USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 16
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* The Bishop invariably added some such "Invocation " as this, after announc- ing the subject (which he almost always called "Topic ") and divisions of his discourse.
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" THE FAITHFUL BISHOP "
fearlessness in teaching in all questions of faith and duty,-to arouse and extend among the Laity a conviction of the influence they must exert for or against the Gospel and the Church,-and finally "faith- fulness to his own soul," remembering that "no solicitude for others can exempt him from the obligations of holiness or the use of the means of grace. And lastly, his Reward is that which "the tongue of man may announce, but whose import the intellect of an angel only can conceive,"-a "Crown of Life."
And he ends with earnest application of these truths to the Bishop elect, and the venerable Presiding Bishop whose co-adjutor he became, only two months, as it was ordered, before that good man was taken to his rest.
I have given this outline more at length than might seem needful, because it is a fair specimen, though one of the best, of Bishop De Lancey's ordinary preaching,-too ornate and rhetorical, no doubt, for the taste of the present day, but full of a living eloquence which no change of time and customs can quite take away.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT: CLERICAL SUPPORT
E now enter on a new aspect of Bishop De Lancey's Episcopate, by no means as bright and pleasant in all respects as those whose story has been told, but wit- nessing no less to his wisdom and faithfulness in the charge laid upon him.
I have quoted on p. 146 above, the remark in his Address of 1841, that " the controversy about the Oxford Tracts had penetrated this Diocese to a very limited extent." This was six months after the publication of Tract No. 90, and yet the Bishop's statement remained true for nearly two years more. The reason was that the Diocese as a whole had been for many years steadily, and almost unconsciously, growing into an understanding and hearty acceptance of " Church principles " substantially as they were set forth by the earlier Oxford Tracts, which dealt mainly, it will be remembered, with the funda- mental question of the Church as a Divinely constituted Body, with a Ministry of Apostolic origin and authority. In the earliest days of the century, the days of Bishop Provoost and Bishop Moore, New York had been what might be called an old-fashioned " Evangelical" Diocese, half-way, one might say, between Connecticut (under Bishop Seabury) on the one hand, and Virginia with its establishmentarian traditions on the other. With the consecration of Bishop Hobart had begun a new awakening not only of Church life but of doctrine ; and not among the clergy alone, but with the more earnest and intelligent members of many a country parish, from whose own lips I have heard the story of the abiding impression made on them by the teaching of Bishop Hobart's memorable Address of 1822, on " departure from the Apostolic mode of propagating Christianity, by the separation of the sacred volume (the Bible) from the Ministry, the Ordinances, and the Worship of that Mystical Body which its Divine founder has con- stituted the mean and pledge of salvation to the world."*
Of course this advance in Church principles was not true of all the
* Journ. N. Y. 1822, p. 33.
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THE CAREY ORDINATION, 1843
clergy any more than of the laymen, and it did to a certain extent divide them into parties, as the election of Bishop De Lancey has shown ; but up to this time (1843) with little strong feeling and no apparent violence of party spirit. There is no question that the silent influence of the Gospel Messenger, which was the Sunday reading of most families in every parish, added greatly both to the influence of "Bishop Hobart" Churchmanship and the freedom from controversy. People gladly accepted its teaching, which was substantially and often literally that of the earlier " Tracts," because they so thoroughly liked its spirit and its way of " putting things."
