USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. II > Part 12
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1 Brown University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, in 1813.
2 Annals of Trinity Parish, MS.
VOL. II.
10
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of establishing " some specific edition of the Old and New Testaments, without note or comment, to be considered as the authentic version or standard, by which the genuineness of all copies of the Holy Scrip- tures used by the members of this Church is to be ascertained ; thereby to secure them against perver- sions, and the people of our communion from error, either in discipline or doctrine." The resolution was entrusted to the Rev. Mr. Searle, to offer at the proper time, and while it was under consideration, " a lay member, standing in a pew and observing a Bible, took it to turn to the place in question, when he perceived it to be a copy of the edition in which the corruption had been detected." 1 No further argu- ment was needed to secure a unanimous vote for the resolution, committing the whole matter to the action of the House of Bishops. The movement thus begun was followed up at future sessions of the General Convention ; and in 1823 a canon was enacted, which is still in force, prescribing " the mode of publishing authorized editions of the standard Bible of this Church."
1 Bishop White's Memoirs, etc., p. 229.
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CHAPTER XI.
CONVENTION AT GUILFORD; ADDRESS OF BISHOP HOBART; VISITA- TION; AND AMMI ROGERS.
A. D. 1817.
TWENTY-FIVE clergymen and thirty lay-delegates at- tended the Annual Convention which met at Guil- ford, June 4th, 1817. The sermon was preached by Bishop Hobart, a copy of which was requested for publication, and he was invited to take a seat as President of the Convention. One of the first meas- ures adopted was the appointment of a large com- mittee, representing every part of the State, to take an accurate list of the number of souls belonging to each parish ; and also the grand levy of each parish in the Diocese. But it is easier to adopt resolutions than to carry them into effect, and this, after being continued from one convention to another, was finally lost sight of, and there is nothing on record to show that the committee ever came together, or acted upon the subject in a formal manner.
It was an encouraging feature, that in no previous year had the parochial reports been so complete. Twenty-two clergymen gave the statistics of thirty- four parishes or cures, and the families began now to be more generally reported, their number in some places having largely increased. It was a period when public attention, in the progress of political
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events, was turned to the Episcopal Church; and in- telligent men in the State, as before noted, found reasons for changing their religious connections.
The matter of electing a bishop appears not to have been discussed in open convention at this time. Doubts had arisen whether such a proceeding would be constitutional, and the clergy in convocation, pre- viously to the meeting, had deliberated for a long time; and finally the only decision reached was an indefinite postponement of the constitutional ques- tion. There were those among them who favored an immediate election and were ready to name their can- didates -but the subject was not pursued, and the report of the treasurer of the Bishop's Fund, more satisfactory than any hitherto presented, renewed the appeal to the delinquent parishes to pay their respec- tive assessments. Twenty-nine of the seventy-five parishes in the Diocese had recognized their obliga- tion and paid in full or in part; but from the larger number no returns had been received, and these could not be expected to take a very lively interest in the election of a bishop, to whose suitable mainte- nance they were so indifferent.
" There can be but one sentiment in the Church," is the language of the report, "in relation to the Episcopal office. All will admit its incumbent should be, if they desire the Church should flourish, a man of superior virtues and talents. The Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut should, if possible, be inferior to no other man in it. Such a man is not to be ob- tained without an adequate support; nor, if elected from without the State, - as he would probably re- side in one of our larger towns, where the expenses
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of living are great, and where his situation would require from him considerable hospitality, - without such a support as might appear to some, not accu- rately apprised of the extent of these expenses, to be more than necessary." At that date, the trustees were a close corporation and the charter did not require them to make an annual report to the Convention of the state of the Fund. But in one way and another the subject was kept before the parishes, and they were all continually urged as in duty and honor bound, to " bear their fair proportion of a common burthen for the common benefit."
