USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 32 | Part 33
IN CONNECTICUT. 69
a Jew, whose wife only was a Christian; eighteen bap- tisms, "one whereof was an Indian;" and eight com municants, - making his whole number forty-nine. Here is evidence of strength almost equal to that at Stratford, and no such body of earnest men could long remain passive under the exactions and illiberality of the Colonial government. They had moved even while Caner was on his way to England for ordina- tion. The first successful effort towards a mitigation of the trials of churchmen and a redress of their griev- ances, came from Fairfield. The Church-wardens and Vestrymen, in the name and behalf of all the rest of their brethren, members of the Church of England in that town, memorialized the General As- sembly, at its May session in 1727, as follows : "Where- as we are, by the Honorable Society in England and the Bishop of London, laid under obligation to pay to the support of the said established church, and have accordingly constantly paid to it, and been at great charge in building a church for the worship of God, we pray this Assembly would, by some act or other- wise, as your wisdom shall think fit, excuse us here- after from paying to any dissenting minister, or to the building of any dissenting meeting-house. And whereas we were, ten of us, lately imprisoned for our taxes, and had considerable sums of money taken from us by distraint, contrary to his Honor the Gov- ernor's advice, and notwithstanding solemn promises before given to sit down and be concluded thereby in this affair, we pray that those sums of money taken from us may be restored to us again. If these griev- ances may be redressed, we shall aim at nothing but to live peaceably and as becometh Christians among our dissenting brethren."
*
70
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Moses Ward, the Senior Warden and first signer to this memorial, " appeared, and by his attorney de- clared to the Assembly that he should not insist on the return of the money prayed for;" but asserted that the Independents or Congregationalists had "al- ways esteemed it a hardship to be compelled to con- tribute to the support of the Church of England, where that is the church established by law;" remind- ing them that they should not exact from others what they had never been willing to submit to themselves, and urging also the passage of some law to oblige Episcopalians to pay to the support of their own min- isters. The petition was so far granted, that a law was enacted, by which all persons of the Church of England, and those of the churches established by the Colonial government, living in the bounds of any parish allowed by the Assembly, should be taxed by the same rule and in the same proportion for the sup- port of the ministry of said parish : But if a society of the Church of England, with a clergyman settled and abiding among its members, and performing di- vine service for them, happened to be so near to any who had declared themselves of this church, that they could conveniently, and did attend its public worship, then the collectors should deliver the taxes collected of such persons to the minister of the Church of Eng- land living near them, which minister should have full power to receive and recover the same in order to his support in his parish. But if such proportion of taxes was insufficient to support the incumbent in any society of the Church of England, the members of such society had power to levy and collect of them- selves greater taxes, at their own discretion. By the
71
IN CONNECTICUT.
same enactment, the parishioners of the Church of England were excused from paying any taxes to build meeting-houses for the established churches of the colony. Two years afterwards a law was adopted and proclaimed by the General Court, with similar exemptions, for the benefit of "soberly dissenting" Quakers and Baptists.
Thus the early churchmen of Fairfield, nearly one hundred years after the settlement of the colony, made the first effectual effort towards the establishment of religious liberty in Connecticut; but so deeply and extensively was the Puritan principle implanted in the breasts of the people, and so thoroughly were the civil and religious powers blended together, that it required almost another century to consummate this effort. But the law, which the constituted au- thorities "in their great wisdom as well as christian compassion " had been pleased to provide, was found insufficient for the relief sought after, and scarcely had the year passed away, before the Church-wardens and Vestrymen again memorialized the Assembly for an explanation of their act, and for permission to govern their own affairs in future, according to the book of canons in use by the Church of England, gathering all needful taxes by this book, and not through the Congregational collectors. Disputes had arisen about the meaning of the law, and magistrates had put upon it the construction, that, by "nearness " to an Episcopal minister or church, was to be under- stood a distance within a mile, or two miles. This construction, of course, excluded from its benefit a large number of the parishioners of both Caner and Johnson, in Fairfield and Stratford; and as for church-
72
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
men in other towns of the colony, who had no clergy- man of the Church of England settled among them, the law, as far as they were concerned, was an abso- lute nullity, and they were as much annoyed and op- pressed as ever. The object was to crush out the life of Episcopacy, and discourage its further introduction among the people, - an attempt about as hopeless as to think of quenching the light of the stars by enact- ing that they shall not shine.
