RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Polity, Ecclesiastical
the most part since the revolution of 1688 the royal supremacy has signified little else than a chief share in dispensing ecclesiastical dignities. As for the lay body in general, outside of the function of parliament in relation to the establishment, it has had very scanty recognition in the plan of government of the Church of England. It has been wholly shut out from the houses of convocation (q.v.), which however cannot perform any real work of ecclesiastical government without being favored with " letters of business " from the sovereign. In the view of not a few thoroughly devoted members of the Church of England the situation calls for remedy. It is urged that in order to be inspired with due interest in the Church laymen must be associated with the clergy in the management of affairs in parish councils, diocesan councils, and the houses of convocation. Only when the lay element comes to this measure of recognition, it is argued, will the nation have any disposition to grant the Church due autonomy by enlarging the prerogatives of its own proper assemblies. This feature has become well-established in the daughter communions. \In the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States the laity has been represented from the start in the house of deputies, which, with the coordinate house of bishops, forms the General Convention, which constitutes the highest legislative authority in that Church) (see Protestant Episcopal Church). Laymen have seats also in the diocesan conventions with equal right of voice and vote. Usually laymen help to make up the diocesan committee which serves the bishop as an advisory body ; they have also a large function in the settling of pastors and in determining the period of their incumbency. Thus in the polity of this communion episcopalianism has been united with a considerable Presbyterian element. Partly owing to the influence of this American example a similar polity has gained wide currency in the churches affiliated with the Church of England. Laymen have been members of the governing assemblies of the Episcopal Church of Ireland since 1871. The same has been true of the Scottish Episcopal Church since the revision of its constitution in 1876. The principal colonial churches — in Canada, South Africa, and Australia — as they enjoy practical autonomy have adopted in like manner the plan of governing assemblies composed jointly of clergy and laity.
VI. Presbyterian Type: This form of polity, which received its initial impulse from Calvin and
the Genevan model, was represented i. Rise and before the end of the sixteenth century Extension, in Poland, various parts of Germany,
Holland, France, and Scotland, and gained a standing later as an appreciable factor throughout the English-speaking world. The Calvinian conception of the Church from which the Presbyterian type proceeded has some points of distinction from the original Lutheran conception. In the former a less exclusive stress was placed upon the Church as a channel of grace through the saving ministry of the Word. Prominence was also given to the office of the Church as an instrument for promoting the rule of God in the world. Proceeding from this standpoint, the Calvinian communions
naturally made larger account of discipline than did the Lutheran, and were somewhat more ready to carry a militant spirit into their religion. The training of the elect to give practical effect to God's sovereign right was relatively a conspicuous feature in their ecclesiastical scheme, tin the Calvinian theory State and Church were ratted as coordinate powers, having each its own province. The extent of the alliance which might be consummated between them was regarded as determined by the possibilities of mutual serviceableness. At Geneva Calvin thought it appropriate to give considerable scope to the prerogatives of the State in ecclesiastical management as being best suited to achieve the aim of the Church, the practical rule of God over the community. In Holland also Presbyterianism made connection with the State, and in Scotland it has held the status of an " established " religion. It received legal establishment in England under the Long Parliament, but did not have opportunity to enter largely into the standing assigned in the legislation. Generally, a rather jealous attitude toward State interference has been characteristic of Presbyterian bodies. In the American version of the Westminster Confession the legitimate function of civil magistrates in relation to ecclesiastical matters is defined to be the impartial protection of all denominations of Christians. The claim of divine right for their polity has had considerable currency among Presbyterians. Its advocates, however, have never meant 2. Divine by this claim what is asserted for the Right; papal constitution in the bull Unam Character- Sanctam (see Boniface VIII.) and imistics. plied in the anathemas of the Vatican Council. It has not been held at any period that the acceptance of presbyterial rule is a condition of salvation. In the Westminster Assembly there were stanch Presbyterians, and enough of them to constitute a respectable minority, who opposed the theory of the jus divinum. fin later declarations it has often been affirmed that the presbyterial form of church government is agreeable to and founded on the Word of God. But no violence is done in construing these statements in the sense of this declaration in the Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church South (1879): "The scriptural doctrine of presbytery is necessary to the perfection of the order of the visible Church, but is not essential to its existence." (The central feature of Presbyterian church constitution is a series of governing assemblies, constituted on the principle of representation, in which series the decisions of a lower assembly are subject to revision by a higher, up to one vested with supreme jurisdiction though not free in its exercise from certain constitutional restrictions. A second prominent feature is the parity of ministers, or the exclusion of all hierarchical gradations. A third feature is the union of ministers and laymen in the governing assemblies^ According to a typical arrangement the governing assemblies are of four kinds, namely, church session, presbytery, synod, and general assembly. The first, which is entrusted with the supervision of the spiritual interests of the local church, is composed of the pastor and the lay
Polity, Ecclesiastical