USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 32
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326
DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
I can refer to but one more utterance of this part of his Episco- pate, and, as it seems to me, the best of all as a vindication of the Catholic position and principles of the American Church, -an article for the second volume of the Church and the Age (Murray, Lon- don, 1872), published also in the Church Review of January, 1872.
Speaking of the obviously imperfect knowledge of the American Church in England, derived chiefly from English authors of past years and brief notes of travel, he suggests that if " some well-qualified divine could spend a year or more among us," the visit might be fraught with benefit to the Scottish and Colonial Churches at least, in enabling them to profit by our experience and even our past mistakes. The American Church came into corporate life in 1783, as the first since the days of Theodosius in an absolutely primitive position- neither persecuted nor established-only, for the time, without Bishops. Naturally some mistakes were made, such as the " Pro- posed Book," the undue shortening of some services, and the omis- sion of the Athanasian Creed ;* but these were more than offset, even in Bishop Seabury's judgment, by the restoration of the Oblation from the Scottish Communion Office, and by the voluntary adoption of the English Articles not as terms of Communion. "A much more humil- iating token" of our position at that day was the consent of even "the Catholic Seabury to permit our truly Apostolic Church to be known, even in its external conditions, as ' the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.' I hold this to be a jumble of words which nothing but familiarity can render tolerable to an enlightened mind. But the shameful misuse of the word ' Catholic,' which still continues to disgrace the literature of England, and which daily blemishes the speech and writings even of Englishmen who are scholars, and who profess to be Churchmen, was in those days yet more inveterately established. That Catholicity is the only Protestantism which Rome dreads, was not yet known by many, even among our sound divines. It is even now only just beginning to be
lectures on " The Signs of the Times," delivered in Rochester and other places in 1870, and published in Rochester that year. It is prefaced by a letter from Bishop De Lancey ( 1854) to Dr. Van Ingen, in answer to a memorial from him and other clergymen of the Diocese on Christian Unity. The substance of the letter is in one sentence : " The schemes of union founded on compromise of principles, or on the suppression of any truth which God has thought fit to dis- close to men, cannot hope for the Divine blessing, and must of necessity prove ultimately fallacious."
* But here the Bishop seems to forget that the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1787 tacitly approved of this omission under the circumstances in America. See Bp. White's Memoirs, p. 149. (Ed. 1880.)
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THE OLD CATHOLICS
seen by thousands of intelligent men among ourselves ; but the ' Old Catholics' of Germany are forcing it upon the conviction of all who are in real conflict with Rome. Nor can any tribute be paid to the Papacy more entirely acceptable, than the surrender to its followers of the Catholic name, its prestige, and its logical force."
Then the Bishop points out certain practical reforms accomplished in the American Church. such as the admission of the Laity to its Synods, and its Greek Mission in recognition of the ancient Church of Greece, evidencing that we are essentially " Old Catholics," needing now only a reform of the " hasty and inaccurate" liturgical work of 1789 [which was brought about twenty years later] to bring the Amer- ican Prayer Book " to as high a degree of perfection as the professed principles of our Church demand." He speaks the more freely of these things because " he abhors Romanism, as Bishop Bull did, not as a Protestant, but as a Catholic."
In his Address of 1871 the Bishop reminds his Diocese that "in the days of Cyprian it was counted none the less a duty to bear witness as touching the Common Faith, because theirs was a remote branch of the Church in Africa" ; and he means that " his Council shall never meet without being reminded of its place and its duty in the Church Universal." So he calls on them to remember in their prayers those who, though they wisely call themselves " Old Catholics," are in that very name one with us " who go back to the grand old undisputed Councils of Primitive Antiquity, and to the Holy Scriptures as those Councils understood them." I can only allude to his enthusiastic commendation and anticipations of the work of the Old-Catholic Con- gress of 1872 in his Address of that year,-a gathering, it will be remembered, of special interest from the presence of the great Bishop (Whittingham) of Maryland as a representative of our Church. The presence of the Old-Catholic Bishop Herzog in our Diocesan Council of 1880, and Bishop Coxe's words of welcome to him, hardly need to be recalled.
