USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. II > Part 8
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Religion never thrives amid the clashing of hostile . swords, and the tread of opposing armies. Though the
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Episcopal Church stood in no such odious or suspicious relations to the war of 1812 as to the Revolutionary conflict, yet, in common with other communions, she suffered from its operation and effects. In Connecti- cut, she not only felt the weight of the burdens which war always brings, but the consequences of the great commercial embarrassments which followed the conclusion of a treaty of peace. Nevertheless, as will be shown hereafter, some noble enterprises for her advancement were undertaken at this season, and pros- ecuted to a successful issue.
For fourteen years but two of the clergy of the Diocese had died - one, the venerable Dr. Leaming, early in the autumn of 1804, and the other, the Rev. Mr. Todd of Huntington, in midsummer, 1809. The infirmities of age had been creeping upon Dr. Hub- bard ; and the people of his parish, who began pre- vious to Easter, 1811, to confer together on the subject of building a new church, took an equally important step that same year in procuring and settling a per- manent assistant. The Rev. Henry Whitlock, a gradu- ate of Williams College, who had been seven years in charge of the parish at Norwalk, was chosen; and accepted the position with an annual salary of eight hundred dollars. He was in the prime of life and had already won the reputation of an earnest, eloquent, and faithful clergyman. The neatness and care with which he noted his official acts in the parish register cast quite into the shade the slovenly record of his senior associate, kept, as a tradesman keeps his journal, with all the different entries running together and follow- ing each other in the order of their dates.
Events showed that provision for an assistant to the
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Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven, was not pre- mature. In fifteen months from the time of the Insti- tution of Mr. Whitlock into his office, the declining health and strength of Dr. Hubbard terminated in death - and he was buried on the 9th of December, 1812, with the lamentations of a people among whom, for forty-five years, he had gone in and out to admin- ister comfort and impart instruction. His assistant, now, by the terms of his settlement, succeeding to the rectorship, delivered a discourse at the funeral which was printed by request of the vestry, and extensively distributed in the parish and among the friends of the author. It may be regarded as a fair specimen of his beautiful style of sermonizing ; and the allusions to himself and his flock in it are as delicate as the por- traiture of the departed servant of the Lord is faithful.
"I will not believe, " said he, " that the services and example of your venerable Rector have been ineffectual, or will soon cease to have influence. Though dead he yet speaketh and will be regarded. Long may his doctrine, his character, his courtesy, his devotion, his zeal for the Church and her holy services, abide in you, and be exhibited in your lives. For you he prayed, for you he labored, for you he exhausted his life. Through the whole course of his late sickness, the prosperity of this church was his favorite subject of conversation. And it was a source of peculiar satisfaction to him, that in proportion to the decline of his health and usefulness, the affection of his people was increased and was manifested in the most substantial manner, not only by continuing his customary maintenance but by procuring an assistant; and that, instead of being cast off as a burthen, he has
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received from you every token of respect, every ten- der assiduity, which could alleviate his infirmities, soothe his pains, and cheer the evening of his life. With this truly honorable and Christian treatment, his heart was full-it overflowed. My dear friends, in this season of affliction and of mourning for one of the best of ministers, may suitable impressions sink deep into your hearts, sanctify your sorrows, confirm your faith, and invigorate your virtue.
" As for me, I need not tell you my grief; I will spread it before Him, who hath taken away my head, my father, and my friend.
" When Elijah ascended into heaven, and his mantle fell from him, it was taken up by Elisha, who had wit- nessed his ascent : from which time it was said, 'the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.' So far as our de- parted father had the temper of a Christian minister, may his spirit be found to rest on his successor ! Most eagerly would I take up his mantle, put on his virtues, wear his character, and like him, enjoy your affection. Brethren, I beseech you, pray for me, that, stirring up the gift that is in me, I may attain to the maturity of the pastoral character, discharge with fidelity the arduous duties of my holy office, and be an instrument of bringing many sons to glory."1
Two weeks after the death of Dr. Hubbard, ere the days of mourning were ended, Bishop Jarvis held an ordination in Trinity Church and admitted to the priesthood Daniel McDonald and Frederick Hol- comb. These were the last names which he affixed to his list of ordinations, numbering in all sixty-one - thirty-three deacons and twenty-eight priests. Bishop
