USA > New York > New York City > A history of the parish of Trinity Church in the city of New York, pt 3 > Part 7
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April 1, 1823, a resolution in relation to St. John's Square was passed :
"That the said Square shall remain hereafter an ornamental Square without any buildings being erected therein, and in case all the Lessees of the lots fronting on said Square shall agree to maintain the same at their own expense as a private Square in proportion to the ground which they possess fronting on the Square, that it shall remain as a private Square, but otherwise or if the proprietors of the lots do not so maintain the said Square, then that it be ceded to the City Corporation as a public Square." 1
On the 9th of June, 1823, the following resolution was passed :
" It appearing that a majority of the Lessees of the Lots on Hud- son Square had acceded to the arrangement recommended by the Standing Committee and confirmed by the Vestry at their last meeting, it was ordered that the necessary conveyances on the part of this Cor- poration be executed under the direction of the Standing Committee."?
1 Records, liber ii., folio 377.
2 Ibid., 378.
View of St. John's Chapel from the Park. 1829.
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St. John's Square
1823]
July 8, 1823, a Committee was appointed to consider and report on the expediency of erecting a house for the use of the Rector, on lot No. 27, on St. John's Square, and to ascertain what sum could be obtained on a sale of the house and lot now occupied by the Rector.1 On the 3Ist of the same month, it was resolved to erect the house on the St. John's Square lot as soon as they could get a good offer for the house and lot on Vesey Street .?
September 8, 1823, the Rector stated that in conse- quence of the impaired state of his health, his physicians had recommended him to undertake a voyage to Europe. The Vestry thereupon voted to continue the Rector's salary during his absence and to provide for the expenses of the voyage.3
On the 18th of September, 1823, in view of the Rector's proposed absence, the Rev. William Berrian was nomi- nated as "preacher Assistant" pursuant to the provisions of the Charter.4
September 23, 1823, the Vestry assented to the above nomination and declared the Rev. William Berrian to be the Assistant to the Rector.
1 Records, liber ii., folio 379,
3 Ibid., folio 380.
* Ibid., folio 379.
Ibid., folio 381.
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CHAPTER V.
PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING HOBART'S LABORS.
Influence of Hobart and Trinity Parish on the Church at Large-Address to the Sun- day-School Society, 1817-American Edition of Mant's Family Bible-Christian Journal and Literary Register-Incident of Ammi Rogers-Work among the Indians-Address of Indians to Dr. Hobart-His Visit to the Oneidas-Eleazer Williams-Consecration of Nathaniel Bowen as Bishop of South Carolina-Diocesan Convention of 1818- Charge of Bishop Hobart-His Definition of the Churchman and his Principles- Election of Professors to the Theological Seminary-Election and Consecration of Dr. Brownell as Bishop of Connecticut-Address of the Connecticut Churchmen to Bishop Hobart-Hobart's Ill-Health-Address to the Convention of 1822, on For- mation of Bible Societies -- His Trip to Canada with Mr. Berrian-His Continued Ill-Health-Decides on a Journey to Europe-Scenes Attendant on his Departure- Sails by Meteor for Liverpool.
I T is not my intention to deal fully with the life and career of Bishop Hobart. The limits of this work would be transcended, if such an attempt were made ; and besides this, I am not writing a memoir of the third Bishop of New York, but of the seventh Rector of the Parish. Still, the work and duties of the Rector of Trinity Church and the Bishop of the Diocese in those days were so interwoven, that it is difficult to discriminate between acts which affected the Parish solely, and those which had relation to the Diocese at large.
Unceasing in his labors, energetic and alert wher- ever the needs of the Church were urgent, prompt with voice and pen in defence of her Doctrine or Polity, the life of the Bishop was one of strenuous and incessant action ; nor did he infuse his own extraordinary vigor and virility into the Parish only, but he also made that Parish the
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Sunday-School Society
1817]
centre of an influence which radiated through the whole of the large Diocese of New York, the contiguous Diocese of Connecticut, of which he had, for a time, the oversight, and to the farthest limits of the Church, wherever existing at that time.