It has been said, as an apology for this spirit, that "what the Congregational ministers and churches most complained of was, that New England was rep- resented in the parent country as destitute to a great extent of religious instruction ; whereas, they main- tained, that no part of the empire was better sup- plied with competent religious teachers."1
It has also been said, that, whenever a meeting- house was to be built, or any extraordinary expense to be incurred by a Congregational society, those opposed to the measure would declare themselves Episcopalians or Baptists, and claim exemption by law from the payment of the new tax.
Governor Talcott, in his letter to the Bishop of London, in 1726, after mentioning that "there is but one Church of England minister in this colony," went on to remark: "There are some few persons in an- other town or two, that have stipulated with the pres- ent ministers now living in said towns, (which persons cannot be much recommended for their zeal for relig- ion or morality,) who cannot well be judged to act from any other motive than to appear singular, or to be freed from a small tax, and have declared them-
1 Kingsley, His. Dis. p. 95.
73
IN CONNECTICUT.
selves to be of the Church of England; and some of them that live thirty or forty miles from where the Church of England's minister lives; these have made some objections against their customary contribution to their proper minister, under whose administration they have equal privileges with their neighbors."
But the apologies thus offered by Congregation- alists neither justify the spirit of persecution nor char- itably allow for the conscientious impulses of "men of like passions with themselves." Besides, as the Episcopalians constituted but a weak and slender body in the colony at that time, and had the legal power to tax their own members, those who joined them certainly could not anticipate any real relief from pecuniary exactions.
The memorialists assured the General Assembly that they were bound in their consciences to adhere to the Church of England in doctrine and discipline, let their difficulties be ever so great; and, thanks be to God, they did adhere, and to-day we are reaping the good fruits of their determination and firmness. No explanation of the original act was vouchsafed by the Assembly, and no further redress of the griev- ances of churchmen was proposed.
Mr. Caner, whose chain of labors extended over many towns in Fairfield County, suggested a scheme to secure the revenues properly belonging to him, and yet comply with the provisions of the law. It was that the Honorable Society should appoint him, under its common seal, a "Missionary to serve from Fairfield to Byram river or the borders of the gov- ernment westward," and then, by a residence some- times in one place and sometimes in another, as the
74
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
necessities required, the objection that his parish ioners were not near enough to take advantage of the law would be set aside, and he would thus receive what they were compelled to pay towards the sup- port of the Independent teachers. The Society ob- tained a legal opinion in England upon the scheme, which was unfavorable to its adoption; inasmuch as the Act plainly contemplated a permanent residence in one place, and this course might be construed as an attempt to evade its requirements, "only with a view to the secular advantages of particular persons, and might, perhaps, involve the church ministers in greater trouble, and more to their detriment than any benefit" to be directly gained. Nothing, there- fore, was left for the members of the Church of Eng- land but to submit to their condition and work pa- tiently on under their burdensome annoyances. A few families, less able, or less disposed to bear these " difficulties and oppressions," withdrew from the colony entirely ; and eleven, for this reason alone, are reported by Johnson, five years after his arrival, to have removed from Stratford into the more lib- eral province of New York. Other families, however, with greater Christian fortitude, rose up to take their places, and the two Missionaries of the Church in Connecticut continued their zealous and self-denying efforts, and fed and supported their people at the same time with the bread of life and the hopes of a day of deliverance.
