USA > Connecticut > A history of Connecticut, its people and institutions, pt 1 > Part 11
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The New Haven congregation rose while the minister solemnly pronounced the text. The whole Bible, even the Solomon Love Song, carried reverent worshipers straight to the heavenly throne. John Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, wrote a book in 1650, on the Atonement, pre- senting a view which has since prevailed largely in New England, and the Massachusetts legislature ordered it burnt, because it was supposed to be unfair to the Bible. Mrs. Hutchinson with her teaching of the higher life, and the Quakers with their claim to the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit, were dangerous, because they seemed to disturb the authority of the Scriptures. The saintliness of the early years was neither morbidly sentimental, gloomy, excessively mystical or hard, considering the age and the heredity, but religion was at the center of everything. Family worship was an important feature of a Puritan house- . hold. At the beginning of every meal the blessing was asked, and at the close, thanks were given, every person standing by his chair in both instances. The day began and ended with Scripture and prayer, all standing during prayer.
From about 1660, there appeared symptoms of a decline from the austerity of the first years. Hardship, severe toil, worry over food, wolves and Indians, poor schools, and
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the natural reaction, which our changeful human nature practices, brought in what has been called The Puritan Decline. This is clearly indicated in a book published in 1701, A Testimony to the Order of the Gospel, in the Churches of New England, by John Higginson, who taught school in Hartford in 1638, and preached in Guilford and Salem. When he was eighty-five years old, he joined with William Hubbard, the pastor at Ipswich, in a statement which contains the following sentences:
We are sensible that there is Risen and Rising among us, a Number who not only forsake the Right wayes of the Lord, where- in these holy churches have walked, but also labor to carry away as many others with them as they can. It is too observable, That the Power of Godliness, is exceedingly Decaying and Expir- ing in the Country.
That this is not the gloomy brooding of a depressed old age appears from the fact that in sermons, legislative enact- ments, records of the courts and of the churches, the decline was generally recognized as widespread and serious. In 1679, a "Reforming Synod" was called by the General Court of Massachusetts, and it pointed out a "great and visible decay of the power of Godliness" in the churches. It specified as evils of the times, neglect of divine worship, disregard of the church sacraments, pride, profanity, Sab- bath-breaking, family lawlessness and irreligion, intemper- ance, licentiousness, covetousness, and untruthfulness.
In the words of Thomas Prince: "A little after 1660, there began to appear Decay, and this increased to 1670, when it grew very visible and threatening and was generally complained of and bewailed bitterly by the pious among them : and yet more to 1680, when but few of the first genera- tion remained." The colonists had passed into a life of strain; religious ties between them and the strong religious life of England were severed by the Restoration; they were no longer the vanguard of a great religious movement.
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Their religious life ceased to interest any considerable section of England; left to themselves in the wilderness, their zeal flagged and their moral life fell away. There had been a falling off in the ability and scholarship of the pulpit and the intelligence of laymen; land-grabbing had crowded out self-examination in that vigorous town-planting period, over eighty Connecticut towns being incorporated between 1660, and 1735. To get more land was a fever which dulled the anxiety to checkmate the devil and get to heaven. Political worry, military activity, and heavy taxa- tion made the strain so stern and constant as to interrupt self-investigation and obscure the great White Throne. King Philip's war carried fire and slaughter to many towns. It was hard to grow in grace when the church was trans- formed into a fortress. Action under James II. to take away the charter, the trying sway of Andros, the French War, expedition to Albany, another to Canada, witchcraft craze, Queen Anne's War, controversies over colonial boundaries, commercial and currency problems and em- barrassments, smallpox and diphtheria epidemics, together with a thousand questions arising with the settling of new towns, gave the people enough to think about without spending too much time in morbid duels with their inner corruptions.
