Clerical Consociation in Massachusetts Bay
Reassessing the New England Way and Its Origins
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4844292 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert F Scholz (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1972 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 391 |
| Publication date | 1972-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1923871 |
| OpenAlex | W2314007725 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
W X T HEN concerned English Puritans asked Massachusetts Bay clergymen what means they employed to preserve unitie and verity in their newly formed churches, Richard Mather replied (in the late i630s) that of Churches into Classes and Synods we hold to be lawfull and in some cases necessary.' Mather's answer raises interesting problems of historical interpretation since it is generally assumed that New England Congregationalists were inhospitable to classical forms of consociation, given their emphasis upon synodical consociation and their distrust of Reformed Church classes or presbyteries. Why, then, did Mather use the term classis? And what did he mean by it? His purpose and usage resembled that of English reformers after I580 who used the term to identify the extracongregational instruments of collective clerical authority which they had recently organized among neighborhood parishes. These new instruments of puritan influence and reform were to stand over a local consistory of church officials in reformed parishes, forming a functional link between them and proposed assemblies and synods organized on a regional and national basis. English Puritans employed the term indiscriminately however, identifying such instruments whether composed of clergymen only, or of clergymen and lay elders, as was usual in Reformed Churches. New England Puritans, to the contrary, consistently applied the term only to periodic meetings of ministers established to conduct ordinary church business of mutual interest and concern. In so doing they distinguished this form of clerical consociation from synodical gatherings
Archaeology · Bay · Political science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Mormonism, Religion, and History · Religion and Society Interactions
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.14 |
| Citation span | 1991 - 2019 (29) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |