A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

PLANETA. (See Chasuble.)

PLENARTY, (from the word plenus, “full,”) signifying that a church is full, or provided with, an incumbent.

PLURALITY. This is where the same person obtains two or more livings with cure of souls. There are various canons of the Church against the practice; and the authorities of the Church are taking prompt measures to abolish it in the English Church. The statute 1 & 2 Vic. c. 106, and subsequently the 13 and 14 Vic. c. 98, made very important changes in the law of England regarding pluralities.

PLUVIALE. Another name for the cope: so called because it was originally a cloak, a defence from the rain. (See Cope.)

PLYMOUTH BRETHREN. Of this sect, who call themselves the Brethren, the following account is taken from the Register-general’s return.

“Those to whom this appellation is applied receive it only as descriptive of their individual state as Christians—not as a name by which they might be known collectively as a distinct religious sect. It is not from any common doctrinal peculiarity or definite ecclesiastical organization that they have the appearance of a separate community; but rather from the fact that, while all other Christians are identified with some particular section of the Church of God, the persons known as ‘Brethren’ utterly refuse to be identified with any. Their existence is, in fact, a protest against all sectarianism; and the primary ground of their secession from the different bodies to which most of them have once belonged, is, that the various tests by which, in all these bodies, the communion of true Christians with each other is prevented or impeded, are unsanctioned by the Word of God. They see no valid reason why the Church (consisting of all true believers) which is really one, should not be also visibly united, having as its only bond of fellowship and barrier of exclusion, the reception or rejection of those vital truths by which the Christian is distinguished from the unbeliever. Looking at existing churches, it appears to them that all are faulty in this matter; national Churches by adopting a too lax—dissenting Churches by adopting a too limited—criterion of membership. The former, it appears to Brethren, by considering as members all within a certain territory, mingle in one body the believers and the unbelievers; while the latter, by their various tests of doctrine or of discipline, exclude from their communion many who are clearly and undoubtedly true members of the universal Church. The Brethren, therefore, may be represented as consisting of all such as, practically holding all the truths essential to salvation, recognise each other as, on that account alone, true members of the only Church. A difference of opinion upon aught besides is not regarded as sufficient ground for separation; and the Brethren, therefore, have withdrawn themselves from all those bodies in which tests, express or virtual, on minor points, are made the means of separating Christians from each other.

“In the judgment of the Brethren, the disunion now existing in the general Church is the result of a neglect to recognise the Holy Spirit as its all-sufficient guide. Instead, they say, of a reliance on his promised presence and sovereignty as Christ’s vicar on earth, ever abiding to assert and maintain his lordship in the Church according to the written Word, men, by their creeds and articles, have questioned the sufficiency of Scripture as interpreted to all by him, and, by their ministerial and ritual appointments, have assumed to specify the channels through which only can his blessings be communicated. All these various human forms and systems are believed by Brethren to be destitute of scriptural authority, and practically restrictive of the Holy Spirit’s operations.

“Chiefly with regard to ministry are these opinions urged; the usual method of ordaining special persons to the office, being held to be unscriptural and prejudicial. They conceive that Christians in general confound ministry (i.e. the exercise of a spiritual gift) with local charges, as eldership, &c. Such charges, they infer from Scripture, required the sanction of apostles or their delegates, to validate the appointment (Acts xiv. 23; Titus i. 5); whereas the ‘gifts’ never needed any human authorization (Acts xviii. 24–28; Rom. xii.; 1 Cor. xii.—xvi.; Phil. i. 14; 1 Peter iv. 9, 10). Further, they urge that while Scripture warrants the Church to expect a perpetuity of ‘gifts,’—as evangelists, pastors, teachers, exhorters, rulers, &c.,—because they are requisite for the work of the ministry, (Eph. iv. 7–13,)—it nowhere guarantees a permanent ordaining power, without which the nomination or ordaining of elders is valueless. All believers are, it is affirmed, true spiritual priests capacitated for worship, (Heb. x. 19–25,) and all who possess the qualifications from the Lord are authorized to evangelize the world or instruct the Church; and such have not alone the liberty, but also an obligation to employ whatever gift may be intrusted to their keeping. Hence, in their assemblies, Brethren have no pre-appointed person to conduct or share in the proceedings; all is open to the guidance of the Holy Ghost at the time, so that he who believes himself to be so led of the Spirit, may address the meeting, &c. This arrangement is considered to be indicated as the proper order in 1 Cor. xiv.,—to flow from the principle laid down in 1 Cor. xii.,—and to be traceable historically in the Acts of the Apostles. By adopting it, the Brethren think that they avoid two evils, by which all existing sects are, more or less, distinguished; the first, the evil of not employing talents given to believers for the Church’s benefit; the second, the evil of appointing as the Church’s teachers men in whom the gifts essential for the work have not yet been discovered. The Brethren, therefore, recognise no separate orders of ‘clergy’ and ‘laity’—all are looked upon as equal in position, (Matt. xxiii. 8; 1 Cor. x. 17; xii. 12–20, &c.,) differing only as to ‘gifts’ of ruling, teaching, preaching, and the like (Rom. xii. 4–8; 1 Cor. xii. 18, 28, &c.). The ordinances, consequently, of baptism, when administered, and the Lord’s supper, which is celebrated weekly, need no special person to administer or preside (Acts ix. 10–18; x. 48; xx. 7; 1 Cor. xi.). Another feature of some importance is, that wherever gifted men are found among the Brethren, they, in general, are actively engaged in preaching and expounding, &c., on their own individual responsibility to the Lord, and quite distinct from the assembly. So that, though they may occasionally use the buildings where the Brethren meet, it is in no way as ministers of the Brethren, but of Christ.

“The number of places of worship which the Census officers in England and Wales returned as frequented by the Brethren was 132; but probably this number is below the truth, in consequence of the objection which they entertain to acknowledge any sectarian appellation. Several congregations may be included with the number (96) described as ‘Christians’ only.”

PŒNULA. (See Chasuble.)