11. THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

(COVENANTED).

This body was organized in 1840 by two ministers and three elders who withdrew from the synod, or the branch known as the "Old Lights," on the ground that the latter maintained sinful ecclesiastical relations and patronized or indorsed moral reform societies with which persons of any religion or no religion were connected. Its terms of communion are somewhat stricter than those of the synod. It is a small body, having only 4 organizations, with 37 members, divided among three States.

12. THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA.

This body was organized in 1883, in consequence of dissatisfaction with the treatment of a question of discipline by the general synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (New Lights). In the matter of participation in elections it holds with the general synod, and contrary to the synod, that Christians may vote and be voted for, regarding the republic as essentially a Christian republic. It has

but 600 members in the United States, who belong to one congregation in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

SUMMARY BY STATES OF ALL PRESBYTERIANS.-Continued.

CHAPTER XXXII.

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL BODIES.

1. THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

THE beginnings of the Church of England in this country reach back into the sixteenth century, although the Protestant Episcopal Church was not formally organized as an independent branch until 1785. Clergymen of the Church of England accompanied the early colonists of North Carolina across the sea, one of whom baptized an Indian chief in 1587 in a colony unsuccessfully begun by Sir Walter Raleigh, and also, about the same time, the first white Christian born in that colony. It is probable that the Rev. Francis Fletcher, who accompanied, as chaplain, the expedition of Sir Francis Drake to the Pacific Coast, held services on California soil as early as 1579. He officiated for six weeks in the neighborhood of Drake's Bay. In 1607 worship according to the Anglican ritual was established in the new colonies at Jamestown, Va., and Kennebec, Me. It was soon discontinued in Maine, but in Virginia it was not interrupted. An Episcopal congregation was gathered in New Hampshire in 1631, and parishes were formed in other parts of New England and the Middle States in the early colonial days, Trinity parish, New York City, being constituted in 1693, and Christ Church parish, in Philadelphia, in 1695. The church became the established church in New York, New

Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. In Virginia, for a considerable period, no other form of worship was tolerated. In Massachusetts, on the other hand, the Anglican service was not allowed until liberty for it was secured by royal proclamation in 1662. The Episcopal Church received considerable assistance from England, particularly from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, organized in 1701, which sent over many missionaries. It is said that at the beginning of the Revolutionary War the society was maintaining about eighty missionaries in the colonies.

At the close of the struggle resulting in American independence many of the parishes were without ministerial oversight. Some of the clergymen had left the country during the war, returning to England or going north to the British provinces. In Virginia, where at the outbreak of the war there had been 164 churches and chapels and 91 clergymen, it was found in 1784 that 95 parishes were either extinct or forsaken, and only 28 clergymen remained. At a conference of clergymen and laymen from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, held in New Brunswick, N. J., in May, 1784, steps were taken to form "a continental representation of the Episcopal Church." In the following October a convention, representing Delaware and Maryland, in addition to the three States above named, assembled in New York City, and resolved to "recommend to the clergy and congregations of their communion" that "there be a general convention of the Episcopal Church"; that the first meeting of the convention be held in Philadelphia in September, 1785; and that clerical and lay deputies be appointed by the Episcopal churches in the several States, "duly instructed and authorized" to take