USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 31
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mainly directed to the final establishment of the Epis- copal Academy, and to the subscription papers which had been issued for the purpose of raising a sufficient fund to carry it into operation. It was the first insti- tution of the kind strictly belonging to the Church in New England, and one of the first in the country; and the agency of the Rev. Reuben Ives was probably beyond that of any other man in securing its location at Cheshire. The care which was shown in "framing a code of laws for its temporary government, and also in forming a constitution upon the most liberal and beneficial plan," proved that it was the design to erect it into a College; and under Bowden, its first honored and accomplished Principal, chosen by the Convention, that design was fostered and ripened ultimately into repeated applications to the General Assembly for an enlargement of its charter to colle- giate powers.
In the autumn of 1795 the third General Conven- tion assembled in Philadelphia, but no representation from Connecticut appeared. Three clerical and three lay delegates had been chosen by the last Diocesan Convention, but not one of them was present, and their absence may have been due to some cause be- sides positive inconvenience.
Bishop Seabury forwarded a communication to Bishop White, respectfully and affectionately com- plaining of an encroachment upon his Episcopal pre- rogatives within the limits of Rhode Island, where he had jurisdiction. The congregation of Narragansett had attached itself to the Church in Massachusetts, and the clergy of that Commonwealth had proposed to the Bishop of New York to ordain a clergyman
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for the parish, and he had yielded without consulting the authority of the Bishop of Connecticut. It was a needless official act; and when Bishop Provoost was informed of the complaint, he admitted the impro- priety of individual parishes pursuing such a course, and favored a canon, which was prepared and adopted at that very session, "to prevent a congregation in any Diocese or State from uniting with a church in any other Diocese or State."
This was entirely satisfactory; but there was an- other matter which would have been a source of irrita- tion had it not been promptly suppressed by the action of the Convention. A pamphlet, lately published, en- titled "Strictures on the Love of Power in the Prel- acy. By a Member of the Protestant Episcopal Asso- ciation in South Carolina," was "a libel against the House of Bishops," and principally levelled at the Bishop of Connecticut. The author of this libellous pamphlet was present, being a member of the Conven- tion; and steps were taken to expel him, which would have been successful had he not fled for shelter to the House of Bishops. Through the intervention of the President of that body, (White,) he made an ample apology for his misconduct; but while he was saved from expulsion, which he deserved, he "gave subse- quent evidence that his professed penitence was in- sincere, although it had been accompanied by a pro- fusion of tears."
The clergy of Connecticut, fifteen in number, met in Convocation at Bristol, (East Plymouth,) on the 21st of October, when the Bishop consecrated a new church by the name of St. Matthew's, and admitted the Rev. Mr. Griswold, so long the venerated Bishop
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of the Eastern Diocese, to the Holy Order of Priests That was his last ordination; but the next day the clergy assembled, pursuant to adjournment, in the adjoining town of Harwinton, where he consecrated another new church by the name of St. Mark's. At the recent General Convention a canon had been adopted empowering the Bishop in each Diocese or District to set forth forms of Prayer or Thanksgiving for extraordinary occasions ; and Bishop Seabury was now "requested to compose two Collects for the use of the clergy in this State, - one to be used at the sitting of the General Assembly, and the other to be used at the Courts." It was a good fashion which called in those days for such a provision. The Gen- eral Assembly still entertains a lingering respect for it, and invites some clergyman to officiate at the open- ing of its daily sessions, but the Courts in Connecti- cut, judging from the custom of the present day, have ceased to believe in the efficacy of prayers.
This was the last gathering of the clergy under the eye of their beloved prelate, and these were his last official acts in Connecticut of which there is any rec- ord. Late in the month of February, 1796, "Mr. Jarvis of Middletown was sitting before the fire," so says an eye-witness, "his wife near him, engaged in some domestic employment, and his little son playing about the room. A messenger entered with a letter sealed with black wax, and handed it to Mr. Jarvis in silence. He opened it, and his hand shook like an aspen leaf. His wife, in great alarm, hastened to him, and his son crept between his knees and looked up inquiringly into his face. He could not speak for some minutes. At last he said, slowly and convul- sively, 'Bishop Seabury is dead!'"
