Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume I, Part 29

Author: Morgan, Forrest, 1852- ed; Hart, Samuel, 1845-1917. joint ed. cn; Trumbull, Jonathan, 1844-1919, joint ed; Holmes, Frank R., joint ed; Bartlett, Ellen Strong, joint ed
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Hartford, The Publishing Society of Connecticut
Number of Pages: 600


USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume I > Part 29


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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 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31


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lieving that the dispute should be adjusted otherwise; and in the heart of Revolutionary hostilities to expend such an army in civil war, with certainty from the past of a fierce and bloody resistance now that Wyoming was so much stronger, is only one of several curious side-lights on the fervor of op- position to Great Britain. Connecticut acted better, not wish- ing to weaken colonial unity: she prohibited any further settlement in Westmoreland except by special license from the Assembly; whereupon Congress recommended her not to allow any further settlement at all till the dispute was adjusted.


The further history of this colony must be left to another place. How the strength of the settlement was broken by the Indian and Tory massacre, enabling Pennsylvania to resume possession; how the legal proceedings dragged on till settled by a unanimous decision of arbitrators in favor of Pennsylvania, with accompaniments which make it evi- dent that an agreement had been reached beforehand, and leaving Connecticut and Pennsylvania in a significant state of mutual amity,-these will be duly set forth in a chapter on the Western Reserve in the Second Volume. Enough to say here that with the just fortune of far-sighted and well-plan- ned policies, Connecticut made a substantial salvage out of the wreck, and indeed gained what she had sought from the first,-not extension of administrative jurisdiction, but fresh lands for settlement, and a fair price for relinquishing what had been legally accorded her. F. M.


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CHAPTER XXVI ECCLESIASTICAL MATTERS


T HE religious grounds of the Puritan and Inde- pendent or Pilgrims emigration have been set forth in Chapter VII. The opposition to the established church in England assumed two forms: one which did not object to the establishment as such or to its professed rule of faith or or- der, but claimed that it had not completed its work of refor- mation, and that it needed to be beneficial still further along the lines on which some progress had been made; the other which held that it was necessary to break away from the Church of England, as that church had already broken away from its obedience to Rome, and to set up a new organization in which each congregation of professing Christians should be an independent church, with the power of determining its own creed and choosing its own officers. The Puritans, as their name implies, did not consider themselves outside of the Church of England, but as the only members of that church who had the right view of its position and duties ; the Independents withdrew from their former relations to a State Church, and held that they must form a new church for each body of Christian men habitually worshipping to- gether, determining its own polity and faith, and united to others only on the principles of comity. The Massachusetts Bay colony was lcd by Puritans; Plymouth colony was a com- pany of Independents. It will be readily seen that the for- mer was aristocratic in its political tendencies, while the latter was more inclined to democracy; yet on the other hand the Puritans kept more nearly to what was called the "parish way," looking upon all who lived within the limits of a clergyman's care as his parishioners, and as entitled to the privileges of the church's ordinances at his hands, while the Independents followed the "church way," and regarded those


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only as really members of the church who had confessed their faith and been formally admitted by a vote of the brethren. The Connecticut colony was made up of members of the Massachusetts colony who sympathized more or less with the Plymouth settlers, the democratic wing of an aristocratic community; the settlers of New Haven were aristocrats as- sociated together on the Independent principle of equality. It may be said here, by way of anticipation, that when the colonists felt that they were really second from England, these two classes tended to draw together, so that their dif- ferences became rather theoretical than practical; there was no real attempt to continue in New England the church as it was by law established in England.


But, to return to the times of the first settlements, we can easily see the difference of which we have been speaking in the documents which record the first legislative acts of the two settlements. The "Fundamental Orders" of Connecticut show plainly that they are the work of a mind (or of minds ) trained to legal methods and in legal phraseology; and in the fact that they require no ecclesiastical test for membership in the body politic, they show that both clergy and laity were content with the old "parish way." The first compact of the New Haven colony, the influence of which was soon extended to other settlements affiliated with it, was evidently inspired by the theocratic views of its founder, who was its leader in matters ecclesiastical, and therefore in matters civil; no one was a citizen then who was not first a member of the church.