There was also much contention in the churches, which went far to paralyze the religious life. Church quarrels were fruitful sources of migrations to form new towns; there were disagreements in Wethersfield which led to the settling of Stamford in 1641, and Hadley in 1659. There was a protracted quarrel in the Hartford church from 1653, to 1659. The union of church and state was the occasion of numberless difficulties, which hindered the religious life. The action of the Half-way Covenant, which will be de- scribed later, seriously blighted the spirituality of the times. Religious controversies, which were fought out in the legis- lature, the courthouse, and the town meeting, with the
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jail standing near by as a threat, furnished poor soil for a vital spiritual life. The domineering spirit of the churches, which brooked no disagreement with their vicious con- ception of the nature and province of the church, helped on the decline. The uncharitable severity with which con- scientious dissent on matters of religion was treated chilled the tender plant of piety, and converted churches, dis- tinguished at the start for brotherly love, into refrigerators which the people must attend, or be fined. The people in democratic Connecticut seem to have had an average amount of human nature, and it was not conducive to piety that, despite the reaction against class distinctions in England and Massachusetts, they should have preserved and established the caste system in seating the meeting- house. An illustration of this is found in the fact that in 1698, the townsmen and Goodman Elderkin, the carpenter, were engaged in Norwich to arrange the pews into eight classes, according to their dignity, and then five of the most respected men were directed to seat the people with due regard to rank: "the square pue to be considered first in dignity ; the new seats and the fore seats in the broad ally next, and alike in dignity."
In view of all this we do not wonder that Higginson, Hubbard, and others joined in the lament. The Rev. Samuel Mather of Windsor, writing in 1706, says in a pastoral letter to his people:
It is a time of much Degeneracy . . . In great measure we in this wilderness have lost our first love. . . We do not walk with God as our Fathers did, and hence we are continually from year to year under his Rebukes one way or another; and yet alas, we turn not unto him that smites us: these considerations call for the utmost of our endeavors, for the reformation of what is amiss amongst us: and for the upholding and strengthening of what yet remains, and is perhaps ready to dy.
In East Windsor, Rev. Timothy Edwards-father of the famous Jonathan-preached a sermon in May, 1712, on a
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topic upon which the ministers of Farmington, Hartford, and Windsor united, namely: "Irreverence in the wor- ship of God, and profanation of his Glorious and fearful Name by Causeless Imprecations and Rash Swearing." In 1714, Samuel Whitman of Farmington preached the election sermon in Hartford before the General Court. In it he said :
Is not religion declining? Indeed 'tis too evident to be denied, that Religion is on the Wane among us, 'Tis Languishing in all Parts of the Land. . . . Time was when the Ordinances of God were highly-prized; Our Fathers had a high Esteem of them, and laid great Weight on them. . .. But now, the Love of many is grown cold. . . . We are risen up a Generation that have in a great Measure forgot the Errand of our Fathers.
Similar in spirit and substance was the election sermon of Stephen Hosmer of East Haddam in 1720, the title of which was: "A People's Living in Appearance and Dying in Reality." In 1730, William Russell of Middletown spoke in the same vein. He challenged his hearers to consider the undoubted fact of "Vanity, Worldliness, Pride, great Un- thoughtfulness of God." He asks:
And is there not abundance of Unrighteousness & Unmerciful- ness among us? Injustice in prices, delays and dishonesty in Payments, Deceit, Falseness and Unfaithfulness in Bargains, Contracts and Betrustments, griping Usury, Evading and Baffling the Laws made for the Security of men from that Op- pression? a multitude of Law Suits, Men ready to take one an- other by the Throat?
