USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 29
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saints."
The real argument in all this correspondence was with the pens of the North, so far as it related to the advantage and necessity of one united Church; and the prospect of securing this brightened under the conciliatory course of Bishop White, and the kind mediation of the clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, especially of the Rev. Mr. Parker. He never omitted an occasion to further what was so much in his heart and in his prayers; and as the time drew near for the meeting of the General Convention, he was at the head of a measure which was to bring that body to a direct decision on the validity of the Scottish Episcopacy, with a view to the three Bishops, now in the States, joining in the consecration of a fourth.
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CHAPTER XXX.
ELECTION OF BISHOP FOR MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW HAMP- SHIRE; SIGNS OF CHRISTIAN HARMONY; GENERAL CONVEN- TION AT PHILADELPHIA; COMPLETION OF THE UNION OF THE CHURCH IN ALL THE STATES, AND ADOPTION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.
A. D. 1789-1790.
SIx Presbyters, representing the Church in Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire, met at Salem on the 4th day of June, 1789, and after recording their grati- tude to the Supreme Governor of the universe for his goodness in "blessing the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, by supplying it with a complete and entire Ministry, and by affording to many of her communion the benefit of the labors, advice, and gov- ernment of the successors of the Apostles," they pro- ceeded to "nominate, elect, and appoint" their chair- man, the Rev. Edward Bass, to be their Bishop, and promised and engaged, over their own signatures, to receive him as such when canonically consecrated and invested with the Apostolic office and powers. They then addressed the Bishops of Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, praying for their united as- sistance in consecrating their brother; and authorized and empowered the Rev. Samuel Parker to transmit copies of their action to each of these prelates, and also appointed him "their agent to appear at any
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Convention to be holden at Pennsylvania or New York, and to treat upon any measures that might tend to promote an union of the Episcopal Church throughout the United States of America, or that might prove advantageous to the interests of said Church."
The Convention commencing its session in Phila- delphia, July 28, 1789, was the first which assembled on this continent in the full likeness of that ancient council at Jerusalem, composed of Apostles, and elders, and brethren. Fortunately Bishop Provoost was ab- sent; and Mr. Parker, unable to be present himself, communicated his instructions to Bishop White, who laid them before the Convention, together with two let- ters from Dr. Seabury,-one addressed to Dr. Smith, and the other to himself,-expressing the hope that all difficulties might be removed, and reiterating the grand objection in Connecticut to the power of Lay delegates in the proposed Constitution, that "it made them part of a judicial consistory for the trial and dep- rivation of clergymen." The signs of Christian har- mony at once grew more distinct, for upon the read- ing of these letters it was "Resolved unanimously, that it is the opinion of this Convention, that the con- secration of the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury to the Epis- copal office is valid." That was a great step in ad- vance of all former proceedings. It put to rest forever a matter which had been the occasion of many misapprehensions, and opened the door for perfect reconciliation. A melancholy event, too, had its chastening effect upon the members. The Rev. David Griffith, D. D., who had relinquished his ap- pointment as Bishop elect of Virginia, and had come as a delegate from that State to the Convention, died,
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after an acute illness, on the sixth day of the session, at the house of Bishop White; and among the resolu- tions of respect to his memory which were adopted, was one "that the clergy of all denominations within the city be invited to attend his funeral."
With feelings tinged by the sorrow of this event, the Convention approached the deliberate considera- tion of the act of the clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and finally, with entire unanimity, resolved that "a complete order of Bishops, derived as well under the English as the Scots line of Epis- copacy, doth now subsist within the United States of America;" and that Bishops White, Provoost, and Seabury were fully competent to every proper act and duty of the Episcopal office and character in this country, as well in respect to the consecration of other Bishops, and the ordering of Priests and Deacons, as for the government of the Church, according to such rules, canons, and institutions as then existed, or here- after might be duly made and ordained. Another res- olution embraced a formal request to Bishops White and Provoost to join with the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury in consecrating the Bishop elect of the Eastern clergy; proposing, however, that, previous to such consecra- tion, the churches in the New-England States should meet in this Convention, to be adjourned for that purpose, and settle certain articles of union and dis- cipline among all the churches. If any difficulty or delicacy remained with the two first-named Bishops, or either of them, concerning their compliance with the request, the Convention resolved to address the Archbishops and Bishops of England, hoping thereby to remove the difficulty and enable them freely to proceed.