But with the summer of 1843 the Church throughout the country was in a blaze, so to speak, over the ordination of a young Deacon, Arthur Carey, by the Bishop of New York, against the protest of two Priests of his Diocese on the ground of " Romanizing " views held by the candidate. Reading over again, after sixty years, the thick vol- ume of pamphlets through which the battle was fought, it is hard to realize that good and able men could have so entangled themselves in misunderstanding not only of the questions at issue but of one another. The eight examiners of the Candidate were William Berrian, John M'Vickar, Samuel Seabury, Joseph H. Price, Edward Y. Higbee, Ben- jamin I. Haight, Henry Anthon, and Hugh Smith-every one of them known for many years afterwards as faithful, consistent, and certainly very moderate Churchmen. The first six stood by the Bishop, the last two in opposition ; and their public protest-an unprecedented thing in this country, as, with this exception, it is to this day- kindled a flame of excitement almost inconceivable now, fanned to the utmost by the secular and sectarian papers all over the land .* The
* It is impossible, of course, to go into the merits of this controversy here, even if it had more than a historical interest for the Church of this day. But it may be said that Mr. Carey (who had been several years a Sunday School teacher under Dr. Smith, and therefore had asked for his testimonials for Orders from him), after passing all his canonical examinations, submitted to a private exami- nation of his " opinions" by Drs. Smith and Anthon, whose own notes, singularly inconsistent with fuller statements subsequently made at the special examination ordered by the Bishop in consequence of their objections, and with the whole tenor of Mr. Carey's views as given shortly after the Ordination, formed the basis of the whole newspaper and pamphlet controversy ; and, sadder still, of the deep- seated hostility to Bishop Onderdonk which was unquestionably a factor in the celebrated " Trial " of the next year. One may reach such conclusions, I hope, without being a partizan either of the Deacon or of the Bishop.
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assailing party had naturally the advantage in every country parish in which it was talked over, so long as the panic was at its height ; as it subsided, the defenders of the Bishop regained their strength and con- fidence, but with the unhappy result of a crystallization of Church parties such as Western New York had never yet known. Households were divided and friendships broken over this quarrel to an extent that seems hardly credible now, and the nickname (as Bishop De Lancey emphatically called it) of " Puseyite " became a formidable weapon for many years.
The most serious result of all this was the mistrust and alienation in many places of the parishioners towards their Pastors. On this point only, the Bishop spoke strongly in his Address of 1843, and his words must be given in full.
" In the continued soundness and devotedness of the clergy of the Diocese generally, their steady adherence to and faithful inculcation of the great doctrines of the Cross, as embodied in the Liturgy, Articles and Homilies, I fully confide. Subjected as we all are to sweeping charges of error, secret aspersions and virulent assaults, under a title of injurious fame [" Puseyite "], yet, in my wide intercourse with the clergy of the Diocese, I know of no one among them, who does not, in maintaining the cause of Christ and His Church, dis- tinctly repudiate the errors of the Roman Catholic Church with as full and unqualified rejection of its usurped supremacy, and its errors of doctrine and practice, as does the Church itself, her long list of protestant martyrs, and the humble individual who speaks as the Chief Shepherd over you in the Lord ; and when attempts are made from without, and fears excited within, calculated to fix upon the Clergy an opprobrious name, carrying in the intent with which it is used, a far different meaning, it is a demand which they have on their Bishop, knowing a's he does their prevailing views, and faithful adherence to the doctrinal standards of the Church, in her Creed and Articles, to claim for them, as a body, the continued confidence and affectionate regard of the laity, as faithful Ministers of the Cross and Church of Christ. The obvious and deplorable ignorance of many who assail the Church in regard to the most important points of Christian truth and order, and their frequent and indiscriminate mix- ture of sound Gospel truth and Church doctrine with Romish error and even infidel sentiment as the object of attack, should convince
Mr. Carey died April 4, 1844, after a few months of faithful work as Deacon in the Church of the Annunciation, New York. It is only fair to say that he was regarded by every one who knew him as a young man of exemplary character and life, sincere, modest, and deeply religious.
EDWARD LIVERMORE
WILLIAM JAMES ALGER
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THE CAREY ORDINATION
the laity of the utter incapacity of many of her assailants to form a right judgment of her position and prospects ; should inspire them with a firmer confidence in the long-tried guides by whom they have hitherto been led in the ways of truth and peace ; and, let me add, should stir them up to 'read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest ' the great truths of God's blessed Word, as openly and broadly presented to their eyes and minds in the Liturgy, Creed, Articles and Homilies of the Protestant Episcopal Church." *
The Bishop also expressed his entire confidence in the Faculty and management of the General Theological Seminary, which was at this time a special object of attack, partly at least on account of Bishop Onderdonk's position in it as Professor of the " Nature, Ministry and Polity of the Church." A Committee was appointed on his recom- mendation to report suggestions to secure for the Seminary " a wider confidence and patronage in the Diocese ;" but their report of the next year left the subject in the hands of the General Convention. t
While the tone of the Bishop's Address left no doubt whatever as to his position as a Churchman, it awakened no discussion in the Con- vention, of which the Messenger says that " its quietness, decency and order seldom witnessed in so large a body, was not the quietness of apathy and unconcern for the cause of genuine Christianity, for we have on no similar occasion seen more emotion ;" its deliberations were conducted in so chastened and peaceful a manner that "not a word of unkindness or indication of ill-temper had been seen or heard ;" and this " at a time when all around us were spread the most painful proofs of restlessness and disruption," till "it seemed as if the very elements of the Church were upturned from their foun- dation." " The Benediction followed, and the common word of parting was ' What a blessed time.' God grant many ages of just such times in the Councils of His Church."#
From which it would seem that Western New York was more "at unity with itself " than the Church in most parts of the country could be said to be in the latter part of the year 1843.
