USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 18
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 18
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the churches of Connecticut publicly agreed with the dissenters in the mother country, in adopting them as a standard of orthodoxy. The Heads of Agreement which accompany the Saybrook platform say, "As to what appertains to soundness of judgment in matters of faith, we esteem it sufficient that a church acknowl- edge the Scriptures to be the word of God, the perfect and only rule of faith and practice, and own either the doctrinal part of those commonly called the articles of the Church of England, or the confession, or cate- chisms, shorter or longer, compiled by the assembly at Westminster, or the confession agreed on at the Savoy, to be agreeable to the said rule." This declaration, though made after the first generation had passed away, would have been uttered by the fathers as wil- lingly as by their children, if justified by an appropriate occasion.
In each plantation there was a building in which the church assembled for worship. It was built and owned by the proprietors of the plantation, and was used for meetings of the General Court as well as of the church. Having this double design, it was not called a church or a church-house, as an edifice used only for church ser- vices would naturally be denominated, but a meeting- house. This twofold use of the edifice did not offend the religious sentiment of the people ; for the court was composed of church-members who came together in a religious spirit to serve God in the business of the court as truly as they served him in the ordinances of the church. It was not a temporary expedient such as a people believing in a more thorough separation of
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Church and State might adopt in a new plantation till they were able to provide more appropriately for each ; but it was in its design a permanent arrangement be- fitting a theocratic constitution of society.
The meeting-houses in the several plantations differed
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A MEETING-HOUSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
in size, but were similar in external appearance and internal arrangement. The meeting-house at Guilford was, however, of stone, as were a few of the principal dwellings in that plantation. That at Milford was of wood, was forty feet square, and had a roof in shape
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like a truncated pyramid, surmounted by a "tower." That at New Haven was of wood, was fifty feet square, and had a roof like that of the Milford house, and a "tower and turret." There were also "banisters and rails on the meeting-house top," which probably en closed that higher and flatter portion of the roof from which the tower ascended. It was built in accordance with an order of the General Court, passed Nov. 25, 1639. The estimated cost was £500; and, as the last instalment of the tax levied to raise that sum was made payable in the following May, one may infer that the expectation was that it would be finished within a year. It stood in the market-place, certainly near its centre, and presumably exactly upon it.1 The frame being insufficient to support the weight of the tower and turret, it became necessary to shore up the posts. In time it was found that the shores were impaired by decay, and fears were expressed that the house would fall. In January, 1660, there was a discussion at a general court concerning the meeting-house. Some were in favor of taking down both the tower and the turret. Some were for removing the turret, and allowing the tower to remain. Some thought that both tower and turret might be retained, if the shores
1 See in Mass. Hist. Coll. XL., p. 474, a curious essay on the laying out of towns. The author is unknown, and it is without address or date. It seems to have been written before the settlement of New Haven, but lays down the same principles as ruled in laying out New Haven. The meeting-house is to be "the centre of the whole circumference." The houses are to be orderly placed about it. Then there is to be a first divis- ion of lands extending from the centre one-half the distance to the out- side boundary, to be improved in the earlier years of the settlement, before the second division comes into use.
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were renewed, and the frame were strengthened with braces within the house. In conclusion, it was "de- termined, that, besides the renewing of the shores, both turret and tower shall be taken down." Probably the order to take down the tower and turret was not executed, for a committee on the meeting-house re- ported, Aug. 11, 1662, that "they thought it good that the upper turret be taken down. The thing being debated, it was put to vote, and concluded to be done, and left to the townsmen to see to get it done."
The internal arrangement of a meeting-house is shown in the accompanying plan. Behind the pulpit was the seat of the teaching elders; immediately in front of it was the seat of the ruling elder ; and before the seat of the ruling elder was the seat of the deacons, having a shelf in front of it, which ordinarily hung suspended from hinges, so as to present its broad sur- face to the congregation, but, when needed for a com- munion-table, was elevated to a horizontal position. The report of the committee for seating people in the meeting-house at New Haven, in 1656, shows that the deacons were expected to sit one at each end of their official seat, and that each of them had his own place, - four men being appointed to sit before Deacon Gilbert's seat, and three women before Deacon Miles's
seat. In every such meeting-house the sexes were seated apart, the men on one side, and the women on the other side, of the middle "alley.". The soldiers' seats were, however, an exception to the rule, one-half of them being on the women's side of the house. In the meeting-house at New Haven the " forms " between the " alleys " were long enough to accommodate seven per-
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sons, but only two or three were assigned to those near the pulpit, the space allowed to each person having some proportion to his dignity. At."the upper end" were five cross-seats and " one little seat." The seat-
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GROUND-PLAN OF A MEETING-HOUSE. A. Teaching Elders. B. Ruling Elders. C. Deacons. S. Soldiers.
ing of 1656 assigns two men to "the bench before the little seat," and, on the opposite side of the house, two women to "the seat before the little seat." In like manner persons were assigned to sit in front of every
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front seat in the house. The first seating which is recorded placed only proprietors and their wives. The second was more liberal, including apparently all heads of families, but, with the exception of "Mr. Goodyear's daughters," no unmarried women. This more liberal policy in the assignment of seats rendered it necessary to place benches in the "alleys," before every front seat. In the meeting-house at New Haven there were two pillars, one on that part where the men were seated, and one on the women's side. Apparently they were designed to aid in supporting the weight of the tower and turret. On the accompanying ground-plan they are represented as placed in the side "alleys," half way from front to rear.
