geography, literature and other academic subjects, so they could effectively lead the people. In the ensuing decades' debates about "order and emotionalism" in assemblies and conventions/conferences of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he sided consistently with order. The AME's first task was "to improve the ministry; the second to improve the people". At a denominational meeting in Baltimore in 1842, Payne recommended a full program of study for ministers, to include English grammar, geography, arithmetic, ancient history, modern history, ecclesiastical history, and theology. At the following 1844 AME General Conference, he called for a "regular course of study for prospective ordinees", in the belief they would lift up their parishioners. In 1845, Pastor Payne tried to establish a short-lived AME seminary, and succeeded in gradually raising the educational preparation required for its ministers. Payne also directed reforms at the style of music, introducing trained choirs and instrumental music to church practice. He supported the requirement that ministers be literate. Payne continued throughout his career to build the institution of the church, establishing literary and historical societies and encouraging order. At times he came into conflict with those who wanted to ensure that ordinary people could advance in the church. Especially after expansion of the church following the end of the Civil War into and across the South, where different styles of worship had taken root and prevailed, there were some continuing tensions about the direction of the denomination. Bishop and college president In 1848, fourth Bishop William Paul Quinn (1788-1873), named Payne as the historiographer of the AME Church. In 1852, Payne was elected and consecrated as the sixth bishop of the AME denomination. He served in that position for the rest of his life to 1893. Together with the Rev. Lewis Woodson (1806-1878) a sympathetic white minister and AME member and two other African Americans representing the AME Church, and 18 European-American representatives of the Cincinnati Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (M.E.C.), Payne served on the founding board of directors and which later purchased Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio in 1856. It was named for the now deeply revered William Wilberforce, (1759-1833) who was a long serving British political and social leader, firm abolitionist and deep Christian believer in the Gospel, who worked tirelessly for his anti-slavery and abolishing the African trans-Atlantic slave trade causes for decades as a longtime member of the lower chamber of the