Classified according to religion, the various denominations were, in 1901, as follows: Presbyterians, 65,310; Episcopalians, 44,874; Methodists, 49,909; Roman Catholics, 35, 622; Baptists, 9098; Lutherans, 16,473; Mennonites, 15,222; Greek Catholics, 7898; other denominations, 9903; not specified, 638.
Though the jus divinum of presbytery is not now insisted upon as in some former times, Presbyterians claim that it is the church polity set forth in the New Testament.
Elders or bishops, are the highest permanent officers in the Church and are of equal rank; (3) that an outward and visible Church is one in the sense that a smaller part is controlled by a larger and all the parts by the whole.'9 Though Presbyterians are unanimous in adopting the general system of church polity as here outlined, and in claiming New 1 Phil.
It used to be customary among Presbyterians to stand during public prayer, and to remain seated during the acts of praise, but this peculiarity is no longer maintained.
During 1567 and 1568 the persecutions in France and Holland drove thousands of Protestants, mostly Presbyterians, to England.
In 1876 the union of the Presbyterian Church in England with the English congregations of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland gathered all English Presbyterians (with some exceptions) into one church, "The Presbyterian 1876.
This, except historically, is a misnomer, for, though descended from the old English Presbyterians, they retain nothing of their distinctive doctrine of polity - nothing of Presbyterianism, indeed, but the name.
From 1625 to 1638 the history of Irish Presbyterians is one of bare existence.
A majority of the Ulster Protestants were Presbyterians, and in a great religious revival which took place the ministers of the Scottish regiments stationed in Ireland took a leading part.
In 1679 the rising in Scotland which ended in the battle of Bothwell Bridge brought trouble on the Irish Presbyterians in spite of their loyal addresses disowning it.
Beginning with 1620, New England was colonized by English Presbyterians of the two types which developed from the discussions of the Westminster Assembly (1643-1648) into Presbyterianism and Congregationalism.
In New York City, Francis Doughty preached to Puritan Presbyterians in 1643; in 1650 he was succeeded by Richard Denton (1586-1662).
About 1695 Thomas Bridge, with Presbyterians from Fairfield county, Connecticut, settled at Cohansey, in West Jersey.
At Charleston a mixed congregation of Scotch Presbyterians and English Puritans was organized in 1690.
But there were exceptions: Irish Presbyterians from Ulster formed a church at Londonderry, New Hampshire, which, about 1729, grew into a presbytery; the Boston presbytery, organized in 1745, became in 1774 the synod of New England with three presbyteries and sixteen ministers; and there were two independent presbyteries, that of "the Eastward" organized at Boothbay, Maine, in 1771, and that of Grafton, in New Hampshire, founded by Eleazar Wheelock and other ministers interested in Dartmouth College.
The Presbyterians from the Scotch Established Church combined with the American Presbyterian Church, but the separating churches of Scotland organized independent bodies.
Presbyterians of different churches in the United States in 1906 numbered 1,830,555; of this total 322,542 were in Pennsylvania, where there were 248,335 members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (the Northern Church), being more than one-fifth of its total membership; 56,587 members of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, being more than two-fifths of its total membership; 2709 members of the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, three-tenths of its total membership; the entire membership of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States and Canada (440), 3150 members of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church, nearly one-fourth of its total membership; and 2065 members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, general synod, about five-ninths of its total membership. The strength of the Church in Pennsylvania is largely due to the Scotch-Irish settlements in that state.
In New York state there were 199,923 Presbyterians, of whom 186,278 were members of the Northern Church and 10,115 of the United Presbyterian Church of North America.
In Ohio there were 138,768 Presbyterians, 114,772 being of the Northern and 18,336 of the United Presbyterian Church.
Are sketches of "The United Presbyterians," by J.
Foster, and "The Southern Presbyterians," by Thomas C. Johnson.
The Church of England claims as adherents 39% of the population, and the Roman Catholic Church 22%; next in numerical strength are the Wesleyans and other Methodists, numbering 12% i the various branches of the Presbyterians 11%, Congregationalists 2%, and Baptists 2%.
The contention brought to a crisis the struggle between the moderate Presbyterians and the Scots on the one side, who decided to maintain the monarchy and fought for an accommodation and to establish Presbyterianism in England, and on the other the republicans who would be satisfied with nothing less than the complete overthrow of the king, and the Independents who regarded the establishment of Presbyterianism as an evil almost as great as that of the Church of England.
Cromwell, though greatly disliking the policy of the Presbyterians, yet gave little support at first to the army in resisting parliament.
If that authority falls to nothing,"he said," nothing can follow but confusion."The Presbyterians, however, now engaged in a plan for restoring the king under their own control, and by the means of a Scottish army, forced on their policy, and on the 27th of May ordered the immediate disbandment of the army, without any guarantee for the payment of arrears.
If he would not forthwith come and lead them,"they had told him," they would go their own way without him."The supremacy of the army without a guiding hand meant anarchy, that of the Presbyterians the outbreak of another civil war.
He then marched north into Scotland, following the forces of Monro, and established a new government of the Argyle faction at Edinburgh; replying to the Independents who disapp-oved of his mild treatment of the Presbyterians, that he desired "union and right understanding between the godly people, Scots, English, Jews, Gentiles, Presbyterians, Anabaptists and all; ...
