USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 17
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* His Address of that year was published as a pamphlet, but is probably now scarcer than the Journal. A little later (i. e., in 1843) he answers a request from a Geneva paper to say what is Puseyism, by saying that it is simply a nickname and therefore indefinable.
t Journ. 1844, pp. 21, 71 ; 1847, p. 83 ; Gospel Messenger, XVIII. 3. (Jan. 27, 1844.)
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
Thursday, August 15, 1844, was a festival day for the Diocese as well as the Bishop, in the consecration of the new Trinity Church, Geneva. I give the account of the service as it appears in the Messen- ger and the New York Churchman.
" Morning Prayer was read by the Rev. Pierre P. Irving, the late Rector of the parish, assisted in the Lessons by the Rev. John B. Gallagher, of the Diocese of Georgia .* The request to consecrate was read by the Rev. Dr. Hale; the sentence of consecration by the Rev. Samuel Cooke, the present Rector. The Sermon was preached by Bishop B. T. Onderdonk. It was in the Bishop's usually clear and edifying language and manner. His allusion to his own former connection with the Diocese, his participation in the services which consummated the division of the Diocese of New York, in the acts of the Primary Convention which assembled on the same spot in 1838, was well calculated to call up in the minds and hearts of many present, the most solemn and lively emotions ; but when he spoke of the beautiful and magnificent building, and of the munificent pro- vision of the late Hon. Gideon Lee, whereby so much important aid has been given in this noble enterprise, and when he pointed to ' that noble instrument,' whose notes of tenderness and power had traced the hymns and anthems of the morning, and when he pronounced it ' the fittest monument ' to the memory of the departed benefactor, many eyes filled with tears.t It was a delightful hour and scene ; the day was one of the brightest and most invigorating kind. There was an immense assembly ; the pews, with a few exceptions, were entirely filled by ladies, and gentlemen were obliged to stand or sit in the aisles or on the steps of the chancel, and many had to retire for want of room. Besides the clergy already named, the following were present and mostly in their robes :"
William Creighton, D.D. (N. Y.), William Croswell, Edward Bourns,
Bethel Judd, D.D.,
John C. Rudd, D.D.,
Benjamin Franklin,
R. B. Van Kleeck (N. Y.), Mason Gallagher,
Horace Hills (Conn.), Isaac Swart,
Robert G. Coxe (Mich.),
Montgomery Schuyler,
Amos G. Baldwin,
Charles H. Platt,
John W. Clark,
Henry Lockwood, Eli Wheeler,
Benjamin W. Stone.
* The eldest of three priestly brothers of a well-known Geneva family. The others were Mason (Hobart Coll. 1840, d. 1897) and Peyton (Hob. 1846, d. 1903), both of the old Diocese of Western New York.
f The Hon. Gideon Lee, a member of the Vestry, who died Aug. 21, 1841, left a large bequest ($6,000) for the church ; and his widow, Isabel (Williamson) Lee, gave the organ, providing that her husband's favourite hymn, "I would not live alway," should be sung annually.
TRINITY CHURCH, GENEVA Consecrated 1844
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TRINITY, GENEVA, 1844
The writer was one of the standing congregation, coming in some- what late after a long drive from his Canandaigua home. The grand church and the throng which filled it were sufficiently impressive to a country boy who had never seen anything like them ; but what dwells chiefly in the memory is the great " reading-pew " on one side with two clergymen in it, one of whom was reading the Lessons, and the steps in front of the altar rail (which projected into the nave) occupied by several others in surplices,-a curious contrast to later customs.
The church itself is little changed after almost sixty years, except by the addition of a chancel in 1898, and some memorials ; and in spite of some architectural defects, obvious enough to one who looks for them, it is within and without a true church, deeply impressive even to the casual visitor for its solemn beauty and its fitness for wor- ship. The designs were by President Hale, (a most accomplished scholar in architecture, whose annual lectures on that subject were the delight of his students,) and the late Third Pointed or Perpendic- ular style was the only one thought of at that day; I believe that Trinity Church was the first outside of New York in which it was thoroughly and consistently carried out .* The stained-glass which still remains in all except the two memorial windows, ¡ beautiful in its colour and clearness, was made in the old Geneva glass-factory of that day under the late William Steuben De Zeng.
