USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume II > Part 9
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The order of the founding of the Universalist Society in the towns of Essex County is as follows: Salem, Lynn, Danvers, Gloucester, Haverhill, Methuen, Hamilton, Essex, Georgetown, Salisbury, New- buryport, Marblehead, Andover, Amesbury, Lawrence, and Rowley.
The Unitarian Society seems to have had its beginning in 1820 in this country, and in 1823 the Unitarian Congregational Church of Lynn was organized with those who had seceded from the First Con- gregational Church, which was strictly Calvinistic, as the chief mem- bers. The principles of the Unitarians are like those of the Universal-
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ists in that they favor a liberal and all embracing Christianity. The doctrines of Calvin were too narrow for them.
In 1825 the First Unitarian Church was organized in Peabody so that there might be a place "in the South part of Danvers where an opportunity could be had for hearing sentiments more liberal and congenial with the true spirit of Christianity than is now afforded." The first church building was dedicated in 1826. The Unitarian Denomination has also been represented in Beverly, Ipswich, Law- rence, and Manchester.
The Revolution of 1688 in England drove many Catholics from Great Britain and Ireland to Massachusetts and other parts of this country in search of religious freedom. But they were not welcome visitors on these shores. The second charter of Massachusetts in 1691 had granted freedom of worship to all except Roman Catho- lics, so the Catholics migrated to Canada and New Brunswick. In 1755 the Acadians were forced out of their homes by the British, and many found refuge in Newburyport and other sea ports of this county. The French Revolution and the potato famine in Ireland in 1845-46 sent more Roman Catholics to our shores, and several came to Newburyport. From 1796 on Father de Cheverus, of Boston, was able to make annual visits to Salem and Newburyport. Through the latter half of the nineteenth century the increase in the number of Catholics in this county was aided by the development of industry in such towns as Lawrence and Haverhill and the immigration that accompanied this development.
There was a Catholic congregation in Salem in 1790, and in 1821 a chapel was built, this becoming the mother parish for all Essex County. The earliest congregation in Lynn met in 1835, and that in Newburyport in 1844. The church that was built in Newburyport in 1848 was the second of this denomination in this county. A great deal of missionary work was carried on by the ministers of the early parishes, and the growth of the churches was greatly fostered by this interest. Churches had been established in the following order in Lawrence, Haverhill, Andover, Gloucester, Rockport, Marblehead, Danvers, Groveland, Amesbury, Beverly, Merrimac, Georgetown, Peabody, Ipswich, Manchester, and Methuen. The Parochial School aspect of the Catholic contribution appears in another chapter of this history.
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Some, perhaps many, of the original settlers in this county were not Separatists from the Church of England before they left Eng- land, and such was the case with those who founded Newbury. They became Separatists because as time went on the connection with the English Church did not seem vital, and in fact some of them may not have been active members of the church. However, the functions of the church and state were very closely bound together in the minds of the New England colonists. In 1631 it was enacted in the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony "that for time to come noe man shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke, but such as are members of some of the churches within . . . . the same." Thus one's right to vote was dependent upon his membership in a church. In 1635 the Court further stated that no religious companies could be formed in the Colony unless they first told the members and elders of the estab- lished church of their intention and received their approval. Refer- ence to a feature of this law has been given in the case of the founding of the First Baptist Society in Haverhill in 1793, when the members were seeking to be relieved of paying taxes for the support of the Congregational Church. As the colonists became more involved in the political affairs of their own Colony, their political connection with England seemed less distinct and so did their religious affiliation. They had come to these shores to set up a new type of government, one in which they would have a greater share, and this meant a new type of church. The close association of the authority of the church and of the state as they developed it is what is called the theocratic system and implies the authority of the church over the state.
The working out of this theocratic system was greatly aided by the calibre of the early Puritan ministers. These men were usually highly qualified by their training in Oxford and Cambridge to take part in the establishment of the civil as well as the ecclesiastical gov- ernment, and they were often consulted on both these phases of government. Their advice was never unwelcome. Hence they acquired positions of great influence and respect in the Colony. They were also eminent as teachers, being masters of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and that eminence seemed greater as very few of the early colonists were educated men. It seems safe to say that there would not have been any colleges in this country in the early days if it had not been for the interest that the ministers took in their establish-
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ment. The last part of this chapter will be devoted to the story of one of the products of this interest-The Andover Theological Seminary.