The Bishop, in his address to the Convention, re- ferred to the past history of the Diocese and to the prevailing spirit of religious inquiry, which was calcu- lated to advance the cause of truth. "The present state of the Church in this Diocese," said he, " as far as I am acquainted with it, affords many causes of congratulation. Obstacles to her advancement from local circumstances are daily removing. Her evangel- ical doctrines, unmixed with the varying dogmas of metaphysical speculation ; her apostolic ministry, un- impaired by those innovations which, displacing her from the only sure foundation, the Rock of Ages, would rest her on the sandy basis of human au- thority ; her primitive worship, free from the unmean- ing frivolities of superstition, and the disgusting ex- travagances of enthusiasm, and exhibiting a simple, sublime, and fervent devotion, are constantly obtain- ing a stronger hold on the understandings and the hearts of the people. There is reason to hope that she will be that fold of the Redeemer in which the friends of genuine Christianity, long assailed by con-
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flicting systems, and exposed to the attacks of heresy and schism, will at length find rest, in the enjoyment of evangelical truth, apostolic order, and primitive worship.
" This happy result will very much depend on the measures that are pursued to preserve the Church in Connecticut in that purity by which she has hitherto been distinguished. For this purpose too much atten- tion cannot be paid to procuring a pious, orthodox, and learned ministry, by exciting youth of piety and talents to engage in the sacred office, and by assist- ing them in their preparatory studies."
Connecticut had supplied the Church in other States - particularly in New York - with many cler- gymen and layınen distinguished for piety, and for zeal, firmness, and perseverance in advocating the principles which pervade our Articles and Liturgy. The inadequate provision, in some cases, for the sup- port of the clergy, was one cause of their frequent removal from the Diocese, and Bishop Hobart sug- gested to the consideration of the laity, that the only remedy for this inconvenience lay in more zeal- ous exertions and more liberal contributions on their part. It could not be expected that clergymen, pinched by poverty, would refuse to accept, when offered them elsewhere, "situations of equal useful- ness and greater temporal comfort." Parishes va- cated in this manner, were not likely, in the dearth of ministers, to be immediately supplied with satisfac- tory services, and hence the increase and prosperity of the Diocese were in danger of being retarded, as they had already been, to some extent, for the same unworthy reason.
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One important measure was revived at this Conven- tion and put into effectual operation. Since 1808, a voluntary society had existed - formed in New Ha- ven - for the "Promotion of Christian Knowledge," and composed of gentlemen from various parts of the State who, at the time of subscribing the Constitu- tion, paid one dollar, and one dollar annually there- after. The Bishop of the Diocese, by virtue of his office, was president of this society ; and its object was to publish and circulate at reduced rates, the Bible, Book of Common Prayer, and useful religious works of a doctrinal and practical character. It served a good purpose at that time, for weekly periodicals, devoted to the interests of the Church, had not yet been es- tablished. But the organization failed to reach the whole wants of the Diocese, and the Convention, after the death of Bishop Jarvis, initiated a move- ment to organize a Missionary Society, and adopted a constitution, or articles of agreement, as stated in a former chapter. The management of its affairs and the appointment of missionaries were entrusted to the Standing Committee, - but it was an unfortunate society, that barely struggled into existence and then almost died for the want of proper care. For three years, little or nothing was done under the organiza- tion, and the movement to revive it contemplated uniting in the same agency the work of Diocesan missions and the distribution of religious publications. Bishop Hobart had some influence in giving shape to the new plan, and one obstacle was removed out of the way by the members of the voluntary society adopting at their annual meeting in October, 1817, a resolution to the effect that whenever " the Conven-
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tion of the Diocese shall establish a Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge," they would con- sider themselves dissolved, and pass all moneys re- maining in the treasury to " the new society, to be added to the common fund." The plan of operations and the arrangement of details were perfected at the next Annual Convention, and the name of the volun- tary organization, which was the title of an English society, was wisely retained. The first article of the constitution read : " The society shall be called 'the Protestant Episcopal Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, by employing Missionaries in the several vacant parishes of the Diocese, and by the gratuitous distribution of the Bible, the Book of Com- mon Prayer, and religious Tracts.'"