For these, as for other reasons, it is not strange that the colony at the mouth of the Quinnipiach proved weaker po- litically than that on the banks of the Connecticut. After the union, which meant the failure of the principles which he had maintained, Mr. Davenport removed to Boston, when he be-


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came minister of the first church and died in 1670. Mr. Hooker of Hartford, died many years before the union, but he left a form of government destined to have great and lasting influence. He and pastors who followed him had of- ficially no legislative or judicial power; but their influence as men and as Christian ministers was constantly, and almost always beneficially felt.


Except in the case in which an already organized church formed an essential part, and in fact the chief part, of the migration, it was one of the first and most imperative duties of a New England settlement that a church should be organ- ized in it. The organization was always on the same general plan, commonly called Puritan, but more strictly Indepen- dent. The adult members of the community who were ac- knowledged as having had that experience which warranted them in becoming "professing Christians," covenanted to- gether and made a covenant with God to hold the faith, to obey the divine law, and to observe the ordinances. They chose-or sometimes, as it would appear, simply recognized -some suitable person to be their pastor. In the first gene- ration this was almost always a man who had served as an ordained clergyman in the Church of England, but had left or been removed from his benefice-not deposed from his office-on account of non-conformity, that is to say, because he had adopted and was teaching the distinction tenets of Puritanism or Independency. Some of the clergy and peo- ple held that a minister should be ordained anew when he un- dertook the charge of a new flock; some held that an ordi- nation once accepted was sufficient for the whole work of the ministry; but of these latter, some preferred that there should be a laying-on of hands by way of recognition, though not by way of giving authority, when a minister entered


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upon a new pastorate. Again, at ordinations some churches, holding views which were really those of the Presbyterians, called upon the pastors of other churches to lay hands upon the men whom they had chosen and set them apart to the ministry; and others, following out the principles of strict Congregationalism, appointed certain lay-brethren of their own number to ordain the candidate to the pastorate.


It appears that Mr. Hooker of Hartford and Mr. Dav- enport of New Haven both received a new ordination be- fore entering upon pastoral duties over their flocks in this new land; while Rev. Henry Whitefield of Guilford con- sidered himself as continuing his English ministry, and was not again ordained; and the first pastors at Saybrook and Milford, Mr. James Fitch and Mr. Peter Prudden, were or- dained by lay-members of their own churches. But in no case was a man qualified to minister the sacraments, or acknowl- edged to be the rightful head of a congregation, until he had received a formal ordination.


A fully organized church was held to need, not only a pastor, but also a teacher, a ruling elder, and at least two deacons. Both the pastor and the teacher were ordained, and both were preachers-the former being considered to be specially concerned with the conduct of the flock, and the latter with their knowledge of divine truth; the ruling elder was moderator of the church meetings, and in general its executive officer; and the deacons cared especially for the temporalities. But the source of all authority, under the one Divine Head of all churches, our Lord Jesus Christ, was the local church, and it was, at least in theory, the final court of appeal. It seems certain that some of the churches never had teachers or ruling elders, as distinct from pastors, one man discharging all ministerial functions with such assist-


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ance as the deacons were qualified to give; certainly nearly all after the first generation, and all after the second, were content with the pastorate and the diaconate. The deacons, it should be said, held office for life and were formally or- dained.


