MINUTE BOOK OF THE WIRKSWORTH CLASSIS. 147 



ministers almost always outnumber the " Others," the lay element 

 becoming very sparse indeed towards the end of the period. The 

 principal men of the district evidently stood aloof, there being no 

 family of distinction among the elders entered as attending the 

 classical meetings, with the sole exception of various members of 

 the ancient family of Buxton, of Bradbourn. This slack atten- 

 dance was attempted to be remedied, but not with much success, 

 by a vote of the Classis on May 17th, 1653, when it was ordered 

 that " every congregation presbyterated within this Classis shalbe 

 desired to send to every classicall meeting two (or one at the least) 

 of their congregationall elders to joyne with the Ministers in 

 managing the affaires of the Classis." 



This indisposition to take office, no doubt, partly arose from 

 the troublous state of the times, and from fear of identifying 

 themselves with a party whose leaders in Parliament had been 

 forcibly ejected by " Colonel Pride's purge," in December, 1648 ; 

 but may we not fairly surmise that the influential gentlemen of the 

 district (whether they took the side of the King or the Parliament) 

 clung for the most part, though not with any boldness, to the faith 

 of their fathers ? The lay element is essential to the working of 

 the Presbyterian system — indeed, it has been spoken of by one of 

 their recent historians as " the right arm." This right arm, never 

 strong in England, as years passed on, became weaker and 

 weaker. The people, recognising in the Presbyterian ministers 

 men, for the most part, of culture and ability — many of them 

 being half churchmen, and many of them the old Anglican priests 

 of the Low Church party, whose consciences had permitted them 

 to serve under a Presbytery — accepted their services without much 

 reluctance ; but they could not embrace with any heartiness the 

 principle of eldership, with its exercise of discipline, and partici- 

 pation in the rite of laying on of hands, which every tradition had 

 taught them to regard as peculiarly the attribute of the priesthood. 

 In Scotland it was otherwise. There Presbyterianism had not to 

 fight with the crude fanaticism of the Independents, and the voice 

 of the Church had, by its own fault, become stifled, by taking the 

 unpatriotic side. Instead of its Parliament being purged of Pies- 



