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THE STORY OF THE
DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT
NORTHOL ST. AD
SHARON
CHRIST CHURCH 1754
LITCHFIELD
ST. MICHAEL'S 1745
PLYMOUTH
BRISTOL
ST. PETER'S 1739
TRINITY 1747
WATERTOWN
NEW MILFORD
CHRIST CHURCH
1764
WATERBURY
ST. JOHN'S 1742
WOODBURY
CHRIST CHURCH
ST. JOHN'S 1737
1740
ST. PAUL'S 1740
CHESHIRE
ST. PETER'S 1760
WALLINGFORD
OXFORD
ST. PAUL'S 1740
NORTH HAVEN ST. JOHN'S 4759
NON H STIN
ST. JAMES 1764
DERBY
WEDDING
NEW HAVEN
HUNT ING TON
ST. JAMES' 1737
TRINITY 1752
BRANFORD
ST. PAUL'S
WEST HAVEN
TASHUA 1749
XIIIIK
TRINITY
CAS TON
CHRIST
CHURCH
MILFORD
ST. PETER'S
STRATFORD 1764
BRIDGEPORT
CHRIST CHURCH
ST. JOHN'S 1746
1707
FAIRFIELD
DIOCES
NORWALK
TRINITY 1724
ST. PAUL'S 1737
STAMFORD
ST. JOHN'S
GACONWICH
1742
CHRIST CHURCH 1749
NEWTOWN
ST. PETER'S 1764
DANBURY
TRINITY 1732
RIDGEFIELD CHRIST CHURCH 1732
C
ST. STEPHEN'S 1739
CHRIST CHURCH CHRIST CHURCH 1760 1762
ROXBURY
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
GC 3 1833 01217 7066 974.6 B94ST
NOBLOOMFIELD DREW'S 740
HARTFORD
CHRIST CHURCH 1762
HEBRON ST. PETER'S 1734
MIDDLETOWN
HOLY TRINITY 1750
NORWICH
CHRIST CHURCH 1747
POQUETANUCK
S
LINGFORD
9 ST. JAMES 1734
: PAUL'S 1740
HFORD NDREW'S 1765
NORTH GUILFORD ST. JOHN'S 4747
NEW LONDON . ST. JAMES' 1725
GUILFORD
MANFO
CHRIST CHURCH
TRINIT
OCSE of CONNECTICUT
Colonial Parishes
PREPARED BY CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY NEW HAVEN 1940
BROOKLYN
TRINITY 1771
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/storyofdioceseof00burr
THE STORY OF THE
DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT
A New Branch of the Vine
BY
NELSON ROLLIN BURR, PH.D.
SIS
N
& CONN
SIGILLUM & DIOECESIS .:
I am the vine, ye are the branches . . . without me ye can do nothing. John, 15:5
i
COPYRIGHT 1962 BY CHURCH MISSIONS PUBLISHING COMPANY HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any portions thereof in any form.
ii
TO WALTER HENRY GRAY EIGHTH BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT WHOSE INTEREST IN THE HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE
SUGGESTED AND ENCOURAGED THIS WORK
iii
PRINTED BY LETTERPRESS AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE REPORTER PRESS PAUL K. BLANCHARD, INC. NORTH CONWAY, NEW HAMPSHIRE
iv
FOREWORD
The Diocese of Connecticut is deeply grateful to Dr. Nelson Rollin Burr for the many years of labor which have gone into the writing of "The Story of the Diocese of Connecticut." He is uniquely qualified to be the author in view of his training, experi- ence and devotion to the Church in this Diocese. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Harris Louis Burr and Elizabeth Kirtland (Hollister) Burr. He received his university education at Princeton, from which he received his degree of Doctor of Phi- losophy. He taught English History at New York University and served thereafter as Field Supervisor for the Historical Records Survey on the Work Projects Administration, and was afterwards Assistant State Director thereof. Since 1942 Dr. Burr has been as- sociated with the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. He is the author of "Education in New Jersey, 1630-1871," "The Angli- can Church in New Jersey" and various parish histories. He has served as a Lay Reader in Connecticut and was for a period of time in charge of St. James' Church, Ponsett. He is a communicant of Grace Church, Hartford.
