USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 28
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" Touching Ecclesiasticall matters," he wrote, " the attempting to settle ye way of ye Church of England I perceive wilbe very grievous to ye people, However M' Mason asserted y' their Inclinacons were mch yt way. I have observed them to be very diligt and devout in attending on yt mode of worship wth they have been brought up in, and hath been so long settled among them and seem to be very tenacious of it, and are very thankfull for His Majsties Gracious Indulgence in those matters." ?
Governor Cranfield wrote again : -
" ... Tis my humble opinion, that it will be absolutely necessary to admit no person into any place of Trust, but such as take ye Sacrament and are conformable to the Rites of the Church of England, for others will be so influenced by their Min- isters as well obstruct the good Settlement of this place, and I utterly dispair (as I writt in my former to yo' Lordps) of any true duty and obedience paid to his Maj'y untill their Colledge be supprest and their Ministers silenced, for they are not only Enimies to his Maj'y and Government, but Christ himself, for of all the Inhabitants of this Prov- ince, being about ffour Thousand in number, not above Three Hundred Christned by reason of their Parents not being Members of their Church. I have been this 16 Months perswading the Ministers to admitt all to the Sacrament and Baptisme, that were not vitious in their lives, but could not prevaile upon them, therefore with advice of
1 Tanner, MS. xxxii. 5, in Papers relating to the Hist. of the Church in Mass., 1676-1785, p. 643, edited by W. S. Perry, D.D., 1873.
2 Jenness, Transcripts, &c p. 126; Edward Cranfield to Com. for Foreign Plantations, Dec. 1. 1682.
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the Councell made this inclosed Order. Notwithstanding they were left in the intire possession of their Churches and only required to administer both Sacraments, ac- cording to the Liturgie of ye Church of England, to such as desired them, which they refuse to doe, and will understand Liberty of Conscience given in his Majt Commission, not only to exempt them from giving the Sacrament according to the Book of Comon Prayer but make all the Inhabitants contribute to their Maintenance, although they refuse to give them the Sacrament and Christen their Children, if it be not absolutely enjoyned here, and in other colonies, that both Sacraments be administered to all persons that are duly qualified, according to the form of the Comon Prayer, there will be per- petual dissentions, and a totall decay of the Christian Religion." 1
In New Hampshire Cranfield tried to put these principles into practice with no more success than was to be looked for when the Governor chose to strike against the Puritan rock. In December, 1683, he ordered the ministers to admit all persons not scandalous to the sacrament and to baptism, and to use for these sacred offices the English liturgy when desired, under penalty ; and he commanded Rev. Joshua Moodey, of Portsmouth, to read this order from his pulpit. A few days later he sent Moodcy notice that he with some of his coadjutors -who, if tradition is to be believed, could scarcely claim to be " not scandalous persons " - " would receive from him the sacrament according to the liturgy of the Church of England the next Sunday." Moodey declined to violate his conscience, and went to prison for it with a stout heart. Nothing is so stimulating to religious convictions as the sight of a worthy martyr; and the latent Puritanism was doubtless quickened in many lukewarm spirits in Boston, when like wildfire the news spread of what had been done, just beyond their jurisdiction, by the overbearing Governor who had been seen in their own streets.
In October, 1683, Randolph brought the threatened quo warranto against the charter, which in October, 1684, was abrogated at last. The liberties of the Puritan State had fallen with those of the ancient boroughs of England be- fore the corrupt decision of courts which were the tools of the Stuart tyranny. And Massachusetts was now a Royal Province, to be ruled by a Governor sent from over seas, - a representative of the King, who must needs have, therefore, a sort of vice-regal court, and must worship after the forms of the Established Church. Still a little further delay ; for Charles II. was sum- moned to the bar of the King of kings, - in that sudden hour of which John Evelyn has left so impressive an account. Charles died in February, 1685. Just before his death he had shown what his temper towards New England was, by commissioning the brutal Colonel Piercy Kirk to be Governor with unlimited authority. He was to have a council of his own appointment, and all lands granted here were to pay a royal quit-rent. One of the three Boston churches was to be seized for the service of the Church of England, a point on which Randolph's persistency with the Royal Council and the prelates had succeeded. But though James II. confirmed Kirk's appoint- ment, he soon found that he should need him for a tool of oppression in
1 Jenness, Transcripts, pp. 147, 148. Cranfield to Committee, Jan. 16, 1683.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
England.1 In the year's delay which yet intervened, the following record from the Journals of the Privy Council shows what preparations were making there: --
" Nov. 1685 : Ordered, that ... his Mas stationer do forthwith provide and de- liver to the Right Rev. Father in God, Henry, Lord Bp. of London, . . . six large Bil les in folio, six Common-Prayer Books in folio, six books of the Canons of the Church of England, six of the homilies of the Church, six copies of the xxxix Articles, and six Tables of Marriage, to be sent to New-Eng., and there disposed for the use of his Mas plantation, as the said Bp. of London shall direct." 2
On May 15, 1686, there entered Boston Harbor a vessel " freighted heavily with wo " 3 to " the Bostoneers," as Randolph called them. For this " Rose " frigate brought a commission to Joseph Dudley as president of Massachusetts, Maine, Nova Scotia, and the lands between: she also brought the Rev. Robert Ratcliffe, the first minister of the English Church who had ever come so commissioned to officiate on this soil.