Thus did Trinity Parish become, in some sense, the heart of the spiritual life of our Communion throughout the United States. In all directions pulsed the current of a growing vital force. Little by little, the methods and principles of the great Bishop came to be recognized as truly distinctive of the position of our branch of the Catholic Church in America. The influence exerted by him was obviously the result of the dual position which he held, since he was able to put into practice and illustrate in his own Parish what as Bishop he recommended to his Diocese. A few of his official pronouncements and acts shall be selected as illustrating the kind of work which he inaugurated and the principles advocated by him as the basis of churchly ways and life.
The first anniversary of the Sunday-school Society was held in St. Paul's Chapel, on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1817. The building was filled with children, parents, teachers, and directors of the various Sunday-schools, and officers of the Society.
After the Gospel a special service was used, consisting of sentences, the Collect for Ash-Wednesday, the Collect " Direct us, O Lord &c.," a prayer for Sunday-schools, the Lord's Prayer, and the Grace. An address was de- livered by the Bishop in which he expressed his grati- fication at the occasion which had brought so many children and adults together in the ancient Chapel.
" The scene which is presented to us requires no efforts of mine to render it more impressive and interesting. A number of young children and some of riper years are gratuitously taught the elements
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History of Trinity Church
[1817-
of human learning, with a view to their instruction in the principles of religious knowledge. They are watched over with the most affec- tionate care, as to their deportment, their moral habits, and their spiri- tual interests. They are thus instructed and cherished in learning, piety, and morals on that holy day which affords to many of them the only leisure and means for obtaining these invaluable benefits."
The Bishop referred to the "Beneficial Effects of Sunday-schools," considered as regards the children, the superintendents and teachers, the Church, and society at large. Under each head he set forth the advantage enjoyed by the children and the consequent good to be expected by the people ; the self-denial exercised by the teachers; the increase of reverent worshippers in the house of God, and the elevation of thought and life in the whole community. In closing he said to the super- intendents and teachers :
"Commit yourselves and these interesting objects of care to that God who alone can be your and their refuge and salvation; that at the last you may hear the sentence which will be followed by the bliss of eternity, and which will be pronounced by that Redeemer, who is to be your everlasting portion, 'Well done good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord.'"
Turning to the children the Bishop said :
" This, children, is the sentence at which you should aim, this is the commendation which you should seek to obtain; and through the mercy and grace of your God and Saviour you may obtain it, by faith- fully discharging your duty to God and to your neighbor, and to yourselves as set forth in the catechism of the Church. Practice by God's help, which you must call for by diligent prayer, your Christian duty as there enjoined, and your life whether it be long or short, whether it be terminated in childhood, in youth, in manhood, or in old age, will conduct you to the joy of your Lord." 1
The numerous activities of Bishop Hobart during this
1 Pp. 29, 30, 31, Address on the Beneficial Effects of Sunday Schools, by John Henry Hobart, D.D. New York : T. & J. Swords. 1818.
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Ammi Rogers
1817]
year are only briefly outlined in these pages. In addition to his public duties, he undertook to edit an American edition of the Family Bible of Bishop Mant and Dr. D'Oyley, adding such notes as he thought necessary. To find time for this labor he rose very early in the morning, often, it is said, lighting his own fire. He also projected a bi-monthly periodical which should combine high literary merit in its original and selected articles, with Church news and notes. This was intended to take the place of the Churchman's Magazine, which ceased to be published in 1815. The first number appeared on Wednesday, January 22, 1817, under the title the Christian Journal and Literary Register.
Bishop Hobart, in sending a copy to his old instructor at Princeton, Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, says : "To amuse you for a few moments, I send the first number of a periodical work on a cheap plan, an essential element you know for usefulness in this country."
In commenting upon this Dr. McVickar, one of the Bishop's pupils in theology, and his biographer, says : "That it well deserved the title he gave it, 'cheap,' may be judged from its appearing in numbers of sixteen pages every two weeks, at one dollar a year. That it was good as well as cheap may be argued from its editor." 1
An incident of Dr. Hobart's visitation in Connecticut as Bishop in charge of that Diocese gave rise to much comment at the time ; but it shows how true he was to his principles when put to the test. Mr. Ammi Rogers, a man of considerable ability, had obtained ordination at the hands of Bishop Provoost by means of false testi- monials. The Bishop of Connecticut deposed him in 1804, acting, as he thought, upon a decision of the House of Bishops. Mr. Rogers resisted this act, claim-
1 P. 423, Dr. McVickar's Professional Years.
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History of Trinity Church
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ing that it was unjust and illegal. In this course he was supported by a few laymen and some of the Connecticut clergy. The Canon at that time was indefinite, the exact causes for deposition not being clearly laid down. Mr. Rogers had organized seven flourishing parishes in New London County. He had also intruded into St. Peter's, Hebron. .
