USA > Alabama > History of the Protestant Episcopal church in Alabama, 1763-1891 > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
The operation of these schools brought about more frequent services throughout the diocese. It was a short step from brief devotional exercises in the school- house to public prayer in the church or chapel, and this step at least three congregations had taken by 1854-Montgomery, Tuskaloosa, and Marion. Daily Morning Prayer was said in these parishes, and in Marion more than three hundred services were held in a single year. The example of these parishes was followed more or less closely in places where there were no parochial schools.
That was not the Golden Age of parish finances. Parishes lived upon their daily bread and were never known to gather more than enough for their imme- diate necessities. The economic principle that a col- lege that does its work properly is always on the verge of bankruptcy was applied to the work of a parish. One source of embarrassment remained for many years. Quite a number of churches had been built on a kind of joint-stock plan; that is, instead of giving
* The name of the school was " St. Wilfred's." The name of the parish was at first " St. Michael's," but at the time of its incorporation, in 1853, the parish took the name of the school.
136
HISTORY OF THE
outright towards the erection of a church building men bought the pews. These they thereafter held in fee-simple. Rectors, wardens, and vestrymen had no control over them, and could not add subsequent con- ditions of ownership. Not till the grotesqueness of dedicating a church to God and still retaining a por- tion of it as a private possession that could be bought and sold burst upon them did the pew-owners volun- tarily begin to make concessions and ultimately sur- render the pews absolutely to the parochial authorities.
It seems to have been almost unthought of that there was no necessary relationship between the seat a parishioner occupied in the church and the amount he contributed to the parish treasury. If he did not buy a pew he had to rent one. Free churches were so uncommon, especially in the cities, that the build- ing of Trinity Church, Mobile, as a free church was heralded far and wide. Only pew-holders and sub- scribers of an amount equal to the rental of the cheap- est pew were permitted to vote at parish meetings. It was not the parishioners that voted, but the pews. One vote went with an entire pew. Those persons that economized by renting a pew conjointly had each the corresponding fraction of a vote. The highest bidder had the choice of pews, and the poor sat imme- diately under the three-decker pulpit or far back beneath the gallery or behind obstructing columns. The first parish to break away from this system of owned or rented pews was Christ Church, Tuskaloosa. Bishop Cobbs, who was rector of the parish, looked upon rented pews as "a hedge of thorns and briars"
-
137
CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
to keep the poor out of the church, and under his advice and urgent entreaty the vestry, in 1849, de- clared that the pews should ever after be free. Trinity and St. John's, Mobile, soon followed this good ex- ample, but the old system long continued good enough for the majority of parishes.
Song services and the like on Sunday nights had already crept in and to some extent displaced the worship of God and the preaching of Christ. These services were not infrequently arranged by commit- tees from the vestry in consultation with the choir- leader; the rector was not supposed to be interested. Much has been said of the lack of musical culture in those days; but the following action of the Tuskaloosa vestry, on November 12, 1831, would justify the inference that the members of at least one vestry were thorough vocalists:
"Resolved, That in accordance with the custom of the Pro. Epis. Church in the U. S. the vestry of Christ Church, Tuscaloosa, will celebrate an Oratorio of Sacred Musick, in this church, at some convenient time to be specified by the Committee of Arrange- ments to be appointed for that purpose."
While many of these details reveal to us a Church striving, not always wisely, to fulfil its mission, others declare that in some respects the Church in Alabama' was forty and fifty years ahead of the old-established dioceses of the North and East. The two most nota- ble instances of this diocesan precocity were: The Brotherhood of the Church, and the Bishop's Cathedral -10
138
HISTORY OF THE
project ; of both which remarkably little is known by Churchmen of to-day.