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The author and mover of these resolutions was the Rev. Dr. Smith, who afterwards referred to his course herein as the happiest incident of his life, and the best service he had ever been able to render to the Church. With Bishop White, he was placed upon the com- mittee to prepare the address to the English prelates, to forward the necessary answers to the communica- tions which had been received, and also to notify the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury, and the Eastern and other churches not yet represented in the Convention, of "the time and place to which it would adjourn, and request their attendance at the same, for the good purposes of union and general government."
Thus the wall which had so long stood between the two great parties was effectually broken down; and though Provoost had sagacity enough to foresee this result, yet as late as February 24, 1789, he was still implacable; for, writing to his Episcopal brother in Philadelphia, and referring to Connecticut, he said: "An invitation to the Church in that State to meet us in General Convention, I conceive to be neither necessary nor proper; not necessary, because I am informed that they have already appointed two per- sons to attend the next General Convention, without our invitation; not proper, because it is so publicly known that they have adopted a form of church gov- ernment which renders them inadmissible as members of the Convention or union."
The action previously described will prove how little regard was paid to his prejudices and personal dislikes. Bishop White shared with him in the convic- tion that they were both under implied pledges to the English prelates not to join in the act of consecration
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until there were three Bishops in this country of the Anglican line,-that being the canonical number of consecrators; but he did not share with him in his views of the validity of the Scottish Episcopacy. On that point he was entirely satisfied; and if he did not attempt to remove the scruples of his stubborn brother, he certainly made the amiable effort to conciliate him, and bring him into the current that was drifting them all towards union, peace, and love.
No sooner had Bishop Seabury learned the proceed- ings of the Convention, and received the "truly re- spectable invitation" to be present at its adjourned meeting, than steps were taken to comply with the request. The second article of the General Constitu- tion had been so amended as to wholly remove his first and chief difficulty respecting Lay representa- tion, and that, too, upon the good and wise principle which he had himself laid down, namely, "that there may be a strong and efficacious union between churches where the usages are in some respects dif- ferent."
A special Convention of the clergy of Connecticut was held in Stratfield, September 15th, 1789, to delib- erate upon the invitation from Philadelphia. Dr. Leaming presided in the absence of the Bishop; and the letters and papers relative to a general union having been read, it was voted, on motion of the Rev. Mr. Bowden, that the Convention would send clerical delegates. The next day Hubbard and Jar- vis were chosen, and "empowered to confer with the General Convention on the subject of making alterations in the Book of Common Prayer; but the ratification of such alterations was expressly re-
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served, to rest with the Bishop and clergy of the Church."
The way was particularly smoothed for the cordial reception of the New-England delegates. The Rev. Dr. Smith offered the hospitalities of his house to the Bishop of Connecticut, and begged him to join the Rev. Dr. Moore of New York in making it his home during his stay in Philadelphia. Now that the way had been prepared by others, he could not do too much to further the grand scheme of perfect harmony and brotherly agreement; and in communicating the action of the Convention upon the application of the Eastern clergy, he closed his letter to Bishop Seabury thus: "The College of Philadelphia have, on Dr. White's recommendation and mine, granted the degree of D. D. to the Rev. Mr. Bass and Mr. Parker, which we thought a proper compliment to the New-England churches. We are sorry we forgot to pay the same compliment to the venerable old Mr. Leaming, of the Connecticut Church. I hope he will accompany you to Philadelphia, and receive that compliment from us in person, if he has nowhere else received it before." 1
The Convention met, pursuant to adjournment, on the 29th day of September, and Bishop Seabury with the representatives of the clergy in Connecticut, and the Rev. Dr. Parker of Boston, attended and produced their official documents and testimonials. Some minds were still angry and unsettled, and a danger on the score of politics arose immediately upon their arrival. Bishop Seabury had been chaplain to a British regi- ment during the war; and the fact that he was now a pensioner of the Crown, receiving half-pay for his
