The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years, Part 7

Author: Prentiss, George Lewis, 1816-1903
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: New York : A.D.F. Randolph
Number of Pages: 322


USA > New York > New York City > The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years > Part 7


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I. The ROOSEVELT PROFESSORSHIP OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY Was endowed in 1851, under the will of Mr. James Roosevelt, with $25,000, which in 1874 had become $34,000, to which Mr. James Brown in that year added $46,000, making the whole endowment $80,000.


II. The DAVENPORT PROFESSORSHIP (originally of Sacred Rhetoric, but since 1873) OF HEBREW AND THE COGNATE LANGUAGES was en-


SHEDD.


66 HITCHCOCK.


SCHAFF.


BRIGGS.


HITCHCOCK.


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PROFESSORSHIPS, LECTURESHIPS, ETC.


dowed in 1853 by Mr. James Boorman (who died in 1866) with $25,000, to which Mr. Brown added $55,000, making the whole endowment $80,000.


III. The WASHBURN PROFESSORSHIP OF CHURCH HISTORY was en- dowed in 1855 by Mrs. Jacob Bell (who died in 1878) with $25,000, to which Mr. Brown added $55,000, making the whole endowment $80,000.


IV. The BALDWIN PROFESSORSHIP OF SACRED LITERATURE Was endowed in 1865 by Mr. John Center Baldwin (who died in 1870) with $25,000, which was afterwards increased to $65,000, to which Mr. Brown added $15,000, making the whole endowment $80,000.


V. The BROWN PROFESSORSHIP (originally of Hebrew and the Cognate Languages, but since 1873) OF SACRED RHETORIC was endowed in 1865, by Mr. John A. Brown, of Philadelphia (who died in 1872), and his brother, Mr. James Brown, of New York, with $25,000, to which in 1874 Mr. James Brown added $55,000, making the whole endowment $80,000.


VI. The SKINNER AND MCALPIN PROFESSORSHIP OF PASTORAL THEOLOGY, CHURCH POLITY, AND MISSION WORK, was endowed in 1872, by Mr. David Hunter McAlpin, and a few other friends of Dr. Skinner and Dr. Prentiss, with $50,000, to which Mr. Brown added $30,000, making the whole endowment $80,000.


THE LECTURESHIPS.


The ELY LECTURESHIP, on "The Evidences of Christianity," was founded, May 8, 1865, by Mr. Z. STILES ELY, of this city, by the gift of Ten Thousand Dollars, in memory of his brother, the Rev. ELIAS P. ELY.


The MORSE LECTURESHIP, on " The Relations of the Bible to the Sci- ences," was founded, May 20, 1865, by the late Prof. SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, LL. D., by the gift of Ten Thousand Dollars, in memory of his father, the Rev. JEDEDIAH MORSE, D. D.


The PARKER LECTURESHIP, designed to furnish Theological Students with such hygienic instructions as may be specially useful to them personally and as pastors, was endowed in 1873 by WILLARD PARKER, M. D., LL. D., with $2000.


THE FELLOWSHIPS.


Two Fellowships, of TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS each, have been en- dowed for the purpose of encouraging special merit in the pursuit of higher Theological culture. The one is known as " THE PHILADELPHIA FELLOWSHIP," endowed by " A Friend of the Seminary "; the other as " THE FRANCIS P. SCHOALS FELLOWSHIP," endowed by the friend whose name it bears. The income of these Fellowships is appropriated to the


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support of incumbents, for two years each, in prosecuting special studies, either in this country or in Europe, under the direction of the Faculty.


The income of the two Fellowships ($600 each) is appropriated subject to the following terms and conditions : -


1. No person shall be eligible as Fellow who has not been a member of this Seminary, and of the same class, for the full course of three years.


2. Those only shall be appointed Fellows, annually or otherwise, accord- ing to the discretion of the Faculty, who have made such proficiency in the original languages of the Bible and in general Theological scholarship as to warrant their appointment.


3. Those accepting appointments as Fellows must agree to prosecute their studies, in this or other countries, for two years each, under the direction of the Faculty and to their satisfaction, reporting to them semiannually.