Similar reports come from the civil rulers, the courts, the jail records, the church records; all bear witness to an unspeakable laxity of morals. The sins were those of in- temperance, lying, slander, and licentiousness. Of the last mentioned Jonathan Edwards, preaching to his well-to-do people in Northampton, speaks of certain customs that were
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common among the young people, which had been one main thing that had led to the growth of uncleanness in the land. With the increase of drunkenness, profanity, and licentious- ness, it is clear that a change had come since 1643, when the author of New England First Fruits wrote: "One may live there from year to year, and not see a drunkard, hear an oath, or see a beggar"; and Hugh Peters, in a sermon before Parliament, said in 1646: "I have lived seven years in a country where I never saw a beggar, nor heard an oath, or looked upon a drunkard." There was also a falling away from the early intensity of religious experience as appears in the statements made by candidates for church member- ship. A less strenuous type was discovered and expected. Formality was on the increase as appears from the fact that baptism was made prominent as a bond to hold people to the church when there was a lack of spiritual life.
There was no falling off in the forms of religion; tithing- men were busy, and constables were earning their fees, arresting the wayward Sabbath-breakers. The people in every town gathered at the meeting-house for long ser- mons, and, before bells were obtained, the drum called all who could get out of bed to the solemn meetings. The first was beaten at eight o'clock in the tower of the meeting- house and through the streets of the town. When the second drum beat at ten, families went forth from their houses and walked, children following parents to the door, though not allowed to sit with them; the ministers wearing gowns and bands, but not the surplice. There were also meetings during the week. In New Haven the church had a meeting by itself on Tuesday, and on Thursday a lecture open to all, though perhaps not every week.
It may relieve this rather gloomy story to look at a picture of a Sunday meeting in one of the towns on the Connecticut in 1650. It was a small, square structure, clapboarded and wainscoted. The people came together to the beat of the drum, as it was to be seven years before a bell was to hang
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in the belfry. See the people coming, mostly on foot, though some from the more distant farms on horseback, the wife on the pillion, behind her husband, with the youngest child in her arms, while the rest followed on foot, young men and maidens according to a law discovered by Darwin two centuries later. At the west end of the meeting-house was the lofty pulpit, in front of which was the seat where the two solemn-faced deacons sat. The people were seated with respect of age, office, and estate. The guard of eight men with muskets at shoulder marched in, and stacking their arms near by, took their seats on either side, and the minister walked up the aisle with stately tread. The meet- ing began with a prayer lasting a quarter of an hour, then a chapter was read and explained, a psalm announced, and one of the deacons rose and read:
That man is blest that hath not blent,
Getting as near D as he could, he launched on the ocean of song, and the people joined. Then the deacon read the second line :
To wicked reade his eare,
By this time, the people took hold with a will, and when the third line was given, a mighty shout rang through the forest:
Nor led his life as sinners do,
They concluded with :
And eke the way of wicked men Shall quite be overthrown.
The people sat while the minister turned the hour- glass and announced the text. After the sermon there was a prayer and a blessing, and the people went home to a cold dinner or to the "Sabba day house," or to a neighbor's to replenish foot-stoves and eat luncheon. The afternoon
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meeting was like that in the morning, except that after the concluding prayer all children of recent birth were presented for baptism, though zero weather froze the parson's breath. Then one of the deacons rose and said, "Brethren of the congregation, now there is time left for contributions, wherefore as God hath prospered so freely offer." The people went forward with their gifts, then all rose, and another psalm was lined off, and a blessing concluded the meeting.
In passing now to consider the government of the churches, we must bear in mind that the settlers of Con- necticut lived in an age in which a sturdy and well-balanced organization was considered indispensable to the life of religion, especially in a new country, to which all kinds of people might come, and those who might infect the new society with dangerous views. Although the settlers had suffered much in England because of the union of church and state, it was too early for even as able and broad- minded men as the pioneers on the Connecticut to rise to the level of what is now a commonplace of civil and religious liberty. The emigrants to the River, and still more dis- tinctly the colonists on the Sound, followed the traditions and practices of the parish system of England, and considered town and church as practically one, settling the affairs of both at the same meeting, which was held usually in the meeting-house, and one meets on the records in one paragraph an appropriation to pay the minister, and in the next a reference to the appointment of pound-keeper.
