THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
officials called ruling elders. In the mode of instituting these officials, a congregational element comes into play. Both the pastor and the ruling elders, as is also the case with the board of deacons, are elected by the members of the local church. In respect of the pastor elect, however, the approbation of the presbytery must precede his installation, and the like sanction is requisite in connection with the transfer of a minister to a new pastorate. Within the group of churches, between which it serves as the immediate bond of connection, the presbytery fulfils a highly important and responsible function. It has been characterized as being the most important unit in the presbyterian system. Ministers and elders make up the presbytery as they do also the synod and general assembly.
The presbyterian type obtains in the Dutch Reformed and the German Reformed communions (see Reformed [Dutch] Church; Reformed [German] Church) as well as in the numerous bodies bearing the Presbyterian name. The polity of Lutheran communions in this country is essentially Presbyterian. There is some distinction, however, as respects the legal authority of the highest assembly. While in the Iowa Synod it may approach the Presbyterian standard, it is very much below that standard in the Synodical Conference, and also below it in theory in the General Synod, the General Council, and the United Synod of the South. In the " Meetings " of the Friends — yearly, quarterly, and monthly — the scheme of a hierarchy of assemblies is illustrated. Still the divergence of their polity from the usual Presbyterian type is by no means slight, since they have no general assembly, and all the meetings are democratic in composition.
VII. Congregational Type: While the distinctive features of the Congregational polity were anticipated in some measure by the i. Dis- Anabaptists (q.v.) on the continent,
tribution. it was in England at the extreme of the Puritan reaction against prelacy that this polity began in the more positive sense its record in modern history. From the days of Robert Browne, Jeremiah Burroughes, John Greenwood, and John Robinson (qq.v.), in the latter part of the sixteenth century, it has had a continuous succession of earnest adherents. The Pilgrims brought it to Plymouth in 1620, and it remained the distinctive form of church order in New England during the entire colonial period. The Baptists in all fields have been almost universally its stanch advocates. It is represented furthermore by the Disciples of Christ, the Christian Connection, the Unitarians, and most branches of the Adventists (qq.v.). The polity of the Universalists lies between the Congregational and the Presbyterian form.
The most pronounced feature of Congregational- ' ism is the autonomy of the individual church. The various churches of a communion may have, very appropriately, means of fellowship and interaction, such as councils, associations, or conventions. But none of these are properly accorded any legislative or judicial authority over the local church. They are assemblies for conference, and their action is ever advisory rather than mandatory. Ecclesias-
tical sovereignty begins and ends with the local church. [Congregationalists hold as a second fundamental of their polity the fellowship 2. Essen- of the churches as exercised in the tials; conventions, associations, and councils Divine referred to.] Within the individual Right; congregation, according to the original Church New-England scheme, the proper offiand State, cers were the pastor, the teacher, the ruling elders, and the deacons. The second and third, however, were not long retained. At present, within communions of the Congregational order, the regular officers are very commonly enumerated as simply pastors and deacons. The principle of the separation of Church and State was contained in initial Congregationalism as represented by the teaching of Robert Browne (q.v.). Baptists have always been earnest advocates of that principle. The peculiar conditions, however, in New England, where at first the company of citizens and that of church members were substantially identical, led to a somewhat intimate connection between Church and State. While in important respects the churches continued to exercise the functions of self-governing societies, State patronage and control ran through no insignificant range (cf. W Walker, in American Church History Series, iii. 249, New York, 1894). The last remnant of this scheme of Congregational " establishments " disappeared in 1833.
In recent years there has been relaxation in the advocacy of the divine right of Congregational polity. Representative writers of the Congregationalists repudiate the notion that an exclusive right can be asserted for any given form of church constitution, and affirm that their own polity is happily conformed to New-Testament principles. Among Baptists the teaching is not uniform. The question occurs whether communions which adhere to the Congregational polity have been able to maintain the scheme of direct democracy, or autonomous local churches, without substantial modification. One indisputable fact is that within the last century instrumentalities for giving expression to the collective sentiment and enterprise of the whole group of churches of like name have been greatly multiplied. Very frequently the advocates of the Congregational polity declare that the style of collectivism which has thus been evolved works no detriment to the Congregational principle, since the councils or associations which have been instituted are engaged to respect the autonomy of the local church. On the other hand, some admit that the introduction of these bodies and the enlargement in various respects of their functions amount to the intrusion of a Presbyterian element into the actual administration.
VIII. Eclectic Types (Methodist Churches):
Among communions which illustrate a union of
Presbyterian and Episcopalian ele-
i. Con- ments a prominent place is occupied by
stituent the Methodist Episcopal Churches (see
Elements. Methodists). There is also a union of
Presbyterian and Episcopalian elements
in the church order of the United Brethren in Christ.
of the Evangelical Association, and of the Unity of