When some twenty years ago I contemplated writing a his- tory of the Diocese, I discussed the matter with Dr. Burr and very quickly came to the conclusion that he could do this more effec- tively than I could. He graciously agreed to undertake the task without compensation and through the years has done a really incredible amount of research, as will be evidenced by the bibli- ography. He has endeavored to present history in a narrative form rather than simply a dry record of the facts, and I have confidence that the result will commend itself widely.
To Dr. Burr I would record my most sincere official and personal gratitude for what he has done for his Church.
NataA, Gray Bishop of Connecticut
V
vi
CONTENTS
Part One
Colonial Missions 1
CHAPTER ONE
Episcopalians in a Puritan State 3
CHAPTER Two
Breaching the Puritan Stronghold
CHAPTER THREE 11
Mr. Dummer's Books .
23
CHAPTER FOUR
Enthusiasm and Conformity 35
CHAPTER FIVE
Young Churches in Action
47
CHAPTER SIX
Colonial Church Life . 63
CHAPTER SEVEN
Winds of Politics and Doctrine 89
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Church in the Community 103
Part Two
Revolution, Freedom and Growth 113
CHAPTER NINE
Ordeal by Fire: The Revolution . 115
CHAPTER TEN
The Struggle for the Episcopate . 127
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Reorganization and Recovery . 143
CHAPTER TWELVE
Christian Liberalism and Religious Liberty . 155
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Diocesan Missions. One Hundred and Seventy-Five Years of Growth 169
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Visible Church: Administration 189
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Cathedral 209
vii
CONTENTS - Continued
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Parish Life in the 1800's . 219
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Worship and Piety . 237
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Clergy 253
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Old Connecticut Churchmanship . 275
CHAPTER TWENTY
Broader Catholicism 289
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Parish Life Revival . 299
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Education
315
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The Social Gospel . 337
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Socializing Church Life . 355
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Pioneering in Other States 373
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Connecticut and the Church's Mission . 389
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The Connecticut Church and the World . 409
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Our Oldest Diocese Looks Forward . 429
APPENDIX I
The Connecticut Episcopate 437
APPENDIX II
Bibliography 477
APPENDIX III
Sources of Quotations 535
INDEX
547
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS
TITLES
PAGES
Seal of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel . 16
The Rev. George Keith 17
Letter of the Rev. George Pigot to the Parish of Christ Church, Stratford, 1722 . 32
Stratford Wardens and Vestrymen Protest against the State Church Tax, 1710 33
Christ Church, Stratford, 1743-1858 88
Trinity Church, New Haven, First Church, 1752 . 88
The Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D. 88
Bishop Skinner's House and St. Andrew's Church, Aberdeen 88
Bishop Samuel Seabury's Mitre 112
Bishop Seabury's First Directive to his Clergy 113
Bishop Seabury's House, New London 128
Christ Church, Hartford, Chancel, 1829-1879 129
Christ Church, Hartford, Chancel, 1892 208
Organization of an "Episcopal Society," Hartford, 1786 .
