USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. II > Part 7
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1 The Rev. Alexander V. Griswold was elected Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, composed of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont, May 31, 1810, and the Rev. John H. Hobart, D. D. was elected Assistant Bishop of New York, May 15, 1811, - Bishop Moore having been stricken by partial paralysis and rendered incapable of active duty. Though last elected and younger than Mr. Griswold, Dr. Hobart was first consecrated. Bishop White, the presiding bishop, undoubtedly observed in this case the rule referred to in the following extract from a letter written by him to correct " a mistake" which had appeared in the Churchman's Magazine, " as to the consecration of Bishop Claggett."
" On the subject of precedency, no discourse ever took place between Bishop Provoost and me. From what I know of myself, and from what I believe of him, I venture to pronounce it impossible that any dissatisfaction should have arisen on that ground. As he is my senior in years, I accounted for the priority of my name in the instrument of consecration, and in a communication of the Archbishop which concerned us alike from the cir- cumstance of my being the senior Doctor in Divinity, as our papers must have shown, and as I know to be according to a rule which governs in England, and governed among our clergy in America before the Revolu- tion." - MS. Letter to Rev. John C. Rudd, July 18, 1815.
2 " The author left home under the hope of inducing Bishop Provoost to go on to New Haven, although he had never performed any ecclesiastical duty since the consecration of Bishop Moore in 1801. But besides Bishop Provoost's being under the effects of a slight stroke of the paralytic [paraly- sis], sustained two years before, he was, at this time, only beginning to re- cover from the jaundice. He found himself utterly incompetent to the tak- ing of a journey ; but promised, if possible, to assist in a consecration, if it
4
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By this time, the number of the clergy in Connect- icut had increased to thirty, and from a report then made, it appeared that between four and five hundred families had been added to the Church since the last General Convention. The congregations of the Dio- cese were in a flourishing condition, several new churches had been built, and with the zeal and exer- tions of the clergy, the expectation was cherished that the power as well as the form of godliness would greatly advance. The moral support which the effort to secure a charter had gained by the action of the General Convention, encouraged the clergy to per- severe, and at a Convocation held in February, 1812, it was resolved that a petition be preferred to the next Legislature by the Bishop and clergy of the Dio- cese of Connecticut, with the consent and approbation of the Board of Trustees of the Episcopal Academy - praying that said Academy may be erected into a college. Five prominent clergymen were appointed to draft the petition and advocate the same before the General Assembly, but their movements are not recorded, and other events afterwards came in to stay entreaty and absorb the ecclesiastical and legislative sympathies.
The second pastoral letter from the House of Bishops, issued in 1811, was brief, and after glancing
should be held in the city of New York. With the expectation of this, Bishop Jarvis, after the rising of the Convention, came with the author to the said city ; as did the two bishops elect. To the last hour, there was danger of disappointment. On our arrival, a day also having been publicly notified for the consecration, we found that Bishop Provoost had suffered a relapse during our absence. But finally, he found himself strong enough to give his attendance, and thus the business was happily accomplished." - Bishop White's Memoirs, etc., p. 209.
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at topics and doctrines formerly considered, it called the special attention of the clergy to their duty in re- porting the state of their respective cures; and in preparing and presenting young persons and others for the holy rite of Confirmation.
As the Church at large increased, it was quite im- portant to know where it was the strongest and where it was growing most steadily and rapidly. The ob- jects of the XLVth Canon contemplated that careful parish registers be kept, transcripts of which were to form the parochial reports at every annual conven- tion ; but independently of the canonical requirement, "the keeping of these records " said the bishops, "is occasionally of so much consequence to the fortunes, and in some instances to the reputation of individuals, that we do not know how any clergyman, negligent in this particular, can answer it to God and to society."
The extent of their dioceses, their parochial en- gagements, and the necessity of travelling in stage- coaches and private conveyances, rendered it impos- sible for the early American prelates to make frequent visitations and administer the apostolic rite of Con- firmation. The first Bishop of Massachusetts (Bass), though he exercised his office for a period of six years, never penetrated to the distant parishes of his charge in the valley of the Housatonic, and the whole body of communicants in that region was therefore left to welcome the feet of his saintly successor, and to receive from him the hand of blessing and hear the prayer to God for their future growth in grace. The original Canon, providing for an accurate view of the state of the Church, did not require the minis- ter to include in his parochial report the number of
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confirmations, but the connecting link between Bap- tism and the Lord's Supper was not on this account to be forgotten. "It has not been unobserved by us," is the language of the Pastoral, "how zealous and how successful some of the clergy have been in aid- ing our efforts in this branch of the Episcopacy ; and even in soliciting our visits to their respective churches, with a view to it. And if the same cannot be affirmed of all our reverend brethren, we are aware that, in some instances, it may have been less owing to indifference and neglect, than to the difficulty of introducing a practice which, until within these few years, was unknown in this country, however in it- self coeval with our holy religion."
In 1808, Bishop Jarvis stated that he had visited six parishes of his Diocese, confirming three hun- dred and eighty-six persons, and in 1809-10 he vis- ited eight parishes and confirmed four hundred and thirty-seven. In 1811, he confirmed, in three parishes, two hundred and eighty-four persons; and the next year, which embraced the last of his reported visita- tions, he administered the rite in five parishes to one hundred and eighty. The whole number on record as confirmed by him during his Episcopate is three thousand and sixty-eight, an average of about two hundred a year from the date of his consecration. It shows that the clergy of Connecticut were not un- mindful of their responsibilities in this respect, and only needed a more active head to quicken their zeal and stir the hearts of the laity.
The Annual Convention which met at New Haven in 1808, composed of fifteen clergymen and seven- teen laymen, undertook to ascertain the bounds of
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the several cures in the Diocese, partly with a view of providing ministrations of some kind for all the places where parishes had been organized, and partly to give more permanence and regularity to the support of the rectors. According to the arrangement then adopted, not one of these rectors had a single charge, and many of them were required to look after the scat- tered families of the Church in towns remote from their residences. There were seventy-three parishes or localities in the Diocese which called for Episcopal services, and only twenty-six clergymen to supply them ; so that several of the feebler churches were almost constantly vacant. Much was done to keep them alive by lay-reading and by the circulation of instructive books and pamphlets ; and a voluntary Society, called a " Society for the Promotion of Chris- tian Knowledge," of which more will be said hereafter, was formed in New Haven on the last day of October, 1808, to publish and circulate, at reduced prices, such useful religious works as would best conduce to the advancement of piety and Christian knowledge. From the lack of properly authorized ministers to officiate in the vacant churches, sprung a class of "preaching candidates," whom Bishop Jarvis thus reproved in his address to the Annual Convention of 1807 :-
" An intention to enter into the priesthood is a self- offering, and it is required that a declaration of this intention be made one year previous to ordination. The rule supposes that the name of the person is put on record, and that he is afterwards considered as a candidate. Hence a preposterous idea seems to have been adopted, that the candidate is authorized to of- ficiate in reading the prayers of the Church and in
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preaching. In consequence of this idea, the people, either through ignorance of the principles of their own Church, or from a desire of bearing a nearer affinity to the dissenters, have grafted into our clerical charac- ter a new grade, - I mean that of licensed preachers, -and this has been done without their pretending even to the shadow of a license, unless it be the be- fore-mentioned record. If the vacant congregations would be contented to have a lay-reader, until they could be supplied with a priest, and if, provided no one among them should be proper or willing to per- form the office, they would procure a candidate to lead them in the prayers and read a sermon to them, no particular objections would arise. But on the sole ground of being a candidate, a circumstance which has no connection with preaching or with any clerical services in the devotions of the Church, for him to undertake to preach, and for the people to do any- thing to promote it, is in both a palpable contradic- tion to the principles of the Church. On the part of the parishioners, it is entirely absurd ; on that of the candidate, it is a direct bar against his admission into the priesthood."
