Some of the clergy in those times were very flexible. The district of Craven, in Yorkshire, is very remarkable for the examples of this description which it afforded. As in the sixteenth century--when the incumbents of that beautiful part of England gently bowed to all ecclesiastical changes, from the enactment of the Six Articles to the Act of Uniformity of Queen Elizabeth--so was it with their successors in the seventeenth century. Not a name is contributed from that quarter to the list of either Walker or Calamy. Surplice or Genevan cloak, Liturgy or Directory, Episcopacy or Presbyterianism, a King or a Commonwealth--all came alike to the accommodating Rectors and Vicars of that charming locality.[199] Others of a similar temper were found amidst less beautiful scenery. [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. As Congregational Churches were in theory select Societies, they shewed great care in the admission of members; and as they believed that all pastoral authority under Christ was communicated not through apostolical succession in the ministry itself, but through the community which invited some Christian teacher to preside over it, the members, at least in some cases, themselves performed the service of ordination. Met together in the name of their Divine Lord, they solemnly elected their Bishop by holding up their hands, and then by fasting and prayer they appointed him to his work. They also made a detailed confession of their faith in the doctrines of Christianity--the chosen minister also on his part doing the same--after which the representatives of other and neighbouring Churches who were present, and who were affectionately welcomed on the occasion, united in approving what had been done, and in giving the right hand of fellowship to the assembled brethren and to their new spiritual overseer.[200]