USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. II > Part 10
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Bishop Griswold of the Eastern Diocese, composed of all the New England States, except Connecticut, was present at this Convention, having been invited just a month before by the Standing Committee, un-
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der the resolution referred to in the previous chapter, to officiate in certain parishes where Episcopal visita- tions were desired; and to hold a special ordina- tion. He was not present, however, to preside, and his name is entered upon the Journal as a visiting brother. The Convention paid him the compliment not only of waiting upon him, by a committee, with a request that he would take a seat in the House, but also of asking, for publication, a copy of the discourse which he had delivered at the ordination held by him in the church at Middletown. He seems to have regarded the Diocese as placed under his canonical charge, but no trace of any record to this effect can be found, and therefore, in the judgment of charity, either the purport of the invitation was misunder- stood, or the Standing Committee overreached their authority, and failed to comprehend the spirit of the Canon.1 Bishop Hobart, upon a similar invitation, visited the parishes at Stratford and Trumbull, in the summer of 1815, and confirmed one hundred and sixty persons.
A proposition was introduced at this same Conven- tion, to request Bishop Griswold to add Connecticut to his Episcopal jurisdiction. There was some diver-
1 " Since the last meeting of this Convention, being invited, according to the directions of the XXth Canon, I have visited some of the churches in Connecticut, and confirmed, in Middletown, Hartford, and Warehouse Point, one hundred and thirty-one persons. I admitted Ezekiel [G.] Gear and Reuben Sherwood to the order of Deacons ; and the Rev. Birdsey G. Noble, Alpheus Gear, Harry Croswell, and Aaron Humphrey, Deacons, were ordained Presbyters. I have heard, though not by any official notice that the churches in Connecticut have since placed themselves under the care of Bishop Hobart. The invitation previously given is therefore, no doubt, revoked." - Address to Convention of the Eastern Diocese, Septem- ber 25, 1816.
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sity of opinion and feeling, in regard to the election of a successor to Bishop Jarvis, and those opposed to going out of the Diocese for a candidate were ready to adopt any measure which would keep alive their hopes, and delay decisive action upon the important question. Among the elder of the Connecticut clergy, several might be found who were not deficient in many of the best qualifications for the Episcopal office, but no one combined in his character all the requisites, or stood sufficiently prominent to secure a respectable majority of the votes of his brethren. The leading laity were inclined to prevent further divisions and jealousies by selecting for the office some presbyter of commanding talents and good reputation, who had proved his Christian armor well in another Diocese. The proposal to invite Bishop Griswold to take Connecticut under his charge was overruled, not with any unkind or uncourteous feel- ings towards him, but from a belief that the duties of his already extensive Diocese would not permit him to give to the Church in Connecticut the services and supervision which her condition demanded.
In these circumstances there appeared to be no other alternative, and on the second day of the ses- sion, it was resolved to proceed to the election of a bishop. The Convention divided, and the lay-depu- ties withdrew, and then, according to the entry in the Journal, the votes were taken in the clerical order, and being counted "were as follows : Rev. John Croes, 10 ; scattering, 17; Rev. John Croes, 14 ; scat- tering, 13. The Rev. John Croes of New Brunswick, in the State of New Jersey, was declared to be duly and canonically elected."
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From this it might be inferred that two ballots only were taken, but the record does not tell the whole story. There were several ballotings and sev- eral candidates from the clergy of the Diocese ; among them Chase of Hartford had his little circle of supporters. No one from the first, however, received a higher number of votes than Mr. Croes, and the greatest disappointment at the final result was betrayed by those for whom the fewest were cast.1 The lay-delegates reported their concurrence in the choice and resumed their seats in the clerical body, and a committee, consisting of Rev. Messrs. Shelton, A. Baldwin, Hon. S. W. Johnson, and Burrage Beach, was appointed to "make a communication from this Convention to the Rev. John Croes, D. D."