Leaving consideration of the Cathedral project for the ensuing chapter, we may now speak more par- ticularly of the Brotherhood of the Church, which antedated the Brotherliood of St. Andrew by more than a generation. This society was an inter- parochial organization of the laymen of Mobile. Un- successful attempts had been made to establish it in the summer of 1853 and the summer of 1854, when yellow fever was epidemic. Finally the organization was effected, on May 3, 1855, by four laymen, who determined not to wait for others. The objects of this Brotherhood were far more comprehensive than those of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and were five-fold, viz .: Ist, To promote Christian love and fellowship among its members by frequent intercourse, and mutual aid and encouragement in good work; 2nd, To relieve and provide for its members when sick or otherwise disabled; 3rd, To secure Christian burial to the bodies of its deceased members and other Church- men, and to succor their widows and orphans; 4th, To assist the clergy, according to its ability, in re- lieving the sick and destitute, especially those of our own communion; 5th, As soon as able, to establish a reading room and library for the use of its members; and to adopt such other measures, from time to time, as may be deemed expedient, and in accordance with the original design .* All five of these objects were realized within the first two years of the Brotherhood's
* Article II. of Constitution.
139
CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
existence. Within three months about a score of members had been enrolled, in anticipation of another yellow fever epidemic. But this year Mobile was exempt from the scourge. Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, however, suffered from the most malignant type of fever that ever appeared on this side of the Atlantic; and the Brotherhood, carrying out the spirit of their organization, gave noble succor to the afflicted cities. Two of the members volunteered to go to the relief of the helpless sufferers, hundreds of whom were dying from sheer neglect; these two and twelve others had in a few moments subscribed enough to pay all expenses of the intended help, and the Brothers were on their journey within twenty-four hours. They had abundant opportunity to perform the first four of the Brotherhood's obligations. In Norfolk alone, out of ten thousand persons remaining after the first exodus, two thousand died in two months -the proportion of deaths among the whites being one out of every three of the white population. Work of every kind was suspended, save the work of physi- cians, nurses, and grave diggers; and even the daily baked bread and the ominous cargoes of coffins were brought from Baltimore and Richmond. The general intellect and energy seemed alike paralyzed. Through- out the epidemic the two Brotherhood men did valiant service, returning to Mobile only when the plague had disappeared with the advent of cold weather. Subsequently, in addition to its altruistic beneficence,. the Brotherhood combined in itself the two functions of a Church Congress and a Bible Society. Many
140
CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
subjects of ethics, Churchmanship, and ritual received the freest discussion. A sales depot for Bibles, prayer books, and wholesome Christian literature in general, was successfully operated.
The Brotherhood of the Church was one of the first lay-organizations for personal service in the American Church. It was the outcome of a spirit that was felt by many individual laymen, and that was manifested by them both before and after the attempted organiza- tion. Perhaps the most notable example of zeal among the laity of this period was the work of Judge E. W. Peck, who, in making the rounds of the cir- cuit over which he presided, always carried an abun- dant supply of Christian and ecclesiastical literature in the back of his buggy, and was quick to drop a tract where he thought it would do good.
CHAPTER XVI.
LAST DAYS OF BISHOP COBBS.
E ARLY in 1856 it became apparent that the Bishop was breaking. His health had long been pre- carious. He had not spared himself, and his labors were now telling on his frame, which, never strong even in early life, was now at the age of sixty espe- cially susceptible to disorders. It was imperative that he temporarily lay aside all work.
The Convention itself took the matter in hand. Through a resolution introduced by its Committee on the State of the Church it insisted that the Bishop should "take in the present such respite as his medical advisers may recommend to him, and exercise in the future administration of the diocese a just regard to the preservation of his health;" and through the libe- rality of its lay delegates * it presented him with a sum of money "largely in excess of one thousand dollars," with which to travel and recruit his broken-down and wasted constitution.
Availing himself of this opportunity the Bishop spent the months of June, July and August in a jour- ney to England, returning with what he termed "a more than ordinary degree of strength and of liealth." The phraseology is modest, but his condition war- ranted no stronger words. He was enabled, indeed,
* Especially of Messrs. R. S. Bunker and H. A. Schroeder, liberal communicants of Christ Church, Mobile
141
142
HISTORY OF THE
by his indefatigable zeal, to perform a vast amount of work, in office, study, and diocese, for two years more; but it became evident that he was nearing the end of pastoral toil and care.