The creed of the Puritans (as has been said) was Calvinistic and emphasized the depravity of man, the redemption of man through Christ, the punishment for sin, the eternal chastisement of the sinner who refused to repent or of him who refused to believe. This creed so permeated the lives of all religious people that it made them scornful of those who did not believe as they did. In the middle of the eighteenth century, when adherence to this doctrine had become a bit lax, it was revived by the lucid teaching of Jonathan Edwards, of Northamp- ton, who did more than any other to bring an immediate sense of God's presence into the lives of all the people of New England.
There is so much to be said of the history of the Congregational churches that I shall limit myself to the first ten churches that were founded.
The history of the Salem Church, the first church founded in this county, established the principles and aims that guided the founders of the earlier colonial churches. On the twentieth of July, 1629, the church met as a body and elected its pastor and teacher. "Every fit member wrote, in a note, his name whom the Lord moved him to think was fit for a pastor, and so likewise, whom they would have for teacher. So the most voice was for Mr. Skelton to be pas- tor and Mr. Higginson to be a teacher; and they accepting the choice, Mr. Higginson, with three or four of the gravest members of the church, laid hands on Mr. Skelton, using prayers therewith." This being done then there was imposition of hands on Mr. Higginson, thus establishing the close relationship between church and school which was to persist for many years. Thus the assembly of the peo- ple in Salem ordained and installed the minister and teacher. On August sixth the reading and signing of the covenant by those who thus formally became the members of the church took place before Governor Bradford and his associates from Plymouth.
The Salem Church was very proud of its independence and meant to preserve it. It established the principle that the congregation was the unit of human authority in ecclesiastical matters. Each such con- gregation should manage its own affairs and should acknowledge no earthly superior. It would be glad to recognize any other Christian
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congregations, but each church was to constitute a dominion of its own. According to this principle the members of the Salem Church had unmade the before-ordained ministers that it found within its midst and had made them ministers of its own creation and had invested them with the right and title of the office. Thus the Salem Church set the standard for the independence of the Congregational churches.
The officers of the Salem Church were pastor, teacher, one or more ruling elders, and deacons and deaconesses. There was no dis- tinction of precedence between pastor and teacher as their duties natu- rally overlapped. The duties of the ruling elder were not clearly defined, but he had some control over the minister and teacher and the administration of the affairs of the church. Although the churches continued to elect the ruling elders for some one hundred and fifty years, the office existed only in name after the first twenty-five years, when the fear of usurpation of power by the minister had died away. The deacons received and distributed the church offerings, and aided the pastor at the communion service. The deaconesses were usually widows of sixty years of age, or more, who aided the pastor in calling on and administering to the sick, the poor, and the distressed.
Roger Williams had arrived in Boston in February, 1631. In April of that year he was invited by the Salem Church to be the assistant to Mr. Skelton, as Reverend Francis Higginson had died in 1630. Mr. Williams, however, had already incurred the animosity of the Massachusetts Court through his separatist teachings, and now the court prevented his coming to Salem. Consequently Mr. Williams went to Plymouth, where he served as assistant to Reverend Ralph Smith for a while, and then devoted himself to manual labor, to learning the language of the Indians, and to further study of his principles regarding church government and the responsibility of the . individual in state and church affairs. In 1633 Mr. Williams obtained a dismissal from the church in Plymouth and returned to Salem, where he became the assistant to Mr. Skelton, though he was not ordained. In 1634 he was ordained upon succeeding Mr. Skelton as pastor of the church.