1 He received it from Columbia College, N. Y., the same year.
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services, had come to the knowledge of certain Lay delegates who professed to entertain scruples in re- gard to the propriety of admitting him as a member of the Convention. But the mild and judicious reply of the Bishop of Pennsylvania to the only gentleman who approached him on the subject seemed to allay all uneasiness, and the objection was either withdrawn or not renewed. On the second day of the session, for the better promotion of union, it was resolved that the General Constitution established at the previous meeting was still open to amendment and alterations, by virtue of the powers delegated to this Convention; and a Committee, appointed to confer with the Dep- uties from the Eastern churches, after "a full, free, and friendly conference," reported their acceptance of the Constitution as already adopted,-provided the third article was so modified as to declare explicitly the right of the Bishops, when sitting in a separate House, to originate acts for the concurrence of the lower House, with a negative on its proceedings.
The main point was readily conceded, and the other was made the subject of future determination. Bishop Seabury and the Clerical Deputies from New Eng- land assented in writing to the Constitution as thus altered and amended, - the third article of which re- quired that "the Bishops of this Church, when there shall be three or more, shall, whenever General Con- ventions are held, form a separate House." The requi- site number was now secured, though Bishop Pro- voost was absent, and the two Houses were estab- lished, and proceeded to the concurrent work of adopting a body of canons and revising the Book of Common Prayer. The primary rule laid down for
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the government of the House of Bishops was "that the senior Bishop present shall preside,-seniority to be reckoned from the dates of the letters of consecra- tion,"-a rule which gave the Presidency to the Bishop of Connecticut.
To these two prelates, with different moulds of char- acter and opposite tendencies of thought, the Church in this country is chiefly indebted for the establish- ment of its order and worship upon a safe, sound, and permanent basis. The prevailing tone of sentiment in the Southern States, both as to doctrine and dis- cipline, was low and uncertain, while in Connecticut there was the strongest attachment to the old Lit- urgy, to the model of Apostolic order, and the distinc- tive articles of the Christian faith. Bishop White, with natural kindness of heart and a temper of mind leaning to those counsels which bore most faintly the impress of his own communion, might have consented to many of the changes and innovations marked out in the ritual of the "Proposed Book," had he not met in his associate counsellor a wise and vigorous resist- ance. They were precisely the men to bring together in such an emergency; for, by their mutual conces- sions and forbearance in matters not essential, that happy mean betwixt too much rigidity in refusing and too much facility in yielding was preserved, and a result attained which for more than three quarters of a century has given rest and contentment to all shades of views embraced within the bosom of the American Episcopal Church. Their united and har- monious action turned aside every threatened danger. They took as their guides the old forms and offices; but Bishop Seabury advocated the introduction into
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the Communion Service of the prayer of oblation and invocation as it now stands, -a prayer which the Eng- lish reviewers had omitted from the Liturgy of Ed- ward the Sixth, but which he heartily desired to see restored, because he had adopted it in his own Diocese, and learned to appreciate it in his visit to the Bishops from whom he received his consecration. He was a conservative element in the Convention, and felt that "Scarcely with anything besides is the wellbeing of the Church bound up so closely as with the full or- thodoxy of its Liturgy." "To this day," says Bishop White, in the second edition of his Memoirs, published shortly before his death, "there are recollected with satisfaction the hours which were spent with Bishop Seabury on the important subjects which came before them, and especially the Christian temper which he manifested all along." The two Houses prosecuted the review of the Liturgy in the spirit of men who ex- pected the benediction of Heaven upon their labors,- the Bishops originating alterations in some services, and the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies propos- ing others.