CHAPTER XLVI
EDUCATIONAL WORK, 1880-96
HE general progress and work of the Diocese during the last half of Bishop Coxe's Episcopate can be traced in great part from his annual Addresses to the Council, which, though not complete and systematic, like Bishop De Lancey's, never fail to bring to view the chief mat- ters of diocesan interest.
The statistics of numerical growth during those sixteen years are not discouraging, in view of the fact that Western New York had long since ceased to increase rapidly in population, and that such growth as there was for the most part depleted the country to benefit the larger towns. From 1880 to 1896 the number of clergy increased from 103 to 121, although 66 of the former number had been lost to the Diocese by decease or removal ; the Candidates for Orders from 8 to 12, having averaged a little less than 8 all the time ; but even the largest number, it must be noted, is much less than the average of Bishop De Lancey's day, which was between 17 and 18 .* The parishes and missions were 127 instead of 115; apparently the Church's organic work had reached just twelve new places in sixteen years, but this is hardly a fair inference, as the unorganized missions (or places where regular or frequent services were held) were much
more numerous than in 1880. There were 123 churches instead of 96, and 68 rectories instead of 46, both these items indicating a con- siderable advance in the permanent planting of the Church. The aggregate of communicants, though grown from 12,860 to 18,960, shows a gain on the population of only 1 in 61 as against 1 in 73, which seems less than might be expected. " The total of offerings for
* But this falling-off was pretty much the same all over the country.
t But the proportion in the old Diocese at Bishop Coxe's accession (1865) was I to 104, and in the present Diocese five years later (1870) I to 85. The latest practicable comparison (1900) gives 1 to 60, which is a gain of 75 per cent. since 1865, and 175 per cent. in 50 years. This apparent gain is slightly diminished by the fact that the reports of 50 years ago were much less accurate than they are now; those of 1865, on the other hand, are quite as trustworthy. In both the latter years they include a careful estimate of communicants not reported.
CHRIST CHURCH, ROCHESTER
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EDUCATIONAL WORK
parochial objects is $258,389 instead of $209, 165 ; for diocesan objects $27,812 instead of $32,706, for extra-diocesan objects $16,- 044 instead of $11,016; in all $302,245 instead of $252,888. But these last statistics across an interval of sixteen years do not show clearly the actual gain in this direction, and certainly indicate rather loss than gain, when compared with the greatly increased wealth of almost every town and village in the Diocese.
In the education of children and youth by the Church there was, as I have noted before, a decided falling off, even the Sunday-scholars being less in proportion to population (12,016 reported as against 10,230 in 1880),* while in boarding-schools and day-schools of all grades there is a great loss. S. Margaret's School had been estab- lished, and was (and still is) doing an excellent work in Buffalo (mostly for day-scholars), and the De Lancey School on a smaller scale (mostly for boarding-pupils) in Geneva ; the Cary School at Oakfield maintained itself, though with small numbers, against the strong competition of the public school ; and these, with one small Church school for girls in Rochester, were about all that I can call to mind. I do not include De Veaux College, which has a special his- tory of its own which must be given in outline.
The controversy of 1873-80 over the "Term Pupil Department " was practically ended in 1882-3, partly by an amendment of the Act of Incorporation which placed the appointment of the Trustees under the control of the Council, and partly by a much more economical finan- cial management, at the cost however of some dilapidation of the build- ings for the want of timely repairs, and with an average of less than 13 Foundationers and 53 Term Pupils during the ten years following Mr. Patterson's resignation in 1880. Otherwise the School was efficiently kept up under the Head Master, Mr. Wilfred H. Munro, and the Chaplain, the Rev. Frank P. Harrington (Hobart 1873). By this time the Alumni of the College had grown into a body respectable in numbers and social and business or professional standing, and formed an Association to promote its interests, which in 1886 contributed some $1,500 towards the building of a much-needed chapel ; one of the larger school-rooms having been thus far used for that purpose.
* The population of the Diocese being in 1880, 933,000; in 1896, as nearly as I can find, 1, 160,000, a little less than 25 per cent. more, while the Sunday- scholars increased about three-fourths as much per cent.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
The next year, June 10, 1887, the corner-stone of " S. Ambrose's Chapel " was laid by the Bishop with impressive ceremonial, and in presence of a large congregation, including several of the clergy of the Diocese of Niagara. In his Address the Bishop reminded his audi- ence that
" There was no true education but that which was baptized in the Name of Christ ; and the heathen civilization of old, which knew not Christ, had no education in the highest meaning of the term. Our Public School system will be a real education, and deserve our sup- port as Christians and citizens, only so far as it continues to be ruled by the fundamental principles of Christianity which underlie our whole history and character as a nation. . But our " Founder's Day "* commemorates a Christian layman who saw the need of a higher and more definite training than common schools could give, and more than thirty years ago gave the munificent endowment which has founded De Veaux College. . Its history during these years has abun- dantly vindicated the principles of its foundation, and they need now no defence nor apology. Its own Alumni have now undertaken a noble work in the erection of this chapel to be the enduring memo- rial of their own belief in Christian truth as the corner-stone of all true education."
Speeches of congratulation were made by the Dean (Geddes) of Niagara and others of the visitors, and a very bright and interesting address to the Associate Alumni by their President, Herbert P. Bis- sell of Buffalo, to whom, as to the Bishop, even the boys listened with intense interest.
" If every loyal son of De Veaux," he said, " will but labour ear- nestly and constantly for the advancement and success of this insti- tution, so beautifully situated within sight of one of the most magni- ficent wonders of nature, and equipped with the best means of furnishing the boys with that training which forms the highest grade of character, I believe that some of us will yet live to see yonder green transformed into an Etonian quadrangle, and hundreds of boys enjoying the opportunities of this School. This we owe as a duty to our God ; we owe it as a duty to our Alma Mater ; and finally we owe it as a duty to our country ; for, in the words of Roger Ascham, ' If youth be grafted straight and not awry, the whole com- monwealth will flourish thereafter.'" He hoped that " the sons of De Veaux would some day erect a statue of their Benefactor on the Campus."
* The annual Commencement of De Veaux is called " Founder's Day," be- ing as near as possible to the birthday of Judge De Veaux.
33I
S. AMBROSE'S CHAPEL
The Rev. Dr. Van Bokkelen, Rector of Trinity Church, Buffalo, followed with an offer to give the first hundred dollars towards the proposed statue. "God save the State " was heartily sung, accom- panied by the band, and the usual collation, drill and parade (with the unusual addition of an impromptu parade of some thirty of the " Old Boys " present) closed a very memorable and delightful day.
The foundations of the chapel being thus laid, the Trustees asked the approval of the Diocesan Council of 1887 to the expenditure of a portion of the surplus income from the Term Pupil Department on the building, the completion of which would, it was urged, bring in a much larger income from additional pupils in the rooms now used for a chapel. The Council did not act on the request, but the foundation was nevertheless finished. Mr. Munro resigned in January, 1889, and was succeeded by Mr. Reginald H. Coe, an Alumnus of S. Stephen's College, and then a Candidate for Orders ; a fine scholar and teacher, and with special sympathy for boys. This appointment was not made till after long and fruitless efforts to confer with the Bishop, who, as it happened, was ill or away nearly all the time that it was under consideration, and only at the last moment sent in another nomination which the Trustees could not accept. The result was a serious difference lasting for several years, and proving eventually a great injury to the School. The Bishop insisted that his rights as " Visitor "* were not duly respected in making an appointment with- out personal conference with him ; the Trustees, that they had waited until the School could no longer be left without a Head. Mr. Coe did not take Orders, finding the charge of the School, as he thought, incompatible with the duties of a Priest, and Mr. Harrington was retained as Chaplain until 1893, when his place was filled for a short time by the Rev. Henry S. Huntington, and later by the Rev. William F. Shero.
In 1891 a large addition ($37,848) was made to the endowment from the sale of a part of the "College Farm," land which had hitherto produced no income beyond the cost of working it, making the whole amount $153,029.25, and similar sales of unproductive land in 1893 increased the fund to $191,836.47. The number of founda- tioners was increased to 23, and in 1895 to 30, and, with the approval of the Bishop and Standing Committee, large additions were made in
* He had resigned as Trustee in 1881.