209
Typical Early Nineteenth Century Floor Plan of a Church, 1822 216
St. Andrew's Church, Kent, Erected 1826 216
St. Paul's Church, Huntington, Erected 1812 216
Trinity Church, Portland, Erected 1832 . 216
Christ Church, East Haven, Erected 1789 . 216
Episcopal Academy, Cheshire, First Building Erected 1796 . 216
Christ Church, Bethany, Erected 1809 224
Old Trinity Church, Brooklyn, Erected 1770-1771 225
Grace Church, Hamden, Cross Section 232
ix
ILLUSTRATIONS - Continued
Grace Church, Hamden, Erected 1820 232
Grace Church, Hamden, Interior . 232
St. John's Church, North Haven, Erected 1834-1835 233
Samuel Seabury, First Bishop of Connecticut, 1784-1796 . 440
Bishop Seabury's Certificate of Ordination as Deacon, 1753 . 440
Abraham Jarvis, Second Bishop of Connecticut, 1797-1813 . 440
Thomas Church Brownell, Third Bishop of Connecticut, 1819-1865 440
John Williams, Fourth Bishop of Connecticut, 1865-1899 . 456
Chauncey Bunce Brewster, Fifth Bishop of Connecticut, 1899-1928 456
Edward Campion Acheson, Sixth Bishop of Connecticut, 1928-1934 456
Frederick Grandy Budlong, Seventh Bishop of Connecticut, 1934-1951 457
Walter Henry Gray, Eighth Bishop of Connecticut, 1951- 472
Robert McConnell Hatch, Suffragan Bishop, 1951-1957 472
John Henry Esquirol, Suffragan Bishop, 1957- 472
Joseph Warren Hutchens, Suffragan Bishop, 1961- . 473
Map of the Diocese of Connecticut in Colonial Days Inside Front Cover
Map of the Diocese of Connecticut in 1961 Inside Back Cover
x
PREFACE
This history of the Diocese of Connecticut was begun in 1944. The Right Reverend Walter Henry Gray, then Suffragan Bishop of Connecticut, requested me to write this record of the oldest diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States. He believed that a history would be desirable, because none had ap- peared since the second edition (1869) of the Reverend Eben Ed- wards Beardsley's History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.
My interest in the history of the Diocese had been inspired especially by my association with the Connecticut Historical Records Survey, in the years 1937-1941. One of my duties was to assist in compiling the Inventory of the Church Archives of Con- necticut, including a volume for the Episcopal Church, which was published in cooperation with the Diocese. Interest was stimulated also by the writing of anniversary histories for several parishes in and around Hartford.
Research began in 1944, but was postponed by the immedi- ate pressure of wartime work. Later it was intermittent, due to the necessity of completing The Anglican Church in New Jersey, in accordance with a previous request of Bishop Paul Matthews. Con- centration upon this volume began after the publication of that work in 1954.
This history seems to be justified by the long period - nearly a century - since Beardsley's scholarly work, and by Connecticut's contribution to the establishment, organization, growth, and charac- ter of the Episcopal Church in America. Since 1869 the Diocese has expanded greatly, and has experienced radical changes in its administration, the agonizing problems of two catastrophic world wars, and the evolution of new phases of church life, such as the Social Gospel movement since 1880.
It is not a mere expression of local pride to state that, without Connecticut's influence, the history and character of the
xi
American Episcopal Church might have been very different. The loyalty of this Diocese to the ideal of the historic episcopate, to the Prayer Book, and to the classic Anglican doctrine of the early seventeenth century, opposed a radical departure from tradition, which could have precluded cooperation by the English bishops in reviving the Church after the Revolution.
Connecticut influence helped to shape the American ideal of a purely spiritual episcopate, independent of state intervention or authority. Connecticut Churchmen established the first fully organized diocese of the Anglican Church outside the British Isles. Their unshakable loyalty laid solid foundations for the Church's growth in other States, as the nation expanded and fulfilled Bishop George Berkeley's prophecy, "Westward the course of empire takes its way."1 Together with other dissenters, they took a decisive part in Connecticut's fierce battle to abolish the state church and to establish complete religious liberty.
Under a succession of truly great bishops, this Diocese has been a leader in education, the cause of domestic and foreign mis- sions, the Social Gospel, and the ecumenical movement. Its whole history has demonstrated the power of voluntary evangelism by a devoted and educated laity. Connecticut Churchmen have been eminent in the General Convention, the Church Congress, and international conventions of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
This history, like The Anglican Church in New Jersey, departs radically from the chronicle style. After a brief account of the Church's founding in Connecticut, it describes the develop- ment of the Diocese in broad phases, including administration, the clergy, education, church life, the Social Gospel, revival of the spiritual life, and plans for future growth. A strictly chronological approach would have been impossible. Biographical sketches of the bishops appear in Appendix I.
