THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
protesting conferences elected delegates to a convention which met May 1, 1845, in Louisville, Ky., and organized the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The general conference of 1844 elected Edmund S. Janes and Leonidas Lent Hamline to the episcopacy — the last to be chosen by the undivided Methodist Episcopal Church. A portentous reaction soon began in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The annual conferences declined to grant the request for a division of the property of the Book Concern. The general conference of 1848 would not receive, in an official capacity, a fraternal delegate from the Methodist Episcopal Church South. It maintained that the plan of separation was unconstitutional, if not that the Southern conference had not acted in harmony with it. It replied to the commissioners of the Southern body that it had no power to negotiate a division of the property with the Southern church without the concurrent vote of the annual conferences, which had been refused. This led to legal proceedings in state and federal courts. The general conference of 1856 contended over several aspects of the slavery question, particularly the church membership of slave-holders. This conference began a movement which, when perfected, altered the constitution so as to permit the election of missionary bishops, the exercise of whose functions should be restricted to a definite territory. Slavery, in 1860, was still a thorn in the church. The general conference of that year, responding to many petitions, replaced, by one more radical, the chapter on slavery, which had come down from 1780. A plan for the introduction of lay representatives included an informal vote of male members over twenty-one years of age, to be followed by a vote by the members of the annual conferences. Two of the border conferences practically repudiated the new chapter on slavery, and, as the civil war was imminent, excitement on that subject was heightened by the rancor prevailing in both the body politic and the body ecclesiastic. The Baltimore, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and Ohio conferences, Maryland, Delaware, and a part of Virginia, became centers of competition for members between the two Episcopal Methodisms. Before 1864 the Baltimore annual conference had lost more than sixty members, and five of its districts had become incorporated with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The general conference of that year took a constitutional vote so as to make the rule on slavery read, " slaveholding, buying, or selling slaves." The informal vote of the laity on lay representation gave a majority against the proposition. A deputation of laymen addressed the conference, criticizing the method of taking the vote, and plans were made to reballot. This conference lengthened the possible duration of pastorates from two years to three, and passed a rule on class-meetings unintentionally so framed as in practise to make attendance voluntary. When the general conference of 1868 convened, the war was over and slavery abolished. The reports justified the claim of 1,146,081 members, with an increase of 222,687 during the past four years. With the exception of the gain of the last quadrennium of the undivided church, this was the
largest in the history of the denomination; of this gain 117,326 were in the southern states.
The second vote for lay representation had failed, but in the interim the Methodist Episcopal Church South had admitted lay delegates, and 6. Lay sentiment speedily changed through- Represen- out the whole church. Nearly all the tation. members of this conference were ready to concede this long-deferred boon, but there were differences of opinion concerning the modus operandi. The plan adopted provided for a lay vote, and, should there be a majority for the innovation, the annual conferences were to vote to change the constitution so as to enable the ensuing general conference, after ratifying that action by a vote of two-thirds, to admit laymen provisionally elected. The required three-fourths were obtained, and on the first day of the general conference of 1872, the lay representatives were seated. The conference selected episcopal residences, and prescribed a method of residential assignment. A law was passed, that the general conference should declare " who of the bishops are effective, and who are noneffective." In 1876 the election of presiding elders was strongly advocated, but being opposed on the grounds of unconstitutionality and inexpediency, the proposition was lost. The body also refused to approve the licensing of women to preach, and allowed conferences having both white and colored members to be divided on race lines " when it shall be requested by a majority of the white and also a majority of the colored members; but in no case where it is not clearly to be seen that such division would improve the work," etc. When the general conference of 1848 refused to receive Lovick Pierce as delegate from the Methodist Episcopal Church South, he announced that, should there ever be official fraternal relation, the Methodist Episcopal Church would be obliged to initiate it. Such preliminary steps having been taken by the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first fraternal delegates from the Methodist Episcopal Church South were welcomed with every demonstration of satisfaction, and their message augmented the spirit of fraternity. From that time the relations between the two churches have been increasingly friendly. The conference of 1880 is notable for having revised the ecclesiastical code. In 1884 William Taylor (q.v.), already the most renowned world-exploring voluntary missionary, was elected missionary bishop for Africa. The general conference also adopted and ordered inserted as a preface to the " Form of Consecrating Bishops," the following:
" This service is not to be understood as an ordination to a higher Order in the Christian Ministry, beyond and above that of Elders or Presbyters, but as a solemn and fitting Consecration for the special and most sacred duties of Superintendency in the Church."
At the conference of 1888 several women presented credentials of election, but their right to seats was challenged on the ground of sex, and by a small majority they were denied admission. It was maintained that the constitution did not allow women to act as representatives; therefore the conference sent the issue to the annual conferences that there might be a lay and clerical vote as