The first code, that of 1650, required that all persons should be taxed for both church and state, and all rates- for church, school, constable, and fence-viewer-were col- lected by law. All persons were required to attend Sunday worship under penalty of three shillings, and to go to church on days of public fasting and thanksgiving appointed by the governor, under penalty of five shillings for every instance of neglect. It was enacted: "That no persons within the
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colony, shall in any wise embody themselves into church estate, without consent of the General Court, and approba- tion of neighboring elders." The laws also ordered that no ministry or church service should be entertained or attended by the inhabitants of any plantation distinct and separate from that which was publicly observed by the approved minister of the place, under penalty of five pounds for every violation, and that the civil authority "haue power and liberty to see the peace, ordinances and rules of Christ, observed in every church, according to his word; and also to deal with every church member in a way of civil justice, notwith- standing any church relation, office or interest." So long as the establishment lasted, down to the adoption of the constitution in 1818, the connection with the civil power continued. If a church refused to pay its minister, the legislature settled the proper amount for his maintenance, and enforced the payment. If a church remained without a minister for a year, the legislature could name an amount for ministerial purposes, and compel the town to raise it, according to the time-honored view of the union of church and state: the state the caretaker of the church; the church taking charge of public morals, and furnishing ministers to instruct magistrates. A man who found himself within the territory of a parish was not allowed to vote on purely church matters, unless he was a church member, but he was com- pelled to pay toward the support of a minister in whose call he had no voice, and to support a church for which perhaps he had no sympathy. In Connecticut, a man did not lose his franchise in civil affairs, though under censure of the church, but in New Haven, as in Massachusetts, loss of church membership cost a man his vote in town affairs.
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The Cambridge Platform, adopted by a council in 1648, governed for sixty years. The need of this was due to the feeling that there ought to be uniformity of religious faith and practice. It was seen that some provision ought to be made for outsiders coming into the colonies; the exacting
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oversight of the members in the local church had to give way to a system capable of meeting larger needs. When the Cambridge Synod adjourned, it was known that the churches of New England accepted the Westminster Confession "for substance thereof" in matters of faith; but in government there were differing views.
The Cambridge Platform, a law to the churches in the sense that Kent's Commentaries are law in courts of justice, taught that the Congregational Church was not national, but a brotherhood of believers, with pastors, teachers, and ruling elders, who have a certain "power of office," while the people who elected them had "power of privilege." After election, the officers governed as they saw fit. But in case of excommunication, the more liberal policy of Plymouth and Connecticut prevailed, and civil rights were not forfeited. Pastors and teachers were such only by election, and the laying on of the hands of the elders of the church electing them, though elders of other churches could lay on hands "when there were no elders, and the church so desired." Maintenance of the churches was to be collected from all the citizens. Communion between the churches was defined to be for mutual welfare, sisterly advice, com- mendation of members, succor of the needy, and the propa- gation of Christianity. Synods or councils, consisting of ministerial and lay delegates, were considered "necessary to the well-being of the churches for the establishment of truth and peace." These might be called by the churches, but, unlike the Presbyterian synods, they were disbanded when their work was done; moreover they were not to "exercise church censure in the way of discipline nor in any other act of authority." Civil magistrates should not meddle with the work of the churches, but see that godli- ness was upheld, by putting down blasphemy, idolatry, and heresy; by punishing all profaners of the Sabbath, con- temners of the ministry, all disturbers of public worship, and to proceed against "schismatic or obstinately corrupt
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churches." This platform, known in later years as the Book of Discipline of the Congregational Church, defined the principles of this body. In England the Independent churches were strictly what their name implies, but the Cambridge Platform tended to introduce order and unity in the action and influence of the churches. Cotton, Norton, and Hooker saw the importance of giving perma- nence to a system of mutual supervision. Provision was made for an occasional council or "Synod," to be composed of ministers and laymen from the neighboring churches, with no power to compel any church to take any particular action, but only to advise and admonish. The severest action the Synod could take was to withdraw fellowship from the offending church.