FELLOWS OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


1877. FRANCIS BROWN.


1878. SAMUEL FRANKLIN EMERSON.


1879. EDWARD LEWIS CURTIS.


1880. CHARLES RIPLEY GILLETT.


1881. FRANK EDWARD WOODRUFF.


1882. HARRY NORMAN GARDINER.


1883. GEORGE HOLLEY GILBERT.


1884. EDWARD CALDWELL MOORE.


1885. OLIVER JOSEPH THATCHER.


1886. ROBERT FERGUSON.


1887. HOWARD S. BLISS.


1888. HERVEY D. GRISWOLD.


1889. OWEN H. GATES.


THE INSTRUCTORSHIP.


" THE HARKNESS INSTRUCTORSHIP IN VOCAL CULTURE AND IN ELOCUTION" was endowed by a gift of $10,000 by " A Friend in the West Presbyterian Church " in this city, to which is added the sum of $10,000, formerly contributed for a similar purpose, making the whole endowment $50,000.


THE HITCHCOCK PRIZE IN CHURCH HISTORY.


In accordance with a recommendation in the will of the late President, the Rev. ROSWELL DWIGHT HITCHCOCK, D. D., LL. D., his family has endowed " THE HITCHCOCK PRIZE IN CHURCH HISTORY," by the gift of Twenty-five Hundred Dollars. The income of this Endowment is


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SERMON IN MERCER STREET CHURCH.


to be paid at or before Christmas in each year to such member of the Senior Class as, in the entire course in this Seminary, shall have attained the highest excellence in Church History and kindred subjects. . Each competitor for this prize must submit to the Faculty an essay upon one of such topics as may be assigned:


NOTE C.


EXTRACTS FROM THE SERMON ENTITLED "THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY."


HAVING considered the twofold office of a school of divinity, - that of cultivating sacred science and that of training young men for the ministry of the Gospel by instructing them in the principles and facts of this science, - I proceeded to speak thus of the special claims of the Union Seminary : -


The sum and substance of what I have to say can be uttered in a few words; and you will excuse me, I am sure, if they are spoken plainly, and with the emphasis of a strong conviction, - a conviction formed long before I became your pastor. This institution of sacred learning ought to be endowed generously, permanently, and without delay. Its char- acter, position, wants, and capabilities all entitle it to this service from the Christian community. The character of Union Seminary is eminently catholic, in the true sense of the word; it is at once liberal and conserva- tive. There is nothing that I am aware of in its history, nothing in its associations, nothing in its general policy, nothing in its temper, which should make this institution cleave inordinately to the past or to the future, - which should render it unstable in the ways of old truth, or un- willing to greet new truths with a friendly welcome; nothing which com- mits it to any party, or prevents its cordial relations with all parties who love the Gospel and Christian union. It stands in special connection with our own branch of the great Presbyterian family; but it numbers on its Board of Directors, and among its warmest friends, influential members of the other branch; while it seeks its professors and attracts its students as readily from the old Puritan body of New England, as if its predilections were all Congregational. If you will have an institution occupying as catholic a ground as the distracted state of the Church in our day seems to permit, I do not know how you can well come nearer to such a plan than have the founders of the Union Seminary. Its main advantages are as accessible and useful to a Baptist, a Methodist, an Episcopalian, or a Congregationalist, as to a Presbyterian; and students


7


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of all these and of other denominations have availed themselves of them. Let it be understood, that in what I have said, or may say, I cast no reflection upon any other seminary. All honor to Princeton, and Lane, and Auburn, and Andover, and Bangor, and New Haven, and others, of whatever name, that are doing the Master's work!


Such is the character of the institution; and its position appears to me no less desirable. On this point there will doubtless be diversities of opinion. Very grave objections may easily be raised against a great city as the seat of a college where young men are trained in the preparatory discipline of a professional life. The distractions and temptations which surround them bear, certainly, an unfavorable aspect toward studious and moral habits. But the case of those who have passed through their collegiate course, and are in direct training for the ministry, is quite different. They may fairly be presumed to have well established prin- ciples of intellectual and religious conduct, - to be, in good measure, above both the temptations and the distractions of city life. It can hardly be denied, on the other hand, that precisely for them there are advantages to be derived from several years' residence in a metropolis like this, advantages of a specific and general nature, which cannot easily be found elsewhere. All admit that the schools and hospitals of Paris, Vienna, and Berlin afford to the medical student facilities for combined study and observation which are unrivalled. He can learn and see more there in one year, than he could in many years of ordinary advantages. So, New York affords, or might afford, to the candidate for the min- istry unequalled opportunities of combining practical with theoretical study. ... The pulpit, the church, the courts of justice, the popular assembly, the platformn, the institutions of public charity and philan- thropy, the fashionable streets and avenues, the crowded thoroughfares and marts of trade, the infected lanes and alleys, the wharves and ferries, the emigrant ship, -these are only a part of those ever-open books which he who runs may read, and which, " to him that understandeth," are fraught with lessons of the gravest meaning.