The church cost in all somewhat more than $30,000 (not including the organ), a very large sum to be given by a congregation of less than 200 communicants in a village of less than 5,000 inhab- itants. Unfortunately it was not all given at once; there was no requirement then of freedom from debt as a condition of consecra- tion, and for many years the burden of indebtedness was a great hin- drance to the growth and prosperity of the parish.
The Seventh Annual Convention was held in Trinity Church a week after its consecration. The Sermon was by the Rev. Dr. Shelton. The Bishop's Address closes with some remarks on the
* It has been supposed that Dr. Hale's designs were in a general way copied from some English Church. I have found no evidence of this, and think it quite unlikely. He himself told me that " he was responsible for the design of the Church."
t The altar window, in memory of Bishop De Lancey, and an aisle window in memory of Major David B. Douglass, both added later.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
disturbed condition of the Church at that time which seem to me worth giving nearly in full.
"It is not to be supposed that I have contemplated without deep interest the outward assaults and inward apprehensions which during the last year have agitated the Church. When stripped of their local, personal and party relations, I can see nothing, as the real foundation of alarm, in either direction, and no reason to vary the opinion expressed in my Address of last year as to the soundness of the Church, and the perpetuation of her standards. Every day as it passes, confirms the members of the Church, of all shades of opinion, in their attachment to the Holy Scriptures, as the Rule of Faith, and to the Prayer Book as the authorized exposition of the doctrines, polity and worship to be maintained by our branch of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, in which we profess in the Creed our belief.
" It may relieve the apprehensions of some to be reminded that there have always been three classes of Churchmen within our fold ; Churchmen from education, Churchmen from mere preference, and Churchmen from investigation and conviction.
" The first class are they who, born of Episcopal parentage, and nurtured in the Church, have become practically and habitually attached to her system ; love her Prayer Book ; attend her sanctuaries ; and care not to know other systems, or to associate with them ; and bring up their children to walk in the same long-tried and quiet paths. Such persons feel little interest in discussions which relate to fundamental points of difference between the Church and others ; and, satisfied with the system, as they have imbibed it, rather repudiate such investiga- tions, and like not to insist on the conclusions to which they seem to lead.
" The second class are they who have entered the Church on grounds of expediency ; who have tried other systems, and prefer ours ; some, attracted by the liturgy; some, drawn by her orderly and devout ser- vices ; some, by her steady ministrations ; some, by incidental associ- ations with her children ; some, by her repudiation of exciting agen- cies and reforming schemes ; some, by her steady adherence to her principles ; and some, because they have discovered ample reasons for leaving their early religious associations, in real or supposed injuries received. Such persons have found, in the courts of the Church, what they desired,-a peaceful Home, where they can worship, praise and pray in quietness and comfort, -and with this they are content ; postponing, or at least deeming of subordinate consequence, the enquiry whether indeed ' her foundations are upon the holy hills, ' and whether she be indeed ' the City of God.'
" The third class comprises such as, having been led to investigate the principles of the Church's system, have adopted it as matter of
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BISHOP'S ADDRESS, 1844
duty and obligation ; resolving the whole into a question of conscience, looking at the Faith and the Ministry and the Sacraments of the Gos- pel, through the Church of the Gospel ; and, with their eyes and their hearts fixed on its 'One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of us all,' they shrink from whatever appears to invade the unity of the Church, whether in the shape of unscriptural concen- tration of the Papacy, or the equally unscriptural expansion by sub- division and excess, of the Protestant bodies around them.
" Recent discussions have doubtless greatly increased this class of Churchmen. Churchmen from education and Churchmen from expedi- ency have been led to examine the points at issue between the Church and surrounding systems. The tone of feeling and assault without, and the discussions within, have driven them back upon first princi- ples. They have looked into the deep foundations on which the Church system reposes ; and have found that it is built not on the shifting sands, but on a rock. And hence, some with a quiet step, and others with open avowals of sentiment and the energy of newly awakened feelings and views, have ranged themselves on the distinct- ive ground hitherto unoccupied by them. They have become Church- men from conviction ; while, on the other hand, many, from sundry causes and influences, have remained under the control of their former opinions ; and care not to stand on higher ground than personal attachment to the Church and its clear expediency.