In religious societies organized as were those of Connec- ticut in its early days, there would almost certainly arise di- versity of opinions, at least, in regard to usages and the de- tails of church government. The settlement of Stamford in 1641 was due to dissension in Wethersfield, the seven church members being divided three against four; finally the min- ister, Mr. Denton, with the minority of the people and the church, sought a new home. A greater contention was that which for some years (1653 to 1659) disturbed the peace of the church in Hartford. Mr. Hooker had died in 1647, and Mr. Stone, his colleague with the title of teacher, has succeeded him as pastor; and a controversy sprang up be- tween him and the ruling elder, Mr. Goodwin, "the true original" of which, to use Cotton Mather's words, was "al- most as obscure as the rise of Connecticut River." A large minority withdrew from the communion of the church; and the advice of councils within the two colonies here, that of the ministers in Boston and its neighborhood, and even the authority of the General Assembly of the Colony, were in- voked in vain. Finally the ruling elder and his adherents removed to Hadley, and the great quarrel was ended. Oth- er churches had a somewhat similar experience.


But the most important topic of controversy, based on theological principles and having far-reaching results, was that as to the proper subjects for baptism. The strict theory of the New England churches was that their membership should be restricted to "visible saints," who could give proof


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of their "regeneration" or conversion; and that only such persons and their children might rightly be baptized. But there were some in the community, as has been already said, who were more inclined to follow the "parish-way" of the Church of England; they were disposed to admit all persons of good moral character, even if they had not had a definite religious "experience," to church membership, and to give their children the seal of the covenant in baptism. The chil- dren of the first colonists were baptized in consequence of their parents' church-membership; but few of them as they grew up could satisfy the conditions for membership, and as a consequence their children could not be presented for bap- tism and received under the "watch and care" of the church. The consequence was that there soon were many men and women of blameless lives and religious habits for whom there was no place in the churches, and that their children were growing up without any connection with the coven- ant or any acknowledged relation to the great Head of the Church. It became a serious question whether the denial of baptism to the children of parents themselves baptized but not admitted to the Lord's Supper, which was demanded by the strict Congregational theory, could be justified either on principles or by its practical results in life. To meet this, the so-called Half-way Covenant was devised, whereby bap- tized adults of upright life, solemnly owning the Christian covenant and putting themselves under the care of the church, although they did not venture to ask communicant privileges for themselves, might secure baptismal privileges for their children. It was approved by an assembly of eld- ers of New England meeting in Boston in 1657, but was opposed by a strong minority of good men and learned theo- logians, who felt it to be an abandonment of one of the chief


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principles on which they had separated from the Church of England. In 1666, Mr. Haynes, the younger of the two pastors of the church in Hartford, undertook to put the Half-way Covenant into practice, and Mr. Whiting, his senior colleague, forbade him to proceed with the service. Then followed a controversy of three years and a half, when finally the General Court gave permission to Mr. Whiting and thirty-one members of the church to organize for a "distinct walking in Congregational order." It really pro- vided for an anomaly, in allowing two churches or parishes of the same territorial limits, differing in details of doctrine or order, or both. The new or second church intended to keep to strict Congregationalism; the first followed more closely, as it would seem, in the spirit of its founders, even if it failed to carry out all their teachings. But strange as it may appear, before the controversy was well ended the reason for it was forgotten, and the new organization at once began the usage of the Half-way Covenant. It stood therefore but for a short time as a protest against the "par- ish-way," or what may be called the Presbyterianizing ten- dency in Connecticut ecclesiastical matters. But in New Ha- ven and elsewhere the protest was still made and maintained.


The articles of faith accepted and taught in Connecticut in the early days were those which were held by the Pro- testant reformers of Europe. The Westminster Confession, so long recognized as a standard, was set forth by the As- sembly of Divines in 1646; and two years later a council which met at Cambridge in Massachusetts, and at which rep- resentatives from Connecticut and New Haven were present, accepted it in all matters of faith. A council at the Savoy in London prepared such modifications of the Westminster confession, in matters relating to church government, as