In January, 1647, "it was ordered that the particular court with the two deacons, taking in the advice of the ruling elder, should place people in the meeting-house, and it was also ordered that the governor may be spared therein." I At a general court held the tenth of March, this committee having meanwhile performed their duty, " the names of people, as they were seated in the meet- ing-house, were read in court, and it was ordered they should be recorded." In 1656, nine years later, another record was made, and in 1662 a third record of the names of people as they were seated in the meeting-
! The governor may have been spared, because, his wife being now excommunicate, no seat could be assigned to her by name. It will be seen, however, that there was plenty of room for her in the seat with "old Mrs. Eaton." Nine years later, the governor's mother being now dead, the seat was assigned to his wife under the adroit circumlocution, " The first as it was," but the committee's faculty of circumlocution failed when they came to the bench in front of that seat, and they wrote, "Before Mrs. Eaton's seat."
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house. As a comparison of these records may assist the reader to note the increase of the congregation and the change in its personnel, we have transcribed them to be printed in Appendix IV. At the town meeting at which the second list of names was read, "it was agreed that (because there want seats for some, and that the alleys are so filled with blocks, stools, and chairs, that it hinders a free passage) low benches shall be made at the end of the seats on both sides of the alleys, for young persons to sit on." But these additional seats did not suffice, for about twelve months later the townsmen, or, as we now term them, the select- men, were "desired to speak with some workmen to see if another little gallery may not for a small charge be made adjoining that [which] is already." This mention of the gallery prompts us to suggest, that, as with few exceptions the persons who had seats assigned to them by name were heads of families, young men and young women sat in the gallery, as was the general custom in New England in later generations. That the interior of the building was cared for and kept free from dust, is evident from the minute, "It is ordered that sister Preston shall sweep and dress the meeting-house every weck, and have one shilling a week for her pains."
The people of each plantation gathered together on the morning of every Lord's day to a sanctuary not unlike that which has been described. The first drum was beaten about eight o'clock in the tower of the meeting-house and through the streets of the town. When the second drum beat, families came forth from their dwellings, and walked in orderly procession to the
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house of God, children following their parents to the door, though not allowed to sit with them in the assem- bly. The ministers in the pulpit wore gowns and bands as they had done in England, their Puritan scruples reaching not to all the badges of official distinction which they had been accustomed to see and to use, but only to the surplice.
There is, perhaps, no way in which one can more accurately conceive of the ritual of worship in these . churches than by reading what has been written by a contemporary, concerning worship in New England and especially in Boston. Lechford 1 says : -
" The public worship is in as fair a meeting-house as they can provide, wherein, in most places they have been at great charges. Every Sabbath or Lord's day they come together at Boston by ringing of a bell, about nine of the clock or before. The pastor begins with solemn prayer, continuing about a quarter of an hour. The teacher then readeth and expoundeth a chapter. Then a psalm is sung; whichever, one of the ruling elders dictates. After that, the pastor preacheth a sermon, and sometimes ex tempore exhorts. Then the teacher concludes with prayer and a blessing.
"Once a month is a sacrament of the Lord's Supper, whereof notice is given usually a fortnight before, and then all others de- parting save the church, which is a great deal less in number than those that go away, they receive the sacrament, the ministers and ruling elders sitting at the table, the rest in their seats or upon forms. All cannot see the minister consecrating unless they stand up and make a narrow shift. The one of the teaching elders prays before, and blesseth and consecrates the bread and wine, according to the words of institution ; the other prays after the receiving of all the members ; and next communion they change turns; he that
' Lechford was a lawyer, who, being disbarred for talking with a jury- man out of court, returned to England.
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began at that ends at this; and the ministers deliver the bread in a charger to some of the chief, and peradventure give to a few the bread into their hands, and they deliver the charger from one to another, till all have eaten ; in like manner the cup, till all have drunk, goes from one to another. Then a psalm is sung, and with a short blessing the congregation is dismissed. Any one, though not of the church, may, in Boston, come in and see the sacrament administered if he will ; but none of any church in the country may receive the sacrament there without leave of the congregation, for which purpose he comes to one of the ruling elders, who propounds his name to the congregation before they go to the sacrament.
