USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. II > Part 6
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The General Convention which met at Baltimore in 1808 was composed of two bishops, fourteen clergy- men, and thirteen lay delegates. Seven States were 1 Records of Circuit Court, New Haven, 1811.
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represented ; among them, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Bishop Jarvis was prevented by the state of his health from attempting the journey, but two clerical and two lay delegates were present from this Diocese, and bore a conspicuous part in the delibera- tions of that body. Though thinly attended it was an important meeting. For then all the Canons were revised, thirty new hymns adopted, certain resolu- tions in regard to duels and divorces passed, and a com- mittee appointed to make a solemn and affectionate address to all the dioceses and urge upon them " the propriety, necessity and duty of sending regularly a deputation to the General Convention." A pastoral letter from the House of Bishops, prepared in com- pliance with a Canon enacted in 1804, was now for the first time issued, and efforts were put forth to secure in future fuller statistics and a more accurate and general view of the state of the Church through- out the country. The pastoral letter touched upon doctrine, worship, discipline, and the end of all, a holy life and conversation. The part relating to discipline opened with this paragraph : " And here we wish our clerical and our lay brethren to be aware, as, on one hand, of the responsibility under which we lie; so, on the other, of the caution which justice and impartiality require. The Church has made provision for the de- gradation of unworthy clergymen. It is for us to sup- pose that there are none of that description, until the contrary is made known to us in our respective places, in the manner which the Canons have prescribed : and if the contrary to what we wish is, in any instance, to be found, it lies on you, our clerical and lay brethren, to present such faulty conduct ; although with due
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regard to proof; and, above all, in a temper which shows the impelling motive to be the glory of God, and the sanctity of the reputation of his Church."
The first published statistics of the Diocese of Con- necticut appeared in the Journal of the Annual Con- vention for 1809, under the head of Notitice Parochiales. Eight clergymen, holding pastoral relations to nine- teen parishes, reported the number of their respective families, communicants, baptisms, marriages, and fune- rals. This was in obedience to the recently enacted Canon of the General Convention " providing for an accurate view of the state of the Church from time to time," but the requirements of the Canon appear to have been little heeded and the view of the Church was fragmentary, for returns were made by only one clergyman in New Haven County, Rev. Chauncey Prindle, and by none of the rectors of parishes in the towns lying along and east of the Connecticut River. The whole number of clergy in the Diocese at that date, including the Principal of the Academy at Cheshire, was twenty-six, and to them was committed the care of souls scattered through seventy-three parishes and mission stations. Though they had full enough to do to occupy and till the old ground without striking out into new and promising fields of labor, yet they watched the opportunities of extending the Church, and sowed good seed wherever they had reason to believe it would germinate and grow.
In the period embraced by this and the two pre- ceding chapters, parochial organizations were effected, or houses of worship begun and partially completed in Meriden, Woodbridge (now Bethany), in Salem (now Naugatuck), in New Stratford (now Monroe), in
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Bridgeport, Bethlehem, Kent, Litchfield, Milton (a part of Litchfield), Salisbury, Sharon, Warehouse Point, and Glastenbury. Sometimes, after the organi- zation of a parish, the private dwelling of a zealous and influential churchman served as a sanctuary, un- til better provision could be secured. A few months before the consecration of Bishop Jarvis, movements were made to build a church at Chewstown, now Sey- mour, which were ultimately successful ; and in other places where the clergy performed occasional services an interest in the Liturgy was shown, and a love for the Episcopal form of worship, ripened into substantial efforts to provide for its maintenance. Dissensions in the Congregational societies growing out of the old doctrines of Calvinism frequently sent many of their members adrift, and more would have found their way into the Church, had the clergy been numerous enough to supply the demand for ministrations, and the Bishop been ready to give personal attention to exigencies as they arose. Revivals of religion in the standing order, from the beginning of the century and for some time before, had been very general not only in Connecticut, but throughout New England, and our own Communion quietly reaped its share of the abiding fruits.
The parish at New Preston (now Marbledale in Washington), originally numbering among its mem- bers churchmen from several adjoining towns, and which had a house of worship before the Revolution, was one of the first to reorganize after the acknowl- edgement of American Independence and to quote its own record " as the late law of the State doth direct." The old dilapidated building, which had been nearly
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destroyed during the war, was finally disposed of, and in 1796 the parish purchased the " Friends' Meeting- house," an edifice situated within the limits of New Milford, a little more than a mile west of the present church in Marbledale. It was built for the noted en- thusiast, Jemima Wilkinson, and there for a time she published her religious extravagances and obtained followers. The better purpose to which it was after- wards put for thirty years shows that her teaching, like that of all fanatics, left behind no permanent impression.
The Congregational minister at Bethany, Isaac Jones, - a graduate of Yale College and a descend- ant of William Jones, Deputy Governor of the New Haven Colony, - changed his ecclesiastical relations in 1808, and a large portion of the people whom he had been serving followed him into the Episcopal Church. It was a secession which marked an impor- tant passage in the history of the Diocese, and traces of its influence remain to this day in the town where it occurred. The parish there - which took imme- diate steps to erect a new and larger house of worship - passed a vote, Nov. 6, 1809, recommending Isaac Jones " as a person worthy and well qualified for a Gospel minister in the Episcopal Church," and early in the autumn of the next year he was ordained a Deacon in New York by Bishop Benjamin Moore, and subsequently a priest by Bishop Hobart. The new church at Bethany was consecrated by Bishop Jarvis, September, 1810 - the parish at that time being un- der the pastoral oversight of the Rev. Reuben Ives of Cheshire, who was a judicious and zealous moulder of the crude material that had been suddenly thrown in-
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to his hands. This was the eleventh and last church in the Diocese consecrated by the second Bishop of Connecticut. The same number had been consecrated by his predecessor.1
Under the auspices of Mr. Rayner, Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, congregations were gathered about this time in Warehouse Point and Glastenbury, and in both places edifices of wood were soon constructed. He himself, in his parochial report at the Annual Con- vention of 1812, which was the year after his re- moval from Hartford to Huntington, says : "In 1802, 1803, and 1804, collected and organized a parish at Warehouse Point, consisting of about one hundred families, who have erected an elegant church, and a clergyman in deacon's orders is now settled with them."
1 " Churches consecrated in Connecticut by Bishop Seabury : St. Paul's Church, Norwalk ; St. James' Church, New London, Sept. 20, 1787; Christ Church, Norwich Landing ; St. John's Church, Stratfield ; Trinity Church, Newtown, Sept. 19, 1793 ; St. John's Church, New Milford, Sept. 25, 1793 ; Christ's Church, Westbury, Nov. 18, 1794 ; - Church, Tash- away, June 8, 1795 ; St. Stephen's Church, East Haddam, Oct. 18, 1795 ; St. Matthew's Church, Plymouth, Oct. 21, 1795 ; St. Mark's Church, Harrington [Harwinton], Oct. 22, 1795.
" This record is made from an entry on a loose piece of paper, written, attested, and signed in the following words :-
"' The above is a list of churches which have been consecrated in Con- necticut by SAMUEL,
' Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island.'
" Churches consecrated by Bishop Jarvis : St. John's Church, Water- bury, Nov. 1, 1797 ; St. Peter's Church, Plymouth, Nov. 2, 1797 ; Trinity Church, Fairfield, Oct. 18, 1798 ; St. James' Church, Derby, Nov. 20, 1799 ; Christ Church, Hartford, Nov. 11, 1801 ; St. James' Church, Danbury, Oct. 6, 1802 ; St. John's Church, Bridgeport, Sept. 16, 1807 ; St. Peter's Church, New Stratford, Sept. 18, 1809; St. Andrew's Church, Symsbury, Oct. 11, 1808 ; Christ Church, East Haven, July 25, 1810; Christ Church, Bethany, in the town of Woodbridge, Sept. 19, 1810."- MS. of Bishop Jarvis in possession of his grandson, Rev. S. Fermor Jarvis.
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About the time of Mr. Rayner's removal to Ripton, the church in that place was rebuilt on the founda- tions of the second edifice, erected some twenty years before; and which had been burnt to the ground through the carelessness of a young man in shooting at a dove upon the roof. He left Hartford in the autumn of 1811-some warm friends desiring his stay, and the majority of the parish as desirous of a change that they might " continue together in the true Church, without schism or separation."1 He was succeeded by the Rev. Philander Chase, who, for the sake of educating his son, had returned from New Orleans to the North, and was then residing at Cheshire to avail himself of the advantages of the Episcopal Academy.
Thus the Church in Connecticut slowly advanced, and gaining a little strength, the clergy became more active and the laity more and more interested. Oc- casionally a pamphlet appeared, written by some met- aphysical controversialist, who in defending his own tenets would severely assail the principles and faith of those who could neither accept the system of relig- ious revivals and awakenings nor the cheerless and uncomfortable doctrine of predestination in the Cal- vinistic sense. But there was always a pen ready to answer such attacks and out of them grew " A full length portrait of Calvinism," in all its comely fea- tures and beautiful proportions! by Dr. Bowden, not from the painting of his own imagination, but from the writings of Calvin himself and from those who were his ablest defenders.
1 MS. Letter of John Morgan to Bishop Jarvis, Oct. 5, 1811.
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CHAPTER V.
ACT RELATING TO RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES; WARDENS AND VESTRY- MEN A COMMITTEE; TAXING AND GRAND LEVY; PETITION TO INCORPORATE THE EPISCOPAL ACADEMY WITH COLLEGIATE POWERS; AND UNION OF PARISHES IN CURES.
A. D. 1809-1811.
THE law of the State of Connecticut under which the parishes after the Revolution were organized, con- tained no reference to the Episcopal Church as such. All societies and congregations, instituted for public religious worship, were placed on precisely the same footing and allowed to manage their affairs in their own way, subject of course to the limitations of the statute. They had " power to provide for the sup- port of public worship by the rent or sale of the pews or slips in the meeting-house, by the establishment of funds, or in any other way they might judge exped- ient." At their annual meetings they each appointed what was called a "society's committee " to whom was entrusted, for the ensuing year, the proper business of the society and the adjustment and settlement of all legal claims. The language of the law was Con- gregational and not in accordance with the rules and usages of the Church. The word Parish gave way to Society, and a Committee was substituted for Wardens and Vestrymen - those ancient ecclesiastical officers
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who had always sustained a relation to the rector, and been understood to be the legitimate guardians of the interests of the parish. This led to some con- fusion or irregularity in the practice of the new Epis- copal organizations. To preserve the language of the Church and yet to act, as they supposed, strictly according to law, many of them not only chose war- dens and vestrymen, but a separate committee also, and Bishop Jarvis called attention to this irregularity in his address to the Annual Convention of 1807. He claimed that it was a needless surrender of our rights to adopt the phraseology of the law ; that as wardens and vestrymen were " the ancient ecclesiastical officers of a parish, to substitute a committee in their stead was to needlessly change the principles of the Church, and to adopt those which were independent and Con- gregational." The object of his animadversion was to bring all the parishes of the Diocese to one uni- form practice and to make them see that they were not infringing the statute in its true intent by con- forming to the cherished rules and customs of their own body. He proceeded briefly to define terms and explain principles.
" In the sense," said he, "in which it is used by the Church, ' society ' means the whole body of Christians, or the Church universal, comprehending under one term both the priesthood and the laity. To apply this appellation to small companies or parcels of peo- ple in particular districts, is as improper, according to the sense and usage of the Church, as it would be to call a finger, or any other member of a man, his body. The idea of the sectaries is entirely different ; ac- cording to their notion of it, any number of people
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agreeing among themselves, and united for the sup- port of assembled worship, is a society or church, in the full meaning of the word, and consequently inde- pendent of all others. This, in our understanding, is to make Christ have churches by thousands ; whereas, consistent with the unity of his body, he has and can have but one. The Church Catholic in its parts, takes distinct denominations from the different countries, and different civil governments under which it is placed. Hence its notation is national, and those general branches are again subdivided into provinces, dioceses, and parishes. In all these divisions and sub- divisions, the clergy, in their different grades and several departments, preside over it, for the adminis- tration of the sacred ordinances, for instruction and ยท for government, as overseers of the flock. We de- duce it from Scriptural doctrine, illustrated by primi- tive practice, that in things spiritual the Church is to be ordered and governed by those to whom Christ hath given it in commission to take the oversight.