Without stopping, then, to discuss the point, I do not hesitate to ex- press it as my own conviction, that the city is to be preferred to the country as a place for training ministers. The larger portion of them come from the country, and return thither again. Three years of city life, without in the least damaging their piety, will tend to teach them lessons, and supply them with observations, which they will find most useful during their whole subsequent career. These remarks, as I have intimated, seem to me to apply with especial force to New York. It is the great centre of American life and enterprise; and a young man of piety, intelligence, and susceptibility can hardly pass three years in the midst of it without some enlargement of view concerning his solemn work and duties as a Christian teacher and free citizen of this vast Republic.


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As the seat, too, of a liberal and profound theological culture, New York ought to stand foremost in the land. She ought for her own sake. There is, perhaps, no other power, after the Word preached, which would do more to preserve her Christian influence, wealth, and enterprise from falling a prey to the show, self-aggrandizement, and other vices incident to the predominance of a commercial spirit. She ought, for the sake of our country and the world. Let a wise, tolerant Christian theology flourish here, and it would diffuse a beneficent radiance over the land, and even among pagan nations. The position, then, of the Union Semi- nary is unsurpassed, both for the training of ministers and the cultivation of sacred learning. For this reason its founders planted it in the city of New York.


Let me now speak of its wants. These are many, important, most reasonable, and, in my judgment, challenge the immediate attention of its friends. It wants, first of all, to be assured of its own existence; it wants an endowment. It is not seemly, it is a reproach and dishonor to the Christian community, that such an institution, where the pious young men of the Church are training to become her pastors, her divines, and her missionaries to the heathen, should be begging its bread, - should sub- sist on her precarious charities. No denomination that has any genuine self-respect will allow such an anomaly long to exist, if there be the means of preventing it. Permanent institutions like this ought to be exempt from commercial revulsions and the fluctuations of trade. If we cannot give them an assured and independent existence on any other terms, we had better do it even by mortgaging our church edifices. The tree is far more important than its fruit; the fountain than its passing streams. I repeat, the Union Seniinary wants to be assured of its exist- ence, but it wants a great deal more: it wants the means of making that existence honorable, vigorous, efficient; commensurate with the work it is called to do; worthy of, not a practical satire upon, the Christian lib- erality of this great and opulent city. It wants the means of so enlarging its accommodations that it can at once proffer a hearty invitation to two hundred young men; and, when they come, can welcome them to rooms fitted for the abode, not of poor children, not of youthful operatives, but of Christian gentlemen who are soon to be your religious teachers and guides. It wants thousands of volumes added to its library, that not merely its Professors and students, but the pastors and Christian scholars of this city and vicinity, and of the land, may be able to investigate all branches of theological knowledge without the trouble and expense of a voyage to Europe. The man who had the means, and whose heart God should enlarge and dispose to meet this want, -to expend a hundred thousand dollars in creating, around the present nucleus, a theological library worthy of New York, of our Calvinistic churches, and of the times we live in, - that man would build for himself a monument as enduring


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as the eternal hills! If it were permitted to indulge in idle wishes, I would wish with all my heart I were such a man! How fragrant would be his memory, centuries hence, when oblivion shall have utterly consumed the noisy heroes and great men of the passing day!


