Independents

Independents, or CONGREGATIONALISTS. The distinctive principle of the Congregational church polity is that every Christian church or congregation is entitled 'to elect its own officers, to manage all its own affairs, and to stand independent of, and irresponsible to all authority, saving that only of the Supreme and Divine Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ.' They regard the Sacred Scriptures as their only standard, and hold that human traditions, fathers and councils, canons and creeds possess no authority over the faith and practice of Christians. Congregationalism denies that there is any authority in Scripture for uniting the churches of a nation or province into one church or corporation to be ruled by a bishop or bishops, superior to the bishops or pastors of particular congregations, or by a presbytery or synod consisting of the pastors or elders of the several congregations of the nation or province. This is the speciality which distinguishes Independency or Congregationalism from Episcopacy and from Presbytery. The term 'Independent' is supposed to have originated in the incidental use of the word in an 'apology' addressed in Latin and English to the British and Continental universities about the year 1604. But the early maintainers of this form of church government were careful to repudiate certain inferences which might be drawn from the use of the word. 'We do profess dependence,' said one of them, 'upon magistrates for civil government and protection; dependence upon Christ and his word for the sovereign government and rule of our administrations; dependence upon the counsel of other churches and synods when our own variance or ignorance may stand in need of such help from them.' The independence claimed was only the right of every individual church to administer its own affairs, free from the control or authoritative jurisdiction of other churches—a right compatible, it was asserted, and is still asserted, with union for the promotion of common ends, and with fraternal aid and counsel in cases of variance or other difficulty. As compared with other societies of Christians who claim spiritual and ecclesiastical independence, this body of Christians may be defined briefly as independent congregationally, or as 'Congregational Independents.'

Doctrinally the early Independents occupied the same position as the other sections of the Puritan family. They held in substance the evangelical doctrines of the Reformers, of the Westminster Assembly, and of the Thirty-nine Articles.

Not refusing to confess their faith with the other members of the Westminster Assembly, the representatives of the Independents disputed the right of that or any other assembly to confess its faith for posterity, or make that confession binding upon them. Largely Augustinian and Calvinistic in their interpretation of Scripture, Congregationalists have in these later years become more alive to the freedom which their principles involve to interpret Scripture, not according to any one scheme or system, but as loyalty to the light of truth and the spirit of Christianity may dictate. In the reaction which followed the rise of Socinianism many Independent societies fettered the use of their property by the insertion of uncatholic doctrinal restrictions in their deeds. In later years the use of their property and buildings has been limited only to the catholic interpretation of the teaching of Christ, and what they regard as the New Testament constitution of the religious society.

For the history of this body we must refer to the works named at the end of this article. But it may be mentioned that as early as the days of Queen Elizabeth it was numerous and influential. In a speech made by Sir Walter Raleigh in the House of Commons in 1592, on the subject of a law to transport the Brownists—as they were offensively and untruly named after Robert Browne (q.v.)—he thus refers to their numbers: 'If two or three thousand Brownists meet at the seaside, at whose charge shall they be transported? or whither will you send them? I am sorry for it, but I am afraid there is near twenty thousand of them in England; and when they are gone, who shall maintain their wives and children?' Several eminent men of this body suffered death for their opinions; others were condemned to banishment. The greater part retired to Holland. Numbers sought an asylum in New England; and America still cherishes the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers, as the founders of those institutions which are the sources of her freedom, her intellectual and moral power, and her national elevation.

By the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662 the Independents, along with other Nonconformists, were subjected to much suffering. The act required an express assent and consent to everything contained in the revised Prayer-book, and its effect was to cause 1900 or 2000 of the clergy to leave the church. Still the Independents increased; and the Revolution of 1688, and the passing of the Toleration Act in 1689, at length brought them relief. Efforts were made about this time to bring about an accommodation between them and the English Presbyterians; and in 1691 heads of agreement were drawn up, but with little practical result. In 1730 Presbyterians, Baptists, and Independents formed themselves into a united body, under the name of the Three Denominations, for the protection of their civil and religious liberties. The Independents are the largest dissenting body in England except the Wesleyan Methodists. The largest confederation of its churches is 'the Congregational Union of England and Wales,' which is careful to lay down in its basis the principle that 'it shall not, in any case, assume legislative authority, or become a court of appeal.'

An Independent church is, from its very constitution, at liberty to choose any man for its minister whom it considers qualified for the office —subject only to the check arising from the fact that neighbouring ministers will refuse to ordain or recognise a man whom they have reason to regard as disqualified. But from the beginning the Independents have attached great importance to an educated ministry. Their leaders in the Puritan age, such as Owen, Howe, and Greenhill, were men of great learning, and, as soon as the Act of Toleration in 1689 allowed, measures were taken for securing a succession of educated men.

