytery refused to appoint at the will of the assembly, a " riding committee," often assisted by military force, carried out the decision. The civil courts were bound to obey the Act of Patronage, and therefore never upheld the congregation against a legal appoint ment. At length in 1752 the leader of the "moderate" party, Principal Robertson, seeing in this refusal of pres byteries the elements of endless confusion, and that tem porary substitutes, e.g., riding committees, were uncon stitutional and bad in principle, determined that the presbyteries themselves should be compelled to carry out the decisions of the assembly. From the deposition of Thomas GILLESPIE (q.v. a member of the presbytery of Dunfermline, who refused to act in accordance with the assembly s decision, is dated the second or "Relief " schism. Principal Tulloch says upon this : "The policy was so far successful ; but the success was of that nature which is almost worse than defeat. It introduced order within the church. It crushed the revolt of presbyteries. It silenced in many cases popular clamour. But it quietly and gradually alienated masses of the people from the estab lishment." So rapidly did dissent spread that from a report presented to the general assembly in 1765 it appears that "there are now 120 meeting-houses erected, to which more than 100,000 persons resort, who were formerly of our communion, but have separated them selves from the Church of Scotland. This secession," the report adds, "is most extensive in the greatest and most populous towns." For the subsequent history of Presby- terianism in Scotland, see FREE CHURCH, UNITED PRESBY TERIAN CHURCH, and SCOTLAND (CHURCH or). 1 Eiy England. Several faint traces may be noted of the me presence of Presbyterian ideas in England within a few lts> years of the Reformation. During the reign of Edward 1 Chief References. Caldenvood, Hist, of the Kirk ; Knox, Hist, of the Reformation, and Works (ed. Laing) ; Hetherington, Hist, of the Church of Scotland ; M Crie, Life of Knox and Life of Melville ; Cunningham, Historical Theology ; Rudloff, Geschichte der Ref. in Schotlland ; Neal, Hist, of the Puritans ; St Giles 1 Lectures (1st ser.) ; Records of the First Pan- Presbyterian Council (Edinburgh, 1877); James Melville, Diary ; Burton, Hist, of Scotland ; Laing, Hist, of Scotland ; Wodrow, Church History and Miscellanies ; Baillie, Letters and Journals ; Records of Presbyteries of St Andrews and Cupar ; Buckle, History; Burnet, Hist. Reform; Robertson, Hist, of Scotland; Spottiswoode, Hist, of Church of Scotland ; Kirkton, Hist, of the Church; Stevenson, Hist, of the Church ; Lament, Diary; Gardiner, History of England, ch. 2 ; Luuderdale Papers (Camdeu Society). VI., for instance, Bucer, with Cranmer s goodwill, laid before the king a sketch of church discipline and reform of episcopal government. Each bishop was to have a council of presbyters, and provincial synods with a royal commissioner were to meet twice a year. Many English joined Lasky s foreign church, and when it was dispersed under Mary settled chiefly in Frankfort, where the dispute took place in which the adherents of the Prayer Book de feated Knox and his followers. These came to England filled with Calvinistic views regarding church and state, only to find the royal supremacy absolute, and uniformity enforced under crushing penalties. Even the foreign Pro testants were compelled to choose the bishop of the diocese as their superintendent. The contest, which began after a scheme of reform had been lost in convocation by one vote in 1562, was ostensibly concerning vestments and cere monies ; really it rested on a far wider basis, one which found place even in Cambridge disputations, viz., " whether the civil magistrate has authority in ecclesiastical affairs." That the Puritans 2 did not look for a speedy setting up of "discipline" may be seen in Cox s letter to Gualter, "We have some discipline among us with relation to men s lives, such as it is ; but if any man would go about to persuade our nobility to submit their necks to that yoke, he may as well venture to pull the hair out of a lion s beard." In 1566 took place the first separation of several deprived London ministers, who determined in future to use the Geneva service book, which they did until they were ar rested in Plumbers Hall on 19th June 1567. During 1567 and 1568 the persecutions in France and Holland drove thousands of Protestants, chiefly Presbyterians, to England. In 1570 the leading Presbyterian views found an exponent in Thomas Cartwright at Cambridge (the headquarters of advanced Puritanism) ; and the temper of parliament is shown by the Act of 1571 for the reformation of disorder in the church, in which, while all mention of discipline is omitted, the doctrinal Articles alone being sanctioned, ordination by presbyters without a bishop is implicitly recognized. It is to be observed that Cartwright and the leading Puritan theologians opposed the idea of separation. The voluntary association of bishop, ministers, and laity at Northampton is interesting as showing how earnest men were thinking. Their discipline was strict and their tone with regard to the state and to the existing con stitution of the church was too bold to allow of indulgence. In spite, however, of constant deprivation, especially in the midland and eastern counties, the obnoxious doctrines spread; and in 1572 the first formal manifesto was put forth in the Admonition to Parliament of Field and Wilcox, with the assent of others. Equality of ministers, choosing of elders and deacons, election of ministers by the congrega tion, objection to prescribed prayer and antiphonal chant ing, the view that preaching is a minister s chief duty and that the magistrate should root out superstition and idolatry, are leading points. The controversy which followed between Whitgift and Cartwright showed how impossible agreement was when the one side argued that the Holy Scriptures were the only standard as well for church government as of faith, and the other that a system of church government was nowhere laid down in Scripture, and might be settled by and accommodated to the civil government under which men happen to be living. On 20th November 1572 the authors of the Admonition set up at Wandsworth what has been called the first presby tery in England. They chose eleven elders and put out 2 We use this word in its widest sense to include all who desired purity in church government and doctrine. They consisted at first of the returned exiles of the Marian persecution, and separated under the stress of Elizabeth s action into Independents and Presbyterians,

the latter remaining inside the church.