In the autumn of 1729, Johnson, in a letter to the Society, mentioned that he had visited New London and Westerly in Rhode Island, besides Wethersfield, on the Connecticut River, where a considerable num-
75
IN CONNECTICUT.
ber of persons were subscribing towards the erection of a church. The attempt in Wethersfield proved an abortive one; for fields of fairer promise elsewhere attracted the main attention of the laborers, then few, as in the time of our Saviour. In the same letter he added: "I likewise still continue frequently to preach at New Haven, Ripton, and Newtown, with success ; though at the last of these places it must be confessed that the Dissenters have of late got the advantage of us, partly by the craft and assiduity of their teach- ers, and partly by means of the removing of a con- siderable man of our church, (whose influence used to be great in that town,) from thence into New York government."
76
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
CHAPTER VI.
ARRIVAL OF DEAN BERKELEY IN RHODE ISLAND; HIS BENEFAC- TIONS TO YALE COLLEGE; AND NEW MISSIONARIES IN CON- NECTICUT.
A. D. 1729-1734.
IN the beginning of 1729 an event occurred which deserves to be specially mentioned in this connection, because of its influence upon the history of learning and religion in the American colonies. The Rev. George Berkeley, Dean of Derry in Ireland, whose excellent character the satirist Pope, many years later, drew in a single line, when he ascribed to him . " every virtue under heaven,"
arrived at Newport in Rhode Island, with a charter from the crown to found a college at Bermuda, the object of which was declared to be the instruction of scholars in theology and literature, with a view to propagate the Christian faith and civilization, not only in parts of America subject to the British au- thority, but among the heathen. The French, by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, had ceded certain lands in St. Kitts to the British crown, and the good Queen Anne had designed these lands, to the amount of £80,000, as a fund for the support of four Bishops in America; but she died in the next year, and her truly Christian design was forgotten or permitted to slumber in neglect. Sir Robert Walpole, first lord of
77
IN CONNECTICUT.
the Treasury and prime minister in the reign of George the Second, after much importunity on the part of Dean Berkeley and his supporters, reluctantly proposed to the House of Commons, and the proposal was accepted, to apply out of the crown lands in St. Kitts £20,000 to promote the object described in the Royal charter for the college at Bermuda. This al- lowance, with the noble subscriptions of his friends, and the amount realized from his private resources, was sufficient to inspire confidence in the success of the Dean's enterprise,-an enterprise which he had projected and advocated from the first with singular eloquence and enthusiasm, notwithstanding constant opposition in high places, such as would have utterly discouraged a less brave and cheerful spirit. At the summit of fame and fortune, an object of attraction in a society of distinguished and cultivated minds, he offered to relinquish his rich and honorable pre- ferment, and devote the remainder of his days, at a salary of £100 per annum, to a benevolent work for the good of this country. His arrival in Rhode Island was followed by the purchase there of land at his own cost, and the erection upon it of a farm-house, where he lived with his family, regarding this as a convenient spot from which intercourse might be kept up with the Bermudas, and supplies, to a limited extent, se- cured for the future college. "At one time," says Anderson in his "History of the Colonial Church," " after his arrival at Newport, Berkeley thought that Rhode Island possessed so many more advantages than the Bermudas, that he entertained the thought of transferring the college thither. But, fearing lest this change might throw some difficulty in the way of
78
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
receiving the promised grant, and for other reasons, he judged it best to adhere to the original design."
While waiting patiently for the government money before he sailed to Bermuda and entered upon the further prosecution of his cherished scheme, he turned his attention to severe mental studies, and, to use his language, "united in his own person the philosopher and the farmer, two characters not so inconsistent in nature as by custom they seem to be." His im- mortal work, entitled "Alciphron, or the Minute Phi- losopher," - aiming at the cavils of the prominent freethinkers of that day, some of whom he had met in their clubs, to learn the current of their thoughts, -was composed wholly or in part while he enjoyed " liberty and leisure in this distant retreat, far beyond the verge of that great whirlpool of business, faction, and pleasure, which is called the world." Whatever fears may have arisen in his mind with respect to the cause of the delay in transmitting the promised grant, it does not appear that he gave them utterance, or that he believed it possible for the government at last to violate its solemn pledge. But in trusting to such a prime minister as Walpole, he was leaning upon a broken reed. A sore disappointment awaited him, for the Bishop of London (Dr. Gibson), after having received many unsatisfactory excuses, begged the favor of an interview with the minister, that he might obtain, for the sake of Berkeley, a definite answer to his application whether the grant would be paid. The interview was allowed, and Walpole gave this characteristic reply: "If you put this question to me as a minister, I must, and can assure you, that the money shall most undoubtedly be paid as soon as
79
IN CONNECTICUT.