" Now the Church has always held within her ample embrace these three classes of Churchmen ; and been subject to the occasional agitation arising from the discussion of their respective grounds of adherence to her doctrines, ministry and worship. Neither class has hitherto been allowed to demand, that the views of the other classes should be conformed in all respects to its own; or to denounce, and seek to expel from the Church, those who, receiving the same Scrip- tures, the same Prayer Book, and the same Creeds and Articles, do yet differ in regard to the grounds on which the Church system rests, the comparative value of doctrines or institutions, or the modes of expounding them. Their respective views and opinions have been discussed among themselves with more or less zeal, but still in entire consistency with the united adherence of all classes to the Church. As seen from without, such discussions would seem to portend division and disunion ; and hence, from that quarter, come frequent predictions and earnest expectations of a fall. But as the Great Head of the Church has hitherto overruled these differences of opinion, so that union has not been broken ; as all parties are equally firm in their adherence to the Bible as the Supreme Rule of Faith, and to the Prayer Book with its Creeds and Articles and Liturgy as the Standard of doctrines ; as the same classes have hitherto neither desired nor aimed to exclude each other from the bosom of the Church ; as all
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
classes feel the pressure, arising from assaults without, and have been taught, by observation of others, the sad effects of ecclesiastical dis- ruption ; so we may believe most firmly, that the excitements and agitations in the Church will be withheld from producing separation ; and that the wave of commotion, which has carried the Church upon its swelling bosom to such a height, is fast settling down to its accus- tomed level, and will leave her to pursue, on the quietness of an unruffled sea, her onward career of good to man and glory to God.
" As far as I can perceive, the outward assaults upon the Church do not impede her progress in this Diocese. My confirmations during the past year have been in advance of every former year of my Epis- copate, except one. The contributions of the Diocese have increased. Individual donations have multiplied. A greater number of Church edifices have been repaired and improved than in any former year. I cannot but notice a more devout and solemn interest taken in the concerns of the Church by many ; stricter attendance on her ordi- nances ; greater solicitude to understand her true position and views ; more confirmed and settled feelings of attachment to her standards ; and in a variety of forms, abundant evidence that, small as we are in numbers, and widely as we are stigmatized, 'the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim' is still ' better than the vintage of Abiezer.' What is needed on our part is increase of faith, self-denial, study and vigilance ; combined with firmness in upholding the truth, and for- bearance under the cavils of prejudice and ignorance, seeking to be led by the SPIRIT in all things."
One needs to know something of the violence of party spirit which prevailed at that time to see the full meaning of the Bishop's counsels. The " unruffled sea " (if the wide ocean is ever unruffled) was yet far distant.
TRINITY CHURCH, GENEVA North Aisle
CHAPTER XXVIII
TRIALS, CONTROVERSIES, AND DIOCESAN WORK,
1844-6
HE year following the Diocesan Council of 1844 was in some respects one of great trial both for Bishop De Lancey and for his Diocese. The Diocese itself indeed was at peace, so far as any portion of the Church could be in those days of restless strife. But the Bishop of Pennsylvania, who had been for many years not only the personal friend but the Diocesan of Dr. De Lancey, was early in the fall stricken down, first by the acceptance of his resignation by his Dio- cese, not on the ground of ill health (on which it was offered) but of immorality, and shortly after suspended indefinitely from his office by the House of Bishops on his own confession of intemperate habits, or, to speak more accurately, of a free use of liquors as remedy for disease, which brought upon him and on the Church the scandal of supposed intemperance. His fall touched Bishop De Lancey the more deeply because the closely contested election of Dr. Henry Onderdonk to the Episcopate in 1827 had been indirectly through his own able leading of the Pennsylvania Convention. I say indi- rectly, because, strange to say, the man whom Dr. De Lancey wanted as Bishop White's coadjutor was John Henry Hopkins, afterwards Bishop of Vermont ; and on the other hand it was only his unfailing vigilance as Secretary of the Convention of 1826 that detected an error in scrutiny which would have elected by one vote William Meade, afterwards Bishop of Virginia; and that finally, the next year, elected Henry Onderdonk, also by one vote .* But this calamity, deeply as the Bishop felt it (and many also in the Diocese where Dr. Onderdonk's earlier years had been spent as a loved and faithful Mis- sionary and Rector at Canandaigua), was as nothing compared to that which followed immediately after the General Convention of 1844. In that Convention every effort had been made by the "Low Church"
* The whole story may be seen in the able and intensely interesting Life of Bishop Hopkins by his son, John Henry Hopkins, D. D., pp. 84-III. (N. Y. 1873.)