As he drew near the close of his earthly labors the Bishop's horizon broadened and he meditated large projects. During his absence in England the found- ing of a University for Southern men, and especially Southern Churchmen, had been broached by Bishop Polk of Tennessee, and when he returned he fell in with it most eagerly, and gave to its furtherance the full weight of both his personal and his official influ- ence. He and Mr. Lay were present at Lookout Mountain, on July 4, 1857, when the work was form- ally inaugurated by the episcopal, clerical, and lay representatives of seven dioceses. At the meeting held in Montgomery, on the twenty-fifth of the follow- ing November, to determine the location of the pro- posed University, he objected to both Sewanee and Atlanta, the leading competitors, and favored the neighborhood of Huntsville. Then came the sharp, severe, but short-lived financial crisis of 1857, during which all progress in the work ceased. As soon, how- ever, as the squall was over interest revived. Ala- bama attempted to secure a reconsideration of the vote by which the University was to be established at Sewanee, but after a frank conference with the other trustees it humbled its diocesan pride before other and more important considerations. Bishop Cobbs told the Convention of 1859 that be expected the Church- men of Alabama to subscribe a quarter of a million
143
CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
dollars towards the University of the South. The rapid march of events prevented the subscription of more than a small fraction of this sum. For the next six years Southern men that had money had small interest in launching new educational enterprises; and afterwards they that were interested were about penni- less. The Bishop never lost interest, however, and probably the last public function in which he partici- pated was the laying of the corner-stone of the prin- cipal building of the University, in the second week of October, 1860.
Bishop Cobbs' other great vision was that of a Cathedral church and organization located in Mont- gomery, and to be known as " All Souls'." Although he never publicly alluded to this idea, it is almost certain that it was one of the fruits of his visit to England in 1856.
The Bishop was not afraid of cathedrals, although the Church of England had them; and he was not afraid to project the establishment of a cathedral, although the American Church furnished no prece- dent. It is true that, a few years before, Bishop Kip of California had placed his Episcopal chair in Grace Church, San Francisco, and called that church his Cathedral; but this he did by virtue of his rectorship of the parish which he exercised in conjunction with the oversight of the jurisdiction, and when his incum- bency ceased his chair was removed and Grace Cathe- dral was again only Grace Church .* But the Cathedral
* Hon. James M. Woolworth, LL. D., in The Church Cyclo- pedia, art. CATHEDRAL.
..
144
HISTORY OF THE
that Bishop Cobbs planned was of entirely different order. It is only as a temporary makeshift that Bishi- ops engage in active parochial work; when they confine themselves to their Episcopal duties they are in the anomalous position of being chief pastor, yet having no home-of being called upon to perform Episcopal duties, yet depending on the courtesy of a parish priest for a consecrated building wherein to perform thein.
To remove this anomaly was the starting point of Bishop Cobbs' plan; but the vision became broader: The Cathedral must be a large building, seating fifteen hundred whites in the body of the church and one thousand negroes in the galleries. About the quad- rangle in which the Cathedral should stand were to be nine separate buildings, whose purposes declare the scope of the projected work, viz .: (1) diocesan library and Bishop's office, (2) sexton's house, (3) dean's residence, (4) infirmary and house of mercy, (5) home for five deaconesses, (6) house for theolog- ical students, (7) house for high classical school, (8) house for six or eight deacons, (9) steward's house for boarding occupants of last three houses. The esti- mated cost of erection was $175,000, and this the Bishop thought could be collected in ten years.
The cost of supporting the work after its inception was also thoroughly digested. The Dean was to have the offertory ; the deacons were to do missionary work for a hundred miles out of Montgomery on every Sunday and live on tlie salaries paid by their several stations-spending the weekdays at home, reading
145
CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
and studying, assisting in pastoral ministrations and fitting themselves for independent labor, and working one hour every day in the flower-, fruit-, vegetable-, and grape-gardens; the candidates for Orders were, as elsewhere, to support themselves, and were to have the privilege of teaching in extra-Cathedral schools in the city; the deaconesses were also to teach, and were to supplement their income by the gifts of the charity- box at Cathedral-door; the steward's support would come from payment of board by deacons, candidates, and grammar-school boys from a distance; the sexton's salary would be provided by special contributions; and the Bishop's was already paid by the diocese. The Bishop set his heart upon the Cathedral as the start- ing point of vast ecclesiastical development. He wrote, under date of January 18, 1859, that it would "enable a Bishop to be not simply Chairman of the Convention, but the heart, the motive power, and the controlling agent, of his Diocese, and thus let him be, what has never been in our Church in the United States, a real Bishop in the Gospel sense of the word. Tell Mr. Lay that after Convention I shall begin to collect materials for this great work, and that if he is my successor he must carry out my plan in ten years' time. As David felt himself un- worthy to build the Temple, but contented himself with collecting materials, I am restrained from begin- ning this work, not only by my age, but by a feeling similar to that of David."
