of New Meeting Birmingham, Priestley was able to establish a new scheme of catechetical classes, appointing elders to assist him; introduce lectures on natural and revealed religion to a Senior Class; and start a Congregational Library. Agreeing with Priestley that the promulgation of a Rational Christianity was the best way of reconverting unbelievers, Russell financed several editions of Priestley's Appeal. When this prompted a vitriolic response from the Anglicans, Russell encouraged Priestley to write the anonymous Melanchton to Martin Luther. For years, Russell had voiced his anger at the way Dissenting clergy were treated by Anglican ministers. Things came to a head at his mother's funeral in 1767, at St Philip's Church, now St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, when one of the curates refused either to ride in the same carriage as the two Presbyterian ministers, or to allow the Presbyterian ministers to walk in front of the coffin. Thus, used to attacking such Anglican bigotry, Russell sprang to Priestley's defence when Anglican clergy contrived a series of acrimonious disputes in regard to the management of the Birmingham Library. Likewise, he encouraged and supported Priestley during the acerbic pamphlet war that accompanied the campaign for the repeal of the Test Acts. Test and Corporation Acts With the revival of the movement for repeal in 1787, Russell threw himself zealously into the cause of political liberty. Though this was not always their effect in practice, the Test and Corporation Acts were intended to limit public office to practising Anglicans, and came to be seen as an essential bulwark of the union between church and state. Writing to the Warwickshire M.P. Sir Robert Lawley, to solicit his support on the Dissenters' behalf, Russell tried to assure him that the Dissenters' object was 'entirely of a civil nature, and ... can neither diminish, nor interfere with, the provision which the legislature has made for the established church.' 'We are not attacking the rights of others,' he added, 'but merely endeavouring to recover our own.' Believing that the Dissenters could only be an effective political force if they presented a united front on common issues, Russell led moves to draw the united strength of the Dissenters together. As a first step, he persuaded representatives of the various Baptist, Independent and Presbyterian congregations to attend a meeting at Dadley's hotel, Birmingham on 14 October 1789. The result was the formation of the Committee of the Seven