1 Sermon, pp. 18- 19.
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Seabury, who exercised his Episcopate for a period of little more than eleven years, ordained ninety-three, - forty-nine deacons, and forty-four priests -but can- didates from other sections of the country came to him before White and Provoost were consecrated to the apostolic office. Bishop Jarvis, though he had entered the sixteenth year of his consecration, had seldom performed any services for the Church beyond the limits of his own Episcopal charge. As Frederick Holcomb was the last to receive from him the priestly office, so he is the last surviving 1 link in the chain of ordinations that unites the clergy of the Diocese with the second Bishop of Connecticut.
It was not many months before the funeral solem- nities of the Bishop followed those of his old friend and valued companion, Dr. Hubbard. Together they went forth on the voyage to England for Holy Orders ; together they had walked in the house of God as brothers, and in death they were scarcely divided. On the 3d of May, 1813, after a short and severe illness, Bishop Jarvis died at his residence in New Haven, just at the completion of his seventy-fourth year. He was buried in the public cemetery then recent- ly opened ; but upon the erection of the present Trinity Church in that city, his remains were disin- terred and deposited beneath the chancel of this edifice, which he had hoped to see erected.2 His son and only surviving child, - the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, - whom he advanced to the priesthood about two years be- fore his death, was permitted to honor his memory
1 March, 1868.
2 - " Hujusce templi, quod, ut exstructum adspiceret
Eheu non oculis mortalibus, magnopere sperabat." - Inscription.
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by placing over his dust a mural monument of chaste design and exquisite workmanship, with a Latin in- scription, reciting his ecclesiastical dignity and posi- tion, and his own filial and affectionate sorrow.
Bishop Jarvis was an admirer of the old school of divines, and his manners were formed after the type of an English gentleman of the last century. Those who knew him in the latter years of his life speak of him as preserving great dignity of deportment, gravity of speech, and professional decorum. A profusion of white locks covered his head, which resembled some- what an old-fashioned wig, and added much to the venerableness of his appearance. He had a capacious mind, a correct taste, and great sensibility of heart. He watched with a good degree of jealous care the dignity and prerogatives of the Episcopal office, and at times was rather arbitrary and unyielding in the pur- suit of what he conceived to be the true line of his duty. Thoroughly versed in the history of the Church, her constitution and government, her doc- trines and Liturgy, he was so far forth fitted to be a wise counsellor and guide; and his few published writings bear marks not only of his opposition to needless innovations, but of his undeviating advocacy of apostolic order and primitive usage. He rigidly adhered to rubrics, and had no patience with those who would shorten the Liturgy for the sake of the sermon.1
1 The gentlest rebukes are frequently the most effective. During his residence in New Haven, a young clergyman from the South spent a Sun- . day with him, and was engaged to officiate in the morning. On their way to the church, he whispered in the ear of the Bishop that he had rather a long sermon, and with his permission, he would like to omit the ante-Com- munion service. The Bishop waited for a moment and then laying his hand upon his young friend, said, - " My dear Sir, if you have anything better
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It has been seen that he had some serious troubles to contend with in the matter of discipline, particu- larly in the case of Ammi Rogers, and it added sharp- ness to his trial that all the clergy of the Diocese did not approve of his policy in that unhappy affair. He was slow to form conclusions and not very quick to act, but inflexible when he had taken his ground. He magnified points of minor importance, and some- times allowed them to stand in his way, when, to the view of others, he seemed to be forgetting the real welfare of the Church. He would postpone the ordi- nation of candidates for slight reasons, and he was so nice about their dress that occasionally when they ap- peared before him in unsuitable apparel, he would supply from his own wardrobe what, in his judgment, was necessary to present them " decently habited." He had a tenacious memory and a large fund of in- formation, and towards the close of his life he re- peated anecdotes and sketches of personal history with such minuteness of detail as to be tedious to his listeners. The art of brevity in narration was not among his attainments.