Boston Docomb: 31. 1600 6
The Puritan diarist,4 who has left an invaluable chronicle of this period, sup- plies the record of the ensuing ecclesias- tical steps, not without ample indication of the course of his own sympathies :
Robert Ratcliffe
" 1686. Tuesday, May 18. A great Wedding from Milton, and are married by Mr. Randolph's Chaplain at Mr. Shrimpton's, according to ye Service-Book, a little after Noon, when Prayer was had at ye Town House : Was another married at ye same time ; The former was Vosse's son. Borroowd a ring. Tis sd they having asked Mr. Cook and Addington, and yy declining it, went after to ye President and he sent ym to y" Parson."
No sooner had Dudley assumed his office than Mr. Ratcliffe waited on the Council, and Mr. Mason and Randolph proposed that he should have one of the three congregational mecting-houses to preach in. This, how- ever, was denied; but he was allowed the use of the library room in the
J In the light of Colonel Kirk's infamous record there is a grim humor in Randolph's de- scription of him, writing to Dudley : " . . . 9, IT, "84. His Majesty has chosen Coll. Kerke, late governor of Tangier, to be your governor. He is a gentleman of very good resolution, and, I believe, will not faile in any part of his duty to his Majesty, nor be wanting to doe all good offices for your distracted colony, if, at last, they will hear what is reason and be governed."
It is interesting to note a momentary con- nection of the racy diarist Pepys with the events
happening here in an order, signed by S. Pepys,- appointing "Our Shipp the ' Rose,' Capt John George, Commander, to attend our Collony of New England," Nov. 28, 1685. - 4 Mass. Ilist. Coll. ii. 234. The change of government was duly celebrated in Boston by the proclamation of James II , April 20, 1685, when there may have been in the l'uritans a momentary hope of relief.
2 Palfrey, New England, iii. 484.
3 Greenwood, History of King's Chapel, 1. 1 5.
4 Sewall, Diary.
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THE RISE OF DISSENTING FAITHS.
east end of the town-house, which stood where the Old State House now stands, " untill those who desire his Ministry shall provide a fitter place."
" Sabbath, May 30th, 1686. My son reads to me in course ye 26th of Isaiah, - In that day shall ye Song, &c. And we sing ye 141 Psalm both exceedingly suited to ye day wherein therein to be Worship according to ye Chh of Engld as 'tis call'd, in ye Town-House by Countenance of Authority. Tis defer'd till ye 6th of June at what time ye Pulpit is provided ; it seems many crowded thether, and ye Ministers preached forenoon and Afternoon. Charles Lidget there. The pulpit is movable, carried up and down stairs, as occasion serves." 1
There for the first time the liturgy was read, - and on June 15, 1686, " the Church of England as by law established " was organized in Boston, - as appears from the first record in the parchment-bound folio constitut- ing the earliest record-book of King's Chapel. Besides Mr. Ratcliffe and Mr. Randolph, there were present Captain Lydgett, Messrs. Luscomb, White, Maccartie, Ravenscroft, Dr. Clerke, Messrs. Turfery and Bankes, and Dr. Bullivant. It was voted to defray the expenses of the church by a weekly collection at evening service. Dr. Benj. Bullivant and Mr. Richard Bankes were elected the first church-wardens. It was also voted humbly to address the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, " to implore their favor to the church, and that all other true sons of the Church of England might join in the same." Also: "Agreed, that Mr. Smith the Joyner do make 12 formes, for the servise of the Church, for each of which he shall be paid 4s. Sd., and that the said Mr. Smith be paid 20s. quarterly for placing and removing the Pulpit, formes, table, &c."
