I40 MINUTE BOOK OF THE WIRKSWORTH CLASSIS. 



(c) To inquire into the state of congregations. 



(d) To decide cases too difficult for settlement by the parochial 

 elders, or from which there was appeal. 



(e) To discharge such other legislative functions as did not 

 clash with the authority of the higher courts. 



The Provincial Synod was the next superior court. It consisted 

 of delegates from the different Classical Assemblies. Appeals 

 from the decisions of the Classis could in certain instances be 

 carried there, and it adjudicated on matters involving the welfare 

 or regulation of the whole province or county. It is a mistake of 

 Stoughton and other historians of Presbyterianism to affirm that 

 candidates for theological examination and ordination had to ap- 

 pear before the Provincial Synod. The power of examination and 

 ordination of candidates for the ministry was distinctly conferred, 

 by a Parliamentary Ordinance of 1646, on each Classis, and we 

 find the Wirksworth Classis regularly exercising that right. 



To crown this series of courts, it was requisite to have a 

 General Assembly, composed of delegates from all the Provincial 

 Synods — but to this completeness Presbyterianism in England 

 never attained.* 



This elaborate form of Church government was far more 

 perfect on paper than in reality. Even Provincial Synods are only 

 known to have been constituted in a complete manner in two 

 districts — Londont and Lancashire.^ Historians have, however, 



* On the subject of Presbyterianism in Eng'and during the Commonweallh, 

 see Neal's History of the Puritans, McCrie's Annals of English Presbytery, 

 Stoughton's Church of the Commonwealth, and especially Hibbert's History of 

 the Foundations in Manchester. 



t The records or Minute Book of the London Provincial Assembly are con- 

 tained in a large folio MS. book in the library of Sion College, London Wall. 

 It dates from May 3rd, 1647, to August 15th, 1660. With it are bound up 

 " a vindication of Presbyterian Government," and two other MS. treatises. 

 London was divided into ten classes. At first the number of delegates from 

 each classis was limited to two ministers and four elders, but this proportion 

 was afterwards increased to three and six respectively. The first meeting of 

 this London Assembly was held in the Convocation House, St. Paul's. 

 Subsequent Sessions were held in Blackfriars Vestry, in Aldermanbury, in 

 Painter Stiiners' Hall, but most often at Sion College. 



% The original Minute Book of the Manchester Classis (the first of the nine 

 Classis into which Lancashire was divided) belongs to the Trustees of Cross 

 St. Chapel, Manchester, and is at the present time in the temporary possession 



