DARBYITES (PLYMOUTH BRETHREN). - A Protestant sect, which arose in Ireland between 1827 and 1829 and spread to England. Its adherents (among them A. N. Groves, founder of the Baghdad mission, Mr. Parnell [Lord Congleton] and J. Nelson Darby [v.], who gave the sect its name and its impetus) gathered privately to "break bread" and pray. From their English center at Plymouth they were also called Plymouthists.
They set out to remedy the ills of the Anglican Church by returning to the simplicity of the early Church, without bishops, without liturgy, without confessions of faith. Among their doctrines the most prominent is that of the absolute assurance of eternal salvation, though with the obligation of doing good works as a pledge of final perseverance. Ministers are designated by the faithful without any special ceremony. They prefer to celebrate worship in private houses and halls. The Eucharist, or "the breaking of bread," is a simple remembrance of Our Lord. The numerous missions of the Darbiti have organizations different from those of the other Protestant missions and, in order to escape any control, they reject the support of outside societies or organizations. There is nevertheless a society called "Christian Missions in Many Lands" (C.M.M.L.), formed by the Darbiti, which receives the missionaries' reports and publishes them in certain periodicals together with news about the countries and the missions in which they work; it makes known their needs, collects all the alms and gifts, which it sends to the missionaries without in any way interfering in their affairs. The American Plymouthists or Darbiti publish the periodical Voice from the Vineyard, and the English the Echoes of Service. In the latter there is abundant news of their missions in Italy (on the Italian Plymouthists or Darbiti v. GUICCIARDINI, PIERO).
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Camilla Crivelli