Mr. Williams held this office until October, 1635, when he was ordered by the General Court to leave Massachusetts because he had "broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions against
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the authority of the magistrates, and also writ letters of defamation, both of magistrates and churches." To use the quotation that is given by Fiske, in "The Beginnings of New England": "The views of Roger Williams if logically carried out involved the entire separa- tion of church from state, the equal protection of all forms of reli- gious faith, the repeal of all laws compelling attendance on public worship, the abolition of tithes and of all forced contributions to the support of religion." These ideas were so contrary to those of the founders of the established church that it is easy to see why the court considered Williams a dangerous character. It is hard to under- stand why the Salem Church welcomed him as its pastor. When Williams learned that he was to be sent to England, he escaped from the bounds of Massachusetts supervision to the banks of the Seekonk River, where he founded Rhode Island and laid the foundations for the Baptist form of worship there.
The successor to Roger Williams as the pastor of the church at Salem was Reverend Hugh Peters, a clear thinker and an eloquent and forceful preacher. Without neglecting his duties as pastor he gave a great deal of time and thought to promoting the business, social, and political interests of the townspeople. He aided in the reform of the police system, encouraged commerce, introduced new arts and forms of employment, encouraged the building of a water- mill, a glasshouse, and salt works. As a result of his interest the planting of hemp was begun and a market established, and a plan for carrying on fishing was made and also one for coasting and for- eign voyages. Many new citizens were attracted to Salem, and the church prospered greatly. In 1641, against the protestations of the people of his church, he was sent to England as a member of a com- mission in the interests of the colonists in regard to the laws of excise and trade. While there he became involved in the revolution which ended in the death of Charles I. He became the counselor and favored friend of Cromwell, and as such was one of those to be beheaded when the Restoration came in 1660.
In 1660 Reverend John Higginson, the son of the first teacher of the Salem Church, was ordained as the minister and continued in this capacity for forty-eight years, till his death in 1708 at the age of ninety-two. In 1683 Reverend Nicholas Noyes became his colleague. It had been the custom as occasion arose to change or add to
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the covenant of the church, and now, in 1660, the following was appended :
"When also considering the power of temptation amongst us by reason of the Quakers' doctrine to the leavening of some in the place where we are, and endangering of others, [we] do see cause to remember the admonition of our Saviour Christ to his disciples. Math. 16: 'Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,' and do judge so far as we under- stand it that the Quakers' doctrine is as bad or worse than that of the Pharisees; therefore, we do covenant by the help of Jesus Christ to take heed and beware of the doctrine of the Quakers."
This covenant shows the feeling of the church and of Mr. Hig- ginson towards the Quakers. I have referred before to the persecu- tions of the Quakers in Salem.
In the chapter on witchcraft in this history reference has been made to the share that Reverend Nicholas Noyes had in the prosecu- tion of the so-called witches. It seems fitting here to quote the words of Bentley concerning Noyes, after the mania had spent itself :
"Noyes came out and publicly confessed his error; never concealed a circumstance; never excused himself ; visited, loved, and blessed the survivors whom he had injured; asked for- giveness always, and consecrated the residue of his life to bless mankind. He never thought, in all these things, that he had made the least compensation, but all the world believed him sincere."
The following, also from Bentley, deserves to be quoted :
"As soon as the judges ceased to condemn, the people ceased to accuse. Just as after a storm, the people were astonished to see the light at once break out bright again. Terror at the violence and the guilt of the proceedings succeeded instantly to the conviction of blind zeal, and what every man had encouraged all professed to abhor. Few dared to blame other men, because few were innocent. They who had been most active remembered that they had been applauded. The guilt and the shame became the portion of the country, while Salem
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had the infamy of being the place of the transactions. Every expression of sorrow was found in Salem. And after the death of Mr. Higginson, whose only fault was his silent con- sent, the church, before the choice of another minister, pub- licly erased all the ignominy they had attached to the dead, by recording a most humble acknowledgment of their error. After the public mind became quiet, few things were done to disturb it. But a diminished population, the injury done to religion, and the distress of the aggrieved were seen and felt with the greatest sorrow."
Limitations of space do not allow further treatment of the Salem Church.