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The event came to him with great suddenness on the 25th of February, when he had passed three months beyond the eleventh year of his consecration, and nearly as many months beyond his sixty-sixth birthday. Up to that moment of time he had been in the enjoyment of a good degree of health, and his robust and vigorous constitution indicated no symp- toms of early dissolution. He had spent the after- noon of the day of his death in visits to several of his parishioners, and just as he was leaving the tea- table of a Warden of his parish, whose daughter his son Charles had married, he was seized with apo- plexy, and being laid upon a bed, soon expired. It was a departure which he had always desired rather than deprecated ; for in using the petition in the Lit- any to be "delivered from sudden death," he is said to have excluded all reference to himself, and to have thought only of what most men in the busy scenes of life are quite unfitted to welcome.
Though he had lived long enough to leave the im- press of his noble and decisive character upon the Church in Connecticut, yet here and in Rhode Island1 his death was tenderly mourned, and his loss was a severe affliction to his infant communion in America. He was a man for the times, far-reaching in his views, of a bold and resolute spirit, and "better acquainted than any of his coadjutors with those guiding principles which were then especially required." If he had not the lenity and moderation of White, he had the mag- nanimity and courtesy of a Christian gentleman, and knew when firmness was a duty and concession a vir- tue. If he had not the classic taste and elegant scholar-
1 Appendix C.
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ship of Madison, he had stores of sacred learning, and a mind to use them, and a power "in the performance of his official functions to inspire universal reverence." On the great festivals of the Church, and on all high occasions, he wore the Mitre, which is now deposited in the Library of Trinity College at Hartford. He also wore at times the hood, the badge of an Oxford Doctor. Commanding in person, graceful in manner, though with little action, and perspicuous and com- pact in his style, he was a preacher to impress truth upon the hearts of an audience; and his published dis- courses are still referred to and commended for their doctrinal soundness, and for the proofs which they supply of his thorough earnestness in the work not only of bringing men into the path of salvation, but of building up "the body of Christ, which is His Church." A successor1 in the Rectorship of the parish which he served, and who has had opportunities of gathering up reminiscences of his life, characterizes him as “unit- ing dignity with condescension, and ease with gravity. He was an admirable companion, a hearty friend, a generous opponent. The poor, and men of low estate among his parishioners, loved his memory. And men of all creeds, where he dwelt, held him in esteem and reverence."
The unpretending wooden church which he conse- crated, and where he ministered before the Lord, has given way to a noble structure of stone, with massive walls and towering spire, with gorgeous nave and rich adornments of chancel; and long before its completion it was a natural feeling of the churchmen of Connect- icut that its first Bishop should have his resting-place 1 Rev. Robert A. Hallam, D. D.
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within those sacred courts which must in all time to come be associated with his blessed memory. When, therefore, he had lain in his grave for more than half a century, his remains were disinterred in the autumn of 1849, and deposited in a crypt prepared for their reception in one of the divisions of the chancel of St. James's Church ; and a monument, erected at the joint expense of his Diocese and his parish, tells the hum- ble worshipper in that sanctuary, and every inquiring visitor, that there finally his dust reposes, waiting for "the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."
The pious apostrophe which fell from the pen of the writer who recorded the death of Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, will fit his case, and appropriately con- clude this chapter. "Be thou thankful to God for giv- ing His Church so worthy an instrument to His glory, and be careful to follow the good doctrine which he left behind him."
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX A.
MR. CUTLER acted as resident Rector for several months before removing his family to New Haven. The first town- meeting in Stratford to consider his removal was held July 31, 1719, and the people were again convened on the 21st of September for the same purpose. His letter of resignation, copied from the town records, is as follows: -
"STRATFORD, Sept. 14, 1719.
" BRETHREN AND FRIENDS, -
"I hope I have with seriousness and solemnity considered the in- vitation made to me for a removal from you to the collegiate school at New Haven, and can look upon it as nothing less than a call of Providence, which I am obliged to obey.
