USA > New York > New York City > A history of the parish of Trinity Church in the city of New York, pt 4 > Part 18
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A communication was received from Bishop Onder- donk, dated March 13th, in which he cordially thanked the Vestry for their action.
The resignation of Dr. Anthon, as related in the pre- ceeding chapter, having taken effect, a committee consist- ing of Messrs. Charles Graham, Benjamin M. Brown, and Thomas L. Ogden was appointed, on the choice of a suc- cessor. At the meeting held May 8, 1837, three names were presented to the Vestry for consideration.3 No
1 For this report, and the action upon it, see Records, liber iii., folios 172-175.
2 Ibid., iii., folio 177.
8 Ibid., iii., pp. 170, 179.
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Election of Dr. Wainwright
1837]
choice was made till the month of September following, more than ordinary caution being observed in view of recent troubles in the Parish. On the 25th day of that month, the Rev. James T. Johnston, Rector of St. Paul's Church, Alexandria, Va., was elected an Assistant Minis- ter. His reputation as a parish priest and preacher was well-known. He had spent several years in New York, in the practice of the law, and in preparing for the minis- try, and had won the regard and esteem of all who met him. But, to the great regret of the Vestry and the people, Mr. Johnston declined the election, being unwill- ing to leave his parish, the only one held by him during a long life. That life was spent in the quietness and peace of the ancient city in the "Old Dominion "; a life of singular purity and usefulness, from which not even a call to the Bishopric of Alabama could move him to withdraw.1
At a special meeting, held December 15, 1837, the Vestry, proceeded to another election : the Rev. Jonathan M. Wainwright, D.D., of Boston, was chosen. The choice was most gratifying to the Parish. Dr. Wainwright's letter of acceptance was received February 12, 1838, soon after which date he entered upon his duties, being assigned Thus was to St. John's Chapel, as his especial charge.
brought back to his old friends one who had been greatly missed during the five years of the Boston rectorship. The reasons which impelled him to decline the previous call to the Parish were no longer operative, as he had publicly and formally refused to be considered as a candidate for the Episcopate in the State of Massachusetts as assistant to the venerable Bishop Griswold. Dr. Wainwright's response to a letter from Dr. Berrian informing him of the action of the Vestry is highly entertaining.
1 For letter of Colonel J. W. Greene upon Dr. Johnston, see Appendix.
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History of Trinity Church [1837
"I shall give my answer as soon as I can get my Vestry to- gether to communicate with them. You cannot doubt as to what my answer will be. Not even an Archbishoprick would induce me to remain here, and as for the situation to which I am called, I do assure you that I would rather be called to it than to a Rectory." 1
A question came up about this time, which led to much disputation in the ecclesiastical and academic circles of the city. For many years, the commencements of Columbia College had been held in Trinity Church or St. John's Chapel, not without scandal, as a disgraceful scene, terminating in a mild form of riot, had actually occurred in Trinity Church at the commencement in 1811. There was a growing sense of the impropriety of the use of con- secrated buildings as concert halls and lecture rooms, and for public functions. The connection between the Church and the College, however, had always been intimate, and the use of the Parish church or one of the chapels for the public graduation of the students had come to be taken as a matter of course.
In 1833, the Rector had refused to permit the rooms in the rear of St. John's Chapel to be used by a temperance association. A year later, after consultation with mem- bers of the Vestry, he had declined to sanction a musical performance in St. John's Chapel. In January, 1837, he received a communication from Bishop Onderdonk, allud- ing to "a recent appropriation of St. George's Church, Hempstead, to a meeting of citizens growing out of the recent melancholy shipwrecks in that neighborhood, and designed for the consideration of the pilot laws, and other matters growing out of those events." Taking that as his point of departure, the Bishop proceeded to express strong disapproval of the use of consecrated churches for any secular purpose, and instanced the commencements
1 No. 229, Berrian MSS. .
8
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Secular Functions in Churches
1837]
of Columbia College in the churches of Trinity Parish as cases in point. The Bishop admitted that he felt "a pe- culiarly painful difficulty in the way of an honest expres- sion of his conscientious views," in that instance, as the College was his Alma Mater, and the Parish the home of his youth and the field of his ministry; but he felt it his duty, notwithstanding, to express the conviction that " such an appropriation of a consecrated edifice is incon- sistent with the tenour of the Office of Consecration, and with the honesty of purpose in procuring such consecra- tion." Referring to the words about setting churches apart from "unhallowed, worldly, and common uses," he concluded that college commencements, being in no sense religious functions, must be excluded by the terms of the Office. He concluded in this way :
"Our commencements of Columbia College being held in one of our city churches being supposed of course to have my sanction has been my most serious difficulty in discouraging the use of churches for various secular and ordinary, worldly and common purposes. I have, therefore, come in the fear of GOD and in the face of much that renders it difficult to the natural man, to the conclusion that I must on all proper occasions bear my testimony against it."'