suits with public convenience ; but if you ask me as a friend, whether Dean Berkeley should continue in America, expecting the payment of £20,000, I advise him by all means to return home to Europe, and to give up his present expectations."
That was the treacherous blow which felled to the dust what Sir James Mackintosh termed "a work of heroic, or, rather, godlike benevolence." It was given by the same prime minister to whom belongs the deep disgrace of having defeated the two noblest projects that ever were formed for the benefit of the
American Church,-the one for the erection of four Bishoprics in 1713, and the other for the establish- ment of a Missionary College at Bermuda in 1729. The whole amount of eighty thousand pounds arising from the sale of the crown lands in St. Kitts, the obli- gation which rested upon a part of it having been thus unjustly released, was bestowed as a marriage portion upon the Princess Royal, and so the Government, for reasons of state, consented to the robbery of the Church.
Dean Berkeley had no alternative left him but to submit to his disappointment and abandon "a scheme whereon he had expended much of his private fortune, and more than seven years of the prime of his life." He embarked for his native country in September, 1731, just three years after his departure from it for Rhode Island, not, however, without some consoling anticipation of better things for the land where he had sojourned.
" Westward the course of empire takes its way."
He was welcomed, upon his return, by Queen Caroline,
80
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
and by the great and good of England; and in the metaphysical discussions carried on in the court he showed his Christian and philosophical mind, and became " the distinguished coadjutor of Sherlock and Smalridge against Clarke and Hoadley, touching the principles of the Bangorian controversy." The influ- ence thus gained among those who then occupied high places, joined to his blameless and holy life, secured him promotion, and he was consecrated in 1734 Bishop of Cloyne in Ireland, a see which he filled with con- spicuous honor to himself and advantage to the Church. This step on the part of the crown was some atonement for the great trouble and mortification to which he had been subjected in his scheme for a col- lege at Bermuda.
But Berkeley's sojourn in Rhode Island was not without benefit to the Church in its remoter results. He distributed among his clerical friends the valuable books which he brought over with him, and " made a donation of all his own works to the library of Yale College " before he departed for Europe. In the an- niversary sermon which he preached at London soon after his return, before the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, he gave his de- liberate testimony in favor of the prudence and piety of the missionaries in the New-England colonies. He was the first preacher on such an occasion who had come from an actual survey of the distant fields of duty and the laborers therein, and hence his words seemed to have the impress of authority stamped upon them, when he said, "I speak it knowingly, that the ministers of the Gospel in those provinces which go by the name of New England, sent and supported at
81
, IN CONNECTICUT.
the expense of this Society, have, by their sobriety of manners, discreet behavior, and a competent degree of useful knowledge, shown themselves worthy the choice of those who sent them, and particularly in living on a more friendly footing with the brethren of the separation."
He had been an eye-witness of the evil fruits which sprung from seed sown in religious fanaticism; and after stating in the same sermon that the bulk of the people whom he had known in this country 1 "lived without the sacraments, not being so much as bap- tized," he added, "and as for their morals, I appre- hend there is nothing to be found in them that should tempt others to make an experiment of their prin-
ciples, either in religion or government."
Still he
had an influence which was felt and remembered among such a people ; for, whenever he preached, as he often did for the Missionary at Newport, he at- tracted large and attentive congregations. "All sects," we are told, "rushed to hear him; even the Quakers, with their broad-brimmed hats, came and stood in the aisles," to listen to this great dignitary of the Church of England.