The dream of a visionary it was; but the visions of one century are the realities of the next. It is not a
146
HISTORY OF THE
hazardous statement that the next century will not attain its majority before not merely Montgomery, but also Birmingham, shall have a Cathedral erected on Bishop Cobbs' plan-the centers of all the educational and missionary work of the respective dioceses.
But while thus planning for the future, in which he had so much confidence, the Bishop grew less and less cheerful as to the present. His sermons and Con- vention addresses began to be marked by the dark and desponding tone of overwrought zeal, which re- veals more clearly the nearness of subjective collapse than the enormity of the objective evils assailed or deplored. The Church seemed to him to be con- forming more and more to the world; and in his despair that such should be its rapid drift after so many years of his own unstinted labors and the labors of his faithful yoke-fellows, he cried out: "When a whole country is submerged by a wide-wasting inun- dation, it is too late to talk of dykes and levees: and all that a prudent man can then do is to flee to some eminence and, if possible, to save his own life." It was the cry of despondency that an ever lengthening line of Elijahs is uttering through the ages.
The gloom that oppressed the Bishop touched the deep heart of the Church. In words of sympathy and stout encouragement, and of trustfulness in the guiding Spirit, Henry C. Lay, as Chairman of the Committee on the State of the Church, expressed the feelings of the entire diocese. "During the last year," he said, "the Bishop has exceeded in labor the laborious years that have gone before. And never
147
CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
have his efforts been more acceptable than now. We anticipate for him many years of increasing useful- ness. In this his hour of depression and foreboding we are bold to assure him, in the name of his Diocese, of its warmest confidence and attachment. We feel amply warranted in saying for each and every mem- ber of this Convention that we are proud to have for our leader one whose heart we know and whose sym- pathy has never failed us. Let him be well assured that in his battle against the Devil and the World we will not fail to follow in his charge .- It remains to be considered that the evils which have been alluded to are by no means submitted to in silence. The ser- mons and the private conferences of the present Con- vention give assurance that the watchmen do not slumber, and that faithful warnings fail not to be given. In the present day there are many influences which are not for good; and while we do what we can to resist them, we may well be content to leave all in the hands of Him who in the days of His flesh watched from afar the ship rocked upon the waves, and came mysteriously to the relief of the rowers, when spent with labor and still far from shore."
These words, unmistakably the sentiments of the Convention, which emphasized their delivery by its profound silence, and followed as they were by many private interviews in which hearts were opened, moved the Bishop greatly, and gave him renewed courage for his work. The next year was a season of unremitting toil and overflowing returns. The re- ceipts for diocesan missions were larger than ever
148
HISTORY OF THE
before, the Diocesan Girls' School began to take on substantial form, nearly every congregation received stated ministrations, and the number of persons con- firmed exceeded that of any preceding year.
Throughout the summer and early fall of 1860 the Bishop continued his visitations steadily. In the lat- ter part of October, having completed this work in North Alabama, he returned to Montgomery, and thence, without stopping a single day, went over to Prattville and Autaugaville. At the latter of these villages, on October 21, he made the last visitation of his life. Thenceforward he remained at home calmly awaiting the end. All his immediate family were summoned to his bedside and all were present at the last, his sons and daughters and their husbands and wives. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was received by them all. The dying father, rising partly in his bed, blessed his children like a patriarch of old, exclaiming with weeping eyes and overflowing heart, "Behold, Lord, here am I, and those that thou hast given me!"