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would state the position held by the Congregationalists ; and these also were accepted in 1680 by a council of New Eng- land churches sitting in Boston. On the Congregational or Independent theory, as has been said, each body of Christian men and women, in covenant with Christ and each other, was a complete church, with full powers of administration and discipline. The churches, indeed, ought to be in com- munion with each other; but the purpose of this communion was mutual aid and encouragement, consultation, and if need be admonition; the final responsibility was with the local church, and the ecclesiastical unit was the church-member. But this theory was not fully accepted by all, even in the early days of our colony. There were some here, as then in England, to whom the form of church organization and government embodied in the Presbyterian confessions seemed more in accord with the teaching of the New Testament, and better suited for the needs of Christianity and of indi- vidual Christians. And as, with the growth of the colony both before and after the union, there was greater need for co-operation and greater danger from dissension, there ap- peared to be a demand for some closer organization in the interests of harmony and unity. Voluntary conferences had been held, and appeals had been made to the General Court as having a sort of supreme authority; but neither course of action had proved entirely satisfactory. As early as 1668 the General Court had desired four eminent ministers, one from each county, to meet at Saybrook and devise a plan of union for the churches of Connecticut; and again in 1703 an assembly was called, which gave consent to the doctrinal confessions already named, and drew up rules for unity in discipline. But the famous council which framed the Say- brook Platform did not meet till 1708. It was summoned


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by the General Court, and was composed of twelve ministers and four lay delegates elected to represent the forty-one churches of the congregational order in Connecticut. (In fact, these were all the ecclesiastical organizations in the col- ony, except one Episcopal parish in Stratford and one Bap- tist society in Groton, both organized the year before.) This council took no action in matters of doctrine, except to ex- press its approval of the assent which had been given to the Westminster Confession as modified by that of the Savoy, declaring also that it accepted the doctrinal part of those commonly called the Articles of the Church of England. What was peculiar to it, and belongs distinctively to the Say- brook Platform and to Connecticut ecclesiastical history, was an organization of the churches for purposes of conference and discipline. It was provided that the ministers in each county should meet at least twice a year in Associations, to consult on matters of common interest, to examine candidates for the ministry and recommend suitable ministers for "be- reaved churches," to provide for taking action in case any of their members were accused of scandalous life or erroneous teaching, and to act as a general board of appeal. There was also to be a General Association of delegates from the Coun- ty Associations, to which no legislative power was given, but which was to serve for consultation on matters of general in- terest.


The action of the council was reported to the General Court (or Legislature), which immediately passed an act accepting it and declaring that the churches united under this agreement or platform should be henceforth estab- lished by law ; adding, however, a proviso that no society al- lowed by law which should "soberly differ or dissent" there- fore should be hindered "from exercising worship and


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discipline in their own way." The general effect of the Saybrook Platform was to bring together the Congre- gational and the Presbyterian elements in the Colony, and to give to the body thus formed or united a strength which could not have been otherwise secured. In spite of se- rious opposition from some individuals and churches, it was generally accepted and its authority recognized. There were, however, some "strict Congregationalists," as they called themselves, or "Separates" as they were usually de- nominated, who declined to accede to the change, which they thought to be in the direction of Presbyterianism, prelacy, and popery. They, with Presbyterians who refused to con- sociate, were not reckoned as dissenting "soberly," and were treated with a good deal of severity; and, on their part, they charged the established church with lack of fidelity to princi- ple, and called its adherents Latitudinarians and Arminians. The first church in Norwich renounced the Saybrook plat- form in 1717, but it does not seem to have been reckoned among the "Separates." The act of establishment was repealed in 1784.


For many years the financial support of the church in each town was regarded as the duty of the whole community, and the charges, like other public charges, were included in the general taxation of the inhabitants. In the early days this was not felt to be a burden; but as time went on there were some who from lack of interest in religious matters, and oth- ers who on account of preferring some other ecclesiastical or- ganization to that of the "Standing Order," as it was called, felt the burden of a forced contribution to that for which they did not care, or of which they did not approve. No re- lief was given to the unbeliever, the indifferent, or the Sepa- rate; but when "sober dissenters" appeared in sufficient num-


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bers to maintain services of their own, they were allowed, under not unreasonable restrictions, to turn their ecclesiastical taxes to the support of their own services. This was granted to the Episcopalians in 1727, and to the Baptists and the Quakers in 1729.