The family of his predecessor had been left " in all temporal things unprovided for," but Bishop Jarvis never suffered from "the chill hand of want and pe- cuniary distress." Though the Diocese had done too little for his support, Providence had blessed him with a competency ; and his son had inherited a handsome property through his mother, who was a niece of the wife of Rev. Dr. Leaming. Not one of
than the Ten Commandments and the Epistle and Gospel for the day, by all means omit the service, but if not, hold fast the form of sound words." It is needless to add that there was no omission of the service.
12
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his clergy could lay any claim to so large a private fortune. In view of his cup and of the portion of his inheritance, the Bishop might have said with the Psalmist : "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." 1
1 Psalm xxiii. 6.
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CHAPTER VII.
ANNUAL CONVENTION AT STRATFORD ; STYLE OF PREACHING ; REV. JOHN KEWLEY ; AND PERVERSIONS TO ROME.
A. D. 1813-1814.
A MONTH only intervened between the death of Bishop Jarvis and the meeting of the Annual Con- vention at Stratford. The clergy and laity on that occasion were equally divided, - twenty-nine of each order being present, - and the Rev. Tillotson Bronson delivered a sermon in which he set forth "the divine institution and perpetuity of the Christian priest- hood," and made appropriate allusions to the bereave- ment of the Church in Connecticut and the character of her late Diocesan. The sermon was asked for publication and printed. It opened thus : "In the course of Divine Providence, that portion of the Church here assembled in Convention, has lately been deprived of its visible head. Our late venerable Diocesan has received that summons which all must obey, and is gone from this to the world of spirits. His sacred office is vacant. He will no more preside in this body. His seat is left to be filled by another. Under the immediate view of such an event, it be- comes all seriously to reflect on the ways of God in his government of the Church, during its continuance in this transitory state.
" Especially should we, my brethren of the clergy,
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be deeply reminded of the solemn vows we made at our ordination ; and resolve, before God, to feed the flock committed to our care, with the sincere milk of his word, and neglect not to stir up the gift that is in us by the laying on of hands. This gift many of you received through the instrumentality of those hands, which have been lately consigned to the tomb, and are mouldering into dust. Though they have ceased any more to perform the sacred rite, yet should they be active through you in the spiritual work, to which you are called in repairing the waste places of Zion."
The thoughts and deliberations of the Convention, though not summoned for that specific object, were naturally turned to the election of a successor in the Episcopate. The Rev. Tillotson Bronson and eleven laymen, two of them (Nathan Smith of New Haven and Samuel Tudor of Hartford) not members of the Convention, but "present with many others from a feeling of interest in the result" were ap- pointed a committee to devise ways and means for increasing the Bishop's Fund, and in their report, which was made on the second day of the session, they directed that the Secretary should transmit to the several parishes throughout the Diocese a cir- cular, earnestly recommending the necessity of rais- ing a sum which would afford an adequate and reasonable support of the Episcopate ; that the Stand- ing Committee, by themselves or by agents of their appointment, should solicit donations and subscrip- tions in all the parishes, and that on or before the 20th day of July, 1813, every rector in the State be requested to preach a sermon to his people,
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" strongly enforcing the importance of accomplishing this most desirable object."
No time was lost in acting upon the letter and spirit of this resolution. The establishment of an ample Episcopal fund had been a subject of serious consideration for many years, and the last annual ad- dress of Bishop Jarvis, noticed in the previous chap- ter, invoked a renewal of the efforts, which had hith- erto been attended with very little success. The laity evinced a more hearty interest in the matter, and felt that a system of neglect so discreditable to the Diocese should not be permitted to continue. At the Special Convention, therefore, on the 3d day of the ensuing August, warned by the Standing Com- mittee to assemble for the purpose of electing a bish- op, steps were taken to ascertain the proportion of each parish in the Diocese, according to its taxable list, towards the endowment of the Episcopate. The election of a bishop was postponed until the last Wednesday in November, and having secured for publication a copy of the sermon delivered at the opening services by the Rev. Philander Chase, then Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, the Convention ad- journed and awaited the result of the movements which had been thus initiated.