Another meeting is recorded on July 4, 1686, at which it was agreed to pay Mr. Ratcliffe £50 per annum beside what the Council might allow him.
The earliest funeral administration of the church offices is recorded in Sewall's Diary : -
" Aug. 5 [1686]. M' Harris, boddice-maker, is the first buried with Common Prayer : he was formerly Randolph's landlord."
The first observance of the Lord's Supper was held on the second Sunday of August. This, too, was noted by the observant Puritan eye : -
" Sabbath-day, Augt 8. 'Tis sd ye Sacramt of ye Lord's Super is administered at ye Town H. Cleverly there." 2
The Episcopalians set about the undertaking of a church for themselves, without delay.
"Aug 21, Mane. Mr. Randolph and Bullivant were here. Mr. Randolph men- tion'd a Contribution toward building them a Chh, and seem'd to goe away displeas'd . bec. I spake not up to it." 8
1 Sewall, Diary. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
VOL. 1. -- 26.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
But Randolph had other designs for them, involving the seizure of one of the Congregational meeting-houses, and the support of the Church of Eng- land at the cost of those who hated it. Here, however, his purposes were crossed, and his brief partnership with Dudley speedily gave place to hostility, as the possession of coveted power gave the pliant son of stern old Thomas Dudley the opportunity to displease all parties in serving himself. Randolph wrote to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, July 28, 1686:
" The proceeding of the governor and councill . . . are managed to the incouragement of the independant faction and utter discountenancing both the minister and these gen- tlemen and others who dare openly profess themselves to be of the Church of Eng- land, not making any allowance for our minister, more than we rayse by contribution amongst ourselves."
Randolph had supposed it to be part of the implied contract with Dudley that the Church of England was to be installed in power on his accession. But the following letter gives a vivid picture of his disappointment, as well as of the difficulties with which the new church had to contend : 1 -
" BOSTON, NEW ENGLAND, Aug' 2nd, 1686.
". . . As to M' Dudley, our Presid', he is a N. Conformist minister, and for sev- eral years preachd in New Engl! till he became a Magistrate, and so continued for many years ; but, finding his interest to faile among that party, sett vp for a King's man, and, when in London, he made his application to my Lord of London, and was well liked of by some about his late Matie ; where vpon he was appointed for this turn to be president, who, at my arrival, with all outward expressions of duty and loyalty, received his Matics Commission, Sweetned with liberty of conscience : and now we believed we had gained the point, supposing the President our own for ye C. of Eng1. At the opening his Matics commission, I desired M' Ratcliffe, our minister, to attend the ceremony and say grace, but was refused. I am not to forgett that in the late Rebellion of Munmouth, not one minister opened his lipps to pray for the King, hop- ing that the time of their deliverance from monarchy and popery was at hand. Some tyme after ye settlement of ye gount, I moued for a place for the C. of England men to assemble in ; after many delays, at last were gott a small room in ye town house, but our Company increasing beyond the expectation of the gount, we now use ye Exchange, and haue ye Common-prayer and two sermons euery Sunday, and at 7 a clock in ye morn- ing on Wednesdays and frydays the whole service of ye Church ; and some Sundays 7 or 8 persons are in one day Baptis'd, and more would dayly be of our communion had wee but the Company and countenance of the President and Councill ; but instead thereof wee are neglected and can obtain no maintainance from them to support our minister. Butt had wee a gen" gour we should soon haue a larg congregation and also one of the Churches in Boston, as your Grace was pleased to propose when these matters were debated at ye Councill Table .? I humbly remind your Grace of the money granted formerly for evangelizing the Indians in our Neighborhood. It's great pitty that there should be a considerable stock in this country (but how imployed I know not)
1 Other letters from him are largely quoted by Dr. Palfrey, fassim, going over essentially the same ground, in Ihistory of New England, iii.
2 See Hutchinson's Coll. of Papers, pp. 549, 550, of the original edition; ii. 291, 292, of the Prince Society's reprint.