It has been already noted that a congregation of adherents of the Church of England had been organized in Stratford in 1707; but it was somewhat closely connected with other par- ishes of that body in the province of New York, and attracted little attention from Connecticut people. But at the Commencement of Yale College in 1722, the community was startled at the announcement that the two officers of instruction in that institution, the Rec- tor and the Tutor, Mr. Timothy Cutler and Mr. Daniel Brown, together with Mr. Samuel Johnson, a graduate and former tutor, and another graduate, Mr. James Wetmore- all Congregational ministers-had "declared for Episco- pacy" and were about to sail for England to ask for ordi- nation at the hands of a bishop. The three first named un- dertook their voyage at once, and the fourth followed in the next year. Mr. Brown died in England of the small-pox; Dr. Cutler returned to become rector of a church in Bos- ton; and Dr. Johnson became practically the founder and really for a long time the maintainer of Episcopacy in Con- necticut. Mr. Wetmore also labored in the colony of his birth. About forty other Connecticut young men, all Col- lege graduates, crossed the ocean before the Revolution, seek- ing from bishops authority to preach the Word of God and minister the sacraments. They gathered a goodly number of adherents, and organized them into parishes throughout the colony. It was for the relief of these Episcopalians, when there were yet but few in number, that the act of 1727


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was passed. Under its provisions, those members of the Church of England who lived within a prescribed distance of a house of worship of their own, and actually attended wor- ship there, might have their ecclesiastical tax paid by the town collector to their own clergyman instead of the min- ister of the Standing Order. Those who lived at too great a distance from any church of their own still paid their quota to the common fund as before. This relief, extended to other bodies as they became strong enough to ask for it, did not touch the case of those who had no ecclesiastical connec- tion, or (as was said above) of Separate Congregational- ists. All who did not actually belong legally to some toler- ated ecclesiastical society were reckoned, for purposes of tax- ation, members of the societies connected with the established associated churches; and this condition of things lasted until the Constitution of Connecticut adopted in 1818 made it possible for a man to leave one ecclesiastical society without joining another.


The religious life of the colony was roused in 1740 by the. Great Awakening. There had been, it cannot be doubted, a great declension in religion, the revival from which is traced. in its beginning to the preaching of the illustrious Jonathan Edwards, a native of East Windsor, then pastor at North- ampton in Massachusetts. His stern theology and power- ful preaching, not without a winsomeness of character, had a wonderful effect; and this was enhanced by the work of George Whitefield, a man whose zeal often needed to be tempered with judgment, and of the wildly fanatical James Davenport. Their work was welcomed by some of the min- isters; but presently the more sober among them, seeing the disorders which followed this preaching and feeling the in- justice of the denunciation of themselves and their teaching,


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protested and labored strongly against it, having the assist- ance of the civil authority, which increased the penalties for unlicensed preaching. Theologically the Great Awakening was a recall to the Calvinism and the strict Congregation- alism of early times; as such, it was welcomed by some but opposed by most of the adherents of the Standing Order. It made a division between the Old Lights, the former dom- inant party, and the New Lights; the extremists among the latter went into separate organizations, some of which later affiliated with those from whom they had withdrawn, while others conformed to the doctrines and practices of the Bap- tists. A former controversy in Guilford, where the church had not accepted the Saybrook Patform, had turned on per- sonal rather than ecclesiastical preferences; but now the celebrated Wallingford case was a controversy both theo- logical and ecclesiastical, and was claimed as a victory for the New Lights on Old Light principles; as such it must have had some influence for unity in a time of division. But it was long before the evil effects of this time of excitement passed quite away.




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