The assessments on the parishes or the proportion of each, as estimated by a committee appointed at this Convention, contemplated an amount in money for the principal of the fund which, at simple interest, would yield an income of not less than one thousand dollars a year, this being the limit of the charter, and as much as the Episcopalians deemed it prudent to ask of the General Assembly, when the act of incor-
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poration was solicited. The amount of assessments in 1813 upon seventy-two parishes or congregations, was sixteen thousand five hundred and seventy dol- lars, but experience shows that taxes are more easily levied than collected, and not quite one half the sum here named was afterwards received.
When the adjourned Convention met in November at New Haven, the election of a bishop was again postponed, and Charles Sigourney, the treasurer of the trustees for receiving donations, appointed upon the death of his predecessor three months before, was requested to visit the various parishes in the Diocese and obtain from them the amounts which they had severally raised towards the proposed fund. The winter was approaching and the treasurer at first did no more than address them in a printed circular, lay- ing before the members their duty in respect to the Episcopate and urging them to its immediate per- formance. The returns came in slowly, and a few months later he travelled through many towns in the western part of the State, where the Church was the strongest, and held personal interviews with leading Episcopalians on the business of his mission. The result was not particularly encouraging, and at the next Annual Convention, which was also an adjourned one, held in Woodbury, June 1, 1814, no perceptible progress in the movements of the Diocese towards filling the vacant Bishopric was made. After the Convention had divided to vote in the usual manner by orders, the "clerical delegates" resolved to sit with closed doors. What transpired in that secret meeting, the warm discussion, the sharp conflicts of opinion, the delicate scrutiny of personal character,
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the earnest advocacy of favorite candidates by differ- ent clergymen, the representation of the absolute need of Episcopal oversight and of the drift to- wards the Church by members of the standing order which every day was becoming more apparent, all these things are unknown to us, for when the veil of secresy had been removed, the only record of the proceedings was : "Whereas, the fund contemplated for the support of a bishop is not yet adequate to that purpose, therefore resolved that it is inexpedient to proceed to the election of a bishop at this time."
The question upon this resolution was taken by yeas and nays, and eighteen out of twenty-one voted in the affirmative. It was communicated to the House of Lay Delegates, who returned it with their unani- mous concurrence; and once more the Convention adjourned to meet in New Haven on the 26th day of October, it being understood that the object of the adjournment was to give opportunity for carrying into effect the plan of raising an Episcopal fund. But when October came and nineteen clergymen and thirty-three laymen assembled to renew their delibe- rations, the point of highest importance was still in the distance, and again an adjournment took place till the annual meeting in June, the Convention hav- ing first directed the Standing Committee, "upon application from any church or churches in the Dio- cese, to request any bishop in the United States to attend an Episcopal visitation among them." Thus the clergy and laity met in convention three times in 1813, and twice in 1814, to arrange and perfect meas- ures for advancing the general interests of the Church in Connecticut.
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The Episcopate, however, and the duty of provid- ing for its support, were not the only subjects of solicitude with the delegates. At the Annual Con- vention of 1814 a Diocesan Missionary Society was projected, which looked both to the supply of vacant parishes and the aid of young men in their education for the Christian ministry. Though it yielded no immediate fruit and was afterwards combined with another agency, yet the formation of this society is some proof of the zeal of the churchmen of that day and of their desire, as was stated in the preamble of the Constitution, to " extend a knowledge of our holy religion." The Rev. Bethel Judd, at that time Rector of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, and one of the most active of the thirty-four clergymen in the Diocese; was the head of the movement, and took especial pains to further its design. There was need enough then for an increase of the ministry. The Church in other States was but poorly supplied, and the whole number of Episcopal clergymen throughout our coun- try was scarcely above two hundred, and one sixth of these resided in Connecticut. The adoption of the missionary principle, therefore, in connection with the proffer of assistance to young men seeking an edu- cation with a view to Holy Orders, was a step forward, and all the more to be commended because it was taken at a period when the tone of general feeling was not in sympathy with a broad and large-hearted charity.