Bishop Onderdonk had also written on the subject to the Rev. Wm. M. Carmichael, Rector of St. George's, Hempstead. A previous Rector, the Rev. Dr. Richard Hall, had in 1834 objected to the use of that church for the Fourth of July celebration without a previous re- ligious service. He quoted in his support the resolution of the Convention of New York in 1801 on the use of churches.2
1 No. 220, Berrian MSS.
2 See pp. 228-230, History of St. George's Church, Hempstead, Long Island, N. Y., by the Rev. W. H. Moore, D.D., Rector of St. George's Church. 12mo, PP. 308, New York, E. P. Dutton & Company, 1881.
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History of Trinity Church
[1837
The matter soon came to a practical issue in the Parish. At the Vestry meeting held September 25th, the usual application from the Trustees of Columbia College for leave to hold the next annual commencement of that institution in St. John's Chapel was received and read. After having entertained a motion, which was seconded, granting permission to use the Chapel,
"the Rector informed the Vestry that he had received a communica- tion from the Bishop of the Diocese expressing his disapprobation of such use of church edifices as being improper and inconsistent with the office of consecration, on the ground of which communication and in the exercise of his official rights, the Rector declared his dissent from and objection to a compliance with, the said application, where- upon, after mature deliberation, the following resolution was carried against the vote of the Rector :
"Resolved, that the request of the Trustees of Columbia College for permission to hold the next annual commencement of that institu- tion in St. John's Chapel be granted." 1
Much discussion followed, both in public and private. Many were not prepared to abandon at once their loose conceptions of the purpose of consecrated buildings. A letter from Bishop Onderdonk to the Rector dated Sep- tember 21, 1837, reiterates what he had said in January, and proceeds :
" Have their Bishops, Rectors, Vestries or People, a right to draw back, to appropriate otherwise what has thus passed by their own act from the right of disposal and become His house? Under a deep sense of my responsibility to Him, and a fearful apprehension of the Character of any act which makes this solemn form of consecration a mere thing of nought, I must say No !"
All parties should pause before they determine to set aside both the spirit and letter of the consecration service and the godly judgment of their Diocesan.
1 Records, liber iii., folio 185.
In
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Qualifications of Electors
1838]
"If such a part is taken by the Corporation of Trinity Church it will give to the best portion of our Diocese a degree of pain and ex- cite therein an agitation which I am sure they will themselves be brought to regard as a fearful price at which to have gained a point in opposition to their Rector and their Bishop. I have made extensively known your decision as to the use of one of your churches for com- mencement-and as extensively the assurance given me by President Duer that he would unite with me in opposing the holding of Com- mencements in our churches, if I would not interfere in the case of the late semi-centennial Anniversary, and it has met with universal satisfaction." 1
The letter of the Bishop and the firm stand taken by the Rector and several other clergymen in New York City ultimately carried the day in favor of a general recogni- tion by all Churchmen of the sacredness of places set apart for divine service and public worship.
At this time there seems to have been uncertainty in the minds of some of the parishioners as to the qualifica- tions of electors of Churchwardens and Vestrymen of this Corporation. The matter, one of vital importance, re- ceived careful consideration. Judge Irving, Mr. Graham, and Messrs. Lawrence and Ogden were appointed a com- mittee to consider and report "whether any alterations or additions to the existing ordinances relating to elections be expedient."
On the 12th of February the committee presented a carefully drawn report 2 reviewing the original qualifications of electors in the charter of 1697, with the modifications made by the act of April 7, 1784, the general act of April 5, 1813, and the special act of January 25, 1814. It also quotes from the Vestry ordinance of June 24, 1816, which required the Comptroller to keep a book, "in which shall be entered the names of the holders of pews and seats in Trinity Church and its Chapels," and section six of that
' No. 226, Berrian MSS.