The church in Lynn was formed in 1632, when Reverend Stephen Bachiler arrived with six members of his church in England and began services without installation. Soon there were disturbances within this church that caused the General Court to insist upon Mr. Bachiler's leaving town; he did so in 1636. His successor was Rev- erend Samuel Whiting, who made a great name for himself through his interest in education, agriculture, industry, trade, and all other things that tended to help the community. By him the disturbances of the former pastorate were smoothed out, and the whole commu- nity gathered around him in confidence and trust. Here is another instance of a minister making himself indispensable to a town. No wonder that such men were highly respected; theirs was a life of unselfish service for which we cannot give them enough credit.
The origin and methods of the Ipswich Church are interesting. Quoting from Mr. Perley in the 1888 "History of Essex County":
"The church at this time was the object and the end of government; and there can be no doubt that the organiza- tion of the government here and an organization for religious instruction and worship were practically simultaneous."
In April, 1634, Reverend Wilson, of Boston, went to Agawam (Ipswich) to preach because the people wanted a minister. Mr. Parker and Mr. Ward went to Agawam separately in the next two months, and according to James Cudworth, the church was estab- lished in 1634 with Mr. Ward as minister and Mr. Parker as teacher. Again Mr. Perley deserves to be quoted :
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"The Sabbath service ran thus: The pastor began it with prayer: the teacher then read and expounded a chapter ; the ruling elders announced a Psalm, which was sung ; the pas- tor read a sermon, and sometimes followed it with an extem- poraneous address, consuming frequently an hour or more ; singing followed; then a prayer and a benediction. In the aft- ernoon service, just before the benediction, the congregation recited: 'Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.' The singing was peculiar. One of the ruling elders read a single line of the Psalm, then such of the congregation as could sing, rose in different parts of the house and sang it; then other lines were successively read and sung till the con- clusion of the Psalm. When elders were not chosen the dea- cons performed their duty, which gave rise to the phrase, 'Deaconing the hymn.' About 1790 the whole stanza was read at once, and about three years later the whole hymn was read at once by the pastor. Singing choirs began to be formed as early as 1763, when seats were assigned them, but they were not elevated to the gallery till about 1781. A contribu- tion every Sunday was the rule till some part of 1763. To deposit the offerings, the magistrates and chief men first walked up to the deacon's seat, then the elders and then the congregation. There was also weekly service, which was as carefully observed as the service of the Sabbath. It was called the 'Lecture,' and was attended each week on Thurs- day, which was known as 'Lecture Day.' It consumed the best part of the day, beginning at eleven o'clock. It became monthly, in 1753, and our weekly prayer-meeting is its successor."
Obviously the above did not apply only to the Ipswich Church, but was the general practice throughout the churches. It is oppor- tune here to say that the Puritan Sabbath lasted from sun-down on Saturday night to sun-down the next day. Nothing was allowed to interfere with the keeping of that time in fitting sacredness. The so-called "Blue Laws" were enacted to provide for a quiet Sabbath. One stated that a man could not kiss his wife on Sunday. A tithing- man was appointed to see that the Sunday laws were enforced, that people should not travel or work or in any other way transgress the
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Sabbath, and to see that people went to church and behaved them- selves while there. Equipped with a long tapering rod, it was his duty to "quiet the restlessness of youth and to disturb the slumbers of age." The journal of Obadiah Turner tells of what happened in Lynn :
"June 3, 1646 .-- Allen Bridges hath been chose to wake ye sleepers in meeting. And being much proude of his place, must needs have a fox taile fixed to ye end of a long staff wherewith he may brush ye faces of them yt will have napps in time of discourse, likewise a sharpe thorne whereby he may pricke such as be most sound. On ye last Lord his day, as hee strutted about ye meeting-house, he did spy Mr. Tomlins sleeping with much comfort, hys head kept steadie by being in ye corner, and his hand grasping ye rail. And soe spying, Allen did quickly thrust his staff behind Dame Ballard and gave him a grievous prick upon ye hand. Whereupon Mr. Tomlins did spring upp much above ye floore, and with ter- rible force strike hys hand against ye wall; and also to ye great wonder of all, prophanlie exclaim in a loud voice, curse ye woodchuck, he dreaming so it seemed yt a woodchuck had seized and bit his hand. But on coming to know where he was, and ye great scandal he had committed, he seemed much abashed, but did not speak. And I think he will not soon again goe to sleepe in meeting."