"I do, therefore, by these lines give you this signification, giving you my hearty thanks for all that respect and kindness I have found with you, and praying God abundantly to reward you for it, and discharging you from any further care about my temporal support from the date of this letter forever, and praying you to apply your- selves with all convenient speed to the settling of another minister with you. I intend, if it be not unacceptable to you, to visit you and take my farewell of you as soon as I can conveniently on some Lord's day after my return from Boston, where I am now going, if it please God. When I am bodily absent from you, my affection shall per- severe towards you, and my hearty desires and prayers shall be to God for you, that he would preserve you in His favor, and in peace among yourselves ; direct your endeavors for the settlement of an- other to break the bread of life with you, and make your way pros- perous, and abundantly make up my removal from you by his gifts and his painful and successful endeavors for the good of your souls and your children after you.
" Thus I leave you to the care of the great Shepherd of the sheep, always remaining an earnest well-wisher to your souls and all your concerns. TIMOTHY CUTLER."
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APPENDIX.
Extracts from the Records of Yale College.
" At a meeting of the Trustees, Sept. 9, 1719 : -
"Ordered, that Mr. Samuel Andrew, Mr. Samuel Russell, and Mr. Thomas Ruggles or any two of them do pray the next General Assembly to grant such sums of money to the Trustees of College as may enable them to remove the Rev. Mr. Cutler from Stratford to the place of Rector of this College whereunto he hath been chosen.
"Ordered, that Mr. Joseph Webb, Mr. Thomas Ruggles, and Mr. Samuel Russell or any two of them do write in our name to the town of Stratford, signifying our acceptance of the town offer con- cerning the removal of Mr. Cutler, and that they do it according to their own viz. said Webb's, Russell's, and Ruggles's proposals made sd town : also we order and impower the above persons to purchase of Mr. Cutler his house and home lot at Stratford, that it may be returned to Stratford, and (if Mr. Cutler seeth it needful) they are desired to be helpful to him in laying out the moneys for his accom- modation in New Haven, and all to be done at the College charge.
" Ordered, that Mr. Cutler's family and goods be removed from Stratford to New Haven at the charge of the College.
"Ordered, that Rev. Mr. Samuel Andrew, Samuel Russell and Thomas Ruggles do adjust the account which is due to Mr. Johnson for his service in the College, and order him what shall be due out of the Treasury, with our particular thanks for his good service, and that £3 be ordered him for his extraordinary service.
" April 20, 1720. " We agree to give the Rev. Mr. Timothy Cutler one hundred and ninety pounds current money of this Colony or Bills of credit passing in the same for his house and home lot in Stratford."
APPENDIX B.
THE following letter, copied from the original draught of the Rev. Dr. Johnson, and addressed to President Clap, con- tains very important statements. It has not, to our knowl- edge, before appeared in print : -
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" STRATFORD, Feby 5, 1754. "REVD & DR SR, -
" Tho' I am but in a poor condition for writing, I can't forbear a few lines in answer to yours of Jany 30th.
"I thank you for your kind congratulation on my being chosen President of their intended College at New York, and I shall desire by all means, if I undertake it, to hold a good correspondence not only as Colleges but as Christians, supposing you and the Fellows of your College act on the same equitable, catholic, and Christian prin- ciples as we unanimously propose to act upon, i. e., to admit that the children of the Church may go to church whenever they have oppor- tunity, as we think of nothing but to admit that the children of Dis- senting parents have leave to go to their meetings; nor can I see anything like an argument in all you have said to justify the for- bidding it. And I am prodigiously mistaken if you did not tell me it was an allowed and settled rule with you heretofore.
" The only point in question, as I humbly conceive, is, whether there ought of right to be any such law in your College as, either in words or by necessary consequence, forbids the liberty we contend for ! What we must beg leave to insist on is, That there ought not ; and that it is highly injurious to forbid it ; unless you can make it ap- pear That you ever had a right to exclude the people of the Church belonging to this Colony, from having the benefit of Public education in your College, without their submitting to the hard condition of not being allowed to do what they believe in their conscience, it is their indispensable duty to do, i. e., to require their children to go to church whenever they have opportunity, and at the same time a right to accept and hold such vast benefactions from gentlemen of the Church of Eng- land, wherewith to support you in maintaining such a law in exclu- sion of such a liberty. Can you think those gentlemen would ever have given such benefactions to such a purpose ! And ought it not to be considered at the same time that the parents of these children contribute also their proportion every year to the support of the College ?