In 1890 the Congregational Year-book reported 4817 churches and preaching stations in the United Kingdom connected with the body, of which 101 were in Scotland, 29 in Ireland, with 91 stations, and in the Channel Islands 11. In Canada there are 184 churches and stations, in Australia 300, in New Zealand 25, in South Africa 41, in Jamaica 41, in British Guiana 38, in India 31, in China 2, on the continent of Europe 4—making a total of 666. There are in all 18 colleges for training ministers, with 62 professors and 472 students; besides the missionary institutes of the London Missionary Society. In 1895 there were 4850 Congregationalist churches in these islands. Their colleges are 'New College,' London, a union of three older colleges—Homerton, Highbury, and Coward—to be ultimately transferred to Cambridge, Cavendish College there having been bought in 1893; Hackney College; Lancashire College, Manchester; Yorkshire College, Bradford—a union of Airedale and Rotherham colleges effected in 1888; Mansfield College, Oxford, formed by the transference in 1886 of Springhill College and its revenues from Birmingham to Oxford, where graduates of any British university are eligible as students, pursuing part of their studies in the theological classes provided by other colleges of the university; Cheshunt College, belonging to Lady Huntingdon's trustees, founded for the preparation of young men for the Christian ministry in any section of the church to which they might be called, but virtually an Independent college; Western College, Plymouth, the oldest of the colleges, dating from 1750; Nottingham and Bristol Institutes for the training of evangelists and village pastors; in Wales, Brecon, Bala, and Bangor; 'Carmarthen Presbyterian College,' governed by Dr Williams' trustees, who are Unitarians, with an Independent theological professor and many Independent students; and the Theological Hall of the Scottish Congregational churches in Edinburgh.

In Scotland Independency may be traced back to the days of the Commonwealth, during which it was imported by the chaplains and soldiers of Cromwell. But the present Independent churches in Scotland owe their origin mainly to a missionary movement in the end of the 18th century, chief among the leaders of which were the brothers Robert and James Haldane, Greville Ewing, John Campbell, and John Aikman. The Haldanes became Baptists in course of time—a circumstance which greatly divided and weakened the new community. The formation of an academy for the training of ministers in 1811, and of the Congregational Union about the same time, did much to restore the lost vigour of the body. It should be added that the Baptist churches, both in England and Scotland, are as strictly 'Independent' as those which bear that name.

In America the first Independent church was founded at Plymouth, New England, in 1620 by a party of pilgrims sent from Holland by John Robinson. In 1637 the spread of Antinomian doctrine caused much discussion in the church. By a synod convened in New England Antinomianism (q.v.) was unanimously condemned. In 1638 Harvard College was founded. In 1658 the Savoy Confession was adopted. It still remains in force. Unitarian principles spread about 1750 widely in the Congregational churches of America. In 1785 a separation took place between the Unitarians and the Trinitarians, but both still retain the Congregational form of church government. In 1883 the Unitarian churches of this order numbered 360. There is a Unitarian theological seminary at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and Harvard (q.v.) has only of late years been professedly non-sectarian. 'Congregationalism,' according to Dr Schaff, 'is the ruling sect of the six northeastern states, and has exerted, and still exerts, a beneficial influence upon the religious, social, and political life of the whole nation.' American Congregationalism is somewhat nearer to Presbyterianism than the English type. In addition to the Conference, or Association of Churches, by which they co-operate for common ends, a national council meets triennially 'for advisory and not juridical ends;' but this council is the recognised agency for deciding as to ministerial or ecclesiastical fellowship. In 1895 the number of Congregational churches in the United States was about 4800, with 515,000 church members, and nearly 600,000 children in Sunday-schools. Besides such well-known colleges as Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, and Oberlin, the American Independents possess theological seminaries at Andover, Bangor, New Haven, Hartford, Oakland, Chicago, and elsewhere.

See Vaughan's History of English Nonconformity; J. Fletcher's History of Independency; Waddington's Congregational History, 1200 to 1850; Hanbury's Memorials; Neal's History of the Puritans; Dr Stoughton's Ecclesiastical History of England; Skeats's History of the Free Churches of England; and Barclay's Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth. For the scriptural and apostolic basis of the system, Independents refer to Whately's Kingdom of Christ and Hatch's Bampton Lectures (1880). See also the article PURITANS.