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and wee want 7 or Soof to build vs a Church. Their ministry exclaim against ye Com- mon Prayer. calling it man's invention, and that there is more hopes that whoremongers and adulterers will go to heaven than those of ye C. of Eng". By these wicked doc- trines they poison the people, and their ministry carry it as high as ever. . .. Your grace can hardly imagine the small artifices they haue vsed to prevent our meetings on Sundays, and at all other tymes to serue God. They haue libelled my wife and our Min- ister, and this is done (as credibly beleiued ) by ye minister of the frigott,1 yett it's coun- tenanced by the faction, who haue endeavoured to make a breach in my family, betwixt me and my wife, and haue accomplished another design in setting vp and supporting Capt. Georg, Commander of the ' Rose ' frigott, against me. . . .
" It's necessary that ye gou' licence all their ministers, and that none be called to be a pastor of a Congregation without his approbation. By this method alone the whole Country will easily be regulated, and then they will build vs a church and be willing to allow our ministers an honorable maintenance.
" Wee haue a sober, prudent gent. to be our minister, and well approved ; but, in case of sickness or other casualtyes, if he haue not one soul from Eng! to helpe him, our Church is lost. 'F'is therefore necessary That another sober man come ouer to assist, for some tymes 'tis requisite that one of them visit the other Colonyes to bap- tise and administer the Sacrament ; and in regard we cannot make 401h a yeare start by contributions for support of him and his assistant, it would be very gratefull to our church affaires if his Matie would please to grant us his Royall letters, That the three meeting houses in Boston, which seuerally collect 7 or 86 on a Sunday, do pay to our church warden 20s. a weeke for each meeting house, which will be some encour- agement to our ministers, and then they can but raile against ye Service of ye Church. They haue great Stocks, and were they directed to contribute to build us a Church, or part from one of their meeting houses, Such as wee should approue, they would purchase that exemption at a great rate, and then they could but call vs papists and our Minister Baal: Priests." 2
It is evident enough, from the letters of the most resolute enemy that New England had, that the Church was pushed here by Randolph in no small degree as a political engine, rather than for religious and devout ends. The clear-sighted and conscientious Puritans who were opposed to him saw this very plainly. The wonder is not that they opposed the church so cham- pioned, but rather that it took root at all under such malign auspices.
The congregation of the Church of England in Boston was now organized and established, and would soon have had a religious home of its own but for a new political event. Within five months, on December 20, 1686, Sir Edmund Andros superseded Dudley and became the first Royal Governor of the Province.
It is beyond the scope of this narrative to give in detail the history of the high-handed ways in which Governor Andros faithfully carried out his master's policy. His proceedings in the State were paralleled by his course in ecclesiastical affairs. On the very day of his landing, the Governor endeav- ored to make an arrangement with the ministers for the partial use of one
1 The Rev. Mr. Buckly was the chaplain of Tanner MS. xxx f. 97, quoted in Perry's Papers relating to the History of the Church in Mass. pp. 653-656.
the " Rose " frigate.
2 Randolph to Archbishop of Canterbury, in
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
of the meeting-houses for Church of England worship. The pithy con- densed entries in Sewall's Diary give us an invaluable picture of the course of the negotiation and of subsequent events; and there are few more dramatic incidents in our history than the moment when the English ruler and the Boston clergy confronted each other.
" Monday, Decemb: 20, 1686. Gov' Andros comes up in ye Piñace. . . .
". . . it seems speaks to ye Ministers in ye Library abt accomodation as to a Meeting-house, yt might so contrive ye time as one House might serve two Assem- blies.
"Tuesday, Dec' 21. There is a Meeting at Mr. Allen's of ye Ministers, and four of each Congregation to consider what answer to give ye Gov'; and 'twas agreed yt could not with a good Conscience consent yt our Meeting-House should be made use of for ye Comon-prayr worship.
" Dec' 22. . . . In ye Evening Mr. Mather and Willard thorowly discoursed his Ex- cellency about ye Meeting-Houses in great plainess, shewing they could not consent : This was at his Lodging at Madam Taylor's ; He seems to say will not impose.
" Friday X 24. About 60 Red-coats are brought to Town. .
"Satterday, X' 25. Gov! goes to ye Town-House to Service Forenoon and after- noon, a Redcoat going on's right hand and Capt. George on ye left. Was not at Lec- ture on Thorsday. Shops open to-day generally and persons about y' occasions. Some but few Carts at Town with wood tho" ye day exceeding fair and pleasant. Read in ye morn ye 46 & 47 of Isa."
