USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 35
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CHRIST CHURCH, ROCHESTER
CHAPTER XLIX
HE restoration of Christian Union in Unity was, as I have said, the deep desire and hope of Bishop Coxe, not for his younger and more sanguine years only, but for his whole life. It would take a volume to give a full account of his efforts to that end even in his last years.
In October, 1887, the House of Bishops, expressing their " sym- pathy and confidence in the work of reform in France conducted upon the Gallican lines," appointed 'Bishops Coxe, Lyman and Pot- ter a committee to aid in that work, especially by helping the Rev. Dr. Alberigh-Mackay, who had come from Paris to raise funds for the Mission of Père Hyacinthe Loyson. An appeal for such aid was issued by them, setting forth the success already attained, and the conviction of even the French Protestants that the Church of France could be reformed only from within. During the winter the Bishop was much engaged in conferences in New York or elsewhere, in prep- aration for his own large share in this duty immediately before the Lambeth Conference of 1888. It was partly for this reason that he took passage in a Havre steamer on June 2, and went directly to Paris .* His first step there was a conference at the American Church of the Holy Trinity with the Rector and others, and next, devoting several hours daily to inquiry and effort, and visits to the Gallican Churchmen of Paris in conjunction with Père Loyson. Then fol- lows his Letter to the Archbishop of Paris, explaining with great courtesy, and in the true spirit, as it seems to me, of a primitive Bishop, his motives and purpose in visiting that Diocese, making known his errand " not more truly in conformity with primitive canons than out of respect to the Archbishop's person and his official dig- nity ;" that appeals had come to the Anglo-American Church from
* He mentions visiting the steerage passengers (mostly French and Italians) on Sunday, " exhorting them to hallow the day," and giving them tracts in French with which he had been supplied by Mr. William H. Bogart of Aurora, and which those who could read joyfully accepted and read aloud to the others. On landing at Havre he "entered a church and prayed for the Church in France," and did the same daily, " and always on visiting a church of the Roman Rite."
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certain of the faithful Priests and Laymen of France, " truly Catho- lics, as that precious name was always understood before the divisions of the East and West," complaining that they were deprived of their Bishop's fatherly care and of the Sacraments only because they adhere to Gallican maxims and profess the Catholic Faith accord- ing to the rule of S. Vincent of Lerins. " They accept the canoni- cal primacy of the great Apostolic See of the West, rejecting only those modern pretensions to infallibility and supremacy which the whole Gallican Church rejected in 1682." If for this the Archbishop deprives them of pastoral care, they are entitled to " temporary and provisional succour " at the hands of another Bishop, who, " not to stimulate schism, but the reverse," will administer confirmation to this suffering flock if their own Pastor will not heed this appeal.
And as the appeal was unheard, the Bishop, on S. John Baptist's Day, after the Morning Service in the American Church, confirmed (with a service in French) 36 candidates in the temporary French Church, Père Loyson reading and explaining his letter to the Arch- bishop. For this Bishop Coxe was severely criticised in the Living Church as exceeding his commission from the House of Bishops, but was fully vindicated by other Church papers .*
During the Lambeth Conference much time was given to consulta- tion on this work. The Bishop was on the Committees on " the Scandinavian and Old Catholic Churches," and on " Authoritative Standards of Doctrine and Worship." From this time on he never ceased his labours and appeals to Churchmen in England and Amer- ica for " the Gallican work." In 1888 alone he had raised and forwarded to Père Loyson one thousand dollars, and the next and fol- lowing years considerable additional sums ; I cannot find any state- ment of the whole amount, but it must have been large, though all too little for the needs of the work.
In the Old Catholic movement in Germany and Switzerland he took an active part through all these years. At the Congress of Sep- tember, 1888, at Heidelberg, after officiating in the services with Bishop Reinkens, he made an address " in response to their enthusi- astic reception of an American Bishop," and took part in the follow- ing sessions. In his Journals of years following are frequent notices of " conferences on Gallican work," "organizing (with other Bish-
* Church Kalendar, IX. 50, 52, 57; Churchman, LXIII. 3.
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ops) a Gallican League," " preaching in behalf of Gallican restora- tion," on " the perishing condition of Christianity in France," on " the German and Swiss Reformation, and the Anglican Restora- tion," on "the Old Catholics and the Gallicans," and the like. He had much correspondence with the Bishops of Holland on their part in the Old Catholic movement and their doubtful attitude towards the Anglican Church, taking great pains to set before them her true Catholic position and teaching. From some of the clergy of that Church he received responses of much interest showing the new light on this subject which they had gained from his presentation of it .* In 1893 (March 25) he records his resignation " as visiting Bishop of the Gallican Church, preparatory to the acceptance of provisional charge of the same by the Archbishop of Utrecht." From this time his attention was given more to the conferences with Protestant bodies, the Presbyterians particularly, in regard to efforts towards Christian Unity. His part in this work is too well known to require special remark ; I have already noted (p. 325) its beginning in the Christian Unity Society of 1864. From 1888 he was in frequent if not constant correspondence with Presbyterian divines like Dr. Shields and Prof. Austin Phelps. In October, 1892, he notes a meeting with the Bishop of Alabama and a committee of Presbyterian Pas- tors on Christian Unity, at Baltimore ; in the same month another at Princeton ; and so on month after month, conferences recorded and commented on fully, as most of my readers will remember, in the religious and secular papers of the time, and, however apparently fruitless thus far in any definite or corporate action, certainly of much value in the spirit which they evoked in behalf of better rela- tions between Christian bodies having so much in common.