Turning aside for a moment from this controversy, I find in the Messenger a little later a letter from the Bishop which I quote not only as an evidence of his deep interest in the work and trials of his
* Journ. 1843, P. 35.
t Journ. 1844, P. 43.
# Gospel Messenger, XVII. 123. (Aug. 26, 1843.)
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
Clergy, but of the actual conditions in which they ministered in some parts of the Diocese. It consists mainly of extracts from letters received by him within a few days from several Missionaries of the Diocese. One says :
" Since I have been here, I have received a salary of $60 in store goods, and two or three bills of the lightest and least valuable farm- ers' produce, such as most clergymen receive as a gratuity. I have paid $50 for house-rent, bought all my bread-stuff, nearly all the animal food, paid tuition fees, etc., without receiving any money from the parish. Situated as I am, with a dreary winter before me, if the decision [i. e., of a reduction of Missionary stipend] could be altered at least till spring, I should be happy."
Another writes that the principal members are doubtful whether they can maintain full services beyond spring, even by considerably increasing their contributions, as they can raise at most but $275 at present.
A third had hoped that the deficient half of his missionary stipend might be made up by the people, but finds it will all come upon him- self ; that $50 of his salary is behind, and that he must consent to have it reduced $75 more or leave the church to its fate ; that there is a mortgage of $400 on which foreclosure is threatened.
A fourth, that the reduction to a half stipend must be " from igno- rance of the poverty of the people ; if the stipend cannot be restored he must absolutely leave."
A fifth, that he has been living for some time on half a salary ; if the stipend be continued one year longer, they can get on, for with it [i. e., a full stipend of $125] they can raise $400. It is not "a bed of roses."
A sixth, that he can accept a call to a parish, if the missionary sti- pend can be allowed ; there is a favourable opening of which he should be glad to avail himself, but all depends on the stipend.
A seventh, that $200 only is subscribed for the year, and it cannot be made more than $300. He does not see how they can get along without the stipend.
" Are not such statements," says the Bishop, "ample warrant for the urgency with which I press our Diocesan Missions on the hearts and consciences of the people? I could fill column after column of your paper with similar appeals. And what answer are we forced to send back to these applicants ? The painful one that we have reduced the stipend for the want of means to continue it ; and that the same dismal necessity forbids us to restore it. The appeals of our Vestries in behalf of their clergymen are in the same strain of urgency."*
There is a very general feeling at the present day, that the clergy
* Gospel Messenger, XVII. 176.