But Dean Berkeley exerted another influence which bore more directly upon Connecticut. No sooner had his arrival in America been publicly announced than Mr. Johnson, who had read his "Principles of Human
1 " Bishop Barkley saw very little of New England, was hardly ever off Rhode Island, never in Connecticut ; nor at Boston till he went thither to take passage for London. Accordingly the Bishop confines the account in his sermon almost wholly to Rhode Island, and I think he describes it very justly. He does indeed say that some part of his description may possibly be found to extend to other colonies." - Noah Hobart's Second Address to the Episcopal Separation in New England," p. 145.
VOL. I. 6
82
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Knowledge," and formed a high opinion of his ability, paid him a visit, and the acquaintance begun with this interview ripened into a warm friendship and correspondence, which the distinguished sons main- tained long after the parents had gone to their final rest. In many respects the minds of these two divines were similarly constituted, and at that period their thoughts and studies were turned in similar directions. It was a bright spot in the life of Johnson that he was permitted for two years and a half to have fre- quent intercourse with a man of such genius, such profound erudition, fine taste, disinterested benevo- lence, and withal consistent and devoted piety. When the Dean was about to leave America, he visited him for the last time, and ventured on that occa- · sion to recommend to his friendly notice the Institu- tion for which he still retained a deep interest and loved as a dutiful son, "not having any further view," as he himself notes, in his MS. autobiography, "than to hope he might send it some good books." He rec- ollected how largely he and his brethren in former years had been profited by such books, and he felt that by enriching the library of Yale College with choice contributions, a like benefit would be extended to other generations. Berkeley had already formed a favorable opinion of the Institution from his ac- quaintance with some of its chief managers, and upon his return to England, “ assisted by several gentlemen who had been liberal subscribers to his own intended college," he sent over nearly a thousand volumes, valued at about five hundred pounds, -"the finest col- lection of books," according to President Clap, "which had then ever been brought, at one time, to America."
83
IN CONNECTICUT.
He also transmitted to Mr. Johnson a deed conveying to the Trustees of the same institution his farm of ninety-six acres in Rhode Island, which is still desig- nated as the "Dean's Farm." His special object in this grant was the encouragement of classical learn- ing, -the conditions of the deed being that the net income shall be appropriated to the maintenance of the three best scholars in Greek and Latin, who shall reside in New Haven at least nine months in a year, in each of the three years between the first and sec- ond degrees; the candidates annually sustaining a public examination in the presence of the senior Epis- copal missionary within the colony. "This premium," says President Clap, in his history, "has been a great incitement to a laudable ambition to excel in a knowl- edge of the classics." Johnson mentions in his auto- biography, that "the Trustees, though they made an appearance of much thankfulness, were almost afraid to accept the noble donation." They remembered how the writings of some of the best divines of the English Church had influenced a portion of their schol- ars in times past, and they could hardly persuade themselves that an evil design was not meditated under the semblance of these benefactions. But bet- ter counsels prevailed, the books and lands were re- ceived, and Berkeley established a friendly corre- spondence with the authorities, which was continued to the latest period of his life. In a letter written July 25, 1751, less than a year and a half before his death, he speaks of the " great satisfaction" which he had derived in hearing through the President "that learning continues to make notable advances in Yale College." Some may have smiled,
84
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
" That those, in him, themselves will glorify, Who reap his fields, but let his doctrine die."
It was a singular mark of ingratitude that, at the very next Commencement (1734) after these dona- tions, Rector Williams, then at the head of the Insti- tution, and whom Johnson says he knew to be "a great enemy to the Church, and of an insidious tem- per," plotted, with certain ministers in Massachusetts, under the lead of his father, to deprive all the Episco- pal congregations here of their pastors, by depriving the pastors of their salaries. This attempt was made in a letter to the Bishop of London, through the hands of Dr. Colman, full of abuse and groundless com- plaints, but it failed for the very sufficient reason that the Society would not entertain these complaints unless they were accompanied by proof, and the proof which was subsequently offered was lighter than van- ity itself.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.