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
party to obtain in some way an official condemnation of the Oxford Tracts and everything connected with them. A strong resolution to this effect was defeated in the Lower House by a decided vote of the Clergy and a very close one of the Laity, and the adoption (by a nearly unanimous vote) of a resolution to the effect that the "Liturgy, Offices and Articles " were sufficient exponents of the Church's teaching, and her Canons the " means of discipline and correction for all who depart from her Standards."* The General Theological Seminary, a special object of partizan suspicion, was subjected to a very thorough visitation by a committee of the Bishops, with the result of " a large number of questions answered in a way to which no exception could well be made," so that " nobody was hurt."t But immediately on the adjournment, the storm which had been gathering around the Bishop of New York since the Carey ordination of 1843, burst forth in all its fury. I have no thought of attempting to discuss here even as a matter of opinion the question of the comparative guilt or innocence of the Bishop, on which the passing of two generations has apparently brought no new light, and no material change in judgments on either side formed sixty years ago. His warmest friends-those who fought most vigorously and persistently for his acquittal, and later for his pardon, must have admitted, as did Bishop De Lancey most sorrowfully, that there was in his conduct "much to condemn, as imprudent, foolish, and likely to be misunderstood and misrepresented to the injury of the Church,"# and perhaps beyond that, as liable to be a permanent hindrance to his regaining the confidence of his Diocese as a whole. § On the other hand it can hardly be denied that the bitter partizan hostility (almost inconceivable to one who has not read pretty thoroughly the newspaper and pamphlet polemics of that day) awakened by his stubborn and, as people thought, unqualified defence of the Oxford Movement, and its practical issue in the Carey Ordination, was a
* Journ. Gen. Conv. 1844, p. 64.
t Life of Bishop Hopkins, p. 226. See also Journ. Gen. Conv. 1844, pp.232-50.
# Trial of Bp. B. T. Onderdonk, N. Y. 1845, Bp. De Lancey's opinion, p. 310, which, after another careful reading, still seems to me an admirable statement of that unhappy and perplexing case, whether one agrees with all its conclusions or not.
§ I say this with some hesitation, as I never heard Bishop De Lancey express such an opinion as to his restoration. The ground of it may be seen in the Life of Bishop Hopkins, p. 230.
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TRIALS AND CONTROVERSIES, 1844
very important factor, to say the least, in all the action which culmi- nated in his overthrow .* The six Bishops who refused to concur in the conviction f were denounced as unfaithful to the Church, to relig- ion and morals. Threats were uttered of judicial proceedings against some of them. # When Bishop De Lancey officiated in the (practi- cally) vacant Diocese of New York he was refused admission to some of its churches solely on account of his " Opinion " in Bishop Onder- donk's case. § The bitter feeling towards him was undoubtedly inten- sified by the fact that several of those concerned in the Trial and the events which preceded it had belonged to Western New York, though before he became its Bishop. From his opinion of the absence of evil intent in his suspended Brother, I believe Bishop De Lancey never swerved to the end of his life. But enough of this ; one who remembers those days of unchristian strife can only be thankful that they are long past, and hope that in God's mercy the Church may never see their like again.
The Diocese, as I have said, remained outwardly at peace ; but there was in many places, if not everywhere, a feeling of alienation and distrust, a wide-awake suspicion of the most trifling and innocent words or acts supposed to imply a "tendency towards Puseyism," which lasted for at least a whole decade of years, and was in many cases very painful, most of all to the Bishop himself and those who stood by him most loyally. Of course this foolishness and bitterness
* It is impossible, of course, to go into detailed proof of this ; I think few will deny it at this time, whom it does not touch personally through relatives or friends. One who reads now-a-days (as I hope few do) the " Opinion " of the first Bishop of Illinois (Trial, p. 262) or the letters of the Bishops of Ohio and Virginia quoted in the Life of Bishop Hopkins (pp. 233-5), or the admirable resumé in Dr. Brand's Life of Bishop Whittingham (I. 352-68) can hardly come to any other conclusion, -so it seems to me.
t Ives, Doane, Kemper, De Lancey, Whittingham and Gadsden.
