Page:A History of Horncastle from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.djvu/96

Rh first Warden; in 1876 a college was opened at Birmingham, named after the great founder, "Bourne College." At Sunderland a Theological College was opened in 1868, the former Infirmary building being bought; and here, from that date till 1881, Dr. William Antliff, assisted, and afterwards, succeeded by Mr. T. Greenfield, trained candidates for the ministry. The college was afterwards transferred to a new building at Alexandra Park, Manchester.

In 1889, at the 70th Annual Conference, held in Bradford, the membership of the society numbered 194,347, with 1,038 itinerant and 16,229 local preachers; 430,641 Sunday School scholars, 4,436 chapels and 1,465 smaller places of worship; the value of the connexion's property being estimated at over £3,218,320.

For these details I am largely indebted to the notes of the late Mr. William Pacy, of the Wong, Horncastle, and to the courtesy of the Rev. R. B. Hanley, Minister 1903-5.

Next in size to the Wesleyan Chapel and its Sunday Schools, on the west side of Queen Street, are the Chapel and Sunday Schools of the Independent, or Congregational, community, which stand nearly opposite, on the east side of the same street; the former being a handsome substantial building of brick, enclosed by a high wall, and tall iron rails and gate, to the precincts in front, at the north end. Its dimensions are 50-ft. by 36-ft., with schools behind, of the same solid structure, as will be seen hereafter, erected at a later date.

Like the Baptists this society dates from the time of the Commonwealth, or even earlier, though at first known by a different name. They arose, indeed, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The persecutions of Protestants, under Queen Mary, drove many to take refuge in Germany and in Geneva, where they became familiar with the worship of the sects established there, which, as an unchecked reaction from the superstitious and elaborate ceremonies of Roman Catholicism, took a more extreme form than the carefully developed Reformation of the English Church allowed. These persons, returning to England in the reign of Elizabeth, found, as it seemed to them, too much Romish doctrine and practice still retained; the Reformation, according to their ideas, had not gone far enough.

The Queen, as head of the English Church, was not disposed to listen to their demands for further change, and they were themselves too much divided to have the power to enforce them; dissension and disruption were the consequence. A chief mover in this process of disintegration was one, Robert Brown, who founded a sect called the "Brownists." He was the son of a Mr. Anthony Brown, of Tolethorpe near Stamford, in Rutlandshire, whose father, a man of good position, had obtained the singular privilege (granted only to others of noble birth) by a Charter of Henry VIII., of wearing his cap in the presence of Royalty. Robert Brown was educated at Cambridge, graduating from Corpus Christi College, and became a Schoolmaster in Southwark. About 1580 he began to put forward opinions condemnatory of the established church. He held, as opposed to the uniformity of worship by law established, that each minister, with his congregation, were "a law unto themselves;" that each such small community had a right to be independent of all others; that it was not ordination which gave a minister authority to preach, but the fact that he was the nominee of a congregation; that councils or synods might