While this history emphasizes Connecticut's great and dis- tinctive contributions to the American Episcopal Church, it does
xii
not leave the reader unaware of certain shortcomings of Connecti- cut Churchmanship. It is well to remember that Bishop John Wil- liams, who has been aptly called "Mr. Connecticut," spent the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood in an honest examination of all aspects of his ministry, including the weaknesses and failures. There would be no point in concealing or minimizing the devoted but mistaken Toryism of most Connecticut Churchmen during the Revolution, their later liability to the charge of being "High and Dry," or their Anglo-Saxon nativism, which sometimes blinded them to the needs of the "foreigner" and the depressed social classes.
In spite of such negative traits, the Connecticut Church did not fail in loyalty to its founders' vision of a new and continental branch of the Anglican Communion. Inspired by far-sighted bish- ops, it has transcended particularism to assume its part in the evan- gelism of a worldwide communion, working and praying for the eventual reunion of all Christian people. This book was intended to appreciate the Diocese as Bishop Chauncey B. Brewster wanted it to be: not a mere ecclesiastical machine, but a company of faith- ful people, striving to overcome their human bonds to achieve his ideal of a worldwide Kingdom of God.
NELSON R. BURR
xiii
xiv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Much of the original inspiration of this history was imparted by the late Right Reverend Frederick Grandy Budlong, Bishop of Connecticut from 1934 until his retirement in 1951. He always was keenly interested in the author's work for the inventory of archives of the Diocese, under the auspices of the Connecticut Historical Records Survey. Tribute is due to the present Bishop, the Right Reverend Walter Henry Gray, for his patience, encouragement, and advice during my years of labor. Mrs. Maida Bryant, Secretary of the Church Missions Publishing Company, deserves my thanks for her conduct of correspondence concerning publication and many other details. The staff of Diocesan House in Hartford assembled and sent to me invaluable duplicate copies of old Journals of the Diocesan Convention, and files of the Connecticut Churchman. Without these sources, this history could not have been written.
In a very real sense, the book is an outgrowth of the inven- tory of archives of the Diocese, compiled by the Connecticut His- torical Records Survey, a unit of a nationwide project directed by Doctor Luther H. Evans (later the Librarian of Congress) and his successor, Mr. Sargent B. Child. It was sponsored by the Connecti- cut State Library, then directed by Mr. James Brewster, a nephew of Bishop Chauncey B. Brewster. Mr. Norbert B. Lacy directed the Survey in Connecticut. I feel indebted to my associates of the Survey (many of them now deceased) who traveled and labored faithfully to gather the information. Their efforts were encouraged and sustained by the cooperation of many rectors and parochial of- ficers, and of members of the Connecticut State Library staff, par- ticularly Mrs. Louise Bassett, who was then in charge of the Li- brary's photostating of church records.
I could not fail to mention my gratitude to many of the Con- necticut clergy, who wrote letters containing information, and sent copies of histories of their parishes. Without the file of these his- tories, based upon research in parochial records, it would have been
XV
impossible to write the chapters relating to local church life, churches, worship, music, and customs.
The Reverend Doctor Kenneth Walter Cameron, Archivist of the Diocese, opened to me the resources of his admirably or- ganized collections. I am deeply obliged to him for the use of many out-of-print parish histories, minutes of clerical organizations, rec- ords of archdeaconries and diocesan societies, and illustrations. The files of his carefully edited Historiographer supplied many calen- dars of original records and reproductions of important documents.
Mr. Frederick Goff, Chief of the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress, kindly permitted me to make lengthy tran- scripts of Connecticut material in the file of annual sermon pamph- lets of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, particularly abstracts of reports of Anglican missionaries in the colony from 1710 until 1784. The Rare Books Division supplied also many publications relating to colonial religious controversies, and to the struggle for disestablishment of the Federalist adminis- tration and of the Connecticut state church.
