important division among the Exclusives came to a crisis in 1881, when William Kelly and Darby became the recognized leaders of two sections who separated on a point of discipline. This was followed (1885) by the disruption of the strict Darbyite section, two communions being formed out of it upon points of doctrine.
There were thus six sections of Plymouthists: (1) the followers of B. W. Newton, who promulgated the prophetic views peculiar to their leader; (2) the Neutrals—open brethren, leaning to Baptist views and to the Congregationalist idea that each assembly should judge for itself in matters of discipline, headed by George Müller; (3) the Exclusives, the Darbyites, holding what may be described as a Pauline view of the Church, who claim to be the original Brethren, represented by J. B. Stoney and C. H. Mackintosh; (4) the Exclusives associated in Great Britain with C. E. Stuart, in America with F. W. Grant; (5) the Exclusives who followed W. Kelly, giving a general adhesion to Darby but with a tendency to place conscience above church action, holding the Pauline view of the Church modified by Johannine elements; and (6) the Exclusives who followed Cluff. The fundamental principle of the Exclus1ves, “Separation from evil God's principle of unity,” has led to many unimportant excommunications and separations besides those mentioned.
The theological views of the Brethren differ considerably from those held by evangelical Protestants (for a list of divergences, see Teulon, History and Doctrines of the Plymouth Brethren). They make the baptism of infants an open question and celebrate the Lord's Supper weekly. Their distinctive doctrines are ecclesiastical. They hold that all official ministry, whether on Episcopalian, Presbyterian or Congregationalist theories, is a denial of the spiritual priesthood of all believers, and sets aside the Holy Spirit's guidance. The gradual growth of this opinion, and perhaps the reasons for holding it, may be traced in Darby's earlier writings. While a curate in Ireland he was indignant with Archbishop Magee, who had stopped the progress of mission work among Roman Catholics by imposing on all who joined the church the oath of supremacy. This led Darby to the idea that established churches are as foreign to the spirit of Christianity as the papacy is ("Considerations addressed to the Archbishop of Dublin," &c., Coll. Works, i. 1). 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). The movement, if it has had small results in the formation of a sect, has at least set churches to consider how they might make their machinery more elastic. Perhaps one of the reasons of the comparatively small number of Brethren may be found in their idea that their mission is not to the heathen but to the “awakened in the churches.”
The movement has a distinct interest for students of church history: (1) as illustrating again the desire of certain Christians to pass over the garnered experience of the centuries, and by going straight to the Bible to make a fresh start without any other authority, precedent or guidance; (2) in its development alongside the Evangelical, Tractarian and Broad Church movements of the 19th century and its affinities with them all A certain haphazardism that has always marked the Brethren is responsible for the present lack of qualified leaders. The early enthusiasm has waned, and no provision was made for proper theological study.
Authorities.-Darby, Collected Works (32 vols., edited by Kelly, with supplementary volume, 1867-1883); A. Miller, The Brethren, their Rise, Progress and Testimony (1879); Rogers, Church Systems of the Nineteenth Century; Teulon, History and Doctrines of the Plymouth Brethren (1883); article "John Nelson Darby," in Contemp. Rev. (Oct. 1885); W. B. Neatby, A History of the Plymouth Brethren (London, 1902,2nd ed.). (T. M. L.; A. J. G.)
PLYMPTON ST MARY and PLYMPTON MAURICE (or Earl's), two small adjacent towns in the southern parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, 5 m. E.N.E. of Plymouth, on
the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901), Plympton St Mary,
3587; Plympton Maurice, 1139. Plympton St Mary contains a
fine Decorated and Perpendicular church, with a lofty tower of
the later period. Near it are remains of the former rich Augustinian
priory of Plympton, founded by William Warelwast, bishop
of Exeter(1107-1136). They include an Early English refectory
with Norman undercroft, the kitchen and other fragments;
but there are no remains of the great priory church. At Plympton
Maurice are slight ruins of the castle built by Richard de
Redvers, 1st earl of Devon (whence the variant of the name),
in the time of Henry I. There are several picturesque old houses
in the town, together with a guildhall dated 1696, and a grammar
school founded in 1658, of which Sir Joshua Reynolds's father
was master.
Plympton (Plintona) bears traces of very ancient settlement, the earthworks on which in the 12th century Richard de Redvers reared his Norman castle being probably of British origin, while a Saxon document dated 904 records a grant by Edward the Elder to Asser, bishop of Sherborne, of twelve manors in exchange for the monastery of “Plymentun.” According to the Domesday survey “Plintona” was a royal manor assessed at 2½ hides, and the fact that the canons of Plympton held two hides apart from these shows the origin of the later division into the priory parish of Plympton St Mary and the secular borough of Plympton Erle. In the 12th century Plympton appears as a mesne borough under the lordship of the Redvers, earls of Devon, and in 1224 the burgesses claimed to have received a charter from William, the 6th earl, of which however nothing further is known, and the first charter of which a copy is extant was issued by Baldwin de Redvers in 1242, granting to the burgesses of Plympton the borough, with fairs and markets, and the liberties enjoyed by the citizens of Exeter, in consideration of a yearly payment of £24, 2s. 2d. In 1437 a charter from Edward IV. granted to the burgesses an eight-days' fair at the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, but at this period the growing importance of Plymouth was steadily robbing Plympton of its position as head of the district. In 1602, in response to a petition of the burgesses, Elizabeth issued a charter of incorporation, instituting a common council to consist of a mayor and 8 principal burgesses; a Saturday market, and fairs at the Feasts of the Ascension and the Annunciation. A code of by-laws dated 1623 mentions a fair on St Luke's Day in addition to the three above mentioned. The borough surrendered its charter to Charles II. in 1684, and in 1685 received a fresh charter from James II. instituting an additional market on Wednesday and a fair on the 1st of August. This charter was declared invalid in 1690, but its provisions were reaffirmed in 1692, with the addition of an eight-days' fair to begin on the 14th of February. The borough, which had returned two members to parliament since 1295, was disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832 and from this date the municipal privileges gradually lapsed, and in 1859 were finally abolished.
See Victoria County History: Devonshire; William Cotton, Some Account of the Ancient Borough Town of Plympton St Maurice (London, 1859); J. Brooking Rowe, Notes of Plympton Castle (Plymouth, 1880).
PNEUMATIC DESPATCH, the name given to a system of
transport of written dispatches through long narrow tubes by the agency of air pressure. It was introduced in 1853 by J. Latimer
Clark, between the Central and Stock Exchange stations of
the Electric and International Telegraph Company in London.
The stations were connected by a tube 1½ in. in diameter
and 220 yds. long. Carriers containing batches of telegrams,
and fitting piston-wise in the tube, were sucked through it (in one direction only) by the production of a partial vacuum at one end. In 1858 C. F. Varley improved the system by using compressed air to force the carriers in one direction, a partial vacuum being still used to draw them in the other direction. This improvement enables single radiating lines of pipe to be used both for sending and for receiving telegrams between a central station supplied with pumping machinery and outlying stations not so supplied.
Radial System.—In the hands of R. S. Culley and R. Sabine the radial system of pneumatic despatch was in 1870 brought to great perfection in connexion with the telegraphic department of the British post office, since that date the total length of tubes (which are employed for telegrams only) has been very largely increased (in 1909 there was in London a total length of