It was on the eleventh day of January, 1861, that he passed away. On that day Alabama seceded from the Union. Though a true Southern man and loyal to his State, Bishop Cobbs, in common with thousands of other men in the South, was heartily opposed to Secession. The growing probability and final cer- tainty of national disruption and fratricidal warfare had been to him a great grief, and, although his last official act was to direct the clergy of the diocese to refrain from using the Prayer for the President of the
-
1
149
CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
United States so soon as the state and diocese of Alabama were no longer within the limits of the United States, he prayed that he might not live to see this great calamity. His prayer was granted. The State Convention which was to determine the question of Secession was sitting in Montgomery less than two miles from the home of the dying prelate. The Bishop passed into Paradise at twenty minutes past noon. The Convention was at that moment preparing for the final vote. Within an hour after Bishop Cobbs' death Alabama had seceded.
-
PART THIRD.
The Episcopate of Bishop Wilmer.
CHAPTER I.
A CONFEDERATE DIOCESE.
T HE Diocesan Convention of May, 1861, met in Montgomery, and was largely attended. The War of the Secession was under weigh. The bom- bardment of Fort Sumter was only two weeks back in history. Actual fighting in the field had not yet be- gun. The entire South was filled with an enthusiasm that foregrasped ultimate and sweeping victory. No man dared sit at the feet of Cassandra. Under the benign influence of a new and thoroughly homo- geneous nation the prosperity of both Church and State was assured. Moreover a Bishop was to be elected, and the future relationship of the diocese, a lone star in the ecclesiastical firmament, with other sovereign dioceses was to be determined. Both secu- lar enthusiasm and ecclesiastical excitement com- bined to cause a full attendance of clergy and laity.
First and foremost of the matters to be settled was the formal secession of the Church in Alabama from the Church in the United States. It was argued that the State's secession rendered corresponding action by the diocesan Church imperative. Some delegates wished to go slow; and these made the point that the secession, since it involved a change in the Constitu- tion, must go over to the next annual Convention. The contention was just; it was sustained by the President of the Convention, the Rev. F. R. Hanson; -11
153
I54
HISTORY OF THE
but an appeal was taken and the Convention by a large majority overruled the Chair's decision. The same fate awaited the point of order that the secession, since it involved a change in the Canons, must lie over. The Convention did not intend, in an extraor- dinary crisis, to bind itself by rules that contemplated only normal conditions. It was overwhelmingly determined to withdraw, and withdraw immediately, from organic union with the National Church of a foreign nation. The declaration of secession was adopted, and the act of secession was completed by the Convention's order to the Secretary to strike from the Journal the names of delegates to the General Convention of the Church in the United States, and its election of six deputies to a General Council of the dioceses situated in the seceded States. This latter course had been suggested by Bishops Polk and Elli- ott, with a view to the organization of the dioceses into a national Church. The deputies elected were the Rev. Messrs. Banister, Mitchell, and Pierce, and Messrs. J. D. Phelan, A. W. Ellerbee, and F. S. Lyon.
The occasion was by many deemed most propitious for taking initiatory steps towards a division of the dio- cese. An elaborate scheme was formulated, and kept under consideration two whole years. The State was to be divided into three dioceses named after the cities of Mobile, Montgomery, and Huntsville. The division was not imperative, but permissive; when any prospective See should contain the requisite number of clergy and parishes it should be at liberty
155
CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
to elect its own Bishop and organize its own house- hold. After two years the hopes of the mnost sanguine were growing cold, the plan mnet with no favor from Bishop Wilmer, and finally died in a committee- room.
The preliminary work of the Convention having been attended to and the Episcopal salary having been set at twenty-five hundred dollars,* the election of a Bishop was in order. According to Article VIII. of the Constitution, which required that the clergy should nominate by ballot and the laity ratify or re- ject in the same way, a majority of each order deter- mining the action of that order, the clergy retired and proceeded to their election. It had been Bishop Cobbs' earnest desire that Henry C. Lay should suc- ceed him. Mr. Lay had long before shown that he was good Episcopal timber. Only eighteen months before the present Convention the House of Bishops had elected him Missionary Bishop of Arkansas, and he had been consecrated during the session of the General Convention. Being Bishop, not of a Diocese, but of a Missionary jurisdiction, he could be trans- lated. j His name was presented to the clergy, and was strongly urged. But unfortunately Mr. Lay had lived in Alabama, and his brother clergy knew his faults as well as (or shall we say better than?) his virtues. It was contended that he had assumed the air and authority of a Bishop before his elevation to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.