But Providence wisely ordered that these proceed- ings should not be consummated; for while the com- mittee were in correspondence with the bishop-elect, in regard to his support, consecration, and removal, the Convention of New Jersey, which met about two months after that of Connecticut, elected him with great unanimity to the Episcopate of that Diocese. New Jersey was his home, - the place of his birth, and of his long residence - and the Church there was the object of his fond affection, for whose welfare he had labored, and for whose respect and confidence
1 " The compiler," meaning the Secretary of the Convention, " prob- ably out of delicacy, deemed it expedient to suppress the names of the other candidates, and sum them up under the term 'scattering.' How far any of these clergymen were willing to be considered as candidates, I know not. It was easy to observe, however, that two at least of the num- ber, and those the candidates who had received the smallest number of votes recorded as 'scattering,' betrayed much disappointment at the re- sult. - Annals of Trinity Parish, MS.
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he was grateful. Hence it was natural, with two mitres before him, to take the one which would allow him to remain among his old friends, and to decline the other, which would oblige him, at the age of fifty- three, to seek new acquaintances and a new home. He was therefore consecrated Bishop of New Jer- sey, on the 19th day of November, 1815; and the vacancy in the Episcopate of this Diocese still con- tinued.
The war of 1812 was ended, and with peace came unexpected political issues which were beginning to shape the destiny of the Standing Order in Connecti- cut. The current towards the Episcopal Church was swelling, and the accession of members to her com- munion was not the result of increased emigration to the Diocese ; but rather of better acquaintance with the forms of the Liturgy, and of dissatisfaction with the management and illiberality of the Congregation- alists. It was no sudden rush from the established ecclesiastical system into new relations ; but all over the State there were signs of a kinder feeling on the part of individuals towards the Church, so that from the hills of Litchfield to the towns by the sea-side, she gathered her intelligent families and rejoiced in the prospect of higher advancement. In some places the old houses of worship were improved, or com- pleted, and in others new ones were projected to meet the wishes of churchmen, and fulfill their most sanguine expectations. More perfect statistics, accord- ing to the Canon, were called for, and the Convention of 1815, in a formal manner, declared it to be the duty of the President to admonish all such clergymen as neglected, without assigning satisfactory reasons,
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to report the number of their baptisms, communi- cants, marriages, and funerals, and generally any matters that might throw light upon the state of their parishes. The life indicated in these ways was quick- ened by subsequent events, and Episcopalians became a power in the State, whose influence was very per- ceptible in overthrowing the ancient dynasty, and securing the adoption of a new Constitution for the government of the people.
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CHAPTER IX.
BISHOP'S FUND; CONSECRATION OF TRINITY CHURCH; SERVICES OF BISHOP HOBART; AND ANNUAL CONVENTION.
A. D. 1815-1816.
THE fund to support a bishop had been gradually accumulating, and several parishes had paid in full or in part the Conventional assessments for this object. In the spring of 1814 an association of gentlemen petitioned the General Assembly of Connecticut to in- corporate a new banking institution at Hartford, to be called the Phoenix Bank, and offered, "in conformity to the precedents in other States," to pay for the privilege of the charter a certain per cent. upon the capital stock, to be appropriated, if the Legislature should deem it expedient, partly to the Corporation of Yale College for its Academical and Medical depart- ments, and partly to the Corporation of the Trustees of the Bishop's Fund; " or to be otherwise disposed of for the use of the State." It is unnecessary to recite the measures and management which preceded the charter. The bank was incorporated with a capital of one million, and five per cent. of this amount, fifty thousand dollars, went into the Treasury of the State to be applied in pursuance of the conditions sug- gested by the petitioners and modified by the Legis- lature. At the same session an act was passed author- izing twenty thousand dollars of the bonus to be paid
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out of the first moneys received, to three persons living in New Haven, who, as trustees, were to expend and appropriate the sum "for the use and benefit of the Medical Institution of Yale College." The Upper House or Senate originated a bill, distributing the re- mainder, and granting ten thousand dollars to the Trustees of the Bishop's Fund, but although this bill twice obtained the almost entire approval of that branch of the Legislature, yet it was repeatedly re- jected in the Lower House, and among other reasons for the rejection, Episcopalians were told that the country was then at war, that the Treasury of the State was in want of money, and that however just the claim might be, it was inexpedient to allow it at such a time.1
At the October session of the General Assembly, nearly a year after the treaty of peace, the trustees again sent in their memorial and spread their case before the consciences of the law-makers, but unac- countable as it may appear, the members of the Upper House now, with a solitary exception (Hon. S. W. Johnson), completely changed their ground, and joined the popular branch in voting down the very claim which they had hitherto nursed and defended. The grant to the Medical Institution had virtually estab- blished the principle on which the distribution of the bonus was to be made, and the course pursued by the Legislature was felt by Episcopalians to be a violation of good faith and a blow aimed at their order. It was in vain to say that the public funds of the State ought not to be turned to the exclusive advantage of any " religious sect," for churchmen claimed that on no