Thus the two agencies were blended, and the work of Diocesan missions received a fresh and vigorous impulse. Under God, the Church in Connecticut owes much of her present prosperity to the opera- tions of this Society, for many parishes too small to procure the regular administration of the ordinances were nursed by its protecting care, until they grew into importance and became self-supporting. Scat- tered families that could not well be gathered and embodied into churches were reached by the occa- sional visitations of a missionary, and their love for Apostolic order, and attachment to the Liturgy, were rekindled by the interest evinced in their spiritual welfare. Other families at length came among them, and in due time they were united in the formation of parishes that have since had a life of activity and usefulness in the Diocese.
During the session of the Convention at Guilford,
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Bishop Hobart confirmed, in the church in that place, twenty persons, and on the last day of the same week he consecrated " the newly erected church " at North Guilford, and confirmed thirty-seven. He arranged at this time for an immediate and extended visitation of the Diocese, and gave early notice of his appoint- ments by publishing them in the secular newspapers of Connecticut. On the 6th of August, 1817, he had entered the State and was in Fairfield County, spend- ing, for the most part, a day in each parish. He passed from New Canaan to Wilton, Weston, Redding, and Danbury, where he officiated on Sunday, and the next day he was at Trumbull, and confirmed in the church at Tashua eighty-two persons, the largest class presented to him on this visitation, except the class at Chatham (now Portland), which numbered one hundred and two. Through the shore towns from Fairfield to New Haven, he bent his course towards Hartford, where he arrived on Saturday in season to admit the Rev. J. M. Wainwright (afterwards Bishop of New York), to the order of the priesthood, and during the services of Sunday, he administered the rite of confirmation in Christ Church to twenty-two persons. After visiting several parishes on the east- ern side of the Connecticut river, his appointments took him into New London County and back by a circuitous route to Middletown and New Haven. He was at Woodbridge (now Bethany) on the 30th, and confirmed sixty-nine, and on the following day at Derby, where he confirmed seventy-eight. He conse- crated the church at Humphreysville (now Seymour), September 2d, and administered confirmation to sixty- one persons, and on the 3d he consecrated the church
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at Roxbury, and administered the same rite to forty- three. The total number of persons confirmed during this visitation, which occupied just a month, was twelve hundred and seventy-five, and the record of his previous visits to Connecticut, as far as it has been discovered, gives seventeen hundred and eighty-two. Thus the aggregate list of confirmations in the short time during which he had the provisional charge of the Diocese rose to three thousand and fifty-seven, - only eleven less than the entire number of persons confirmed by Bishop Jarvis in the whole fifteen years of his Episcopate. It was a period of great religious interest, and the clergy partook of the spirit and zeal of their temporary head. They felt the influence of his presence among them, and when he departed they returned to their labors with cheerful toil and steady diligence.
A score of parishes in the Diocese still believed in the sincerity and holiness of Ammi Rogers. He him- self may have hoped that, with the death of Bishop Jarvis, the power of his opponents would be broken, and that he could gain a standing among the clergy, which would, in some measure, relieve him from the odium attached to his character. He appeared at the Annual Convention in 1815 with delegates from Hebron and Groton, who were admitted to seats by courtesy, and in consideration that the parishes which they represented had not hitherto been correctly in- formed relative to the true state of the case ; but the personal petition of Rogers was returned to him with the same resolution of the clergy, heretofore repeat- edly adopted, that they were " not competent to take cognizance of said petition." He persisted in his
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attempts to be recognized, and when Bishop Hobart assumed the charge of the Diocese, he wrote him a plausible letter, reciting the history of his ministerial life, and complaining that he was unjustly deprived of his rights and privileges, having never, as he affirmed, " been canonically censured, suspended, silenced or degraded." Such men always gather around them groups of friends and supporters, and at this time, Rogers was travelling to and fro in the northeastern section of the State, preaching and per- forming service according to the ritual of the Church in nine different parishes, so called - seven of which were purely the result of his officious schemes, and unknown on the journals of the Convention.
