USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. II > Part 18
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It has not been ascertained precisely how early they came in, but they had been organized in several par- ishes while the Diocese was under the provisional jurisdiction of Bishop Hobart. Bishop Brownell spoke
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of them in his address to the Annual Convention of 1822, as established in nearly all the parishes, with the most salutary results, both to the children and their instructors. "The munificent provision of the State," said he, "for the support of common schools, and the disposition which prevails among all classes of the community to derive the greatest benefit from them, have caused elementary education to become so universal among our youth, that we have no occa- sion to devote any portion of the Lord's day to this species of instruction. This is a peculiar advantage which we enjoy, and which enables us to apply our Sunday-schools directly to their legitimate object - religious instruction. It is a most gratifying circum- stance, that there has yet been no want of pious and well-disposed persons ready to assist their clergymen in this charitable labor." Some difficulties were expe- rienced at first in procuring proper books, and much diversity prevailed in the modes of instruction ; and hence the Convention of that year, through a com- mittee, recommended that the children be instructed in the Church Catechism and Explanation ; and also that they be required to commit to memory passages of Scripture and "exercised in questions in the Bible, and on the Rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer." In 1826 the "General Protestant Episcopal Sunday- school Union " was established during the session of the General Convention at Philadelphia - a scheme which the clergy of Connecticut in Convocation had already formally approved, and requested the dele- gates from the Diocese to aid in accomplishing. Its main object was to remedy existing evils and to pro- vide an adequate supply of the several grades of books
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needed in Sunday-schools, and which would impart no other religious views than such as are consistent with " the truth as it is in Jesus"- exhibiting that truth in the fullness and integrity in which it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and faithfully conveyed in the standards of our Church.
The Annual Convention for 1821 was held at Water- bury, when thirty-two clergymen and thirty-eight lay delegates were present - a number somewhat larger than had assembled the previous year at Hart- ford. Bishop Brownell gave his primary charge to the clergy, and the leading consideration to which he called their attention was to "keep constantly in view the great object and end of their ministerial profes- sion," namely, " to induce sinful men to embrace the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, and to build up the Church in the most holy faith." After dwelling on piety and learning as qualifications requisite to the due discharge of the sacred office, he directed their thoughts to the manner in which its duties may be most successfully performed. He spoke of private monitions and parochial visits in the scenes of sick- ness, adversity, and affliction, as among their most use- ful labors, and then passed to their public ministra- tions - to " the service of the desk and the altar, and the service of the pulpit." In defending the true faith against " all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word," and in proclaiming the dis- tinctive principles of the Church, a delicate duty was involved, requiring as much prudence as Christian charity. Under this head he put forth counsels which are applicable to all times and too good not to be quoted here.
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"In this spirit, my brethren, and on these princi- ples, it will be your duty on all proper occasions to hold up to view the distinctive principles of your Church. This is a privilege freely exercised by other denomina- tions of Christians, and one which we freely concede to them. It is not unreasonable, then, that we require the like privilege in return. Indeed, it is only by a free declaration of the truth, and a zealous defence of it, that it can ever be propagated, or even main- tained.
" It is by these means that the Episcopal Church in Connecticut has acquired her growth. A century ago she numbered not more than eighty families within the State. She can now count as many regularly organized congregations. And during this time she has had almost every thing to retard her prosperity, and no single circumstance to advance it, except the excellency of her principles, and the frank avowal and firm support of them. Were she to cease from this course, situated as she is in the midst of a respectable and much larger denomination of Christians, she would soon cease to exist. Her clergy, as well as the laity, would soon become ignorant of her peculiar doctrines, and then indifferent to her distinctive character. Un- der these circumstances, there would be nothing to counteract that universal law of nature by which smaller bodies gravitate towards larger ones, and the Church would soon be merged in those religious com- munities with which she is surrounded.
" Loving your Church, then, my brethren, and at- tached to her distinctive principles from a conscien- tious conviction of their excellency and importance, you will not think you have faithfully discharged your
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duties to your flocks, unless they are fully instructed in them. Nor will you be deterred by any false deli- cacy from publicly avowing and firmly defending these distinctive principles, whenever it may be done with propriety and advantage. In pursuing this course, you will not be led of necessity to make any direct or gross attack upon the sentiments of other religious denominations : the simple display of truth is gen- erally the best antidote to error. Much less will you feel yourselves called upon to impugn the motives - the sincerity or the piety - of those who may con- scientiously differ from you. By the manifestation of a Christian temper, and the exercise of a judicious moderation, you will evince to the world that you are not merely contending for the dogmas of a sect, but for essential doctrines of that faith once delivered to the saints.