The Library's Division of Manuscripts furnished essential information, through reproduction of certain reports from Connecti- cut to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The staff of this Division indicated many other sources, including letters of American clergymen, information concerning Connecticut Loyal- ists, and letters from Americans to the evangelist, George White- field, which revealed opinions of him and of the Great Awakening.
Thanks are due to Mrs. Robin M. Gray of Washington, D. C., for her typing of several chapters of the manuscript; and to the Rev. Kenneth W. Cameron, the Archivist of the Diocese of Connecticut, for reading the text.
Also to Mrs. Helen C. Kennedy of West Hartford, Conn., for long and patient work in reading proof. To Mrs. Hutchens also, for her biographical sketch of her husband, Bishop Joseph Warren Hutchens.
N. R. B.
xvi
PART ONE
COLONIAL MISSIONS
·[ 1 ].
CHAPTER ONE
EPISCOPALIANS IN A PURITAN STATE
A MERICA, until the present time, never seemed so attractive as a haven for Europeans as during the twenty years before a solemn assembly in Hartford drafted Connecticut's first constitu- tion, known as the Fundamental Orders of 1639. Earlier dreams about beaches of gold dust and forests of spice trees now became a practical quest for homes. Diamond heaps gave way to clean, sparkling rivers like the Connecticut in a country abundantly stored with treasures available to any who would toil - fish and tim- ber, furs and tobacco, game and minerals. On this undeveloped and virgin continent the poorest bound-servant might hope for a homestead.
The wilderness and the painted Indian seemed to many less inhospitable than a Europe deep in the savage Thirty Years War (1618-1648) - a time when royal ambition, national hate, and re- ligious bigotry were joined in a universal maelstrom of death. The original causes of the war were nearly forgotten since religious rivalry had now become an excuse for vicious political intrigue and a dogfish madness for pillage. Here finally was the sordid anti- climax to the noble ideals of the Reformation, as multitudes were slain or impoverished. In sheer despair, many believed that the new world across the ocean would mend the folly of the old; hence the long-drawn-out period of the Thirty Years War spurred the first of those vast folk migrations that were to found and open up the United States.
Since the English Puritan reformers looked on New England as fertile ground for testing their theory of a commonwealth based upon the laws of the Bible, one stream of migration carried across the Atlantic the Puritan ideal of a theocratic or God-ruled state that was to affect the entire history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. Those who cherished this ideal had become disgusted at England's inglorious part during the tremendous struggle for
·[ 3 ].
religious liberty. They saw a nation then tormented by a conflict between a willful Episcopalian king and an aggressive and increas- ingly Puritan and republican Parliament. One powerful party even favored "purifying" the Church of England by sweeping away its bishops and its Prayer Book. It wanted a national church of its own, with popularly elected pastors. King James I loathed this group and said firmly, "No bishop, no king!"
His handsome and stubborn son, Charles I (1625-1649), was less shrewd and made the fatal error of trying to bully the Scots into swallowing an Episcopalian prayer book. The result was a struggle which soon merged into a civil war in England and Scot- land, resulting in the king's defeat and trial, followed by his exe- cution in 1649. A Puritan Parliament and the "Protector" Oliver Cromwell then ruled uneasily for a number of years, until in 1660 a disillusioned nation welcomed back the dead king's son, Charles II (1660-1685) and the old church.
Thus did the Puritans fail to impose their godly common- wealth upon England, but not before thousands of them had es- tablished it in New England. The ideas that shaped this church- state had evolved for almost a century among the Dissenters from the Church of England. Thus one must know about these ideas to understand the struggle to found the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.