332
DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
that year to the buildings, including a chapel and schoolrooms on the foundations laid in 1887, laundry, infirmary, chaplain's house, and gate-lodge, besides many costly but greatly-needed repairs and improvements in the old buildings, amounting in all to the large sum of $37,273.35. The greater part of this expenditure was replaced by the sale of a right of way under the bank of the Niagara River (land of no value except for this purpose) for a "Gorge Railway," for $30,000. In 1896 the endowment was reported at $183,295.76 .*
The value of land, buildings and other property not producing income is reported for the same year as $661,002.49.1
On the Founder's Day of 1894, June 19, the new Chapel was opened by the Bishop with a special service of Benediction (not con- secrated because not meant to be permanently a chapel), and an admirable address on the history and work of the School, which he promised and intended to have published, but never did. About thirty of the clergy of the Diocese and a very large congregation were present.
The service was followed by the usual address to the graduating class, the collation and drill, and the whole day was one of much interest and enjoyment. The Chapel is a simple but very beautiful choir and ante-chapel, in all 85'x35', with a tower containing the large bell, which, with the altar and much of the furniture, had been given
* The Trustees had proposed in 1892 to erect on the chapel foundation a build- ing with a lower story of stone for schoolrooms, and an upper one of wood for a temporary chapel, at a cost of $7,000. The Bishop and Standing Committee, whose consent was necessary to such appropriation, advised a more permanent building wholly of stone, in harmony with the main building. Plans for this building at $11,000 were deemed insufficient, and others at $16,000 were approved, besides $8,ooo for laundry, infirmary and chaplain's house. In the end the repairs and improvements which long neglect had made necessary in the main building, brought the total expenditure to nearly $38,000, which was subsequently approved by the Bishop and the Committee. I put this on record because the Trustees were severely and unjustly censured for this large outlay, which, aside from the question of its expediency, was needed and properly expended for the work actually done.
t This is of course only an estimated value, and is the balance after deducting the endowment fund of $183,295.76 from the sum total reported, which is $844,298.25. See Report, Journ. 1896, p. 76. In 1903 (Jan. 15) the endowment fund is stated to be $217, 222.90, having been further increased by sales of land amounting to $38,319.50 during the previous year.
DE VEAUX COLLEGE
333
DE VEAUX COLLEGE, 1880-96
long before, mostly as memorials. It has a cradle-roof of good height, and is fitted appropriately with stall-seats for the masters and pupils and with others across the ante-chapel.
I have said before (Ch. XLIII.) that the Diocese as a whole had never heartily supported Bishop Coxe's plan of extending the work of the College by the " Term-Pupil Department." Had it done so, we should have long since realized what was one of the great ideals of his whole Episcopate,-the founding of a noble Diocesan School fur- nishing a liberal education for rich and poor alike. So long as the Term-Pupil Department more than provided for its cost and the additional outlay in buildings and equipment, there was no outspoken opposition. But the large expenditure of 1893-4 for these purposes brought out renewed complaints of " extravagance " and " misman- agement," complaints which were not at all appeased by the fact that the work was done with the entire approval and largely by the direction of the Bishop and Standing Committee, though neither they nor the Trustees had anticipated such an outlay as finally became necessary. At the Council of 1895 the annual Committee on the College brought in a report reflecting somewhat severely on the action of the Trustees, and it was considered all through one evening in Committee of the Whole, with the result that a recommendation to discontinue the term-pupil department was stricken from the report, and when, thus amended, it was reported to the Council, permission to print it was refused by a very decided vote. This, I may add, was largely owing to the Bishop's vigorous defence of the policy of the Trustees, which was also his own from the first. But the next year the contest was renewed with still more determination by the opponents, and after a debate lasting till nearly midnight, a vote to suspend the term-pupil department for five years was carried, in a very thin house, by a majority of eight of each order. The Bishop acquiesced in this action, and even advised it, as " a conciliatory course," but the whole result, the apparent overthrow of the plans and hopes of thirty years, was a deep and bitter disap- pointment to him, and had unquestionably no slight part in the failure of health and strength which just two months from that day took him to his rest. *
* I say this from what the Bishop said to me again and again ; it is of course only my own conviction. Although it is going beyond the limit I have set for
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
I add only his own words from his last Address to his Diocese.
