RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Plummer Plymouth Brethren
board of national education. In 1871 he succeeded
his father in the peerage.
Bibliography: F. D. How, William, Conyngkam Plunket,
. . , a Memoir, London, 1900; DNB, Supplement, iii.
275-277.
PLURALITIES: A term in canon law for the holding, by a clergyman, of two or more livings at the same time. The canon law forbids it; but Roman Catholic bishops granted dispensations to commit the offense until by the general council of 1273 the right was taken from them. The popes still exercise this right. In England the power to grant dispensations to hold two benefices with the care of souls is vested in the monarch and in the archbishop of Canterbury. The benefices thus held must not be farther apart than three miles, and the annual value of one of them must be under a hundred pounds.
PLUTARCH OF ATHENS. See Neoplatonism, HI., § 3.
PLUVIAL. See Vestments and Insignia, Ecclesiastical.
PLYMOUTH BRETHREN.
I. History.
Foundation; Record till 1845 (§1). The Newton Episode (§ 2). Defection of Cronin and Kelly (§ 3). Further Divisions (§4). Present Status (§ 5). II. Doctrines.
I. History: The Plymouth Brethren, called by others Darbyites or Exclusive Brethren, and by themselves " Brethren," are to be distinguished from Bible Christians and Disciples of Christ (qq.v.). They took their origin in Ireland about 1828 after a movement under the leadership of John Walker which was a revolt against ministerial i. Founda- ordination, and in England the origin tion ; Rec- is connected with the interest in prophord till ecy stimulated by Edward Irving 1845. (q.v.). Conferences like those under the Irving movement were held from 1828 at Powerscourt Mansion, County Wicklow, Ireland, at which John Nelson Darby (q.v.) was a prominent figure. Prior to this, from 1826 private meetings had been held on Sundays under the leadership of Edward Cronin, who had been a Roman Catholic and later a Congregationalist, for " breaking bread," at which Anthony Norris Groves, John Vesey Parnell (second Lord Congleton), and John Giff ord Bellett, a friend of Darby, were attendants. In 1827 John Darby resigned his charge and in 1828 adopted the non-conformist attitude of the men named above, prompted by the Erastianism of a petition of Archbishop Magee to the House of Commons, and issued a paper on The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ (in vol. i. of his Collected Writings, London, 1867). This served to swell the ranks of the Brethren, so that in 1830 a public " assembly " was started in Aungier Street, Dublin, which emphasized " the coming of the Lord as the present hope of the Church and the presence of the Holy Ghost as that which brought into unity " and "the heavenly character of the Church," and used as the golden text Matt, xviii. 20. Through Francis William Newman (q.v.), Darby had become
acquainted with Benjamin Wills Newton (a lay fellow of Exeter College) and George Vicesimus Wigram at Oxford. He also visited Plymouth (whence the name for the Brethren), where Robert Hawker had been active in Evangelical ministry, and held meetings there, the outcome of which was the first English gathering of the Brethren (1831). The basis of communion was the acceptance of " all that are on the foundation " and rejection of " all error by the Word of God and the help of his ever present Spirit," recognizing that " degeneracy claimed service, and not departure." Before the appearance of Darby's Liberty of Preaching and Teaching (1834), the Brethren had taken their stand upon a free ministry, while other weighty papers by Darby and Newton appeared in the new magazine, The Christian Witness, edited by J. L. Harris. Recruits of note were Henry Craik and Georg (Friedrich) Miiller (q.v.), coming from the Baptist denomination. The latter had been in the service of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, but became convinced that assemblies should consist only of the converted and joined the Brethren, beginning pastoral work at Bristol in 1832 on the lines of their policy, and developing the other activities for which he became famous. Other noted converts to the denomination were Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (q.v.) and Robert Chapman. Darby continued his work in London, then went to the continent, where in French Switzerland he promoted the movement by personal and literary activities, opposing a regular ministry as ignoring the privilege of every believer to direct access to God. While there he became aware of a tendency toward isolation manifesting itself in Newton, shown in his revival of restricted ministry together with doctrinal divergencies, e.g., Newton's adherence to the Reformation teaching of justification, inclusion of the Old-Testament saints in the apocalyptic Church, and belief that the second advent would not precede the " great tribulation," to which the Church would be subject. Failing to secure satisfaction from Newton and his adherents, in 1845 Darby started a separate assembly.
Newton remained at Plymouth for two years. The dispute so far had concerned the special " testimony " of Brethren as such. According to notes of a lecture by Newton acquired by Harris in 1847, Newton's position as to our Lord's 2. The person was unsound : Christ by his in- Newton carnation and as a descendant of Adam Episode, entered upon a relation of distance from God, and as an Israelite incurred from birth the condemnation attaching to the broken law. Tregelles shows that the personal sinlessness was maintained through the seal at Christ's baptism, although lifelong suffering was entailed by his relationship. Newton withdrew the first part of his statement, but did not satisfy Darby, and a definite alienation separated the two men. Newton severed his connection with the Brethren, but continued till his death (1898) to write on prophetical subjects. Tregelles is reported by Scrivener to have died in the communion of the Church of England. In 1848 the Bristol company did not refuse fellowship to the adherents of Newton, and one of
Plymouth Brethren