CHAPTER XVI. OMAN Catholicism, during the Middle Ages, had given scope to the institution, and had paid attention to the culture, of voluntary societies. Such societies had sprung up in different parts of Europe amongst the Clergy and amongst the Laity, being placed in subjection to the laws, animated by sympathy with the spirit, and directed to the promotion of the interests of the Church. Monks praying in cloisters, friars preaching in streets, secular fraternities in towns and cities visiting the poor and sick, had engaged in spontaneous activity, yet had remained faithful to their spiritual mother. English Protestantism, at first, did not produce or encourage any such forms of operation. Cathedral and parochial clergymen, in dignified or humble routine, were its only authorized agents. Missionary efforts, foreign and domestic, as well as lay associations for spiritual improvement, were unknown. In one ascertained exceptional instance, under Edward VI., an unordained person was allowed to preach; but it was the rule to exclude all but men in orders from every kind of public or socially organized usefulness. Not only were Anglicans destitute of any association of lay helpers in Christian work at home, and of any means for carrying on Missions abroad, but Puritans were in the same predicament, since meetings for prophesying, cate chizing, and lecturing, and plans for purchasing presentations to livings, did not constitute the kind of co-operation now in view. Presbyterians, and many Independents also, not only from necessity, but from that neglect of unclerical enterprise which characterized the age, confined themselves, with few exceptions, to pulpit teaching and pastoral influences. High Church and Low Church, the Establishment and the sects, exhibited disregard of a principle in full play in other portions of Western Christendom. A clerical jealousy of laymen, a fear of schism, and a dislike of everything approaching to irregularity, lay at the bottom of the Anglican aversion to lay agency. Prejudices of a similar kind influenced Puritans; for although there existed abundant religious irregularity during the Commonwealth, there were not a few amongst Nonconformists wedded to their own notions of church order. They were High Churchmen in their own way, regarding the ecclesiastical principles of the New Testament as so comprehensive in their direct application, as to render all associations distinguished from the Church itself as perfectly needless. This state of things prevailed during three-fourths of the seventeenth century, when a movement began, opening the way to consequences which ever since have been unfolding themselves. At present, the vast number of our religious societies-some in slender connection with churches, some in no connection with them at all-form phenomena worth the study of social philosophers; and the rise of them may be distinctly traced in those combinations for certain purposes, just before and during the reign of William III., which are now to be described. The outburst of zeal at that time has received much less notice than its importance deserves. It was about the year 1678-sixty years after the first establishment in Paris of the societies by St. Vincent de Paul-that a few young men in London, belonging to the congregations of Dr. Horneck, the popular preacher at the Savoy, and of Mr. Smithies, an impressive lecturer at St. Michael's, Cornhill, came under one of those inspirations which mark epochs of revival. They agreed to meet weekly for religious conference, prayer, and scripture reading. When, under James II., signs of Papal outgrowths were visible, they sought to check returning superstition, and promoted the use of daily common prayer at the church of St. Clement Danes, as a sort of protest against the use of daily mass at the Chapel Royal. Feeling a more than ordinary desire for the Communion, they frequented the Lord's-table whenever they had an opportunity, and stimulated clergymen to celebrate, not only upon Sundays but upon holidays; and on the vigils of feasts they met for preparation at one another's houses. They thus fell in with a current of sacramental feeling, which became prevalent and powerful at the opening of the eighteenth century-promoted by the writings of Robert Nelson and others, and by the example of distinguished persons amongst both Clergy and Laity. also raised money for the payment of clergymen who read prayers, for the relief of the poor, for the support of schools, and for the spread of Christianity abroad and at home. They laid down rules of conduct, drawn from their own religious and ecclesiastical principles, "To love one another; when reviled not to revile again; to speak evil of no man; to wrong no man; to pray, if possible, seven times a-day; to keep close to the Church of England; to transact all things peaceably and gently; to be helpful to each other; to use themselves to holy thoughts They 1 Numerous illustrations are afforded in Secretan's Life of Nelson, 174. on coming in and going out; to examine themselves every night; to give every one his due; to obey superiors, both spiritual and temporal." Controverted points of Divinity were banished from discussion, no prayers were used but. those in the Prayer-Book, or sanctioned by clergymen ; the strong Church element in these societies further manifesting itself in careful abstinence from a lay use of absolution. Resembling in some respects, in others differing from, Young Men's Christian Associations, they must be regarded as harbingers of the latter institutions; and, so regarded, they in certain minds. acquire an interest beyond that which inherently belongs to them. The societies, developed in the way described, attained vigour and prosperity in the middle of King William's reign, being promoted by the approval of Queen Mary, who took a deep interest in their proceedings. Thirtynine of them were instituted in London and Westminster. They spread into the midland and western counties; we find them at Nottingham and Gloucester, and we follow them across the Channel to Ireland, to Kilkenny and Drogheda, especially to Dublin, where no less than ten of them arose under the sanction and help of the Bishops and Clergy.1 Tillotson, Compton, and other Prelates, at an early period looked favourably upon the associations and aided. their endeavours; but some at first were shy. Archbishop Sharpe, for example, and other clergymen, both Bishops and Presbyters, frowned upon all movements of the kind, as violations of order and as productive of schism. Amongst the lay promoters of these societies, 'See Woodward's Account of the Rise and Progress of Religious Societies, &c., and of their Endeavours for Reformation of Manners; Dr. Hor neck's Life; Toulmin, 415; Secretan's Life of Nelson, 91. Robert Nelson becomes conspicuous after the year 1700, when he abandoned the Nonjuring party. Another kind of society, originated about the year 1691 —not intended, like the Young Men's Associations, for personal religious improvement, but for checking public immorality—was formed so as to include Nonconformists. The methods of operation were manifold. The most prominent was to enforce the execution of the laws against vice and profanity; and to stir up people to join in this enforcement, the utmost ingenuity and the most plausible eloquence were employed. An abstract of the statutes against the profanation of the Lord's-day, drunkenness, swearing and cursing, blasphemy, lewd and disorderly practices, and gaming, was published and circulated, with a list of penalties annexed; and all good subjects were exhorted, on grounds of patriotism and religion, to aid in executing these statutes. Other associations were formed for the same purpose. Persons of eminence, members of Parliament, justices of the peace, and London citizens, constituted one division of the army enlisted in the service of public morals; they chiefly furnished the supplies for carrying on the war. About fifty persons, including tradesmen and others, composed a second band, to promote, by individual efforts, the prosecution of the design. A third detachment embraced constables, who were "to meet to consider of the most effectual way to discharge their oaths, to acquaint one another with the difficulties they met with, to resolve on proper remedies, to divide themselves in the several parts of the city so as to take in the whole to the best advantage for inspecting of disorderly houses, taking up of drunkards, lewd persons, profaners of the Lord's-day, and swearers out of the streets and markets, and carrying them before the magistrates." A fourth rank of |