The result of the session, besides completing the general union, was the Book of Common Prayer as then established and now used; and there are con- stantly recurring evidences to illustrate its adapta- tion to the needs and necessities of "all sorts and con- ditions of men." It has gone where the voice of the living preacher had never been heard. It has spoken the story of redemption into the ears of thousands, and drawn them within our fold, and given them the comfort of its worship and the support of its sacra- ments. While some of the Christian bodies about us
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are feeling the want of our peculiar advantages, and sighing in private for Liturgical forms to give more attraction to public prayer and praise; while aca- demic institutions once wedded to a different practice now seek in dainty Rituals to guide the scanty devo- tion of the youths and make them mount up with wings as eagles; while all around there are voices that laud the majestic inheritance of our Liturgy, and the copious treasury of doctrine and sacred songs con- tained therein, let us hold fast to the Book of Com- mon Prayer, and cherish it, not only as the beautiful child of the Reformation, but as a precious legacy be- queathed to us by the men to whose wisdom we owe so much for settling, at a critical period, the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.
Though the measures for union had all terminated happily, Dr. Bass declined the office to which he had been appointed, and thus those prelates who enter- tained scruples about proceeding to consecrate until another in the Anglican line should be present, were put to no further test. But some years afterwards he was again unanimously elected Bishop of Massachu- setts, and duly consecrated in Christ Church, Philadel- phia, May 7th, 1797.
Fifteen clergymen, besides the Bishop, assembled in Convocation at Litchfield, on the 2d day of June, 1790, and, "by particular desire, attended divine ser- vice in the Presbyterian meeting-house," when the Bishop ordained the Rev. Truman Marsh to the Priest- hood, and preached the sermon. The Rev. Dr. Leam- ing was placed at the head of a Committee to draw up rules and canons for regulating the discipline of
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the Church in Connecticut, -the first time that any- thing of this sort had been attempted; but the most important action was upon the Constitution and can- ons of the Church, formed by the late General Con- vention. These were read, and after a short examina- tion, the further consideration of them was postponed until the last day of September, when the Convocation met by adjournment at Newtown, and eighteen of the clergy in the Diocese assembled with the Bishop. The question was put in these words: "Whether we confirm the doings of our Proctors in the General Convention at Philadelphia on the 2d day of October, 1789?" and it was decided in the affirmative by the votes of every member present, except the Rev. James Sayre. He entered his Protest against the proceed- ings, which, at his desire, was recorded, and the next day he withdrew and left the Convocation. It shows the extreme caution which was observed, that the mode of introducing the Constitution and Liturgy into the several parishes was left to the prudence and judgment of each clergyman. Uniformity in the use of the new Prayer Book was desirable, and for this purpose they agreed to approach as near the old Lit- urgy as a compliance with the rubrics of the new would allow. The Nicene Creed was read on Com- munion Sundays, and the Apostles' Creed on all other days. But the change from established customs is seldom easy; and whether the people loved to have it so or not, some of the clergy of that day never learned to carry out in full practice the literal mean- ing of the rubrical directions of the new Prayer Book.
One noble soldier of the cross, "not yet fifty years
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old," who had participated largely in the efforts to re- establish the Church in Connecticut, after the events of the Revolution, laid down his armor and went to his rest before the final results were accomplished. The Rev. John R. Marshall died on the 21st of Jan- uary, 1789, in the eighteenth year of his ministry, and just as its richer fruits began to cheer his benev- olent heart. The venerable Dr. Leaming, bending under the weight of age and decrepitude, and fairly worn out in the service of the Church amid such disas- trous times, withdrew from the parish in Stratford, after having been in charge of it for six years, and retired for a season to New York. But he subsequently re- turned to Connecticut, and was received at New Ha- ven into the house of a former friend, whose kindness and protection he desired, and where he passed the remainder of his life, chiefly in the solitude of his own room, waiting patiently, like Job, "all the days of his appointed time till his change came." Whoever enters the old Cemetery in New Haven, and passes near the south-east corner, will find his humble grave; and the epitaph upon the tombstone in this case tells no untruth when it says that he was "long a faith- ful minister of the Gospel in the Episcopal Church; well instructed, especially in his holy office; unre- mitting in his labors; charitably patient, and of prim- itive meekness. His public discourses forcibly incul- cated the faith illustrated by his practice. Respected, revered, and beloved in life, and lamented in death, he departed hence September 15, 1804, aged eighty- · seven."