" Your argument in a former letter was, That it is inconsistent with the original design of the founders, which was only to provide ministers for your churches. But pray, Sir, why may not our Church also be provided for with ministers from our common College as well as your churches ? And ought not the catholic design of the principal benefactors also in strict justice to be regarded, who, in the sense of
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the English law, are to be reckoned among the founders ? See Viner, on the title FOUNDERS. What Mr. Yale's views were, I had not opportunity of knowing, though, doubtless, they were the same that we suppose. But I was knowing to Bp. Berkeley's, which were, that his great Donation should be equally for a common ben- efit, without respect to parties. For I was myself the principal, I may say in effect the only person, in procuring that Donation, and with those generous, catholic, and charitable views ; though you, (not willing, it seems, that Posterity should ever know this,) did not think fit to do me the justice in your History of the College, (though hum- bly suggested,) as to give me the credit of any, the least influence on him in that affair; when the truth is, had it not been for my in- fluence it would never have been done, to which I was prompted by the sincere desire that it should be for a common benefit, when I could have easily procured it appropriated to the Church. But at that time Mr. Williams also pretended a mighty catholic charitable conviction that there never was any meaning in it; it being at the very same juncture, that he with the Hampshire ministers, his father at the head of them, were, in their great charity, contriving a letter to the Bishop of London by means of which they hoped to deprive all the church people in these parts of their ministers, and them of their support ; the same charitable aim that Mr. Hobart and his friends are pursuing at this day ! And now you, Gentlemen, are so severe as to establish a law to deprive us of the benefit of a public education for our children, too, unless we will let them, nay require them to go out of our own houses, to meeting, when there is a church at our doors.
" Indeed, Sir, I must say, this appears to me so very injurious, that I must think it my duty, in obedience to a rule of the Society, to join with my Brethren in complaining of it to our superiors at home, if it be insisted upon ; which is what I abhor and dread to be brought to; and, therefore, by the love of our dear country, (in which we desire to live, only upon a par with you, in all Christian charity.) I do beseech you, Gentlemen, not to insist upon it. Tell it not in Gath ! much less in the ears of our dear mother-country, that any of her daughters should deny any of her children leave to attend on her worship whenever they have opportunity for it. Surely you can- not pretend that you are conscience bound to make such a law, or that it would be an infraction of liberty of conscience for it to be re- pealed from home, as you intimate. This would be carrying matters
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far indeed. But for God's sake, do not be so severe to think in this manner, or to carry things to this pass! If so, let Dissenters never more complain of their heretofore persecutions or hardships in Eng- land, unless they have us tempted to think it their principle, that they only ought to be tolerated, in order at length to be established, that they may have the sole privilege of persecuting others. But I beg pardon and forbear ; only I desire it may be considered, how ill such a principle would sound at this time of day, when the universal Church of England as much abhors the persecution of Dissenters as they can themselves. It may also deserve to be considered that the Government at home would probably be so far from going into the formality of repealing this law, that they would declare it a nullity in itself; and not only so, but even the corporation that hath en- acted it ; inasmuch as it seems a principle in law that a corporation cannot make a corporation, nor can one be made without his majes- ty's act. See Viner, under the titles CORPORATION and BY-LAWS.
" You mistake me, Sir. I did not say that Professors of Divinity do not preach. I knew they and the Heads, &c., do preach in their turns at the common church, to which all resort to sermon. But what I say is, that they do not preach as Professors, nor do they ever preach in private Colleges, there being no such thing as preaching in the College Chapels, but only at St. Mary's and Christ Church, which are in effect Cathedrals, where the scholars resort, but not exclusive of the town's people, tho' they generally go to their parish churches.