The union of parishes in cures was not unalterably fixed by the Convention. The whole scheme was but recommendatory, and nothing was done which might not be changed by a simple vote of the same body. Disputes between churches respecting their parish lines, or difficulties between a rector and a portion of his cure, were sometimes best settled by separating the parts which had been previously united for the sake of convenience and strength. Some of the cures were long vacant, and these furnished
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temptations to the clergy to absent themselves occa- sionally from their own flocks, with results which, in general, were not salutary. "It may be a subject de- serving your attention," said the Bishop, 1 " whether a real injury is not done to the Church by clergymen leaving the churches particularly assigned to their charge, and officiating too frequently in those vacant churches which might, and if so, ought, to have a clergyman settled among them : whether such prac- tice be not disorderly, and does not merit such aid as the Convention may give to the Bishop, to correct the disorder, as having a tendency to hurt their own churches, and to cherish a spirit of indifference and lukewarmness among those vacant churches towards the Liturgy and Offices, and the general interest and prosperity of the Church." As the ranks of the min- istry were increased and younger men appeared to enter with fresh zeal upon self-denying labors, a few of the weak parishes rose up with resolute purpose to provide for more frequent clerical services ; but the evil here complained of still continued, and the his- tory of the Church in Connecticut for several years presented a picture with the same dark and sombre shades.
1 Address to Convention, 1812.
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CHAPTER VI.
STATISTICS OF THE PARISHES; SUPPORT OF THE EPISCOPATE; DEATH OF DR. HUBBARD; LIST OF ORDINATIONS; AND DEATH OF BISHOP JARVIS.
A. D. 1811-1813.
TEN presbyters and thirteen laymen attended the Annual Convention which met at Middletown in 1811. The Bishop was absent, as he had been also from the Special Convention held at Cheshire on the 3d day of the preceding October; and out of all the rectors in the diocese, four only - Ashbel and David Baldwin, Elijah G. Plumb, and Philo Shelton -reported the state of the nine parishes with which they were severally connected. From such partial and imperfect statistics, no fair representation of the Church could be gathered, and the chief advantage of publishing them must have been to draw attention to the matter and show that there was a Canon of the General Convention which almost the whole body of
the clergy habitually neglected. It is to be lamented that more care in this respect was not observed at that carly day. Many, who were no doubt zealous and self-sacrificing in their work, appear to have kept their records for personal convenience and to have felt themselves to be under no obligation to obey the Canon, and make annual parochial reports. Loose sheets of paper and the blank leaves of a Prayer-
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book were sometimes used for entries of official acts, instead of a parish register, which could be easily pre- served and conveniently consulted. Whether the admonition of the pastoral letter from the House of Bishops, referred to in the previous chapter, had any effect or not, the Notitie Parochiales for the next year increased from nine to nineteen, and ever since that time there has been in Connecticut a general compliance with the requirements of the Canon. The returns have not, by any means, been complete, but they have been full enough to convey some def- inite idea of the condition and growth of the Church in successive periods of her history.
The infirmities of Bishop Jarvis were now very great, and his constitution, originally strong, was shaken by the inroads of the disease from which he had so long suffered. To himself as well as to others the close of his stewardship appeared not far distant.