So ended what must have been an exciting week in the little Puritan community. But they were thankful that things were no worse. Mr. Sew- all doubtless expressed the general mind when, meeting Governor Andros in the street, -
" Friday Jan. 7th 1689. I thankfully acknowledged ye protection and peace we enjoyed under his Excellencie's Government."
The Puritans knew very well the temper of the men whom they were fight- ing. The controversy was one which no soft words would heal. It was at bottom nothing less than a deadly strife as to which of two opposing principles should govern Massachusetts. The unanimous mind of those who came here to execute the court policy was expressed by Governor Cranfield, of New Hampshire, who, in a letter dated at Boston, June 19, 1683, wrote to Sir Ll. Jenkins, -
There can be no greater evill attend his Majtie affairs here, then those perni- cious and Rebellious principles which flows from their Collige at Cambridge which they call their University, from whence all the Townes both in this and the other Colonys are supplyed with Factious and Seditious Preachers who stirr up the people to a dislike of his Majtie and his Goum'. and the Religion of the Church of England, terming the Liturgy of our Church a precident of Superstition and picked out of the Popish Dunghill ; so that I am humbly of opinion this Country can never bee well settled or the people become good Subjects, till their Preachers bee reformed and that Colledge suppressed and the severall Churches supplyed with Learned and Orthodox Ministers from England as all other his Majtres Dominions in America are.
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THE RISE OF DISSENTING FAITHS.
" The Country growes very populous, and if Longer left ungoverned or in that man- ner as now they are I feare it may bee of dangerous consequence to his Majts concerns in this part of the World. ... If the Boston Charter were made void and the Cheif of the Faction called to answer in their owne persons for their misdemenors and their Teachers restrained from Seditious preaching, it would give great encourage- ment to the Loyall Party, to shew themselves, who haue hetherto beene kept under and greatly oppressed and from all places of proffitt and trust. . . . " 1
A school of historical students has sprung up in this country who teach that the Massachusetts policy was a self-seeking and hypocritical one. The fact simply was that the Massachusetts policy was imperious, as it was necessary to be when in collision with imperiousness, and its assertors were in a way sagacious, as those must be who have to outwit unprincipled craft ; their course was narrow, as a sword must be if it is to have a cutting edge. The Puritan idea tended to make men freemen; the courtly idea of the court of Charles II. tended to make them slaves. In that interest the courtier party here bent all their efforts to break the Puritan idea to atoms. On the other hand, the Puritan idea was based on the supposition that this should be a colony of Puritans, -that they could keep out everybody else. And thus when the land filled up with churchmen and loyalists, the injus- tice followed that there was a multitude of disfranchised persons; so that it came to pass that the courtier party, from having fought against liberty at home, were obliged to fight for liberty here. To our forefathers it seemed that these men were wholly evil; but as dispassionate historical students we should judge them more fairly.
That little group of men " in the library of the town house " brought the - antagonist forces face to face.
Confronting the new power that was bent on subverting the cherished system of the Colony was a little company, resolute, uncompromising, devoted to the Puritan idea, -in the five ministers of Boston. They were the steel point of the spear which Massachusetts held steadily before her breast, ever on the guard, though not thrusting against her enemy as yet. The clergy had possessed a supreme influence from the beginning of the colony. The ablest men had found in that profession their largest opportunity. Many a man whose ambition led him later into public life set his foot first on that firm stepping-stone to power. George Downing, who passed from his Cambridge study of theology, by way of a chaplaincy in Cromwell's army, to success as one of the ablest politicians in England, whose baseness in betraying his former friends to a traitor's death when he joined Charles II. was only paralleled by his refusal to allow his mother the pittance needed in her old age; Joseph Dudley, nursed in the very bosom of Massachusetts, and turning to give her the deadlier sting with talents and powers which made him one of the ablest men of his time; William Stoughton, the rich, sour old bachelor, who never repented of his dark part as judge in the Salem witchcraft tragedy, and whose character
1 Jenness, Transcripts, p. 150.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
is crabbedly portrayed on the walls of the Cambridge dining-hall, - these, and such as these, began as New England ministers.
The sceptre of dominion was to pass forever from the Massachusetts clergy with the generation now on the stage. But the five ministers of the Boston churches are worthy to wield it. They face Andros, when he demands one of their churches, with a will as resolute as his own. Four of them were now hard upon fifty years old ; the fifth made up for the brevity of his twenty-four years by a precocity which was the wonder of the town. Two were joint-ministers of the First Church, two of the Second, and one of the Third, or South, Church.
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