"I wonder how you came to apprehend I had any scruples about the divinity of Christ. I am with you, glad we agree so far; and I would desire you to understand, that my zeal for that sacred Deposi- tum, the Christian faith, founded on those principles, a coessential, coeternal Trinity, and the Divinity, incarnation, and satisfaction of Christ, is the very and sole reason of my zeal for the Church of Eng- land, and that she may be promoted, supported, and well treated in these countries ; as I have been long persuaded that she is, and will eventually be found, the only stable bulwark against all heresy and infidelity which are coming in like a flood upon us, and this, as I apprehend, by reason of the rigid Calvinism, Antinomianism, enthu- siasm, divisions, and separations, which, through the weakness and great imperfection of your constitution, (if it may so be called,) are so rife and rampant among us. My apprehension of this was the first occasion of my conforming to the Church, (which has been to my
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great comfort and satisfaction,) and hath been more and more con- firmed by what has occurred ever since. And I am still apt to think that no well-meaning Dove that has proper means and opportunity of exact consideration, will ever find rest to the sole of his foot amid such a deluge, till he comes into the Church as the alone urk of safety, - all, whose Articles, Liturgy and Homilies taken together and explained by one another, and by the writings of our first Reformers, according to their original sense, shall ever be sacred with me ; which sense, as I apprehend it, is neither Calvinistical nor Arminian, but the golden mean, and, according to the genuine meaning of the Holy Scriptures in the original, critically considered and understood. I beg pardon for this length, which I did not design at first, and desire you will also excuse my haste, inaccuracy, and this writing currente calamo, and conclude with earnestly begging that neither your in- sisting on this law nor anything else, may occur to destroy or inter- rupt our harmony and friendship, with which, on my part I desire ever to remain,
" D' ST " Yr. real friend " and humble servant,
" S. JOHNSON. " P. S. - I wish you to communicate it to the Fellows."
APPENDIX C.
Correspondence between the Standing Committees of Rhode Island and Connecticut.
" NEWPORT, March 29th, 1796.
"TO THE STANDING COMMITTEE
of the Prot. Episc Church in the State of Connecticut.
" GENTLEMEN, --
" Duly impressed with a grateful sense of the blessings enjoyed by the Prot. Episc. Church, in the State of Rhode Island, in common with those in the State of Connecticut, during the Episcopal Regency of our departed Rt. Revd. Diocesan, we conceive it our duty at this time to join with you in paying our tribute of Regard to the memory of our worthy Bishop, and to call upon you for a continu-
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ance of our common ecclesiastical interest and Diocesenal unity And, as it hath pleased the adorable Head of the Church to call hence our visible centre of unity, we have to request you, to use your best endeavors and influence with the churches which you rep- resent, that they lose no time in making choice of a suitable person to watch over the Doctrines, Discipline and Institutions of our faith and common salvation.
" From the paucity of our congregations, we pretend not to any share in your election ; only to be admitted, so far do we request, as to homologate your choice, and to give our adjunct suffrage and recommendation in favor of the elect, whom ye, under the direction of Almighty God, may judge worthy of filling the Episcopal chair.
" And may God of His infinite goodness and love for His Church, direct us in all things for the good of the same; that His Name may be glorified, and the number of the faithful daily increased and re- joice in the salvation of Jesus.
" We are, Gentlemen, with every sentiment of respect and esteem, and with prayers for your temporal and eternal happiness, your most affectionate and very humble servants, the Standing Committee of the Prot. Episc. Church in the State of Rhode Island.
" WILLIAM SMITH, Rect. Tr. C. N. Port.
" ROBT. N. AUCHMUTY.
" ABRAM. L. CLARKE, Rect". St. John's Ch'h Providence. "JOHN J. CLARKE."
To the above letter, copied from the original in the hand- writing of Dr. Smith, the first signer, whose peculiar marks of authorship it bears, the following answer was returned, in the autumn, by the Standing Committee of Connecticut.
" To the Protestant E. Church in the State of Rhode Island. " GENTLEMEN, -
" Your polite and friendly Letter of the 29th of March last was received by us in due time. The occasion of your address was truly a melancholy one. The sudden departure of our late worthy Dio- cesan cast a gloom upon the minds of his numerous acquaintances, and especially upon the members of his cure. We were happy in being favored with so good a man to fill the Episcopal chair ; and we sin- cerely lament the great loss we have sustained.
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