" About two in the afternoon they repair to the meeting-house again ; and then the pastor begins as before noon, and, a psalm being sung, the teacher makes a sermon. He was wont, when I came first, to read and expound a chapter also before his sermon in the afternoon. After and before his sermon he prayeth.
" After that ensues baptism, if there be any ; which is done by either pastor or teacher, in the deacon's seat, the most eminent place in the church, next under the elders' seat. The pastor most commonly makes a speech or exhortation to the church and parents concerning baptism, and then prayeth before and after. It is done by washing or sprinkling. One of the parents being of the church, the child may be baptized, and the baptism is into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. No sureties are required.
" Which ended, follows the contribution, one of the deacons say- ing, 'Brethren of the congregation, now there is time left for con- tribution, wherefore, as God hath prospered you, so freely offer.' Upon some extraordinary occasions, as building or repairing of churches or meeting-houses, or other necessities, the ministers press a liberal contribution, with effectual exhortations out of Scripture. The magistrates and chief gentlemen first, and then the elders and all the congregation of men, and most of them that are not of the church, all single persons, widows and women in absence of their husbands,' come up one after another one way,
' Mrs. Brewster, in the absence of her husband, who had sailed for England in Lamberton's ship, went forward with her gift " because her
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and bring their offerings to the deacon at his seat, and put it into a box of wood for the purpose, if it be money or papers ; if it be any other chattel, they set it or lay it down before the deacons, and so pass another way to their seats again."
The sermons were much longer than would be en- dured at the present day ; but were not regarded by the hearers as too long, such was the interest which the people felt in the exposition of the Scriptures, and so little else was there to occupy their intellectual and spiritual faculties. Long sermons, however, were not a peculiarity of New England. The churches in the mother-country were commonly supplied with hour- glasses, one hour being the ordinary measure of a ser- mon ; but when an able preacher turned the glass to signify that he wished to speak longer, the congregation would give visible, if not audible, expression of their approval.
After the contribution, candidates were "propounded" for admission to the church, or, having been previously announced as candidates, were, on their assenting to the covenant of the church, formally received into its com- munion. If there were any matters of offence requir- ing censure, they were then attended to, "sometimes till it be very late." "If they have time after this, is sung a psalm, and then the pastor concludeth with a prayer and a blessing."
In the church at New Haven it was the custom for
husband had commanded her," but was charged with saying, " It was as going to mass or going up to the high altar." She denied "that ever she spake of mass or high altar in reference to the contributions," but adroitly quoted the text, "when thou bringest thy gift to the altar," alleging that she first heard it applied to the contributions by her irreproachable seat. mate, Mrs. Lamberton.
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the assembly to rise and stand while the preacher read the passage of Scripture which he had selected as a text for his sermon. But Hutchinson says that this was a peculiarity of that church, and quotes a letter from Hooker to Shepard, referring to the Sunday when the practice commenced in the afternoon, Mr. Davenport having preached a sermon in the morning advocating such an expression of reverence for the word of God.
Stated religious services in addition to those of the Lord's Day were held on other days of the week, the arrangement of them differing probably in the several plantations. In New Haven the church had a meeting by themselves on Tuesday, or "third day," as their scruples required them, at least for a time, to term the third day of the week. On Thursday, or "fifth day," there was a public lecture open to all.I Allusion is also made in the records to neighborhood-meetings, not only during the year preceding the formation of a church and a government, but so late as May, 1661.
" A plantation whose design is religion " ought to be distinguished for morality. Such being the design of all the plantations combined in the colony of New Haven, we naturally expect to find it standing higher than midway in a list of Christian communities arranged according to their respective degrees of ethical purity. All the proprietors were, or desired to become, church-
' I am not sure that either the church-meeting or the lecture-service was held every week. The lecture probably occurred regularly, whatever the interval; the church-meeting may have been appointed by the elders whenever there was occasion. I think, however, that church-meetings were always on third day, and lectures always on fifth day.
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members, and all had evinced the sincerity of their re ligious professions by coming into the wilderness for the sake of their religion. Such men were personally moral, and, so far as they could control their children, their servants, and the strangers who sojourned among them, they preserved their community free from vice. It is true that the records supply evidence that the moral law was sometimes transgressed. Indeed, if one should judge solely from the number of cases brought to trial, he might come to the conclusion that there was a low state of morals in the colony. But a community gov- erned by Puritans differed from other communities, both in the comprehensiveness of the moral code en- forced by the civil law, and in the strictness with which laws enacted in the interest of morality were enforced. Probably more cases were brought before the court, in proportion to the number of crimes committed, than in any community of the present day. In our time the civil law aims to protect society from the destructive power of immorality, and this is the limit of its endeavor in behalf of morality. If there 'be any laws on the statute-book designed to protect an individual from him- self, or to enforce the duties which man owes to God, such laws are ancient, and, for want of enforcement, are practically obsolete.