In a full exposition of his case, which Mr. Rogers sent Dr. Hobart under date of October 15, 1816,1 he pleads for a just hearing. He reiterates that he was duly or- dained deacon and priest, and declares that he had min- istered ever since then faithfully and zealously, that he had admitted 500 persons to the Holy Communion, sol- emnized 200 marriages, and conducted the funeral rites over 230 persons ; that he had never taught or maintained anything contrary to God's Word or what this Church has received ; and that he did not ask to be " restored to the ministry " because, as he says, "I have never been canonically censured, suspended, silenced, or degraded, nor am I absolved from my ordination vows."
When the time drew near, in 1817, for the Bishop to make his official visitations in the Diocese of Connecticut, it was hoped by Mr. Rogers and his friends, including the Rectors of Christ Church, Norwich, and St. James's, New London, that the Bishop would visit the congregations under Mr. Rogers's charge. The Bishop knew all the circumstances, having been Secretary of the Lower House of the General Convention of 1804; and he made it clearly known that he could only visit Hebron or any other congregation which acknowledged Mr. Rogers as its minister, on the supposition that the parish was vacant and without a Rector.
As Hebron was very anxious to have the Bishop make
1 Hobart MSS.
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The Mohawk Indians
1817]
a visitation, the Wardens signed the following document, which is drawn up in the Bishop's own handwriting :
"WE, the undersigned, the Wardens of St. Peter's Parish, Hebron, Tolland county, state of Connecticut, do hereby declare to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hobart that in his episcopal visitation this day of said Parish according to the canons for the purpose of administering the ordinance of Confirmation we do not consider him as in any degree recognizing Mr. Ammi Rogers as a Minister of the Protes: Episco- pal Church.
" Dated the 20th day of August in the year of our Lord 1817
Signed in the HIRAM HAUGHTON / Wardens of St. Peter's
presence of EZEKIEL BROWN Parish Hebron
SMITH MILES BIRDSEY G. NOBLE
CHARLES SMITH
JOHN S. PETERS" 1
Upon the appointed day the Bishop drove to Hebron where nearly two thousand people had assembled for the service. To his surprise he beheld Mr. Rogers advanc- ing from the church-door in his gown and bands, to wel- come him. Turning to the Wardens the Bishop said : "Mr. Rogers must withdraw." As he declined to do so the Bishop entered his carriage and drove away.
It was a severe but deserved rebuke to an open de- fiance of the episcopal authority in the Diocese of Con- necticut. 2
The work done by the missionaries of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Mohawk Indians was the glory of the Colonial Church. To this day the descendants of many of those converted from Paganism remain faithful to the Church, and retain in their Canadian home the vessels for the Holy Commun- ion sent over in 1714 by Queen Anne for "her Indian
1 Hobart MSS.
2 See pp. 69, 70, Memoirs of the Rev. Ammi Rogers, Watertown, N. Y., 1844 ; also pp. 505-507, Professional Years, New York, 1838. VOL. III -5.
أرصدة
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History of Trinity Church
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Chapel of the Mohawks." The efforts made by earnest men like Dr. John Ogilvie and others to extend the bless- ings of Christianity to the tribes of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy were intermittent, being inter- rupted by war and hostile demonstrations by Indians in the pay of France. 1
In the confusion and disorder attendant on the Revolu- tion many of the Indian converts relapsed into Paganism. To recover them, and to bring others to the knowledge of Christ, were the objects of a new line of missioners, appearing after the pacification of the country. Those efforts were crowned with the success which they merited. Among the laborers in the field was a youth named Eleazer Williams. Bishop Hobart in the course of his western visitation became acquainted with him, and was informed of the fruits of his work. Visiting the Oneidas in their castle, he found in them a ready will and a strong desire for further knowledge of the Gospel. Few missionary efforts were so strikingly and picturesquely attractive, and few had more permanent results. The respect and affection of the Indians for the Bishop, whom they received as their friend and Father in God, found expression in an address to him by the Oneida Chiefs, representative of about 4000 souls, the scanty remnant of the great Iroquois Confederacy. It was made in February, 1818, and ran as follows :
"ADDRESS OF THE CHIEFS OF THE ONEIDA NATION OF INDIANS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO THE RT. REV. BISHOP HOBART.