On the 19th day of February, 1812, he met his clergy in Convocation at New Haven, when a dozen were present, and delivered an " affectionate address," in which he took occasion to refer to the unhappy dif- ficulties then existing in the Diocese of New York. These difficulties grew out of the election and con- secration of Dr. Hobart to the Episcopate. One of his associates in the rectorship of Trinity Church, - the Rev. Cave Jones, a native of New York City, - while the election was yet pending, had published an ill-judged pamphlet reflecting upon his fitness for that high office, and with an imagination perturbed by jealousy, had cited, from his intercourse with him, examples of hasty temper and petty contention which a better mind would have buried in oblivion. A long
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personal controversy followed and opened " the scene of Bishop Hobart's apostolic labors with a picture foreign to their holy and peaceful spirit." It was a sad controversy, for while these dissensions among the shepherds of the flock were raised, the wolf of the world was looking with malignant joy over the pales of the fold and preparing to make a fatal entry. Connecticut was incidentally mentioned in this cleri- cal quarrel. A few of her leading presbyters, a short time before, had interchanged thoughts upon the plan of choosing an assistant bishop, and had gone so far as to communicate their views to an old and fast friend of the Diocese (Dr. Bowden), and ask him if, under certain conditions, he would consent to accept the office. An unwarrantable use was made of this informal movement in the pamphlet of Mr. Jones, and the peace of the Church in Connecticut was touched by the disturbance of the neighboring Dio- cese. 3 Very properly, therefore, did Bishop Jarvis bring the matter before his clergy, from whom a com- mittee was appointed to advise with their brethren of New York and take such " prudential measures " to remove the existing difficulties as, by the blessing of God, might be in their power. It was not officious meddling in them to wish that the parties involved might correct their misunderstandings, sacrifice their worldly resentments, if they had any, at the foot of their Master's cross, and henceforth proceed, hand in hand, as champions of the faith, to build up the king- dom whose sublime watchword was " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men."
The last occasion on which Bishop Jarvis presided
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in the Convention of the Diocese was in 1812, and he opened his annual address then with touching allus- ions to his lengthened age as compared with that of his more vigorous and healthy predecessor. His ex- perience in the Episcopate and the situation of the Church made him anxious for the future, and his thoughts were turned to the continuance of the im- portant office which he filled and to the means and style of its support. He would not have it depen- dent upon a parish; and no parish in the Diocese could afford an adequate living for a bishop and pro- vide, at the same time, for a supply of services while he was absent on his Episcopal visitations. " But," said he, "if we had a church sufficiently able to do it, would it be desirable ? Would it be for the best to have the office so attached to any one church as to give that church a control over the choice of a bish- op. When our first Bishop, who, after much expense and trouble, obtained and introduced the office into the country, took his residence amongst us, the senti- ment generally pervaded the body of the Church in the State, that it was necessary and their duty to make some provision for his living among us. The churches accordingly, by their delegates, repeatedly met on that business. A contribution according to a certain ratio, in form of a tax, was agreed upon, and recommended to all their respective churches. The measure thus attempted, being left upon so general a footing, probably from that very circumstance, proved inefficient; and all that my worthy predecessor re- ceived from the Diocese I believe did not amount to the interest of the money he expended of his own property to accomplish for us the object of our wishes.
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This was succeeded by an effort to procure from the Legislature an act incorporating a board of trustees for the establishment of a fund. After some time and much exertion the act was obtained. And, as if nothing more was intended by the zeal that was shown to procure it, there it rested. The attention that has since been given to it, and what has been done to carry into effect the purpose expressed in the act, you all know. As I mean only to remind you of what has passed, with the feeling hope of exciting more attention for the future to a matter of such weighty concern, I will barely request you to advert to several successive resolves passed in different con- ventions."
He then proceeds to recite these resolves and del- icately to intimate that they contemplated other and intermediate provision for the Bishop, until that pro- vision should be acquired by the operation of the proposed fund. Too modest to set up any claim for himself, he could not plead for better care of his suc- cessors without stating the facts and recalling the measures of the past. He added, moreover : -
" Now, gentlemen, if you will examine what stands upon the journals, successively from the year 1798, and compare the several proceedings, with the receipts of moneys from the churches of the Diocese, subject to your inspection, if desired, you will see with what languor the support of the Bishop has hitherto been regarded. You will see with how much reason they who feel an unfeigned interest in the welfare of the Church are concerned for the unpleasant prospect that the Episcopate in this Diocese must fail, unless some more energetic measures are pursued to prevent it.
