Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/715

Rh IRELAND.] P R E S B Y T E R I A N I S M 691 House Plot. Such were the relations of the Presbyterians to the church. Their relations to the Independents were the old ones of jealousy and hostility. They themselves always looked for a position in the establishment ; the principles of the Independents excluded the idea. Attempts at union occurred, but they were useless. From this time the history of the Presbyterians is lost in that of Dissent generally. James refused to enforce the penal laws ; but they enforced themselves, and Baxter was one of the first to suffer. Monmouth s attempt only increased their sufferings. In 1687 their prospects bright ened. James II., following his brother s policy, issued his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, as he had already done in Scotland and Ireland. The motive, as Hallain says, was that already mentioned, &quot;to enlist under the standard of arbitrary power those who had been its most intrepid and steadiest adversaries.&quot; In the addresses of thanks sent up the leading Dissenters (except the Quakers) refused to join ; indeed, at a general meeting of ministers a resolution was passed directly condemning the dispensing power. The action of James, by which the work of the Cor poration Act was in a great measure undone and the power in corporations once more thrown into Dissenting hands, was equally unsuccessful. Throughout his reign the king failed to comprehend that the Dissenters were, first of all, Protestants. William III. s declaration from Torbay recom mended comprehension, and in March 1G89 he urged it upon parliament. A Bill was brought into the Lords for abrogating the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and for abolishing the Test Act so far as Dissent was concerned. The High-Church party, however, was strong enough to secure its failure. Another Bill with the same intent, as well as attempts to relieve the Dissenters of kneeling at the sacrament and using the cross in baptism, and to ex plain away &quot; assent and consent,&quot; as required by the Act of Uniformity, was also jealously and successfully opposed. By the Act of Toleration, however, all the penal laws, ex cept the Corporation and Test Acts and those against the deniers of the Trinity, were removed. But it did not abrogate the statutes of Elizabeth and James I., which exacted certain penalties on such as absented themselves from the parish church. Heresy, too, was still subject to the church courts. A last attempt was made, by an ecclesi astical commission of thirty divines, to frame a scheme of comprehension. It was vehemently opposed in convoca tion ; the High Churcrnnen withdrew from it ; and it was never submitted to parliament. Thus ended the last of the fruitless attempts to comprehend Dissent within the estab lishment. During William s reign the hatred of the church to the Presbyterians had been obliged to lie dormant. Anne s accession, however, led at once to an attempt on the part of the churchmen to revenge themselves by the intro duction of the Occasional Conformity Bill for the toleration which they had been compelled to practise. This, however, they were unable to carry through against the opposition, of which Burnet was the foremost champion. Having secured toleration, the Dissenters began to think of their own internal condition. A coalition of Presby terians and Independents was thought desirable. The mere mention of such a thing shows how profoundly the complexion of affairs had changed. Under the name of &quot; United Brethren &quot; about eighty ministers of London met and drew up heads of an agreement, in nine articles, on church government and ecclesiastical discipline. Article 8 provided that the union should not discuss doctrine, and named as auxiliaries to Scripture the Articles, the Savoy Confession, and the Westminster Catechism. Mutual con cessions were now made. The Independents gave up the necessity of the consent of a church to the ordination of a minister, and only made it desirable ; and the office of doctor, as distinct from pastor and ruling elder, was passed over. But the Presbyterians gave up far more, viz., the authoritative power of synods over individual churches. In other words, the Presbyterians gave up and the Inde pendents retained each the kernel of their system. Excom munication was emasculated. The prerogative of synods was reduced to occasional meetings and a reverential regard for their judgment. But this arrangement only affected London and its neighbourhood. Moreover, while their views of church government were so profoundly modified in the Independent direction, a change equally noticeable took place in their doctrinal views. From the beginning of Modern the 1 8th century the greater number of their congregations doctrinal became Unitarian, while those which remained orthodox teml ~ joined themselves to the Scottish Church. The fact that at en a time when full toleration was enjoyed the Presbyterian principle ever grew weaker shows how little it had pene trated into the English mind. During the present century a new establishment of Presbyterian congregations has taken place upon the Scottish models, and indeed at first as an offset of the Scottish Church itself. In May 1836, how ever, the synod of the Presbyterian Church of England was established, in entire independence of, though in friendly union with, the Scottish Church, containing at the present time (1885) 10 presbyteries with 280 congregations. 1 Ireland. Presbyterianism in Ireland dates from the Ireland, plantation of Ulster, by which a large part of Ireland ceased to be Papist and was peopled afresh by Scotsmen and Englishmen. An independent Protestant church was settled in James I. s reign, and at the convocation of 1615 the first confession of faith was drawn up by James U T ssher, which implicitly admitted the validity of Presbyterian ordination and denied the distinction between bishop and presbyter. It was not, however, until 1626 that the begin- Estab- ning of the Presbyterian system was laid by Hugh Campbell, listed in a Scot, who, having become converted, &quot; invited some of his honest neighbours ... to meet him at his house on the last Friday of the month. ... At last they grew so numerous, that the ministers thought fit that some of them should be still with them to prevent what hurt might follow.&quot; Within the Episcopal Church, and supported by its endowments, Blair, Livingstone, and others maintained a Scottish Pres byterian communion. From 1625, however, to 1638 the history of Presbyterianism in Ireland is one of bare exist ence, not of progress. The ministers, silenced by Went- worth, fled finally to Scotland, after an ineffectual attempt to reach New England, and there took a leading part in the great movement of 1638. In 1639 the &quot;black oath,&quot; which forbade the making of any covenants, was forced by Wentworth upon the Ulster Scots. His absence in 1640 raised hopes which Avere destroyed by the Irish rebellion of 1641, whereby the Protestant interest was for the time ruined. The violence of the storm had, however, fallen upon the Episcopal Church, and her desolation made the rise of Presbyterianism more easy. A majority of the Ulster Protestants were Presbyterian, and in the great revival which now took place the ministers who accom panied the Scottish regiments took a leading part. Sessions were formed in four regiments, and the first regular presby tery was held at Carrickfergus on Friday 10th June 1642, attended by five ministers and by ruling elders from the four regimental sessions. This presbytery supplied ministers to as many congregations as possible, and for the remainder the ministers were sent from Scotland with full powers of ordination. Many of the Episcopal clergy also joined the 1 Chief Preferences. Xeal, Hist, of the Puritans; Brook, Cart- icri /ht ; Strype, Whitgift ; Hetheringtou, Hist, of Westminster As sembly; Mitchell, Hist, of Westminster AssemUy; Orme, Baxter and Owen; Halley, Lancashire, its Nonconformity Toulmin, Hist, of Di&amp;lt;- scnters; Marsden, Puritans ; Purl. Hist. ; riiilip Henry, Diary ; and the various English histories.