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SUPPORT OF THE CLERGY
of one or two generations back were after all not so badly off, with very different habits of living among all classes of people, with provisions at half the present rates, with " donations" and personal gifts of one kind and another in quantity and fre- quency such as is not thought of now-a-days in the generality of parishes. All this is true,-in a few exceptional cases. In many country parishes of the middle of the last century (I speak from personal knowledge of some cases) $500 a year in cash with a rectory and without a " donation " was a modest competence ; $600 a year with house and donation was wealth. I could tell of one country parson, able and faithful, who lived for years in a large and by no means poor country parish on $400 (one-third of it "turned " on " store accounts ") and a house, with a donation ; of another, who, living on $325 and house-rent without a donation, said that if he were ever fortunate enough to get a parish with $500 and a rectory, he would never ask anything more as long as he lived. (He got it a year later, and counted it a competence for six years.) It is to be noted that the small incomes of the clergy were often made smaller by two customs which have happily passed away ; the year's credit on which country " stores " tried to sustain themselves, to their own eventual ruin as well as that of many of their customers, and the habit of paying in kind, whether of farm products or " store-goods," both often unfairly over-rated. In all these ways many of the clergy and their families were sufferers to an extent which it is difficult to realize or even believe at this day. In 1854 the Bishop endeav- oured to remedy in some measure this state of things, by making Thanksgiving Day (then better observed than now) a "Donation Day" for the Clergy. His Pastoral Letter was well received, and in many places did much good ; in some, its effect continues to this day. But in others the old Adam was too strong for this work of grace. I remember one parish in which the clergyman's salary depended on a subscription, five dollars of which came from one of the wealthiest families, where the wife, a communicant, had an income of her own. At the "Thanksgiving" of 1854 she sent the Rector half-a-cord of soft wood, some butter and potatoes and other things. Long after, the Treasurer of the parish called for her over-due subscription, which she claimed to have paid. The venerable Senior Warden was sent to expostulate with her, and to him she explained that she con-
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
sidered herself to have paid her subscription in her "donation," and "if ministers' families could not live on their salaries, they must work as she did." Of course this was an extreme case, (it was the one, by the way, where the Rector and his family lived on $325 and a house,) but there were too many approaching to it. The truth is simply that the average countryman, whether brought up a "Connecticut Churchman" or an ultra-Protestant, had never been taught any rule of Christian giving as the fruit of a principle of Christian living. There were many noble exceptions ; there were Western New York parishes which gave more, I believe, in proportion to their means, than they do now ; but that does not do away with the fact that they were for the most part "low and slow" Churchmen in this respect.
A word about the " donation " of past days may have some inter- est. For four years in the " sixties " the writer was Rector (and " Missionary ") in a delightful Oneida county hamlet ("and parts adjacent ") of some 300 souls, with five congregations (two of them Welsh) besides " S. Paul's," which had never more than 45 commu- nicants, and was practically maintained by five or six families ; De Angelis, Allen, Clark, Wetmore, Thomas and Hamlin are names never to be forgotten there. This handful of people, none of them more than well-to-do, gave about $2,000 for the support and building up of the Church each one of those years. One man-a busy coun- try " merchant "-denied himself in such things as clothes and travelling, to give $600 out of an income of $1,500, besides acting as chorister, Sunday School teacher, sexton, and later as lay-reader. Another gave $150 out of $600. The " donation " was a time-hon- oured institution in all the village congregations, but, except in S. Paul's, it was credited on the minister's salary. Shortly after Christmas each year, the parishioners, and all others who chose, gathered at the Rectory, of which several ladies (of the above-named families) took possession for the evening, and, of course, prepared a bounteous and well-ordered feast. There was much merriment, but no disorder ; and no visible sign (to the inmates of the Rectory) of anything like " donations," till the next morning, when about $200 was quietly handed to the Rector. It must be admitted that as a matter of par- ish finance, the " donation " was of questionable utility ; for proba- bly nine-tenths of all the gifts in money, and all the provision for the " supper," came from those who were already the largest and most
S. PAUL'S CHURCH, HOLLAND PATENT Consecrated 1824
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DONATIONS
regular contributors to the Church, and the " outsiders " were abun- dantly repaid in the festivity of the occasion. But it was a delightful reunion for all the parishioners, and certainly a very nice thing for the clergyman, with whom it was no matter of stipulation, but over and above a fair salary for those days ($600 and rectory) paid with abso- lute promptness quarterly in advance, and accompanied with almost weekly gifts in " kind " from one or another of those families. I can hardly suppose that there were many rural parishes so well ordered and so generous as this ; but one may hope that it was by no means a solitary instance of the best side of what is now an almost forgotten custom. I ought perhaps to add that this was mostly " dur- ing the War ;" that nearly every family (except the Rector's) had from two to sixty cows, and butter was from forty to fifty cents a pound ;* that beef could be had in winter only by the " quarter," and milk all the year round only by special favour ; but this, after all, takes very little from the positive side. I hope the reader will par- don my telling this long story of one little parish ; he has no idea how much I have left untold.
