370 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



scarcely less priestly, and, in some respects, more coercive, than the 

 organization of the church from which they diverged. Even among 

 the Quakers, notwithstanding the pronounced individuality implied 

 by their theory, there has grown up a definite creed and a body exer- 

 cising control. 



Modern Nonconformity in England has much more decidedly ex- 

 hibited the essential trait of anti-sacerdotalism. It has done this in 

 various minor ways as well as in a major way. 



There is the multiplication of sects, with which by foreign observ- 

 ers England is reproached, but which, philosophically considered, is 

 one of her superior traits. For the rise of every new sect, implying 

 a re-assertion of the right of private judgment, is a collateral result 

 of the nature which makes free institutions possible. 



Still more significant do we see this multiplication of sects to be 

 if we consider the assigned causes of division. Take, for instance, the 

 case of the AVesleyans. In 1797 the Methodist New Connexion or- 

 ganized itself on the principle of lay participation in church govern- 

 ment. In 1810 the Primitive Methodists left the original body : the 

 cause being a desire to have "lay representatives to the Conference." 

 Again, in 1834, prompted by opposition to priestly power, the Wes- 

 leyan Methodist Association was formed : its members claiming more 

 influence for the laity, and resisting central interference with local 

 government. And then in 1849, there was yet another secession from 

 the Methodist body, similarly characterized by resistance to ministerial 

 authority. 



Of course, in sects less coercively governed, there have been fewer 

 occasions for rebellions against priestly control ; but there are not 

 wanting illustrations, some of them supplied even by the small and 

 free bodies of the Unitarians, of this tendency to divide in pursuance 

 of the right of private judgment. Moreover, in the absence of a dis- 

 sidence sufficiently great to ])roduce secession, there is everywhere a 

 largS amount of express disagreement on minor points among those 

 holding what is supposed to be the same body of beliefs. Perhaps 

 the most curious instance of this is furnished by the established Church. 

 I do not refer simply to its divisions into high, and low, and broad ; 

 all implying more or less of the nonconforming spirit within it. I 

 refer more especially to the strange anomaly that the ritualists are 

 men who, while asserting priestly authority, are themselves rebels 

 against priestly authority — defy their ecclesiastical superiors in their 

 detennination to assert ecclesiastical supremacy. 



But the universally admitted claim to religious freedom shown in 

 these various waj^s, is shown still more by the growing movement for 

 disestablishment of the Church. This movement, which, besides tac- 

 itly denying all sacerdotal authority, denies the power of a govern- 

 ment, even though elected by a majority of votes, to prescribe relig- 

 ious belief or practice, is the logical outcome of the Protestant theory. 