The generation which knew Bishop Seabury and fell under his instructions had not yet passed away. He was remembered in the older parishes with grati- tude and affection, and the new ones, which had been
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recently engaged in erecting houses of worship, were guided in their type of churchmanship by the prin- ciples of which he was an admirable exponent and defender. His disinterested and primitive zeal in the cause of the Apostolic Church was often recalled, and men spoke of him with a reverence which had re- spect as well to his personal character as to his office. It was about this time that his discourses on several subjects, in two volumes, were published by subscrip- tion for the benefit of his family, from manuscripts prepared by the author himself, and with a dedication, " To the Episcopal Clergy of Connecticut and Rhode Island, ... in token of the regard and esteem of their affectionate Diocesan." Lay-readers used them freely in the vacant parishes, and probably no sermons were more familiar to the churchmen of Connecticut half a century ago than these. They helped to teach them sound Christian doctrine and to preserve in their minds the image of a godly and sainted prelate. An original portrait of the first Bishop of Connecticut, painted by Thomas S. Duché, and presented to the Diocese through Bishop White by a sister of the painter,1 now hangs in the library of Trinity College, and no one acquainted with his history can look at it, without a feeling of gratitude to God for the noble work which He enabled Seabury to accomplish.
1 " In the room where I am writing at this time, I have before my eyes a very good picture of Bishop Seabury, the painter of which was my partic- ular friend. He painted another fine picture for the front of my church organ, where it is now to be seen, and is much admired ; but it so happened (longa est historia) that that picture was the occasion of his death." - MS. Letter, Wm. Jones of Nayland to Dr. Bowden, 1799.
Thomas Spence Duché, the son of Rev. Jacob Duché of Philadelphia, died in England, in 1790, in his twenty-seventh year, and was buried in Lambeth church-yard.
VOL. II. 7
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The great business of the Christian ministry is to preach the Gospel, and all themes in their treatment should converge to its one centre, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Men are influenced by the tone of religious sentiment around them and by the age in which they live. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the staple of the pulpit in New England was largely made up of scholastic essays and dry meta- physical disquisitions ; and among the people there was an extensive prejudice against the sterner fea- tures of Calvinism. While in the neighboring com- monwealth of Massachusetts, some voice from time to time was heard, uttering what many feared or hesi- tated to believe, while single ministers called out to admonish all of the rapid current, which, without a breath of air, was wafting them away into Socinian- ism - in Connecticut the rigid, dogmatic theology of the Puritans was still received and accepted as a whole by the Congregationalists; or where intelli- gent minds among the laity renounced it, they re- nounced it, not to deny the Lord that bought them, but to join a communion in whose venerable Liturgy the doctrine of the Trinity is most thoroughly recog-
nized and taught. Hence if it be true that the intel- ligent religious sentiment of Massachusetts, restless under the severe teachings of the prevailing denomi- nation there and separating from it, became Unitarian, it is also true that the same sentiment under like con- ditions in Connecticut fled for satisfaction and repose to the bosom of the Episcopal Church.
This may account in part for the general style of preaching among our older clergy at that period. Controversy had sharpened their logical powers and
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made them feel that it was necessary to draw atten- tion to the Christian doctrines embodied in the Book of Common Prayer, and to the essential and practical duties of life. With some of them, perhaps, there was too much zeal for forms: the scaffolding prepared for use in erecting the building was watched at the ex- pense of the building itself. They sprung to the oppo- site extreme from Calvinism and were apparently more diligent in explaining the government and external order of the Church than in enforcing the great and vital truths of the Gospel. Their sermons were chiefly plain, didactic essays, correct but cold, and calculated to instruct the judgment rather than to warm the heart. Hubbard at New Haven, and Tyler at Nor- wich, both good men and faithful ministers for life in their respective parishes, were types of a school in theology which laid much stress upon the inculca- tion of moral duties. Rayner at Huntington, and Barber at Waterbury, both afterwards recreant to the Church, were as remarkable for earnestness and abil- ity in the defence of their favorite tenets as for sow- ing the seeds of mischief and discontent along their paths. Mansfield, now for more than half a century the grave and sensible pastor at Derby, Ashbel Bald- win, Bronson, Burhans, Ives, and Shelton were all ex- amples of those embassadors for Christ who will not believe that it is any violation of charity to maintain stoutly, as this Church understands it, " the faith once delivered to the saints."
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