Thus the Congregational became the established form of church order. The members of the Cambridge Synod used the term in the preface to their platform. There was a slight leaning toward Presbyterianism in the provision which allowed the ordination of the officers of a church by officers of other churches, "in case where there were no elders and the church so desired." As a last resort the church looked to the civil power for the guarding of peace and purity. "If any church shall grow schismatical, rending itself from the communion of other churches, or shall walk incorrigibly or obstinately in any corrupt way of their own, contrary to the rule of the word, in such case the magistrate is to put forth his coercive power as the matter shall require." Such interference came into play in the famous Hartford quarrel, but without much success.
A well-furnished church had a pastor and a teacher, both of whom preached and administered the ordinances, while the distinctive function of the former was to preach, and that of the latter was to enforce the truth and interpret Scripture. Each church had also one or more ruling elders, who shared with the pastor and teacher the task of disci- pline; the deacons had charge of the business affairs, and
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provided for the poor. The office of pastor was not long discriminated from that of teacher, and the practice of maintaining the two officers soon passed. At the time of the confederation of the New England colonies, there were nearly eighty ruling elders. The occasion of the Hartford quarrel, which began soon after the death of Hooker, was this: Goodwin, the ruling elder, wanted "Michael Wiggles- worth as Hooker's successor, and Stone, the surviving minister, refused to let the proposition be put to vote. The Goodwin party withdrew from the church, and the Stone party tried to discipline the former; a council of churches failed to reconcile the parties; the General Court intervened, and the angry elements became furious. It was not until 1659, when sixty members removed to Hadley, that peace was restored. In 1663, a keener struggle took place, when the two tactless pastors, Stone and Whiting, led the two wings of the church in a four years' fight over the question of the requirements for membership in the church. In May, 1669, the General Court passed a law permitting the formation of another church in the town. In October, Whiting applied for permission to form the Second Church of Hartford; and when it was formed, the new church adopted the practice of the Half-way Covenant, against which he and his party had been contending for years.
What was the Half-way Covenant? The theory of the New England churches was that their membership should be restricted to those who could give proof of their conversion; and that only such persons and their children might rightly be baptized. There were some in the colony who wished to follow the "parish-way" of the Church of England; these were disposed to receive into the church all persons of good moral character, and baptize their children. Many of the children of the second generation of the settlers could not give a satisfactory account of their religious experience, and consequently their children could not be presented for baptism. Hence many people of exemplary lives had no
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standing in the churches, and meager political standing. In February, 1657, a ministerial council was called in Boston to consider the question which was vexing the churches, to see if it might not be wise to widen the door into the church. There was strong opposition to that council, especially at New Haven, but it met, and sustained the new view. It declared that baptized infants could, on arriving at years of discretion, "own the covenant" and become formal church members; that the church was bound to accept them (if they were not of scandalous life and understood the grounds of religion), and was bound to baptize their children, thus continuing the chain of claims to church-membership to all generations. This made membership in the church an affair of morals and formality, and gave great offense at New Haven and among many of the Connecticut people, for it introduced a dual membership, worked against the old Puritan theory of a covenant church, and brought in a national church of mixed membership. In 1662, a Synod met in Boston, in which neither Connecticut nor New Haven was represented, which reaffirmed the crude Half-way Covenant. In 1664, the General Court formally adopted the decision of the council, and commended it to the churches under its jurisdiction, which then included New Haven. It was a political idea, and not all of the churches adopted it. This made the break in the Hartford church, for when Haynes in 1666, undertook to put the Half-way Covenant in practice, Whiting, the senior colleague, for- bade him to proceed with the service. Later, the church split into two churches with the Half-way Covenant running merrily in both. In 1668, the legislature, unable to per- suade Massachusetts to call a Synod, passed its first Toleration Act, allowing "until a better light in an orderly way doth appeare," that "sundry persons of worth for prudence and piety amongst us ... may haue allowance of their per- swasion and profession in church wayes." Yet there was no release from support of an unacceptable ministry or from
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