1 Bishop's Fund and Phoenix Bonus, p. 18.
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such ground was the appropriation sought, but rather because it was a donation from a set of individuals, who, for the privilege of a charter, were willing to send their bounty in this direction. If the allowance to the Medical Institution had been withholden, there would have been no room for complaint.
The subject at the time was the source of much irritation and a sharp controversy began and was car- ried on in the "Connecticut Herald," a New Haven paper, by parties who dipped their pens into the his- tory of matters remotely connected with the merits of the question. The illiberal policy of Yale College, the test oaths demanded from her officers of instruc- tion, the repeated refusal of the Legislature to charter another collegiate institution, " the Divine right of Presbyterianism and the Divine right of Episcopacy," were among the subjects discussed by these anony- mous laymen with peculiar zeal and ability. The pieces were afterwards compiled and published with notes and additions in a pamphlet form by their re- spective authors ; but as neither party was willing to trust the other in editing the matter, two separate editions appeared, one omitting personal invectives and irrelevant statements; the other professing to " contain the whole controversy just as it was given warm from the press." The compiler of the latter edi- tion was opposed to the grant of ten thousand dollars to the Bishop's Fund, and the motto from Shakespeare, set in the title-page of his pamphlet, was intended to be significant : -
"Liberty plucks justice by the nose, The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Goes all decorum."
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These things occurred on the eve of a memorable crisis in the civil history of the State. The Episcopa- lians had already been drawn in sympathy to that political party which favored toleration and desired to break down the existing rule of authority, and the final rejection of their memorial by the Legislature was one of the spurs to their diligence in securing at the next "Freemen's Meeting," the election of Jonathan Ingersoll, a warden of Trinity Church, New Haven, to the position of Lieutenant Governor. It was the first interruption in the chain of Puritan succession to that high and honorable office, and was important mainly as being a forerunner of the more complete victory to be achieved by the same political party at the next annual election. A notice of the new issues and changes in the legislation of the State will fall very properly under the head of a subsequent chapter.
But the Bishop's Fund was increased in a way wholly unexpected when the assessment upon the parishes was made, or the Phoenix Bank charter solic- ited. The State had received from the General Gov- ernment, to reimburse it for expenses incurred in the late war with Great Britain, sixty-one thousand five hundred dollars, and the Legislature, a majority of whose members still favored the party which had been in power since the Revolution, passed an act in 1816, appropriating the money to the different relig- ious denominations, then commonly classed under three heads, - the Congregationalists or Standing Order, the Episcopalians, and the minor sects. The measure was an unpopular one, and the Methodists and Baptists spurned the share which fell to them in the division. But Nathan Smith, of New Haven, an
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eminent lawyer and a sagacious manager, saw at once that this was a good opportunity to increase the Episcopal Fund, of which he was a trustee, and he immediately put in operation a plan to accomplish his object. One seventh part of the whole amount thus went into the treasury of the " Trustees for receiving donations for the support of a Bishop," and was in- vested in bank stocks. And here it may be men- tioned, though a little in anticipation of the order of events, that the claim upon the Phoenix Bonus was not on this account relinquished. The trustees re- newed their petition to the General Assembly at its May session in 1820, for " a sum of money," to quote their own words, " heretofore paid to the Treasurer of the State by the President and Directors of the Phoenix Bank for the use of the petitioners." They accepted, in answer to the prayer of their memorial and in com- mutation of the claim, the grant of a lottery, and the trustees met on the 5th day of the ensuing June, and assigned the grant to other parties, from whom they ultimately obtained for the corporation $7,064.88. In their corporate capacity, they had no hesitation to accept such kind of liberality from the State, because the propriety of lotteries was not then questioned, and the character of the Phoenix Bank Bonus, closely analyzed, might not rise much above the same class of public moralities.