" Agreeably to the Canons, the parish ministers are to be aided by wardens, chosen by the parishioners. Hence, wardens are the committee of the parish to perform certain duties and functions connected with those of the minister and needful for the better ful- fillment of his office, and for the welfare of the parish. Laying aside, therefore, the supposition of any speci- ality which may render it necessary for the officers of the Church to appear in the character specified by the law of the State, in order that they may enjoy the benefit of it, we should in our ecclesiastical busi- ness, direct our practice solely by the rules and in- junctions of the Church ; in which the words Parish
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and Warden bear a very different construction from the legal forms, Society and Committee."
The counsels thus given were not followed, and the practice of the different parishes at their annual meet- ings continued with little variation as before. For half a century, the general law was untouched or un- explained 1 by the authority that enacted it, though several attempts in the mean time were made by the Convention to secure from the Legislature an act or form of incorporation for parishes, more in accord- ance with the spirit and usages of the Episcopal Church. The Saybrook Platform, as a legal establish- ment in Connecticut, was no longer in force, but the voluntary system of supporting religion had not yet been adopted. If all were left free to worship, and connect themselves with whatever denomination they preferred, all were still compelled to pay a tax for the support of some church. They could not escape this liability by setting up the claim that they were " Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics" and had no in- terest in the maintenance and propagation of Chris- tianity.
The Episcopal parishes taxed their members to
1 A supplemental act was passed by the Legislature of 1842 in these words : -
" Whereas doubts have arisen in the minds of some, whether the Epis- copal Societies in this State have been legally organized :
" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General As- sembly convened, that the acts which have been done by ecclesiastical societies of this State, organized under the Episcopal order, according to the rules and customs of said societies, shall be good and effectual in law. And that the wardens and vestrymen of said societies shall hereafter be a society's committee, and shall have all the powers in managing the af- fairs of said societies, as are granted to the committees of all religious societies in this State by the statutes in such case made and provided."
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build churches, and to sustain religious services; and the Diocesan Convention assessed the parishes to pro- vide both for the endowment of the Institution at Cheshire and the increase of the Bishop's Fund. Each parish was required to make an annual return of what was called the " Grand Levy,"- that is, its taxable list, according to the last enrollment, - and upon this re- turn rested the right of a lay delegate to his seat in the Convention. The resolution which fixed this rule was adopted in 1803, and the first published Grand Levy appeared in the Journal of 1806, and from that time onward for fifteen years the roll of the lay delegates was accompanied by the taxable list of the several parishes which they represented. If the list of any parish exceeded the sum of ten thousand dollars, such parish was entitled to send to the Convention two delegates.
It is interesting to note the changes since that period in the relative wealth of the Church in Con- necticut. In those early days, as reported, Litchfield was stronger than Waterbury or Hartford. Wood- bridge was stronger than Meriden, Huntington than Derby, Redding than Bridgeport, and Newtown than New Haven. The agricultural towns and rural dis- tricts have been drained to supply the great centres of population, and the prosperity of the manufactur- ing interests has given importance to localities which were once poor and thinly inhabited. The change in the modes of inland travel and transportation, the sub- stituting of the speedy rail-car for the slow stage- coach, the opening of thoroughfares through hitherto untrodden swamps and forests, the making rocky hills smooth their faces and smile under the hand of public VOL. II. 5
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industry, the multiplicity of new inventions, creating new kinds of traffic and a demand for the skill and labor of numberless overseers and operatives, the in- crease in the facilities for making and spending money, the love of luxury and self-indulgence, the pursuit of learning, the culture of the arts, the progress of science, all these things have helped to form new cen- tres of influence and to transfer the muscle of energy and successful wealth from the country to the town, and from the eastern to the western States. Occas- ionally, the merchants who have become princes, and the manufacturers whose prosperity has flowed in upon them in a full and steady stream, have returned to the scenes of their nativity, and still holding by inheritance or repossessing themselves of the lands of their fathers, have enriched them with fertilizing agencies and beautified them with the taste and im- provements of modern cultivation. Such men in their retirement have not forgotten their duty to the vil- lage church ; but where all enterprise has disappeared from among the people and decay has written itself upon their dingy dwellings and barns, and there is no leading mind to quicken and direct, it is not sur- prising to find spiritual coldness and indifference with irregular ministrations.
