RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Krumbacher Lay Preaching
crowded cities and neglected suburbs (see FRANCIS, SaInT, OF ASSISI, AND THE FRANCISCAN ORDER). The same revival of lay preaching took
3. Medieval place in Germany for two centuries and Pre- preceding the Reformation. The Breth- Reforma- ren of the Common Life (see Common tion Lirt, BRETHREN OF THE) was founded
Revival. with the double object of a return
to simplicity of Christian living and of evangelism of “the common people’; the Brothers united in communities, and worked at their various trades. They were laymen, trained to preach in the vulgar tongue, and the tenets of the Church, when introduced in their preaching, were practically applied, rather than doctrinally expounded, while their discourses were enlivened by examples and confirmed by the statements of wise and experienced teachers. Collations, which were a sort of edifying private addresses, and possessed still more of a popular character, served among the Brethren as a supplement to preaching. They took place first in the community-houses, in each of which, upon the afternoons of Sundays and saints’ days, a collation was given and a passage of Scripture, especially from the Gospels, was read, explained, and practically applied, while occasionally, in order to enliven and improve the discourse, questions were addressed by the speaker to the audience. The Brethren of the Common Life did very much to prepare the Germans for the Reformation, and it was the Reformation which ended their existence by taking over their work. In England Wyclif did not scruple to send out ‘‘ unauthorized preachers,” with Bible-portions in the vulgar tongue, who preached simple, practical Gospel sermons in homely style to homely people. It is probable that some of the ‘‘ unauthorized ’’ preachers had received priestly orders, although they lacked the bishop’s license to preach; some, however, were laymen pure and simple.
The English Reformation did not, as might have been expected, lead to any immediate revival of lay preaching. This was largely due to the heavy hand
of the State on the clergy, whose 4. English preaching was restricted as much as
Reforma- possible lest it might prove too excition and ting, and to the penal laws against Common- all separation from the State Church. wealth But when the conflict came between Periods. the Stuarts and the Puritans, the lay
preacher began to assert himself; and the more the State Church sought to repress nonconformist ministers, the more willing were devout dissidents from the State Church to listen to the lay preacher. In a petition to James I. on his accession, the Independents and others held that laymen, ‘‘ discreet, faithful, and able men, though not in the office of the ministry,’ might be appointed to preach the Gospel. There was, however, considerable division of opinion in the Puritan ranks on the subject, for the Independents and Presbyterians were engaged in defending the freely chosen minister of a “separated church ” as divinely commissioned equally with the minister episcopally ordained, and it was feared that the use of lay preachers might prejudice the controversial claim. Crom-
well supported lay preaching and sharply rebuked the Presbyterians who were the chief Puritan objectors to it. There was a great deficiency of preachers during the time of the Civil War, especially as hostilities had brought university work to a standstill, but the pious soldiers of the Parliamentary armies remedied the deficiency by raising preachers in their own ranks who exercised their gifts in camps and garrisons. Parliament took the matter in hand and required intending preachers to submit to a test of their gifts, “‘ by those who shall be appointed thereto by both Houses of Parliament”; but the soldiers ignored the direction and were loyal to their favorite preachers.
The rise of the Quakers was the first example of a sect dependent entirely on lay evangelism. George Fox (q.v.), like Montanus, held as a primary article of faith that the Holy Spirit inspires men and women irrespective of all human ordinances, and that the man or woman so inspired is bound to exercise the prophetic gift. Fox and his followers traveled the country over, fearlessly preaching their gospel. Under Cromwell the Quakers were allowed the largest liberty, and Fox organized Quaker lay preaching. In 1663 thirty itinerant preachers were with him and the number was doubled in the following year; a woman preacher belonged to his little band as early as 1650, and he had seventythree women evangelists at his command before his death. All the Friends, to this day, give equal rights to men and women preachers. The Quaker preachers were great missionaries. They established themselves in New England, and it seemed likely that they would become the dominant spiritual power in several States. The audacity of the Quakers is almost incredible, for George Robinson preached in Jerusalem, and Mary Fisher succeeded in delivering a gospel message to Mohammed IV. in full divan, encompassed with his army, girt with glittering, adoring courtiers.
The cold wave of rationalism almost quenched lay preaching in England, while the tolerance of non-conformity, with the freedom given for the training of ministers and the opening of chapels, made it seem unnecessary. The evangelical revival came,
however, and established lay preach-
6. John ing on such a footing as has made it
Wesley the mainstay of Methodist evangelizaand the Lay tion ever since. John Wesley himself,
Preachers. as an ordained Anglican clergyman, was at first prejudiced against lay
preaching, but he later changed his position and himself undertook the training of lay preachers, for whose instruction many of his books were primarily written. In 1745 he replied to attacks on lay preaching in his Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, reminding critics of the severe examination of lay preachers in practical and experimental theology, calling attention to the fact that the Jewish scribes, who were the ordinary preachers of their time, were laymen, and showing that in Sweden, Germany, Holland, and in almost every Reformed Church of Europe, before any one was ordained he was required to preach publicly for a year or more ad probandum facultatem. It is noteworthy that to
5. The Quakers.
Lay Preaching