For about sixty years in Jersey these regulations were the law of the land; and they continued in full operation in Guernsey for forty years more. And it is interesting to observe that this movement in support of Presbyterianism synchronized with Knox's struggle for the same end in Scotland; and the same nefarious attempts to overthrow it which at first seemed so likely to succeed, but at last so signally failed in Scotland, were unfortunately attended with a different result in these Channel Islands. The causes of this reversal we need not now trace.

On the accession of James I. to the English throne he formally confirmed the Presbyterian government; but he lived to see it partially overthrown in Jersey by the introduction of the canons of the English Church, 30 June, 1623. No such result, however, was effected in Guernsey and Alderney until the Act of Uniformity of 1662; and this completed the ruin of the Presbyterian Establishment throughout the Islands.

Meanwhile, from 1576, Presbytery was in the ascendant, the methods in use being similar to those of the Reformed Churches in France and Scotland, though more thoroughly reflecting the special features of the Genevan organization. The ecclesiastical office-bearers were Calvin's four-the Pastor, the Doctor or Teacher, the Elder, and the Deacon. The respective functions of Pastor and Doctor were preaching and teaching: the Elders "watched over the behaviour of Christ's fold," and the Deacons "held and disposed of Church property and charities." Office-bearers had all to be "chosen by the ministers and elders, then presented to the Governor or Vice-governor, after whose approval their names were called before the people"; and then, if no objections were lodged, they were installed in office a fortnight afterwards. The Church Courts were the

par l'authorité et en la presence de Messieurs les Governeurs des dites Isles au Synode tenu à Guernezé le 28e jour de Juin l'an 1576.

Beside it is deposited the other valuable and authoritative MS., Registre des Actes et Affaires les plus mémorables qui ont été traictées et arrestées es Consistoires tenus par le Ministre et par les Anciens de l'Eglise de Saint-André (Guernsey).

In 1642 appeared, The Orders for Ecclesiasticall Discipline according to that which hath been practised since the Reformation of the Church in his Majesty's Dominions by the Ancients, Ministers, Elders, and Deacons of the Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and Alderney."

"CONSISTORY," or local session, and the "COLLOQUY," or Presbytery, meeting quarterly, and the Synod every two years, in Jersey and Guernsey alternately. The churches were to be open only during worship, so as "to prevent all superstition" in frequenting them. No civil business was to be transacted within their walls. Two services were customary on the Lord's Day, with encouragement for week-day services also. The people remained uncovered in church, knelt at prayer, and joined in the Psalms. The Lord's Supper was observed quarterly, the people sitting at the administration (standing was the custom of some Churches, the men coming first and the women afterwards). Candidates for Church membership were examined by the pastors, and admitted or rejected by the Consistory; but excommunication, which involved civil disabilities, could only be pronounced by the Synod. The Colloquies and Consistories were, as at Geneva, strict courts of morals, and were fitted in to the general civil jurisdiction. On the other hand, the civil courts exercised jurisdiction in many matters religious and ecclesiastical; and it is probably a forgetfulness or perversion of this that has led to insinuations of harsh dealings in purely Church discipline. If, for example, Guillaume Fautrast was sent to prison for attending Mass in Normandy and for having introduced a papistical book and some holy water, this happened in 1566, before the establishment of Presbytery, and was purely an act of the civil court. It was the civil court which enacted next year that all persons found going on pilgrimage be fined sixty sols; or, in 1569, condemned one Richard Girard to be flogged through the town for upholding Mass. And if in 1576 several persons in Jersey were imprisoned for not attending Communion, and were not to be liberated till they could repeat at least the Commandments and Lord's Prayer; or if adult persons, not communicating within a year and a day without good excuse, were to be fined; or, if in 1592, all should attend divine service within certain intervals under a certain fine; and if an ordinance dated 22 January, 1593, required all strangers to conform to the established religion or quit the island-these, it must be remembered, were enactments of the civil authority, or COURT ROYAL, and not of Colloquies, Presby

teries, or Consistories at all. The only mistake occurred, away back in 1567, when one Synod adjudged corporal punishment to a certain class of immoralities; but the next Synod wisely withdrew from the position, and left fines and chastisement entirely to the civil courts, while Colloquies and Consistories were restricted to moral suasion or Church censures alone. Bishops and other ecclesiastical authorities in England at this time had prisons of their own, and powers of imposing fines for spiritual offences; but it was not so with Presbyteries, or Church courts, in the Channel Islands. Doubtless there was much confusion between matters civil and religious, with intolerance and persecution as elsewhere; but we may not mix up the transactions of the civil courts with those of Church discipline, even although all the people were under the jurisdiction of both.

The Rise of the Presbyterians in the Reformed

Church of England (Continued).

THE REPRESSIVE PERIOD.

I. SUPPRESSION OF THE PROPHESYINGS. 1577-1582.

II. THE GREAT STRUGGLE, BEGINNING IN 1583.

III. THE MAR-PRELATE CONTROVERSY. 1588-1590.

IV. JOHN UDALL, THE PRESBYTERIAN MARTYR. 1592.

V. FURTHER STRUGGLES, PARLIAMENTARY, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND

LITERARY.

1590-1603.