" Liberality of sentiment upon religious subjects is amiable and commendable in the sight of all men, and is, moreover, a high Christian duty. But there is an erroneous principle which usurps its name, and which would confound all distinction between truth and error. This spurious liberality pretends to con- sider as of no importance all those varieties of opinion which prevail among different religious denominations, and seems to demand that we should regard with equal estimation the widely differing creeds of all who profess the Christian name. Such a latitudina- rian principle, if carried to its full extent, would go to the utter destruction of Christianity itself. There is one denomination which rejects its external ordi- nances, and another which obliterates its most dis- tinctive features - the divinity and atonement of the VOL. II. 16
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Saviour. Deprive Christianity of these characteristics, and there is but little to distinguish it from modern Deism." 1
He contended that an enlightened charity would not exhaust itself in futile attempts to " abolish secta- rian distinctions," but would rather direct its efforts to the promotion of kindly feelings and a mutual tolera- tion of opinions among those who profess a common Christianity. "With regard, then," said he, a little further on in this charge, "to our union with other religious denominations, we may cordially associate and cooperate with them in all secular affairs; in all humane, literary, and charitable objects ; nor should differences of faith create any difficulties in the way of social intercourse and good neighborhood ; but in objects purely religious we can form no union with other denominations with which we are surrounded, without either abandoning important principles, or incurring, if we adhere to them, the imputation of sectarian bigotry. While, therefore, we concede to others the same right, let us pursue our religious and ecclesias- tical affairs according to the regulations and institu- tions of our Church, without any mistaken attempts to compromise in matters of conscience. Nor let us think that we are violating any principle of Christian charity, when we freely avow and firmly maintain our distinctive principles."
It was in such a spirit that the newly consecrated Bishop of the Diocese entered upon his official duties, and directed the labors of his clergy. Under its influ- ence the Church moved on "in quietness and confi- dence," and the signs of her prosperity were every-
1 Charge, pp. 16 - 18.
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where visible. During the year which ended with the Convention of 1821, the rite of Confirmation had been administered in thirty-four parishes, to eight hun- dred and thirty-six persons : the candidates for Holy Orders had been doubled, one had been advanced to the Priesthood, and two had been admitted to the Diaconate. Edifices begun several years before were completed, and of these St. Paul's Church, Ripton, and St. John's, Washington, had been duly consecrated to the service of Almighty God.
The names of the venerable Dr. Mansfield and Dr. William Smith disappear from the list of the clergy at this time - the first of whom died a few days pre- ceding Easter, 1820, and the other twelve months later, leaving behind them in the Diocese only one clergyman, Rev. John Tyler, who received his Orders in the Church of England. Mr. Tyler soon followed his aged associates, and died at Norwich on the 20th of January, 1823, having been fifty-four years Rector of Christ Church in that city, - and Dr. Mansfield, from the date of his ordination to the time of his decease, a period of nearly seventy-two years, had continued in the rectorship of St. James's Church, Derby.
At the Convention of 1821 a committee, appointed the previous year to revise the Constitution and Can- ons of the Church in the Diocese, reported a new Constitution, which, after sundry amendments, was adopted and ordered to be printed, and submitted to the several parishes for their approval. The new Constitution contained an article which gave to the Convention the power of future amendment without submitting propositions to the parishes, but so fixed
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were the churchmen of that period in their views, or so indifferent to the advantages of any change, that four years elapsed before the requisite returns were received so as to make this revised Constitution the law of the Diocese.
Bishop Brownell found time, amid his other engage- ments, to compile his valuable "Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer," which was published early in 1823, and was the first work of the kind prepared in this country. He had then made thorough visita- tions of the Diocese and become acquainted with the zeal of the clergy, and the spirit and wants of the laity. "Everywhere," said he in his address to the Convention of 1821, "I have been received with a kindness and an interest highly gratifying to my feelings. Concerning the general prosperity of the Church, it may be difficult to decide with confidence ; but from the best observations and inquiries which I have been able to make, her friends have no reason to despond. She seems to be gradually enlarging her borders and strengthening her stakes, while at the same time there appears to be an increasing degree of piety and zeal among her members. Her clergy are everywhere zealous and faithful. I make this observation with the more satisfaction, as I have form- erly heard them charged from abroad with coldness and indifference. Nothing but ignorance, or gross prejudice, could have suggested the imputation. It is my full conviction that if there exists, in any part of our country, a body of clergy who by their labors and privations, their industry and fidelity, approach to the model of the primitive ages of the Church, such men are to be found among the Episcopal clergy of Con-
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necticut. To insure the continued prosperity and advancement of the Church, nothing is wanting, with the blessing of Heaven, but the continued zeal and perseverance of her friends. There is nothing in the circumstances of the times which can warrant a relax- ation of either. On the contrary, the excitement with regard to religion, which seems to prevail through the greater part of the State, furnishes ground to the friends of the Church for the exercise of a more espe- cial degree of vigilance. From the clergy, in a par- ticular manner, it calls for increased watchfulness and zeal. The present is certainly a period when people in general are more disposed than usual to attend to the concerns of religion. Not that we have reason to believe there is any special effusion of the Spirit of God in any particular region, but the excitement which has been raised in the community, has led peo- ple to give more heed to those ordinary influences of the Holy Spirit, and to those ordinary means of grace which are at all times dispensed in such measure as to enable all who will cooperate with them, to work out their salvation through the merits of the Redeemer. . But if the people are disposed to hear, and to inquire, whatever may be the cause, it is the especial duty of the clergy to warn and to instruct. More especially is this their duty, at the present period, that they may guard their flocks from the delusions and errors of ignorant teachers, and lead the inquiring mind to just and rational views of that way of salvation revealed in the Gospel."