THEOCRACY
The Puritan's ideal state is expressed simply in the phrase A Holy Commonwealth - the title of an essay by the eminent Puritan minister, Richard Baxter. The theory was explained by the famous Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury, Massachusetts, in his book The Christian Commonwealth. Briefly, it implied a republic ruled by a Puritan church as the interpreter of God's word in the Bible. In theory, church and state were to be distinct, but actually the government existed to enforce the church's will, for religion domi- nated all social and political life. This ideal had always annoyed the Church of England and elicited the scornful contempt of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and of the lesser sovereigns who succeeded her.
The Puritan "theocrats," for their part, scorned monarchs and hated the diocesan bishops, with their mitres and billowing
·[ 4 ].
sleeves. They considered every ordained minister a bishop. Strangely enough, they had no common solution to the problem of governing a "purified" church. This prickly question troubled Con- necticut's Puritan founders and their unwelcome neighbors, the Episcopalians. Some Puritans preferred the presbyterian form, with authoritative presbyteries and synods composed of ministers. Actu- ally, presbyterianism was quite republican, as shrewd Queen Eliza- beth had perceived; and James I, in a paroxysm of rage, had once shouted that a presbytery and monarchy agreed as well as the devil and God.
New England Presbyterians and Congregationalists did agree upon the religious sanction of civil government. The Bible was the source of law, and church membership was required for voting. An important defense of the Holy Commonwealth idea was the Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline, by the Rev. Thomas Hooker, a founder of Connecticut. Although he declared that the Fundamental Orders of 1639 derived power from the peo- ple, he and other Puritan leaders defined "people" in a restricted sense. It referred to the "freemen" or voters, the literate male church members with considerable property. Thus neither pure democracy nor religious liberty was a part of the theocratic plan. Except for the dreamers like Roger Williams and William Penn, that iron age of religious conflict could not even imagine religious liberty. Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts constantly urged eternal vigilance against "such as would a toleration hatch." The founders of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies agreed with him, and their ministers harried dissenters as a way of defending (so they thought ) all they held dear.
Despite all efforts, Puritan theocracy failed signally to cap- ture the mind of England during the era of Puritan dominance. But in New England, far from meddling monarchs and mitred bishops, the reformers believed that theocracy would have a free hand to establish itself firmly. That hope lay in the minds of the Puritan ministers sailing to America, as they watched their native England sink below the ocean's horizon. In New England they would be the chief citizens, with the town and the church as one body and the civil magistrates as their sheriffs. No artist ever poured more pas- sion into his work of creation than the Puritan ministers into the founding of their godly commonwealth. Connecticut's holy experi-
·[ 5 ].
ment in government was one of their attempts to convince a dubious world that theocracy could be practical.
The little Puritan states in America regarded themselves as spiritual aristocracies, gathered out of the world and living in a special covenant with God, as in the ancient Hebrew state. They rejected the concept of the established Episcopal Church of Eng- land - that the whole nation was the church, with every baptized person a member, regardless of any "evidence of grace," of person- al conversion. They believed every "gathered" congregation of Christians to be a complete church, dependent upon God alone and in solemn covenant with Him. It should be composed of per- sons whose lives and profession of faith made them true followers of Christ, or "saints." Each church was organized after fasting and prayer, in the presence of the congregation, by members who de- clared their consent to a confession of faith. They chose the minis- ter, teacher, and elders, whose authority came from the call of the people, not from episcopal ordination. They were ordained by imposition of the hands of appointed members or other ministers. The independent churches were grouped into "consociations," but only for "brotherly counsel," advice, and fellowship.
Such was the ideal of church government held by Thomas Hooker, Hartford's first pastor. This also was the ideal of Connecti- cut's Fundamental Orders of 1639, designed "to maintain and pre- serve the purity of the Gospel." As the church was considered the sifted wheat of the world, so also were voters the sifted wheat of the church. To Connecticut's founders, government without re- ligious sanction was as unthinkable as a church without diocesan bishops would have been to an Episcopalian. Were not both church and state founded upon a covenant with God? Although they wanted a strictly Christian commonwealth, the founders did not contemplate a church identified with or ruled by the state.
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