Thomas Martin Lindsay and Alexander James Grieve

“ The parochial system, when enforced to the extent of prohibiting the preaching of the gospel within a parish where the incumbent was opposed to it, led him to consider the whole system a hindrance to the proper work of the church and therefore anti-Christian ("Thoughts on the present position of the Home Mission," Coll. Works, i. 78) . And the waste of power implied in the refusal to sanction lay preaching seemed to him to lead to the conclusion that an official ministry was a refusal of the gifts of the Spirit to the church ("On Lay Preaching," Coll. Works, p. 200) . ”

“ Benjamin Wills Newton, head of the community there, who had been a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, was accused of departing from the testimony of the Brethren by reintroducing the spirit of clericalism. Unable to detach the congregation from the teacher, Darby began a rival assembly. The majority of the Brethren out of Plymouth supported Darby, but a minority remained with Newton. The separation became wider in 1847 on the discovery of supposed heretical teaching by Newton. ”

“ His opinions also found their way into France, Germany, German Switzerland, and Italy; but French Switzerland has always remained the stronghold of Plymouthism on the Continent, and for his followers there Darby wrote two of his most important tracts, Le Ministère considéré dans sa nature and De la Présence et de l’Faction du S. Esprit dans l’église. The revolution in the canton Vaud, brought about by Jesuit intrigue in 1845, brought persecution to the Brethren in the canton and in other parts of French Switzerland, and Darby’s life was in great jeopardy. ”