The Church in Connecticut had now, as far as hu- man foresight could discern, passed through all the
·
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great perils which once threatened her peace and perpetuity. Her zealous Bishop was adding year by year to the list of his clergy more than death took away, and the care which he used to advance none to the sacred office but fit and godly persons con- tinued to disarm prejudice of its power, and weaken the intolerance of sectarianism. As the pathway of the Lord amidst the mighty waters is secret, so is the presence of His blessed Spirit in the Church unseen but felt,-reviving love and purity, and giving life and strength, peace and advancement.
VOL. I. 27
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CHAPTER XXXI.
INTRODUCTION OF THE LAITY INTO THE COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH; COURSE OF THE REV. JAMES SAYRE; AND CONSE- CRATION OF THE FIRST BISHOP IN AMERICA.
A. D. 1790-1792.
A COLLEGE of Doctors of Divinity was established by the Bishop and clergy of Connecticut, at the Con- vocation held in Newtown, to be considered as the Bishop's council of advice in any emergencies that might arise, and the Rev. Messrs. Dibblee, Mansfield, Hubbard, and Jarvis were the first four Doctors. The origin of this measure in our ecclesiastical pro- ceedings may be referred to Scotland, where the Bishops to this day never will recognize the honor of the Doctorate from any Presbyterian institution. Perhaps their feeling in regard to it springs from what was anciently an Episcopal prerogative, and of which traces are yet to be found in foreign universities. With a view to perpetuate this body, "the instal- ment of Doctors," never less than four nor more than six, unless by consent of the Convocation, was to be by "Diploma from the College of Doctors, and an- nounced in public by the Bishop" at the next meeting.
The publication of these acts was ordered at the time; but whether from the inexpediency or unpop-
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ularity of the thing in a Puritan land, where the Epis- copal prerogatives and dignity were still suspected, or because the Canons of the General Convention had provided for the appointment of a Standing Com- mittee to act as the Bishop's council of advice in each Diocese, we hear no more of this College of Doctors after the year 1792. However reluctant they might have been to assume the honor thus conferred upon them, they appear to have been a body of some ser- vice in those critical times. For when the Committee appointed in 1790, "to prepare Canons for the inter- nal government of the Church in Connecticut," made their report, it was ordered "that the Canons reported be revised and completed by the Bishop and the Col- lege of Doctors, and laid before the next Convoca- tion." Three of the "first four Doctors" had the honor confirmed, or rather conferred upon them at later dates, by the corporation of Yale College; and the remaining one, Mr. Dibblee, was doctorated by Columbia College, New York.
The first Standing Committee, as required by a Canon of the General Convention, was appointed at a Convocation held in Watertown, October 5, 1791, and consisted of five members, all clergymen. From that day to this, with the exception of one year, when the Diocese was under the provisional charge of Bishop Hobart, who was accustomed to a different practice in New York, the election of the Standing Committee in Connecticut has been restricted to the clerical order.
At the same Convocation, -after the parishes, fol- lowing the lead of the clergy, had conformed to the use of the new Prayer Book, and acquiesced in the
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general Constitution, -the first movement was made to introduce the Laity into the councils of the Church. The vote on the subject was very guarded, and to the effect that each clergyman should recommend to the people of his cure to choose one or more persons to represent them at a Convocation to be holden at the church in New Haven, on the 30th of May suc- ceeding,-"which representatives were to be consid- ered as a Committee of Conference with the Convo- cation, at that time and place, on all matters that respected the temporal interest of the Church."
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