# Life of Bp. Hopkins, 233-5.
§ Letter of Dr. Anthon, given in "The Voice of Truth " (pamphlet), N. Y. 1845, p. 8. The " opinion " unavoidably reflected on one or two of the witness- es who happened to be Dr. A.'s parishioners. The Bishop wished it recorded that he opposed the publication of the Trial, " however much it might favour the Respondent," because "it would tend to injure the very moral and religious feeling of the Church and of the community, which the act of discipline was intended to promote." The result vindicated Bishop De Lancey's judgment. ( See a curious note in Life of Bishop Whittingham, I. 373.)
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
were not all on one side. The Bishop was as gentle and level-headed as he was firm ; but all his clergy were not equally wise or generous, and sometimes gave too much cause for irritation and suspicion among those, mostly laymen, who were making themselves (as had been irrev- ently said said of the Bishop of New York*) " martyrs to principles which they probably did not understand."
Although the General Theological Seminary had been pronounced free from " tendencies " to Romanism by the Episcopal visitors of 1844, it was in many respects not in a satisfactory condition, espec- ially in financial matters, its property being greatly diminished, and its income altogether insufficient for even a very moderate scale of maintenance. Bishop De Lancey reluctantly came to the conclusion that it was impossible to carry it on efficiently as a general Institu- tion of the Church, and at the Annual Meeting of the Trustees in June, 1847, proposed that it be dissolved and made a diocesan school-in which opinion he was sustained by a unanimous vote of his own Diocese, but by few if any beyond its borders. We can see now, of course, that this extreme measure happily failed to be carried out. t But the unanimity with which his own Convention followed him in such a change from all its previous course with regard to the Seminary, is one among many illustrations of the unbounded confi- dence of his Diocese in his practical judgment, amid all the contro- versy as to his encouragement of " tendencies " towards " Puseyism."
Up to this time Bishop De Lancey, now in the prime of life, had continued in perfect health, and as remarkable for the amount and variety of his Episcopal work as his immediate predecessors. Natur- ally hasty and impulsive, his long acquired habits of systematic indus- try enabled him to make the very most of his time and strength ; he never seemed to forget or neglect anything. But in May, 1845, a serious and well-nigh fatal accident,-being thrown from a carriage on his way to a visitation, at the little village of Bethany,-disabled him from duty for a long time, and left, I think, permanent traces of impaired health and strength. He always seemed to me an older and feebler man from that time on, although his labours were as unremitt- ing and effective as ever. I need hardly say that his accident and ill-
* By the late Dr. C. S. Henry, one of the brightest as well as most eccen- tric clergymen who ever made his home in Geneva.
t Journ. 1846, pp. 27, 63. Life of Bp. Hopkins, p. 241.
EDWARD INGERSOLL, D.D.
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S. JOHN'S, BUFFALO
ness called forth the deepest sympathy in every part of the Diocese. The Convention of 1845, before proceeding to business, expressed by unanimous resolution its "grateful sense of the wonderful good- ness manifested to the Church" in his restoration "to a good meas- ure of his former strength," and its prayer for his complete recov- ery.
The Diocese made another step in advance this year (1845) in the founding of a third parish in each of its two large towns. In Buffalo, the new church, S. John's, really grew out of the acceptance of Trinity Church (in succession to Dr. Cicero S. Hawks, who had become Bishop of Missouri), by one of the noblest and best-beloved men Western New York ever had, Edward Ingersoll. This was in March, 1844, and a little later in the same year there was not room in that Doric temple for the increased congregation. A few young men who could not obtain sittings resolved to organize a new parish ; enlisted others in the enterprise ; obtained at once sufficient subscrip- tions for its support, and the use of a lecture room ; applied to the Bishop, who sent them Charles Henry Platt (then just in Priest's Orders, and one of the most brilliant and capable of our clergy of that day and long after) ; obtained plans from Calvin N. Otis, the builder and nominal architect of Trinity, Geneva, for a stone church far exceeding in architectural pretension as well as in size and cost any- thing yet attempted in Buffalo ; sold the pews for over $20,000 before ground was broken for the building ; and within two years had it completed and consecrated, and a vigorous parish fully at work under Montgomery Schuyler, since so widely known and highly honoured in his half-century's charge of Christ Church, S. Louis, Mo .* I spoke of the building as showing architectural " pretension" rather than character ; it was in fact a great open-roofed hall 100 feet by 60, with a corner tower, having hardly a single feature of real merit ; but up to 185 1 it was of course far beyond S. Paul's " carpenter's Gothic" and Trinity's heathen Doric.
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