Had succeeded in forming a new union of royalists and presbyterians, and another campaign became inevitable.
The Baptist and Methodist churches are the leading religious denominations in the state; but there are also Presbyterians, Lutherans, members of the Christian Connexion (O'Kellyites), Disciples of Christ (Campbellites) Episcopalians, Friends, Roman Catholics, Moravians and members of other denominations.
In politics he did much to influence Irish and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians to support the Whig party.
The insistence on an inward spiritual experience was the great contribution made by Friends ' At the time referred to, and during the Commonwealth, the pulpits of the cathedrals and churches were occupied by Episcopalians of the Richard Baxter type, Presbyterians, Independents and a few Baptists.
Such teaching necessarily brought Fox and his friends into conflict with all the religious bodies of England, and they were continually engaged in strife with the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Episcopalians and the wilder sectaries, such as the Ranters and the Muggletonians.
The largest religious denomination in the state in 1906 was the Roman Catholic, with 378,288 communicants out of a total of 834,442 members of all religious denominations; there were 267,322 Lutherans, 47,637 Methodists, 27,569 Presbyterians, 24,309 Baptists, 22,264 Congregationalists, and 18,763 Protestant Episcopalians.
Nor do Scottish presbyterians now recognize any special class of doctors, unless we suppose that these are represented by professors of theology.
The majority of the white inhabitants are Protestants, the bodies with the largest number of adherents being the Anglicans, Dutch Reformed Church, Presbyterians and Wesleyans.
The Presbyterians numbered 12,184, the Wesleyan Methodists 11,992, the Dutch Reformed Church 11,340, the Lutherans 4852, and the Baptists 2193.
Next in numbers according to European membership among the Protestant bodies are Presbyterians, 19,821 (including 1194 natives), and Methodists 37,812 (including 20,648 natives).
He held a prominent place in the New School branch of the Presbyterians, to which he adhered on the division of the denomination in 1837; he had been tried (but not convicted) for heresy in 1836, the charge being particularly against the views expressed by him in Notes on Romans (1835) of the imputation of the sin of Adam, original sin and the atonement; the bitterness stirred up by this trial contributed towards widening the breach between the conservative and the progressive elements in the church.
He was foremost in support of the claims of the Presbyterians and against the bishops; advocated the indiscriminate infliction of penalties, and demanded that the officials of the commonwealth should be compelled to refund their salaries.
This parliament was bent upon the humiliation of the Presbyterians, and Prynne appears in his familiar character of protester.
The continued attacks upon the Presbyterians led him to publish his Short, Sober, Pacific Examination of Exuberances in the Common Prayer, as well as the Apology for Tender Consciences touching Not Bowing at the Name of Jesus.
And has an average depth of 30 ft., is Winona (formerly Spring Fountain) Park (incorporated 1895 largely by Presbyterians), which primarily aims to combine the advantages of Northfield, Massachusetts, and Chautauqua, New York.
There is a Roman Catholic mission in Hangchow, and the Church Missionary Society, the American Presbyterians, and the Baptists have stations.
The original aim was to influence the old Nestorian Church rather than to set up a new religious body, but the wide difference between Presbyterians and an Oriental Church rendered the attempt abortive, and the result of the labours of the Americans has been the establishment since 1862 of a Syrian Protestant community in Persia, with some adherents in Turkey.
He conceived it as " a religious monopoly " to which " the nation at large contributes," while " Presbyterians alone receive," and which placed him in " a relation to the state " so " seriously objectionable " as to be " impossible to hold."5 The invidious distinction it drew between Presbyterians on the one hand, and Catholics, Friends, freethinking Christians, unbelievers and Jews on the other, who were compelled to support a ministry they " conscientiously disapproved," offended his always delicate conscience; while possibly the intellectual and ecclesiastical atmosphere of the city proved uncongenial to his liberal magnanimity.
Of the total about 45% are Roman Catholics, 32% Protestant Episcopalians, and 16% Presbyterians, the Roman Catholic faith prevailing in the mountainous districts and the Protestant in the towns and lowlands.
As the Anglican divines soon ceased to attend the assembly, and the Independents were few in number, it was the work of Presbyterians only, the Scottish members carrying their proposal to make it an independent document and not a mere revision of the Thirty-nine Articles.
The Presbyterians and Protestant Episcopalians each outnumber the Roman Catholics in Belfast, and these three are the chief religious divisions.
Of these 401,720 were Baptists; 3 1 7,495 Methodists; 308,356 Roman Catholics; 62,090 Presbyterians; 39,550 Disciples of Christ; 34,006 members of the Churches of Christ; 27,437 Lutherans; 14,246 Protestant Episcopalians; 7745 members of the German Evangelical Synod of North America, and 1856 Congregationalists.
In 1906 it was estimated that there were 788,667 communicants of all religious denominations; of these 207,607 were Roman Catholics; 164,329 Methodists; 117,668 Lutherans; 60,081 Presbyterians; 55,948 Disciples of Christ; 44,096 Baptists; 37,061 Congregationalists; 11,681 members of the German Evangelical Synod; and 8990 Protestant Episcopalians.