2 Records, liber iii., folio 195.
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History of Trinity Church
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ordinance which provided that only such pew-holders can vote as are enrolled in that book.
It concludes that
" The right of voting for Church Wardens and Vestrymen is thus made to depend upon the following qualifications :
" I. Church membership for one year prior to the election.
" 2. The holding by purchase or hiring of a pew or seat, or the reception of the Holy Communion within the year. Both these quali- fications are necessary. The Committee considers the ordinance of 1816 sufficient and recommend no new legislation. " 1
The report was unanimously approved and the com- mittee discharged.
Several matters of minor importance may be noted here in passing.
A change in the administration of the Parish was made by the appointment of a Committee on Supplies and Repairs, and the abolition of the office of Superin- tendent of Repairs.
On the petition of several prominent members of the Parish, steps were taken to provide residences for the Assistant Ministers.
During the summer of 1838, the steeple and roof of St. John's Chapel were repaired, and certain alterations were made in the interior of that edifice.
The property No. 106 Franklin Street was purchased from Mrs. Henry Phelps, for $16,500, to be used as an Episcopal residence, and it was voted to provide furniture for the same.2
It was decided to purchase a new organ for Trinity Church. Two bids having been received, from Henry Erben and Firth & Hall, the bid of the latter was ac- cepted, for $2350, with extra stops, and a contract was made for the same.3
1 Records, liber iii., folio 197.
2 Ibid., iii., folio 216.
8 Ibid., iii., folio 191.
I
193
Prohibition of Burials
1838]
The subject of the permanent improvement of the music throughout the Parish being under consideration, a committee was appointed, consisting of the Rector, Dr. Wainwright, and the Rev. Mr. Schroeder, the Hon. Philip Hone, and Messrs. Benjamin H. Brown and Peter A. Mesier, "to take into consideration the present state of the Church music in Trinity Church and its chapels, and to report what plan or further measures they may deem expedient to be adopted by the Vestry for the improve- ment of the same."1 Dr. Wainwright, a trained and cul- tured musician, was also authorized to order and personally superintend the erection of the new organ.
In May, 1838, the Rev. Mr. Schroeder requested leave of absence for the benefit of his health. The request was granted with continuance of his salary and a loan of $1500 to defray travelling expenses.2 The Rev. John D. Ogilby, Professor in Rutgers College, New Brunswick, a young man of great ability and promise, was engaged to supply Mr. Schroeder's place during his six months' leave of absence.
The prohibition of burials within the city limits, except in family vaults, led to the formation of companies for laying out rural cemeteries. The vaults in Trinity and St. Paul's churchyards did not meet the requirements of the congregation, while St. John's burying-ground, on Hudson and Clarkson Streets, was used by a portion only of the people connected with St. John's Chapel.3 The acquisition of a cemetery remote from the city became the subject of discussion among the parishioners and in the
1 Records, liber iii., folio 205.
2 Ibid., iii., folio 206.
3 " The people who attended St. John's Chapel never took kindly to the little rustic cemetery. Many of them owned vaults in the churchyard of Trinity and St. Paul's or elsewhere, and not one of the families I have named is represented in the old Clarkson Street plot. Yet there have been more than ten thousand interments there and eight hundred monuments stand over the dead."-Pp. 159, 160, Walks in our Churchyards. By Felix Oldboy.
VOL. IV .- 13.
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Vestry ; and the matter was referred to the Standing Committee for consideration and report.
At the General Convention in 1835 a change in Article V. of the Constitution, providing for the division of dio- ceses, was proposed; having been made known to the several dioceses, it was finally adopted in the General Convention of 1838.1 The obstacles to a division of the Diocese of New York, which had been under consideration for some time, being now removed, a diocesan committee consisting of seven clergymen and six laymen was ap- pointed to determine the boundaries of a new diocese and to report to a special convention to be held previous to the meeting of the annual Convention in September, 1838.2
The accomplishment of the division of the Diocese of New York by the joint action of the General Convention and the Diocesan Convention presented once more the problem of the support of the Episcopate, with new diffi- culties added to the former. The division was to take effect November 1, 1838. The Vestry met in special ses- sion, at the call of the Rector, on the 18th of September to consider a communication from the committee of the Diocesan Convention upon the division of the Episcopal Fund, and requesting a conference with a committee of the Vestry. Messrs. Ogden, Johnson, and Lawrence were made a committee of reference, to report on the expedi- ency of granting aid towards the support of the Episcopate
1 See pp. 19, 25, 57, 60, 63, 68, 87, 94, 98, 102, Journal General Convention, 1835, and pp. 19, 23, 26, 89, 93, Journal General Convention, 183S.