The Convention, at the annual meeting in 1810, renewed its efforts to obtain an enlargement of the charter for the Diocesan Institution at Cheshire. As the preamble expressed it, doubts had arisen whether the Trustees were "invested with the power of con- ferring upon the students the degrees and testimon- ials of literary proficiency, usually granted in col- leges," and as the great objects contemplated by the
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Convention could not be accomplished without such power, it was resolved to request the Trustees " to prefer a petition to the next General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, praying that said Academy may be constituted a college, by the name and style of the Episcopal College of Connecticut." The memo- rialists on the part of the Board were Jonathan Inger- soll, John Bowden, Daniel Burhans, Nathan Smith, and Burrage Beach; and in their petition they men- tioned that the permanent and productive fund amounted to nearly fourteen thousand dollars, and that the number of students who had resorted to the Academy from different parts of the United States and from the West Indies had generally been from fifty to seventy. Among other reasons why their application should be granted they said: "That Institution, which has been most justly the pride and boast of this State, was established for the open and avowed purpose of propagating the religious sentiments of its founders. This is the very language of its consti- tution, which has often received the sanction of the General Assembly. The General Assembly early adopted, protected, patronized, and richly endowed it, in a manner highly honorable to itself, and vastly beneficial to the State. Notwithstanding this, Yale College has shared largely in the munificence of Epis- copalians, both in this country and in Europe. The donations which have, from time to time, been made by the General Assembly, have been drawn equally from Episcopalians, in proportion to their numbers and property, as from other denominations. This, however, furnishes no ground of complaint to Episcopalians, nor to the liberal and ingenuous of
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other denominations. None can justly complain that too much has been done for Yale College. For it never can, for a moment, be presumed that the Gene- ral Assembly of Connecticut will grant privileges to one denomination which, upon suitable application, it will deny to others.
" Episcopalians, as a body of Christians, are in point of numbers respectable, as supporters of legitimate government and friends to good order they yield to none. About thirty colleges have been established in different parts of the United States by Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, and Roman Catholics, all of which have received the sanction of the Legis- latures of the States in which they have been founded. But not a single college now exists in any part of the Union, which is under the government and instruc- tion of Episcopalians." 1
The application, thus urged at the October session of the General Assembly was granted in the Lower House, but denied in the Council or Senate. It was encouraging to be heard with favor in the popular branch of the Legislature, and again the efforts were repeated to obtain a charter. The General Conven- tion met in New Haven the next year, and under- standing that the establishment of a second college in Connecticut under the auspices of churchmen was contemplated, each House adopted a resolution ex- pressing entire approbation of the measure and earnest wishes for its success. The Church through- out our country at that time had reached its lowest depression and passed the depths. Not unfrequently the legislative body which does nothing, does wisely,
1 Original MS. of petitioners.
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and this was somewhat true of the General Conven- tion which met at New Haven in 1811. Two bishops only - White and Jarvis - were present. Bishop Claggett, who engaged to preach the opening sermon, left his place of residence on his way to the city, but was obliged by indisposition to return. The consecra- tion of Griswold and Hobart 1 therefore, whose testi- monials had been duly signed, was postponed until the week after the adjournment, when the two Bish- ops proceeded to New York and summoned the dis- abled Provoost from his retirement to assist them in the solemn act. 2
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