" I wish, instead of so much talk and waste of words, you would second my long and anxious counsels for De Veaux, and enable it to realize the grand ideal of its munificent founder. What that ideal was, his Will sufficiently indicates. Remember these three facts: (1) It was not to be an Orphan Asylum or a reformatory, but a great polytechnic school ; (2) the State Legislature so understood it, and chartered it as a " College" ; and (3) its whole character and develop- ment were entrusted by Judge De Veaux to this Council, which, year after year, and as the result of conflicting views and experiments, has decided that it cannot be made to answer the founder's designs, except by throwing all its running expenses upon pay pupils who can sustain competent professors and teachers, thus leaving the entire income of the estate to the support of foundationers. Long since all this might have been realized, and De Veaux would have had at least two hundred pay pupils and as many beneficiaries. The examples of S. Paul's, Concord, and of the schools at Groton and Southborough, demonstrate this as a true thing and not a theory."
And, after the final action of the Council, he can still hopefully say,
" Already we see the rainbow of peace, and it promises enlarged prosperity for the noble foundation of Judge De Veaux. You will
this history, I must add that on the resignation of Mr. Coe the next year, the Rev. William Stanley Barrows, M.A., of Trinity and Hobart, was appointed Head Master and Chaplain, and under his wise, faithful and efficient administration the work of the School in its contracted sphere has been carried on with great good judgment and success. On the expiration of the term of suspension in 1901, the restoration of the term-pupil department was deferred to await a decision of the Supreme Court of New York on the construction of Judge De Veaux's Will in that respect. The present Bishop of the Diocese was elected Trustee in 1897, and by the Statutes adopted in 1899 is made ex-officio President of that Board as well as official Visitor of the College; and in all these relations has constantly shown the deepest interest in its welfare. The good understanding between Bishop Coxe and the Trustees, which had been so sadly broken by the circum- stances attending the appointment of the Head Master in 1889, was fully restored in 1893, and he resumed from that time the exercise of his office as Visitor. It was my happy privilege to have much personal share in this renewal of pleasant relations. From 1883 the Trustees were chosen annually by the Diocesan Council, and some of them who served for a long term of years deserve to be commemorated for their devoted and unselfish work for the best interests of the School; especially Drs. Windsor and Hitchcock, Mr. Peter D. Walter and the Hon. John H. Buck of Lockport, all now deceased. More faithful service than theirs was never given to any Institution of the Church.
335
HOBART COLLEGE, 1880-96.
find that a five years' trial can be so utilized for restoring and build- ing up that splendid institute in its financial and beneficent future, that it will be the glory of the Diocese, as our unfortunate differences about it have been for twenty years the sole blemish on our annual Councils." *
In Hobart College there was a steady advance during all these years both in means of usefulness from increased endowments, and enlarged and higher courses of study, though, as always, its chief and best work was in the foundations of all true intellectual and literary culture, Latin, Greek and Mathematics. Of the Faculty elected on or shortly after the re-organization of 1869-70, Professor Hamilton L. Smith (in Natural Sciences), Joseph H. M'Daniels (Greek), Francis P. Nash (Latin), and Charles D. Vail (Rhetoric and English Literature), the last three still remain after thirty years and more of untiring and excellent work ; Professor Smith, after thirty-five years' service, died Aug. 1, 1903, honoured and beloved by all who knew him. Dr. Ayrault gave the last seven years of his Priesthood, from 1875 till his decease, Oct. 19, 1882, as the third Chaplain (succeeding Bishop Neely and Pelham Williams) on the "John H. Swift Founda- tion." I have spoken of him more than once before as associated with all the best years and work of the Diocese. He was succeeded in 1884 by William M. Hughes (Hobart 1871) from S. John's Church, Buffalo, and in 1887 by Dr. R. R. Converse, from Corning, now Rector of S. Luke's, Rochester The President of 1876, Dr. Robert G. Hinsdale, had to resign in 1883 from ill-health, after seven years' faithful and successful work, and from 1884 the office was filled for twelve years by Dr. Eliphalet Nott Potter, a son of the third Bishop of Pennsylvania, and previously President of Union College. His term was the longest in the history of the College, except Dr. Hale's, and, with a larger and more efficient Faculty, and more students than ever before, attained a yet higher standard in many respects. Ho- bart still is, and probably always will be, a "small college," not a University ; but she can, and ought to, fill a place in Christian Edu- cation second to none in the country. Whether she will do it so as to justify her existence, and her endowments from the Churchmen of past and present days, will depend very much, as it seems to me, on the degree in which she preserves and makes practical the true ideal
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