This Seminary wants to make immediate and ample provision for the support of its Professors. It has searched for them through the land; has called them from positions of the highest influence, despoiling other insti- tutions and great congregations of their jewels to enrich itself; and now is only able to afford them a compensation less than they might command in the humble pastorate of many a New England village! Who fancies such men will consent, or will be suffered, to remain where they are, in this centre of Christian wealth, performing the weightiest functions in the Church of God, teaching her teachers, and guarding her faith, unless they are adequately supported, - unless their pecuniary necessities are promptly and liberally met? It now only needs to be whispered abroad that they are discontented, and a score of churches, colleges, and other seminaries would be eager to obtain them.


I have thus stated some of the more pressing claims of this institution, or rather, I honestly think, claims of religion, of an educated ministry, of home and foreign missions, - in a word, of the cause of truth and righteousness, as expressed through this institution.


I have the clearest conviction that the Union Seminary is capable of doing a great work for Christ and the Church. It has already done much; not a few of the most useful ministers in the land, not a few of our best missionaries among the heathen, are its alumni. Already, too, has it made invaluable contributions to the higher theological literature of the age. But I trust it has a still nobler career in the future. I look forward to the time when young men of piety and generous endowments shall flock to it, in thousands, from all quarters of the Republic, - from California and Oregon, and the islands of the sea even; when its library shall be the resort of Christian scholars from neighboring towns and cities; when its professorships shall be multiplied so as to embrace one for each great branch of sacred lore; when it shall be the pride and glory of our churches, and its treasury be continually enriched by the princely donations of the living and the dying; when, in a word, it shall be such a nursery of men of God, and such a citadel of holy faith, as the voice of Providence commands us to build up in this emporium of the New World.


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NOTE D.


THE TREASURES OF THE LIBRARY.


THE fact is, that this country is not so unprovided with the means for the study of any subject as the baffled scholar may sometimes suppose. The difficulty is in discovering just where the materials are. In Europe, what is not contained in the national libraries is to be found in the great private collections, most of them of considerable age, the contents of which are fairly well known. Here, however, the number of private collectors of books is so large, and their libraries are so constantly changing hands, that any dependence upon private resources must be abandoned. Some years ago the Athencum contained an interesting series of letters devoted to the private collections of ancient sculpture in England, and much new and valuable material was brought to light. The writer has often thought what a wealth of rare and useful books such a series of articles on the private libraries in America would reveal. The sale catalogues from time to time give glimpses of this wealth, and curiously enough do they confirm the "fata habent libelli." The writer saw at a recent sale the manuscript of a work he had once visited Europe to consult in a printed edition. This unconscious proximity to valuable stores of material is beautifully likened by Mr. Justin Winsor, in an address to be mentioned again in a moment, to the rushing by unobserved of Gabriel's boat in " Evangeline," while the maiden lay screened by the palmettos. The writer may be pardoned for referring to his own experience in this matter, for it is probably that of many other scholars, and may serve to encour- age some disheartened student. Some years ago he began some re- searches in a certain field of medieval literature, contained almost wholly in manuscripts or early printed books. In pursuit of these studies he had visited various libraries of England and the Continent, not supposing for a moment that he could find in this country any of the needed works. One day a friend sent him a pamphlet containing an account of the pub- lic exercises on the completion of the library building of the University of Michigan. In it was the charming address by Mr. Justin Winsor, referred to above. Speaking of the inadequacy of public collections of all sorts to preserve a world's literature, he said: "In the fifty or sixty years which followed the first work of the press, and within the fifteenth century, it is usually reckoned there were at least 16,000 volumes printed at all the presses of the forty-two cities which are known to have had printing-offices. It is not an unfair estimate to place the average edition of those days at 500 copies, and this would give a round 8,000,000 of in- cunabula, - cradle books, - of which the number which have come down


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to us is comparatively small. Of this 8,000,000 I doubt if there are more than a very few thousand on this continent. I do not regard the possible excess in some of the libraries of Spanish America, when I say that the largest number which I know in this part of the world is the 400 or 500 which belong to the Union Theological Seminary of New York."


This was the first intimation the writer had had of the existence of a great collection of incunabula in this country, and it was indeed a strik- ing example of the hidden Evangeline, for not only had he passed times without number the door of the well-known building in University Place, but he had not infrequently shared the room of a college friend who was a student within its walls, and soundly slept just over those precious in- cunabula. It is needless to say that he seized the first opportunity to examine the library, and it is this unequalled collection of rare books which he purposes to describe at some length, in the hope that it may prove as useful to other scholars as it has been to himself. . . . A Semi- nary building, begun in March, 1837, was completed in 1838, just in time to receive the most valuable library which has ever been brought to this country.