Bishop Hobart, while unwilling to countenance these irregular ministrations, or to pronounce upon the canonical steps of his predecessor, was yet desirous of doing his duty to the people of Hebron and other places, and accordingly, about the time of publishing his appointments for that part of the Diocese, he requested the Rev. Solomon Blakeslee, then Rector of the Church at New London, to undertake a mission for him to these places, to hold public services in them, and, if he deemed it expedient, to prepare the way for an Episcopal visitation. Mr. Blakeslee was one of those clergymen who had befriended Rogers, and gravely doubted the correctness of the sentence of degradation issued against him, and when he started upon his journey, he was quite willing to take him into his company, and thus the better side of things was presented to his view, for not only did " genteel families " strengthen the impressions he had entertained of the character of the man and his work,
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but agreeable incidents marked his progress, and " every toil," to quote his own words, was " sweet- ened with an endearing recollection."
On completing his missionary tour, Mr. Blakeslee communicated the results of his observation to Bishop Hobart in a long letter, from which a brief extract here will be sufficient. "I have already stated," said he, " that these churches have been reared into life by the care and industry of Mr. Rogers, and to speak with caution, they embrace a number of not less than two thousand souls ; many of them have received baptism at his hands, have come to the holy commu- nion through his persuasion and influence, and now wait with a hope and expectation of being presented by their own minister to the Bishop, that they may re- ceive the apostolic rite of confirmation. This is the only point which involves in it any delicacy. . ·
"I should be pleased to accompany the Bishop in his visitation of the Church in Hebron, Jewett City, and Poquetannock (three only of the nine parishes which I visited have churches), should the Bishop be satisfied that it would be consistent with his duty to acknowledge Mr. Rogers' administrations, and to re- ceive from him, as the curate, the subjects of confir- mation, and to communicate with him in the offices of the Church ; otherwise I do not consider it prudent to hold myself responsible for any consequences that may grow out of your sincere wishes to serve them." 1
The parishes at Hebron and Poquetannock or Groton, were organized before the Revolution, and the Bishop had included them in his appointments. He travelled upon this visitation in his own carriage,
1 Life of Rogers, pp. 61-62.
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and on the morning of the 20th of August, he was at Marlborough, a town adjoining Hebron, holding a ser- vice and administering the rite of confirmation. He had decided that a compliance with the terms stated by Mr. Blakeslee would be an interference on his part with the official acts of Bishop Jarvis, and the news of his intention not to fulfill his appointment reached Hebron in time to take the wardens of the parish and Dr. John S. Peters to Marlborough, to con- fer with him and make some arrangement whereby the church might be visited and the expectations of the people gratified. It was to no purpose that Rogers accompanied these gentlemen, for the Bishop would neither see him nor listen to any proposal in which he might be supposed to have a share. But he finally consented to visit Hebron, if the wardens would give him a written certificate to the effect that in doing so, they would understand that he was to have no intercourse with this man as a pastor, nor recognize him in any way as a clergyman of the Church. They gave him such a paper, drawn up in language to suit his own feelings, and with it he set forth on the road to Hebron. Upon reaching the door of the church and alighting from his carriage, who should come out to welcome him amid a crowd of spec- tators, but Rogers himself in full canonicals! The Bishop turned without speaking to him, reentered his carriage, drove to the public house, and after partaking of some refreshments departed from the town, to the great disappointment and grief of the assembled people, and to the mortification of those who, if they could not control Rogers by their agreement, should at least have ascertained the fact soon enough to save
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themselves from the appearance of imposing upon a dignified and courteous prelate, yielding to their special request in the matter of a religious service.