In 1635 Reverend Thomas Parker and some of his friends moved from Agawam (Ipswich) to Newbury and established a church there in that year. In 1638 the First Congregational Church was founded in Salisbury, two years before the incorporation of the town. The next church founded in this county was at Rowley, in 1639, with Rev- erend Ezekiel Rogers as the first pastor. There had been a church building on Cape Ann as early as 1633, but the church at Gloucester was formed in 1642 by Reverend Richard Blynman. In July of 1661 the salary of the pastor there, Reverend John Emerson, was fixed at sixty pounds a year to be paid in "Indian corn, pease, barley, fish, mackerel, beef or pork." Eleven years later it was voted that one- eighth of the salary should be paid in money. In 1641 Reverend John Fiske, who had assisted Hugh Peters in Salem, settled in Wen- ham, but it was in 1644 that the church was established and Mr.
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Fiske installed as pastor. In 1655 Mr. Fiske and many of the set- tlers moved to Chelmsford, and the church and the town languished, but the church was revived in 1657 by Reverend Antipas Newman and has continued its work of service. A conference of the churches which was held at Rowley in 1644 appointed two churches to be formed, one at Haverhill and one at Andover (North Andover it is now called). The church in Haverhill was, therefore, established in 1645, the year of the incorporation of the town, and in three years a log building was erected as the meetinghouse. The heads of slain wolves were nailed on the front of this house, and here it was that public notices were always posted. The trials of offenders were held in the meeting house after services.
In Haverhill, in 1651, it was voted "That Abraham Tyler shall blow his horn in the most convenient place every Lord's day for about half an hour before meeting begins." For this service he was to receive a peck of corn from each family. The next year this signal was abandoned and the beat of a drum again became the method of calling the people to worship until a bell was purchased.
There was a law in Haverhill which compelled a man to marry. One John Littlehale was called to account for the violation of this law, and it was required that he give up his "Solitary life" and live with some family. The spirit as well as the word of the law was carried out when John married at the age of sixty-six and became the father of two children. By the terms of another "Blue Law" in Haverhill two daughters of Hanniel Bosworth were fined ten shill- ings in 1675 because they wore silk, but the fine was remitted in 1677. Unless people owned a certain amount of property they were not allowed to wear gold or silver lace or other types of ornament.
The conference of 1644 had ordained Reverend John Wood- bridge as pastor of the church in Andover, and a meetinghouse was probably erected in the next year. In Andover special laws were made for the punishment of Sabbath breakers, and the offenders were con- fined in cages. The minister reproved them in public and they were heavily fined.
It is interesting to note that marriages and funerals were not considered as church affairs at first. In Bradford's "History of the Plymouth Plantation" occurs the following statement: "May 12, (1621) was the first marriage in this place, which, according to the
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laudable custom of the Low Countries, . was thought most requisite to be performed by the magistrate, as being a civil thing, . . and nowhere found in the Gospel to be laid on the minister as a part of their office." This custom was long followed by the Congregational churches of New England. No evidence of a prayer at a funeral has been found before 1685, and no instance of a mar- riage by a minister before 1686.
In 1810 the first Sunday school for the religious instruction of the young was started in Beverly by Hannah Hill and Joanna B. Prince.1
Another form of religious expression that has attracted consider- able attention in recent years is Christian Science. Mary Baker G. Eddy, the founder of this movement, was born in Bow, New Hamp- shire, five miles from Concord, on July 16, 1821. From the book entitled "The Life of Mary Baker Eddy," written by Sibyl Wilbur, we gather that the movement received its inception in Swampscott in 1866. Here it was that the doctrine of "Mind-science" as taught by Mrs. Eddy was evolved and tried out, and it was also here that her manuscript of "Science and Health" was completed. In the win- ter of 1869 and 1870, in Amesbury, Mrs. Eddy completed a manu- script which she entitled "The Science of Man." Although this movement has been the subject of much controversy, it must be recog- nized as one of the great religious movements of the twentieth century.
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