The library had, before it reached this land, an interesting history, which must be known in order to appreciate its worth. We will begin our story with Charlemagne, although in a moment we shall have to go still farther back. This monarch after his Saxon conquests founded the Bishopric of Paderborn, whose first Bishop, Hathumar, we find in- stalled as early as 795. The most famous of the early bishops was the great Meinwerk (1009-36), the favorite of the Emperor Henry II. The bishopric in the course of time became an independent ecclesiastical principality. The second thread of our story takes us back to the foun- dation of the Benedictine Order by St. Benedict of Nursia, in 515. The order was introduced into Germany from England in the eighth century, and at some time unknown to the writer there was established the Bene- dictine monastery of Marienmünster, a few miles from Warburg, in the diocese of Paderborn. This establishment was characterized, like all others of that order, by its love for literature, and its library no doubt was the object of the fond care of the monks. At the time of the Refor- mation a collection of the controversial literature of the period was made, about 600 volumes in number, mostly in the original editions. These books were kept in a separate room, the door of which was marked with the inscription, " Libri Prohibiti." The key to this door was once kept by a monk, whose name in the world was Johann Heinrich Van Ess, but who was known in the cloister as Brother Leander. He was born a few miles away, in the town of Warburg, February 25, 1770, and received his early education in the Dominican Gymnasium of that place. In 1790 he entered as a novice Marienmünster. He was ordained priest in 1796, and from 1799 on he managed from the abbey the parish of Schwalenburg, a league away, in the principality of Lippe.


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Meanwhile, events were occurring in Europe which were to change en- tirely the destiny of young Van Ess. The brilliant success of the French Republic in its military operations was crowned by the treaties of Campo Formio (1797) and Lunéville (1801), by virtue of which France took Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine. The German princes who lost their States by this cession of territory were to be recompensed by pos- sessions within the Empire, and for this purpose the great ecclesiastical principalities were secularized and divided among them. Paderborn fell to the share of Prussia, and became an hereditary principality. This was in 1803, although Prussia, with characteristic promptness, had taken pos- session the year before (August 3, 1802). The sequestration of the monastic property followed as a matter of course. The monks of Mari- enmünster endeavored to save from the wreck as much of their common property as possible, and divided the precious library among themselves. To Brother Leander fell the " Libri Prohibiti " and others. He still had his parish of Schwalenburg to administer, and there he remained until 1812, when, by the influence of the Superintendent of Instruction of the kingdom of Westphalia, he was called by a royal decree (July 30, 1812) to the position of extraordinary professor of Catholic theology in the University of Marburg, and curate in the same town, which bore with it the office of director of the famous seminary for teachers.


Van Ess was fated to suffer all the vicissitudes of his native land. In 1813 the kingdom of Westphalia came to a sudden end, and its numerous constituent parts reverted to their former governments. Marburg was now in the Electorate of Hesse, and in 1814 Van Ess was called by that government to the chair of an extraordinary professor and teacher of canon law. The " Deutsche Biographie " says his academic activity in Marburg was naturally not important, but he was greatly liked there as a preacher. In 1818 he was made doctor of theology and of the canon law. He was retired at his own request in 1822, and lived first at Darmstadt, then at Alzey and other places, dying October 13, 1847, at Affolderbach in the Odenwald. His library had naturally increased with his university work, and with the great interest of his life, the circulation of the Scrip- tures among the people. He translated with others the Old and New Testaments (the printing of which was later forbidden by the Pope) from the original tongues, and co-operated first with the Catholic Bible Society of Regensburg, and, after its dissolution, with the British and Foreign Bible Society, whose agent he was until 1830, when he ceased so to act. in consequence of a resolution of that Society to circulate no more Bibles containing the Apocrypha. Van Ess held very decided views regarding the Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate, which he held was not binding upon Catholics who could make and read translations from the original text. Besides his translations he prepared editions of the Septuagint (1824), the Vulgate (1822-24, in 3 vols.), and of the Greek Testament with the Vulgate (1827) For his labors in this field he in-




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