" Right Rev. Father,-We salute you in the name of the everlast- ing, everblessed, and everliving Lord of the universe; we acknowledge
1 For an account of the work of Dr. Ogilvie in the Mohawk Mission, at Oneida, and while with General Amherst's army at Oswego, see Part I., p. 311, of this History. Reference may also be made to Missions of the Church of England, by Ernest Hawkins, B. A., London, B. Fellowes, 1845, p. 290.
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Eleazer Williams
1818]
this great and Almighty Being as our Creator, Preserver, and constant Benefactor.
"Right Rev. Father,-We rejoice that we now, with one heart and mind, would express our gratitude and thankfulness to our great and venerable father, for the favour which he has bestowed upon this nation, viz. in sending brother Williams among us, to instruct us in the religion of the blessed Jesus. When he first came to us we hailed him as our friend, our brother, and our guide in spiritual things; and he shall remain in our hearts and minds as long as he shall teach us the way of the great Spirit above.
" Right Rev. Father,-We rejoice to say, that by sending brother Williams among us, a great light has risen upon us ; we see now that the Christian religion is intended for the good of the Indians as well as the white people; we see it and do feel it, that the religion of the Gospel will make us happy in this and in the world to come. We now profess it outwardly, and we hope by the grace of God, that some of us have embraced it inwardly. May it ever remain in our hearts, and we be enabled by the Spirit of the Eternal One, to practice the great duties which it points to us."
A correspondent of the Christian Journal, in which the address with the Bishop's reply appeared, says that it was written by a young Indian, a communicant of the Church.
During his northern and western visitation in the autumn of the same year, the Bishop consecrated five churches, and ordained six deacons and one priest. On Sunday, September 13, 1818, he visited the Oneidas once more. Eleazer Williams read the Service in the Indian tongue, and interpreted the Bishop's sermon ; 113 children and adults received Holy Baptism.
The mention of Mr. Williams in the address, and his appearance at these services, suggest a few words regard- ing a very interesting personage in our ecclesiastical an- nals. A mystery surrounds him, which has made him the subject of careful enquiry and startling speculation. Though brought up among the Indians, from boyhood,
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History of Trinity Church
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he was not of their blood and race. It was believed, and is still believed, that he was of French origin, and none other than Louis XVII., the son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, who was born at Versailles, March 27, 1785, and supposed to have died in the Temple, after the murder of his unfortunate parents, the King and Queen of France. This thesis was maintained, with force, learn- ing, and ability, by the Rev. John H. Hanson, D.D., who published an article on the subject, in Putnam's Magazine, February, 1853, and followed it by a large volume in defence of his theory, entitled The Lost Prince and printed in New York in 1854. The question has a weird and strange attraction of its own whatever view may be taken of Dr. Hanson's arguments and statements. I had the pleasure of meeting the Rev. Eleazer Williams, in the year 1854, when I was an Assistant Minister of St. Mark's Church in Philadelphia. Never shall I forget my astonish- ment on seeing him. We are familiar with the appear- ance of the King of France, the unfortunate Louis XVI. The man who stood before me strikingly resembled him, in form and features, and had withal the quiet dignity and manner which mark very high rank and position. Ob- serving, with attention, his aspect and general bearing, I could not wonder that many had been so firmly convinced of his identity with the royal prince, the brutal Simon's alleged victim. This was the man whom Bishop Hobart met, and of whose work he had so fair an example. Laboring among the Oneidas as a lay reader and sub- sequently admitted to Holy Orders, he accompanied the tribe to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to which place they removed about the year 1820, after having sold their lands to the State of New York. He died August 28, 1858. A full account of him is given in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. vi., page 524.
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The "True Churchman "
1818]
Upon his return to New York the Bishop proceeded to Philadelphia, where he took part, Thursday, October 8th, in the consecration of the Rev. Nathaniel Bowen, formerly Rector of Grace Church, New York, as the Bishop of South Carolina. The other prelates who joined in the lay- ing on of hands were Bishops White, Kemp, and Croes.