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" My mind would have been more highly gratified to have had this subject brought forward to your particular notice at this time, by some member of the house ; and however sentiments of delicacy under a different situation might have laid me under some restraint from doing it myself, yet I perceived that restraint lessened by the consideration that I can, at my advanced period of life, indulge no rational pros- pect of any great length of days to come; and there- fore must be less personally affected by the future events which may await the Church than probably will be the case with most, perhaps all of you, my brethren, who are now present. Little, indeed, have been the aids afforded by the Church towards the support of the office, since we have had the privilege of enjoying it. From this, if duly considered as from a visible cause, we may infer the want of that salu- tary influence essential to its respectability and to the powers of doing good, annexed to the office in its original institution.
" When we were subjected to the many difficulties attendant on a hazardous and expensive voyage to England, to obtain our priesthood, it was then viewed in that state of deprivation, as a matter which would have been of incalculable privilege, to have a resident bishop among us. And, while laboring un- der the disadvantages, an honorable provision for his maintenance would have been considered as a real gain in the article of expense."
The Convention referred the address to a com- mittee, and some earnest steps were immediately taken to provide in future such a salary as seemed in- dispensably requisite to support the Episcopal dignity VOL. II. 6
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in the Diocese. The general poverty of the Church was a great bar to any schemes for creating a respec- table endowment, and the infrequency of the Bishop's visitations had hitherto prevented him from exciting much interest among the laity in the matter of his personal support. The parishes, especially those most remote from his residence, complained of his neglects ; but he may have justly pleaded in excuse ill-health and the lack of sufficient provision to defray the expenses of journeying. In mercy and considera- tion to him, the clergy acquiesced in the limited exer- cise of his public duty, and were generally content, in the latest years of his life, with such offices as could not be omitted without detriment to the essential in- terests of the Church. With a tremulous voice and a very deliberate enunciation, - the effect perhaps of his painful asthma, - he became somewhat wearisome as a preacher ; and for a considerable time before his death, he seldom made his appearance in the pulpit.
National events at this period were beginning to assume a threatening aspect and to absorb the popu- lar attention. The old sores between the United States and Great Britain were not all healed, and the right of searching American vessels, claimed by the government of the mother country, and of impressing from them British seamen, opened these sores afresh and brought on the fever of resistance to foreign ag- gression. In June, 1812, the United States declared war against Great Britain, and it was prosecuted with various success for nearly three years, during which the Americans attempted in vain the conquest of Canada, and the British squadrons were repulsed in several attacks upon the principal maritime cities.
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The people of the New England States were, for the most part, opposed to the measures of the adminis- tration, and being destitute of the national protection and liable to the ravages of the enemy, they were in great alarm and dread. Their fears were not a little increased by the course of their friends in Congress. Thirty-four members of the House of Representa- tives, including the whole Connecticut delegation, addressed their constituents in the outset on the sub- ject of the war with Great Britain, and, among other things, said, " It would be some relief to our anxiety, if amends were likely to be made for the weakness and wildness of the project, by the prudence of the preparation. But in no aspect of this anomalous af- fair can we trace the great and distinctive properties of wisdom. There is seen a headlong rushing into difficulties, with little calculation about the means, and little concern about the consequences. With a
navy comparatively nominal, we are about to enter into the lists against the greatest marine on the globe. With a commerce unprotected and spread over every ocean, we propose to make profit by pri- vateering, and for this, endanger the wealth of which we are the honest proprietors." But when the war, blazing over the length and breadth of the land, had reached Connecticut, she was ready to rise in her own defence, and the heroic spirit with which the in- habitants of Stonington repelled, at a moment's warn- ing, the invasion of her eastern borders, has been at once the admiration of the historian and of the whole country.
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