* And many a farmer was devoured by his own covetousness ; I remember one who, in the last year of the Civil War, refused half a dollar a pound for his whole dairy, and finally, to the delight of everybody but himself, sold it for half that price. Per contra, a " donation " for two soldiers' widows supposed to be in want, brought them $800, more money than they had ever seen in all their lives.
CHAPTER XXVII
"WHAT IS NOT PUSEYISM": CONSECRATION AT GENEVA, 1844
ATE in the year 1843, Bishop De Lancey published in the Gospel Messenger an article which he afterwards incorporated in his Address of 1846, and which at once attracted wide notice. It is entitled
"WHAT IS NOT PUSEYISM."
Referring to the confusion " in the minds of many pious persons in the Church " occasioned by "the discussions about Puseyism," he thinks " it may be useful to state some doctrines and usages long embedded in the faith and judgment of Churchmen, to which the offensive term in question does not apply."
And then, in very clear and forcible language, he specifies twenty- two particulars in which " the Church held and practised, the Prayer Book embodied and sanctioned, and the Ministry maintained and acted on " the views set forth, " long before Dr. Pusey was born." These are, briefly, Episcopacy ; Apostolic Succession ; Baptismal Regeneration ; the Inward Grace of the Sacraments ; the Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist as (1) Spiritual (as opposed to Tran- substantiation) and (2) Real (as opposed to " a memorial in which Christ is present only as we think of and pray to him "); the three- fold Ministry as Apostolic ; Justification (1) by the Merits of Christ, (2) by faith, (3) by the conditions of faith, repentance and obedience, and (4) Sacramentally by Baptism ; Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Primitive Church ; Salvation by the appointed means of grace, not by " revivals " and other methods of man's devising and modern origin ; Obedience of Clergy and Laity to the Rubrics and Canons of the Church ; the preaching fully and faithfully " the nature, claims, rights and prerogatives of the Church of Christ ;" and also the superior value of the Liturgy, and of Forms of Prayer both in public offices and private devotions; to defend the use of the Cross in the ornamenting of our Churches or our houses ;* to combine architectural variety and ritual adaptation in " the interior arrangements of our churches ;" to " use the surplice and gown, regarding the former as more distinctly a Church vestment ;" to bow at the Name of Jesus in the Creed ; to
* To which he adds a foot-note on the then universal use of the Cross in the panelling of doors in houses throughout the country.
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open the Church for Saints' Days, or Litany Days, or every day for the daily Service of the Prayer Book ; to observe the seasons of pri- vate Fasting and Prayer ; to sustain Church Missions, Schools and Colleges instead of "amalgamating with our brethren of surrounding sects in such matters ;" to refuse to canonize Henry VIII and Luther and deny Laud the crown of Martyrdom; to " love the Church, uphold her holy claims, not to be lured from her sanctuaries or min- istry, and to believe that God can preserve her truth and her integrity without our feeble arm stretched out with flashing sword for her defence ; finally, for the Ministry to preach the Word not as pleasing men, but God who trieth our hearts, and for the people to remember them who have the rule over them."
Such is a most imperfect but I believe faithful summary of this remarkable article, which may be read in full in the Journal of 1846, pp. 42-6 .*
The effect of the paper was great and permanent ; furnishing to many a perplexed layman a point d'appui in reply to the accustomed sneer, "You ask what is Puseyism? that shows you're a Puseyite." He could at least say, "I know what is not Puseyism."
In January, 1844, the Bishop took upon himself the pastoral charge of S. Paul's Church, Rochester (which, in consequence of financial embarrassment, had been re-organized as "Grace Church," a name which the parish retained to 1870), and the proprietorship of the church building, which had been sold under the foreclosure of a mort- gage. He did not, however, take up his residence in Rochester, as he had at first intended, but gave frequent services during the year, placing the pastoral work in the hands of the Rev. John V. Van Ingen, assisted by the Rev. Charles H. Platt. This "burden of anxiety and responsibility" the Bishop carried for three years, finally transferring the property to the corporation of Grace Church with the gift of the payments he had made on the debt, and what he had laid out on the building. The Rev. Dr. Van Ingen became the Rector of the Parish thus saved and restored to prosperity, "with a debt of gratitude for the gratuitous care and kindness of the Bishop which can never be forgotten."t
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