On Tuesday, October 20th, the Convention of the Diocese met in Trinity Church. A sermon was preached by the Rev. Henry U. Onderdonk, of Canandaigua, on behalf of the missionary work of the Diocese, in which he gave some strong reasons for the better support of the missionaries.
Intending to give more full expression to the prin- ciples expressed in his Charge of 1817, Bishop Hobart in the following year delivered a second Charge, in which he minutely defined the "true Churchman." In his open- ing sentences, he alluded to the duty of the clergy to banish and drive away erroneous and strange doctrines, exhorting them to warn the flock against all opinions and practices, however sanctioned by popular favor, which might deform by heresy or rend by schism the Mystical Body of Christ. In an age priding itself on being liberal, he thought it the bounden duty of "the Churchman " to guard against that liberality, which cannot, without treachery to the Church and the Master, be lukewarm or indifferent on the subject of distinctive principles. The true Churchman is he, who, rejecting alike Papal cor- ruption and Protestant errors, adheres in all essential points to the faith, ministry, and worship of the Apostolic, primitive Church, and particularly to the constitution of the Ministry in the threefold order of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.
As for doctrine, the Churchman must hold, as the foundation, the facts of the corruption of human nature,
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History of Trinity Church
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and of man's inability by his natural strength, without faith and calling upon God, to perform works acceptable to Him.
Upon the sacraments, ordinances, and ministrations of the Church great stress is laid. Holy Baptism is " the sacramental commencement of the spiritual life." Regeneration, in the original and technical acceptation of the word, is the translation of the baptized from a state in which, destitute of covenanted title to salvation, he is styled "the child of wrath," into another in which are proffered to every recipient the mercy and grace of God, so that on the exercise of repentance and faith, he is in "a state of salvation." Confirmation is one of those means by which baptismal regeneration is perfected. In Holy Communion the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation is to be rejected, while that significancy is to be given to the divine ordinance which was assigned to it in the primitive ages but has been denied by opinionated Protestants of later date. There is in the Eucharist a true sacrifice ; that of the Oblation of the Bread and Wine as symbols and memorials of the Body and Blood of Christ. The office of the Holy Ghost in that great sacrament is indi- cated by the " Invocation," adopted from the Scottish Communion Service. Adherence to prescribed forms of worship, and maintenance of "the unity of the Church in submission to the Episcopal constitution of the Ministry," are included among the distinctive marks of the " true Churchman."
In concluding this weighty Charge, the Bishop says :
" The great principle into which all other principles of the Church- man may be resolved, that we are saved from the guilt and domination of sin by the merits and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, received in the exercise of penitence and faith, in union with his Church, by the par- ticipation of the Sacraments and ordinances from the hands of his au-
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The Theological Seminary
1819
thorized ministry, distinguished the Church in her first and purest state. The universal reception of this principle can alone restore purity and unity to that Christian family, which is now deformed and distracted by heresies and schism. To this principle, my brethren of the clergy, let us in the strength of our Master, consecrate our talents, our labours, our lives. Animated by this principle, my brethren of the laity, as well as of the clergy, we shall exhibit those holy graces and virtues which flow from a vital union with the Redeemer-and finally when he comes to translate his mystical body from the changes and trials of its militant state on earth to the glories of its triumphant state in heaven, we shall participate of its triumphs and be saved of the Israel of God." 1
In the spring of 1819 the funds of the proposed Theological Seminary were thought to be sufficient to justify the engagement of the Rev. Dr. Jarvis and the Rev. Samuel H. Turner as professors. Both were men of great attainments, and Dr. Jarvis was considered the most finished scholar in the Church.
The sessions of the Seminary were commenced in "a small room immediately beyond the corner of the north gallery in St. Paul's Church, New York City." Six students were in attendance. Leaving for further consid- eration the varied fortunes of the early days of that institution, it is sufficient to say here that it did not flourish in New York.
By the General Convention of 1820 it was removed to New Haven. Bishop Hobart's attitude and the sub- sequent history of the Seminary will form a separate chapter of this History.
The Rev. George W. Doane and the Rev. George Upfold were made temporary assistants in the Parish. Each afterward attained the highest honors of the Ameri- can Church.
1 The Churchman : The Principles of the Churchman Stated and Explained, &c., by John Henry Hobart, D.D. New York : T. & J. Swords. 1819.
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