The Joint Committee of the General Convention of 1835 on this subject consisted of Bishops White, Brownell, Benjamin T. Onderdonk, the Rev. Drs. Croswell, Reed, Hanckel, Hawks, the Rev. Mr. Prestman, Messrs. Peter A. Jay, Thomas L. Ogden, John E. Cook, John B. Eccleston, and William Meredith.
2 For a summary of the action leading to the division, see The Present State of the Question in Regard to the Division of the Diocese of New York, July, 1838, espe- cially pp. 4-8 ; Journal Special Convention, New York, August, 1838, September, 1838; Journal General Convention, 1838, pp. 46, 70, 106, 107.
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The Episcopal Fund
1838]
within the two dioceses erected by the late action of the Convention.1
It seems unnecessary to present in detail the series of demands and proposals which followed. A brief summary may suffice. The Corporation of Trinity Church made an offer to pay to the support of the Bishop of the new diocese the sum of $1600 annually for thirteen years. This offer was based on a review of the origin of the Episcopal Fund, the part taken by Trinity Parish in its formation, the burden of the support of the Bishop of New York hitherto assumed, and the supposition that of the amount already pledged for the Episcopal Fund of New York, $90,000 would remain intact, leaving only $10,000 available for the purpose of division .? This offer was rejected by the Diocesan Convention, on the ground that a virtual pledge had been given to divide the disposable Episcopal Fund equally between the two dioceses, and that $35,000 had been assigned already to Western New York; and the Diocesan committee asked that the temporary aid pledged to Western New York might be received by the old diocese. After further references and negotiation, it was agreed that the action of the Vestry "in granting conditionally its further aid towards the support of the Episcopate in the new diocese, ought, under the change of circumstances produced by the division of the Episcopal Fund between the two dioceses, to be applied under similar conditions toward the same object in the present diocese of New York." The conditions of this annual grant were that the parochial collections for the Episcopal Fund should be continued and accumulate for at least thirteen years or until the fund should reach the sum of $90,000, when
1 Records, liber iii., folio 212.
2 Ibid., folios 212, 215.
T
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History of Trinity Church
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the grant from Trinity was to cease. The report was unanimously approved and adopted and a copy of the resolutions sent to Dr. Wainwright, chairman of the committee of the Convention.
Before proceeding to a matter of much greater interest, it remains to note two or three items connected with the story of the Parish.
On the 12th of November, 1838, the Committee of Supplies and Repairs were directed to look to and secure the roof of Trinity Church, which was in a dangerous condition, threatening the safety of the structure; and a complete examination of the state of the edifice was or- dered. This is of importance, as the precursor of the re- building of the Church, which soon occurred.
A complete series of Rules and Regulations concern- ing interments in the cemeteries of the Parish and the duties of sexton was formulated and published as an official Ordinance on that subject.
Upon a report of the special committee on the music of the Parish, already referred to, the Vestry ordered the appointment of a chorister who under the Rector "shall have charge of the vocal music in all the churches and whose duty it shall be to have. the three choirs frequently practiced at one time and place," and the establishment of a school of music for the younger members of the Parish where the elements of the art should be taught and where the music designed for public worship should be practised.
A further report was made by this committee Decem- ber 10, 1838, and upon its suggestion the Rector and Assistant Ministers were made a permanent Music Com- mittee to have under their direction all matters relating to the music of the Parish. They were authorized to expend annually a sum not exceeding $4500 for the three
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197
The Schroeder Episode
1838]
churches, and required to present each year detailed state- ments of their expenditures.1
We come now to a matter which I shall designate as " the Schroeder Episode." It illustrates in a very striking way what was observed in a previous chapter of this His- tory about the difficulty of protecting a great institution like Trinity Parish from the assault of the destructive temper of individualism, and the tendency to resolve into separate elements under the influence of dissatisfaction on the part of the clergy or the people. In it were the ele- ments best adapted to lead to that result : a clergyman of talent and ability, but exceedingly sensitive on the subject of prerogative and right, and a considerable number of admirers, devoted to him and reluctant to see any one preferred before him or even for a while taking the place of their special and beloved priest.