The end of this long and unhappy trouble was now approaching. The friends of the degraded priest rallied around him in vain, multiplying their testimo- nials and redoubling their efforts to vindicate his character. He sought once more to be accepted as a clergyman in the Diocese, and for this purpose trans- mitted a letter of his own, with sundry documents from his supporters, to the Annual Convention of 1818 ; but no action was taken upon these communi- cations and none was needed, for his case, instead of presenting any new claims for consideration, had, by this time, assumed a sadder aspect. The current of public opinion was bearing him down to depths from which he could never rise, except by the grace and favor of God. He was accused of the most heinous offences, even of crimes committed with a young woman, and arraigned by the State before the Su- preme Court of New London County. After a pro- tracted trial, he was found guilty of the charges brought against him, and sentenced to imprisonment in the common jail at Norwich for two years ; the Judge, in mercy to his children, withholding a severer punishment.
From the chamber of his prison he wrote to the Governor of the State, and also memorialized the General Assembly, asking the one to grant him a reprieve as the law permitted, and the other to take his case into consideration and release him from con- finement, or allow him a new trial before what he called " an impartial and unprejudiced tribunal." The
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principal witnesses whose testimony had supported the prosecution were produced at the hearing before the joint committee of the General Assembly, and declared under oath that their former statements were false, and that they had been persuaded to make them, contrary to their inclinations, by those who were concerned in framing the indictment. This contradiction was un- doubtedly instigated by the memorialist and his friends. But the perjured witnesses did not avail him, for upon an unfavorable report from the com- mittee, the Legislature declined to rejudge a matter already decided by the proper tribunal. Rogers therefore served out the sentence of the Court, and afterwards published, in a small volume, the " Me- moirs" of himself- a bad book, which bears abundant evidence of an insolent and self-righteous spirit, and a corrupt and wicked heart. He went through the country, selling his "Memoirs," and preaching wher- ever he could gather an audience ; but his old adhe- rents now received him with distrust or began to recoil from him, and he gained not even a temporary settle- ment in any duly constituted parish of the Diocese. His powers to excite an interest in his behalf were at an end. The congregations, which he organized before his imprisonment, broke up, and when he searched for his numerous flocks they were nowhere to be found. He was a pestilent historic character, who was per- mitted, in the providence of God, to trouble the Church and society for half a century, and died at Ballston, N. Y., in 1852, showing no signs of having " truly and earnestly repented him of his sins," and fighting to the last his sentence of degradation from the ministry.
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CHAPTER XII.
POLITICAL REVOLUTION ; CHANGE IN THE STATE GOVERNMENT ; ELECTION SERMON ; AND NEW CONSTITUTION.
A. D. 1817-1818.
WHILE all religious denominations had been toler- ated in Connecticut since 1784, pains were taken to keep the control of the government in the hands of the "Standing Order," and to shape things with refer- ence to a right succession. Until Jonathan Ingersoll, an Episcopalian, was chosen Lieutenant Governor in 1816, the State officers from the settlement of the Colony had been Congregationalists, and the ministers of that body were supposed to have great influence in selecting the candidates and accomplishing their election. It is a natural feeling that a religious establishment is entitled to the patronage of the gov- ernment, and to the honors and emoluments of its offices. But the connection between ecclesiastical and civil power is always dangerous, and the partial- ity towards the "Standing Order," evinced by the General Assembly in a variety of public acts, and the apparent reluctance to heed the claims of other relig- ious denominations, awakened among a large portion of the people a desire for change and for a more lib- eral policy. It has already been seen what effect the rejection of the memorial of Episcopalians in regard to the Phoenix Bank Bonus produced ; and the " Ap-
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propriation Act for the support of Literature and Religion," was a State stratagem which was simply lost upon " the minor sects." If it was intended to be a measure to perpetuate power and appease opposition, it failed of its object, for the new political party that favored " Toleration," rapidly gained accessions from all who were not in sympathy with the Congrega- tional system, and from some who were. The Fed- eralists found arrayed against them those who had hitherto been numbered among their steadiest sup- porters. Old issues were forgotten, and the Episcopa- lians of the State almost to a man, though voting heretofore for the existing order of things, now joined the minority, and worked with all the appliances in their power to bring on a political revolution.
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