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHARTER OF A COLLEGE; OPPOSITION TO ITS ESTABLISHMENT; CHANGES IN THE CLERGY; AND DEATH OF DR. BRONSON.
A. D. 1823 - 1826.
THE project to establish a college in Connecticut, which should be under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was now revived, after having slept for seven years. The return of the General Theologi- cal Seminary to New York, was the signal for fresh efforts to obtain a charter, and eighteen clergymen, specially convoked, met at the house of Bishop Brownell in New Haven a week before Christmas, 1822, to take the preliminary steps. The Bishop, with two of the brethren and three laymen, were appointed to draw up a memorial to be circulated in the Diocese for signatures, - praying " the General Assembly to grant an act of incorporation for a col- lege, with power to confer the usual literary honors, to be placed in either of the cities of Hartford, Mid- dletown, or New Haven, according to the discretion of the Trustees." The act of incorporation was to take effect whenever funds should be raised for an endow- ment amounting to thirty thousand dollars, and not before. And the committee, in preparing the memo- rial, asked leave to appropriate towards the endow- ment such portion of the funds of the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, or the income thereof, as might
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be thought expedient, "provided the consent of the Trustees of said Academy be first obtained, and that no portion of the funds contributed by the inhabi- tants of Cheshire be removed." This part of the petition was denied, or withdrawn, but the recent political changes in the State, and the breaking down of the old dynasty, had prepared the way for hearing the memorialists, when they said :-
" We are members of the Protestant Episcopal Church,- a denomination of Christians considerable for their numbers and resources in our country,-and we beg leave to represent, that, while all other relig- ious denominations in the Union have their universi- ties and colleges under their influence and direction, there is not a single institution of this kind under the special patronage and guardianship of Episco- palians. It cannot be doubted but that such an insti- tution will be established in some part of our country, at no distant period; and we are desirous that the State of Connecticut shall have the benefit of its location.
" As Episcopalians, we do not ask for any exclusive privileges, but we desire to be placed on the same footing with other denominations of Christians."
That nothing might be done to peril their petition, the memorialists allowed a name, dear in the military and civil history of the land (Washington), to be inserted in the proposed act of incorporation, rather than the name of the first Bishop of the Diocese. The charter was granted on the 16th of May, 1823, and the event was welcomed in Hartford, where the General Assembly was holding its session, with demon- strations of great rejoicing. Cannons were fired and
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bonfires lighted. Though given upon the prayer of Episcopalians, and contemplating their management, the charter, as the petitioners wished, required that the college should be conducted on the broad princi- ples of religious liberality, and about one-third of the original corporators were taken from outside of the Church. It contained a provision, prohibiting the Trustees from passing any ordinance or by-law that should make the religious tenets of any officer or student in the college a test or qualification of em- ployment or admission. And here it may be observed that, up to the very day before the petition for this charter was presented to the General Assembly, the statute of Yale College, in reference to tests, - modi- fied upon the accession of Dr. Stiles to the Presidency from consent to the Westminster Catechism and Con- fession of Faith into an assent to the Saybrook Plat- form, - was still in force. That day, at a special meeting of the corporation, held in the city of Hart- ford, the obnoxious test-law was .repealed. There were those who thought the time was thus critically chosen for its repeal, that an influence might be brought to bear upon the minds of the liberal Legis- lature, touching the memorial for a second college. But be this as it may, no sooner was the charter granted, than its friends, who had been so long con- tending with the evils of popular prejudice, were now compelled to contend with poverty and other dis- couraging causes. The amount necessary to secure the provisions of the act of incorporation was, indeed, over-subscribed, for, within one year from its date, nearly fifty thousand dollars were raised by private subscription towards an endowment. This subscrip-
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tion was obtained by offering to the larger towns in the State the privilege of fair and laudable compe- tition for its location, and Hartford, never wanting in public spirit and generous outlays, secured, in this way, the honor of being its seat.