The close of the year 1815 saw the spacious Gothic church for Trinity Parish, New Haven, completed and opened for services. The neighboring edifices of the two Congregational Societies had both been dedicated and occupied, and public attention was now turned to the consecration of this and to the imposing ceremo-
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nies to be witnessed on that occasion. Many persons, while the building was in progress, had indicated their purpose to attach themselves in due form to the Epis- copal Society, and at the leasing of the pews which took place twelve days before the festival of the Na- tivity, there was a large accession of families, and such was the demand for seats that "the rents amounted to an annual interest of six per cent on about sixty thousand dollars, being nearly double the whole cost of the church, including organ, bell, and other furni- ture."1 The leasing was for a period of five years from the first of January, 1816, and in this arrangement deference was paid to the old system of individual proprietorship, while the way was prepared for the policy of annual renting which now prevails in all the parishes of the Diocese.
The day fixed upon for the consecration was Wednesday, the 21st of February, 1816, and the elo- quent and energetic Hobart, then Bishop of New York, was present by special invitation to officiate in the ser- vices, and preach the sermon. Churchmen from the adjoining towns and nearly all the clergy of the Dio- cese were drawn to New Haven on this occasion, and not only were the sittings in the vast building com- pactly occupied, but the aisles and galleries were literally crowded with standing auditors, so that the whole number was estimated to be not less than three thousand. At the conclusion of the grand and im- pressive services, the venerable Dr. Mansfield, the senior among the clergy, and in the ninety-third year of his age, exclaimed in amazement to the Rector of Trinity, as he cast his eyes upon the slowly retiring
1 Annals of Trinity Parish, MS.
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multitude : " I can remember when there were but two or three Church families of reputation in all New Haven, the rest were of no great account."
The church, built of stone obtained from West Rock in the vicinity, was, at that date, the largest structure of the kind in New England, and for simple elegance and architectural design was perhaps unsur- passed by any in the whole country. The original drawings provided for an apsidal chancel, with a con- venient vestry-room, but such an addition was in ad- vance of the times and offensive to Puritan prejudice, and the building committee unwisely consented to its omission - an omission which impaired the sym- metry of the edifice, and no subsequent attempt to supply it has been successful. The sermon of Bishop Hobart at the consecration was published by the request of the vestry, and the following para- graph deserves to be quoted : " The style of architec- ture in the edifice which has been raised by your zealous exertions, carries back the contemplative observer to that remote period, when, according to a theory which seems to have some foundation in nature, the sacred groves in their stillness and gloom cherishing the devout affections, their lofty trees shooting up into slender summits, and their branches interlacing in irregular and pointed arches, suggested, for the purposes of worship, the Gothic temple. The design was worthy of your taste; its execution is honorable to your munificence. May this temple prove to you, to your children, and to your children's children, the house of God, and the gate of Heaven. Accept, on an occasion that consecrates to the God of your fathers an edifice not unworthy of those exalted
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services which you are to offer in it, my liveliest con- gratulations." 1
On the day after the consecration, another service was held in the church, not so attractive to the mul- titude, but quite as interesting and important to the parties immediately concerned. The Bishop officiated at the institution of the Rev. Mr. Croswell into the Rectorship of the parish ; but the sermon on this occasion was preached by the Rev. Philander Chase of Hartford.