The whole duty of a man comprises his duties to himself, his duties to his fellow-beings, and his duties to God. Puritan law enforced the obligations of the first and third, as well as of the second division. Drunkenness and unchastity were trespasses which the offender committed against himself, - trespasses from which the innocent were to be deterred by penalties
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threatened, and, whenever there was transgression, by penalties inflicted. Blasphemy was an outrage upon the being spoken against, and wilful absence from pub- lic worship was to rob God of the outward honor right- fully belonging to him: there were therefore laws to protect the rights of God by punishing such impiety.
The field in which ethical purity was enforced by law, being considerably wider than in modern times, the moral sentiment of society being high-toned, and magis- trates being conscientiously diligent in maintaining law, there were more criminal prosecutions than would occur under modern laws and modern administration in a community equally virtuous and of equal popula- tion. Allowing for the breadth of the Puritan code of morals, and the conscientiousness with which law was enforced, one must conclude that the people of the New Haven colony were more moral than the people inhabiting the same territory have been during any equal period in modern times. Antecedent to the union with Connecticut, there was no trial of an English person for murder. There is incidental evi- dence that there was one trial for adultery, though the record of it is lost. There were executions for crimes of unnatural lust, but the imperfection of the records renders it impossible to determine how many. Trials for fornication, drunkenness, and theft were not as numerous in proportion to the population as on the same territory in our own time. .
Generally, offenders were either servants or artisans temporarily resident. But in a comparatively few cases the children of proprietors so far deviated from the strictly moral life required by Puritan law, as to be sum-
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moned before the magistrates. When this happened, it usually appeared that they had been misled by serv- ants, bond or hired. One such case illustrates the firm- ness and impartiality with which law was administered. The daughter of a magistrate was, by order of the court of magistrates, whipped for "consenting to go in the night to the farms with Will. Harding to a venison feast ; for stealing things from her parents; and yielding to filthy dalliance with the said Harding." Neither her father who was a member of the court, nor her father's " cousin " who presided, however they may have shrunk and faltered, refused to administer the same measure as they would have administered to the humblest appren- tice.
Passing out of the zone in which morality was pro- tected by civil law, into the region where conscience and public sentiment ruled, we find the colonists supe- rior rather than inferior to their descendants and succes- sors. In the sobriety which governs animal appetites ; in the observance of the rules of righteousness between man and man ; in the carefulness with which honor was given to those to whom honor was due, and especially to the Supreme Ruler, - they excelled.
Having said so much in commendation, we must in truthfulness testify, that, like the saints whose sins are recorded on the pages of Holy Writ, they were human and therefore imperfect. Even among church-members there were cases of gross. immorality. In a single church there was one case of lying, one of fraud, one of drunkenness, and one of unnatural lust. These ex- ceptional outbreaks of wickedness are conspicuous by reason of the general sobriety, righteousness, and god- liness of the community in which they occurred.
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If there was any sin to which Puritans were espe- cially liable, it was avarice. Watchful against carnality and ungodliness, they were less suspicious of that lust of acquiring, which under the guise of such virtues as industry, frugality, and domestic affection, sometimes held them in a bondage of which they were little aware. Hence there were frequent appeals to the court for jus- tice between man and man in regard to contracts, and in one instance a complaint from the deacons of the church in the principal plantation that "the wampum that is put into the church-treasury is generally so bad that the elders to whom they pay it cannot pay it away." The court, appointing a committee to inquire further concerning the matter, found that "the contributions for the church-treasury are by degrees so much abated that they afford not any considerable maintenance to the teaching officers, and that much of the wampum brought in is such, and so faulty, that the officers can hardly, or not at all, pass it away in any of their occa- sions." Those who abated their contributions too much, or cast into the treasury of the church worthless money, were certainly wrong; but perhaps those who in our day are accustomed to receive and count the contribu- tions of churches, could testify that such manifestations of avarice are not peculiar to ancient times.
The outward honor shown to those who were worthy of honor was in the seventeenth century rendered as being of moral obligation. Good morals included good manners, and good manners were so far forth good morals. The Puritan gave to the fifth commandment so broad a scope that it required outward expressions of reverence for all superiors in age or station. It would
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be impossible now to re-establish the manners of the seventeenth century, or to convince any considerable part of society that the young owe to their superiors in age any such degree of deference as was then acknowl- edged to be due. But even to one who believes that out- ward signs of reverence were then excessive, there may perhaps be more of fitness and beauty in the manners of the olden time, notwithstanding such excess, than in the opposite extreme sometimes exhibited in modern society. Certainly, as reverence for superiors was then universally held to be of moral obligation, the people of New Haven colony are to be credited for the general rendition of honor to whom honor is due.
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