The erection of the college buildings was com- menced in June, 1824, and the business of instruction in September of the same year. But the funds sub- scribed were barely adequate to this beginning. The Trustees had already deputed one of their number 1 to visit England and solicit donations towards the supply of a library and philosophical apparatus. He carried with him an address or general letter of intro- duction, officially signed, and directed to the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Church of England. It does not appear to have been the original intention to give much publicity to the object of this mission, but on the arrival of the agent, he found himself in the way of other applicants 2 from this country for similar aid, and he was induced to print the letter, together with a statement of his own, setting forth the necessities of the Church here, and the more important facts in regard to the condition of the two oldest New England colleges.
The agent returned to this country, with the dona- tions which he had received, soon enough to be a conspicuous and fearless actor in that war of pam- phlets which arose from "Considerations suggested by the Establishment of a Second College in Connec-
1 Rev. N. S. Wheaton, Rector of Christ Church, Hartford.
2 Bishop Hobart, for the General Theological Seminary ; and Bishop Chase, of Ohio, to found the Institutions at Gambier.
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ticut."1 Not only had zealous endeavors been used in various sections of the State, to prevent the subscrip- tion papers from being filled up in order that the charter might take effect, but even after the college had been organized and located, attempts were made to interfere with its success, to disparage its useful- ness, and to produce an impression that it was “an instrument of sectarian aggrandizement," a " scheme fraught with the seeds of discord," and calculated to " entail on distant generations a source of implacable jealousies and feuds." It was claimed that, while one institution of learning in the State was certainly demanded by the interests of literature, a second was not ; and " that Washington College could rise into distinction and usefulness only by depressing Yale to the same extent." Events have proved that fears of this sort were wholly groundless. The institution survived the early hostility to its establishment, and it did not sicken and die when the State afterwards refused to feed it with a tithe of the bounty which had been bestowed upon the venerable sister. So late as 1822, the President and Fellows of Yale Col- lege, recognizing " the past liberality of the State," recited their necessities in a memorial to the General Assembly, and cheerfully left it to that body, "the constituted guardian and patron of the College, to direct to such relief, either by grant from the treasury, or in some other way, as might be deemed most con- sistent with the public good."
1 This was the title of the first anonymous pamphlet, which received an anonymous reply, and then a rejoinder followed. The reply, entitled " Remarks on Washington College and on the Considerations Suggested by its Establishment," was written by the Rev. Mr. Wheaton.
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The first President of Washington College 1 was he who scarcely needed a formal vote to be placed in that office. He was the Bishop of the Diocese, and had been charged with the presentation of the peti- tion to the General Assembly. He had watched its progress with solicitude, and witnessed its success with delight. Long experience in academic discipline had made him acquainted with the responsibilities of the office, and when he removed to Hartford to enter upon his enlarged duties, he brought to his aid some of the best minds of the Church, and had among the Faculty, Rev. George W. Doane - afterwards Bishop of New Jersey - and Rev. Hector Humph- reys. The great object in establishing the college was to provide a place where the sons of Episco- palians might obtain a classical education without having their early religious predilections tampered with by sectarian teachers. The necessity for some such institution was felt by the General Convention in 1823, when resolutions were adopted by that body, instructing a committee, among other things, to inquire into the privileges afforded to Episcopalians in the existing colleges of the land, and also to re- port on the practicability of establishing a seminary or seminaries for the education of youth, which should be under the influence and authority of the mem- bers of the Protestant Episcopal Church. At that time, too, an increase in the ranks of the ministry
1 Upon the memorial of the Trustees, showing that there were sundry other colleges in the United States bearing the name of Washington, the General Assembly, at the May session, 1845, changed the name of the corporation to that of " The Trustees of TRINITY COLLEGE ;" - a name which " will attest forever the faith of its founders, and their zeal for the perpetual glory and honor of the one holy and undivided Trinity."
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was especially needed to meet the pressing demands for the services of the Church, both in the old and newly settled States. There were about six hundred organized parishes in the whole country, and scarcely more than one-half that number of clergymen actu- ally engaged in parochial duty. The General Conven- tion, in 1820, adopted a constitution for the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, which was amended at later dates, and admitted as members all the bish- ops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies for the time being, and such persons as subscribed money annually or for life to the objects of the organization. In 1823, the House of Clerical and Lay deputies, in concluding their report on the general state of the Church, in- vited the attention of the Bishops to the following facts : that many parishes were without pastors; that, in the West, there existed a large body of Episco- palians who were as sheep without a shepherd, and that, for want of missionaries-for want of laborers- the plenteous harvest, as respected our Church, could not be reaped. The College at Hartford became one of the natural sources of supply to this spiritual destitution, and almost immediately received a respect- able number of students, sixty-five being reported as connected with it in 1826. A good proportion of these and of the early graduates took Orders in the Church, and radiating in all directions of the country, they have done for her worship, as ministers and missionaries, what the friends and founders of the college predicted and hoped would be done. Many charities are consumed while they are used. They are like the annual flowers of the field, which leave
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