Still the spiritual feast continued, and on the third day, an immense concourse of people assembled to participate in the services and to witness the recep- tion of the rite of Confirmation by one hundred and seven candidates. That large class was chiefly com- posed of persons of mature age, some of whom had been waiting during the vacancy in the Episcopate, for an opportunity to ratify their baptismal engage- ments, and others had but recently come out of Con- gregationalism and conformed to the Church. It was a most affecting spectacle, and Bishop Hobart seemed to catch a new inspiration from it, and to address the
1 The architect was Mr. Ithiel Town, and in a description of the building by himself, appended to the sermon, he thus speaks of a portion of the in- terior : " The pulpit and canopy are constructed like those in the Cathe- dral at York, in England, and are richly ornamented. The ornaments of the ceiling are also similar to those in that Cathedral. The chancel floor is elevated three steps, and enclosed by a mahogany railing, with suitable ornament work under it. The altar is composed of the imitation of eight large books, relating to the government and worship of the Church, two of which, in front, are open ; the idea is a very interesting one, and the exe- cution of their painting is masterly. The front of the galleries, the reading desk, architraves of the doors and windows, etc., are finished in a corre- sponding style with the other parts. The slips are capped with mahogany, and painted dead white, as are also the front of the gallery, columns, pul- pit and other inside work." (page 29.)
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candidates and the people with more than his usual unction, eloquence, and impressiveness.
When all was over and he was about to take his departure from New Haven, two gentlemen, deputed by the vestry, waited upon him and presented him with a purse of gold as a suitable remuneration for his expenses and services. He accepted the handsome gratuity only with the understanding that he might appropriate it to the benefit of an eccentric, yet ven- erable and retired clergyman,1 long resident in the Diocese, whose fortune it had been, like that of many others, to gather more learning than money, and to be in straits, when he ought to have had abundance. After reaching New York, he wrote again to one of these gentlemen, and referring to the fact that he had lodged the gift of the vestry "in the hands of Mr. Shelton, at Bridgeport, for Dr. Smith's use," he added, " My visit to Connecticut was a delightful one, spiritually and socially delightful, and in the gratifi- cation which I received I am more than repaid for any services which I have rendered." 2
Large as was the class of candidates at New Haven, the Bishop confirmed, in the same week, a larger number at Cheshire, and fifty-four in St. John's Church, Bridgeport. He was himself surprised at the interest which his visit awakened, and more than ever impressed with the life and power of the Church in Connecticut. On all occasions when the audiences were filled in with Congregationalists and members of " the minor sects," he loved to present our services in their best and most pleasing attire, and nothing on his part was omitted which might serve to produce a
1 Rev. Wm. Smith, D. D.
2 Annals of Trinity Parish, MS.
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favorable impression of the dignity and importance of his office. He was taken from New Haven to Cheshire in the private carriage of a legal gentleman, at that time prominent in the councils of the Diocesan and General conventions ; and not much of the journey had been travelled before the Bishop suddenly dis- covered that the valise which contained his Episcopal robes was left behind. He suggested whether it would not be worth while to return for it, but the gentleman said he did not think it important, inas- much as there would be only a few candidates for Confirmation and probably a small attendance. In this way his regret of the oversight was soothed, and they rode on and reached the village; and at the . appointed hour of service, the Bishop proceeded to the church. The Rector was there to welcome him, and throngs of people, such as the old sanctuary had seldom received before, were pressing to its portals. When the prayers and sermon were ended, the candi- dates were called for, and one hundred and thirty, more than one fourth of the whole congregation, rose and advanced towards the chancel. The sensibilities of the Bishop were excited, but he went through the remaining services with his wonted animation, and at their close cordially congratulated the Rector on the prosperity of his parish. Coming outside of the church he fell in with his legal friend, and said to him very energetically and somewhat reprovingly : " Do you call this a small number of candidates ? How mortified I am, that I should appear before such a congregation and in such a service without my official robes ?"
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