The trouble arose out of a question about the meaning of the term "Senior Assistant Minister." Certain duties in connection with the granting of permits and orders to sextons were assigned in the absence or inability of the Rector "to the Senior Assistant Minister," and to clear the term from ambiguity it was thus defined by the Vestry :
" Resolved, That the words Senior Assistant Minister in the fore- going ordinance, and in all other cases be deemed to mean and refer to such one of the assistant ministers in the service of the corporation as in the order of his ordination may be the senior Presbyter." ª
The term had been in use before that time, but it had not been decided whether seniority by date of ordination was meant or seniority by date of appointment in the Parish. It appears that the Rector shrank from deciding the point, for fear of stirring up jealousy among the As- sistants ; so, at last, as the matter was causing a good deal
1 Records, liber iii., folio 224.
' Ibid., folio 221.
一
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History of Trinity Church
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of discussion, the Vestry decided to act, and, if I may so express myself, to decide Who was Who. This was done at a meeting held December 10, 1838, and thus the Rector, though relieved of responsibility, came into no small trou- ble. By a rule made March 25, 1836, precedence had been given to "the senior Presbyter," and now it was decided that the man who had been longest in Holy Orders should be deemed such senior, and entitled to the precedence attached to that rank; and, to make all plain and clear, the Rector was instructed, " by an informal but unanimous vote," to give in all respects the place of honor to "the Senior Presbyter," as thus designated and qualified.
The points of precedence appear to have been these :
(a) To read the funeral service in the absence of the Rector ;
(b) To read the sentences, if present, when the full service was performed ;
(c) To stand at the left of the Rector in all funeral processions ;
(d) To take the place opposite to the Rector at the left-hand end of the Communion Table during the Holy Communion, the Rector having the right-hand end ;
(e) To administer the consecrated bread to the people on his side of the rail.
(f) To follow the Rector in the order of the " Rou- tine " in the evening lectures at St. Paul's Chapel.
All these privileges, functions, and prerogatives had been for some time enjoyed by the Rev. Dr. Schroeder, the admired, beloved, and very popular Minister assigned to St. Paul's. But now, a new-comer, the Rev. Dr. Wain- wright, having been called to the Parish, and being Dr. Schroeder's senior in Holy Orders, a change was at hand. It became the unpleasant duty of Dr. Berrian to notify Dr. Schroeder to that effect. Shrinking, very excusably,
W In
1
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The Schroeder Episode
1839]
from his task, he deferred it until the " Routine" for De- cember, already published, had run out, and waited till the Order for January was ready. Then the Rector sent to Dr. Schroeder, ci-devant Senior Assistant, a formal notifi- cation of the action of the Vestry, with his instructions "to carry out in all its details the precedency of the Senior Presbyter over all the Assistant Ministers who were his juniors in the time of ordination." The Rector wrote in conclusion : " It is not a pleasant office, I assure you, to make a communication which will probably give you pain. It is my opinion that the action of the Vestry on the subject is decisive and final." 1
The commotion caused by this notice was prodigious. It shook the Parish, and parts adjacent, and led not only to the resignation of Dr. Schroeder but to a movement of his friends of St. Paul's Chapel to cut that chapel off from the Parish and set up as a separate church.
Written December 31, 1838, it was received by Dr. Schroeder January 2, 1839. While he could not have been entirely surprised at its contents, as there had been a possibility of its enforcement for nearly three years, and as the subject had been discussed by Dr. Berrian and him- self, the formal announcement gave him not only pain but a feeling of indignation. It was a reversal of a long estab- lished custom of the Parish, and seemed to be an unmerited indignity to one whose labours had been abundant and at various times highly commended. Dr. Schroeder had previously determined that he would never submit to a rule which would practically lower him in the opinion of the congregations and the churchmen of the city. Hav- ing taken three days for consultation with the Bishop and other judicious friends of the clergy and laity he wrote a reply to the communication on January 5, 1839. He
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