To comprehend clearly the relation in which Congregational pastors and their flocks stood to the civil government of the country, it is necessary to study a number of minute and--to the majority of readers--unimportant, if not uninteresting particulars. Such pastors were also Rectors, Vicars, City lecturers, and Preachers in Cathedrals. They are described in municipal records as "town preachers," and as "our ministers." In some cases there were four persons so united--two of them being Presbyterians, and the other two Independents. Assistance was sought from Government for paying these public instructors, and a salary of one hundred pounds per annum was in some cases voted out of the impropriation funds. Applications were occasionally made for Acts of Parliament to authorize the levying of contributions for the support of such ministers, and for the repair of their churches. When indeed attempts were made at Yarmouth to impose rates upon the town for these purposes, the Congregational pastors formally protested against it, as contrary to the Gospel, and as injurious to the Church; the members desiring that none of the brethren "might have any hand in the acting of the same." That this resolution however only referred to the rating as an objectionable mode of obtaining assistance, and not to the appropriation of existing revenues for religious purposes, is apparent from the circumstance, that one of the ministers of that very Church was at the time receiving a salary from a source of the latter kind. In numerous cases no scruple existed with regard to the sustenance derived from tithes; and the extinction of this impost fell under the strong condemnation of the same persons who deprecated the collection of municipal rates for the support of the ministry.[203]