The very depth and intensity of the Bishop's convictions in regard to unity on primitive and Catholic principles gave a force to his ab- horrence of the modern Papal system as the great obstacle to its attainment, which often, I think, caused his real position to be misun- derstood. It would be useless to defend all his impulsive and vehe- ment utterances against Romanism and Romanists as strictly reason- able, or consistent with his positive belief and practice. So much his most loyal and devoted friends have often and regretfully had to ac-
* See in Churchman, LXI. 140, 478, 554, 630, his correspondence with Fr. Van Santen, of Dordrecht, and remarks on the same.
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knowledge. But such utterances attracted from the public, and from those who knew little of him personally, an utterly disproportionate attention, as compared with those in which he set forth true Catholic principles. He himself has told of the shock of bitter disappointment which the secession of Newman gave him, and from which, it may be said, he never recovered. In the criticisms of his letters of 1866 on Dr. Pusey's Eirenicon, his argument does not seem to me to touch the pleadings of that book, but is directed against the supposed consequen- ces drawn from them by others. And so in later years he repeatedly denounces doctrinal and ritual errors which he does not specify, and which were in fact, as it seems to me, not at all clearly defined in his own mind. In his Address of 1886 he maintains that " Liberal " Romanists are good citizens ; that he has no fear of such ecclesiastics as the early prelates like Carroll and Cheverus, or laymen like Chief Justice Taney, " a true patriot," whose family were his own parish- ioners in Baltimore. In his introduction to Hirscher's work, as quoted on p. 323 above, he cannot withhold his sympathy from one who like Schlegel gave his adhesion to Romanism rather than to Protestantism which was practically infidelity, though he cannot even contemplate the possibility of such a position as suggested in the Eirenicon in the almost impossible case that the Church of England should commit itself to heretical teaching.
So in the miserable personal and ritual controversies of 1870-75, which are now almost forgotten, and which I should hope no one would wish to remember, the Bishop was greatly misunderstood, though here again it must be admitted that he was neither clear nor consistent, any more than were some of his opponents.
In his Charge of 1885 on " The Church of Law and the Law of the Church," he lays down the principle that the Ordinary is to be consulted not only in doubt but in silence of law, and that variations from ordinary use not thus sanctioned must be deemed " novel and unauthorized ;" a principle which might be taken logically to mean that a Parish Priest must do nothing which was not expressly ordered either by the Prayer Book or the Bishop. But this was probably very far from his meaning. When he comes to give applications of the principle, the things condemned are the saying of the General Thanksgiving by Priest and People together,-saying the invocations of the Litany together,-using Te Deum as an Anthem on ordinary
DE LANCEY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, GENEVA
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THE RITUAL CONTROVERSY
Sundays, and such like usages, most of which, I believe, are nearly unknown in this Diocese, though approved in some others. In some other matters the Bishop was curiously conservative of old customs. He regretted the disuse of the gown and bands, and not only insisted on their being worn, for some years, by the preacher at Convention, but persuaded Dr. Ingersoll, the first one to abandon those vestments about 1852, to revive them for a time in his last years in Trinity Church, Buffalo. So he wished to preserve what Bishop De Lancey, who disliked it extremely, used to call the " tub pulpit." He would have restored by canonical provision in his own Diocese the saying of the General Confession after the Minister (clause by clause), re- garding the opinion of the House of Bishops and direction of the General Convention of 1835 as utterly illegal, and Bishop Hopkins's refusal to obey it as fully justified .* He had expressed himself against Eucharistic lights in the " Declaration " of 28 Bishops in 1867, and he reiterated this opinion in 18901 on the ground that they were not expressly authorized in this country, though lawful, as he believes, in the Church of England ; and quotes Bishop De Lancey as not objecting to the lights in themselves, but " to their introduction against all preceding usage, by wilfulness of private judgment."# But although Bishop Coxe in several instances advised against this use, he never, so far as I am informed, attempted to enforce this ad- vice, although in one instance at least he was severely and unjustly
* Charge of 1885. (Church Kalendar, VI. 289 seq .; Churchman, Sept., 1885). The opinion was given pursuant to a resolution of the House of Deputies asking for such counsel "in order that such measures may be taken as will maintain uniformity of practice in this behalf, in conformity to ancient usage." (Journ. Gen. Convention, 1835, pp. 24, 65, 102.)
t "Godly Counsels," Churchman, LXII. 376 (Sept. 27, 1890). The special things censured by this now almost forgotten " Declaration " were altar lights, incense, " reverences to the Holy Table or to the Elements thereon " implying false views of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and " the adoption of clerical habits hitherto unknown, or material alterations of those which have been in use since the establishment of our Episcopate."
# As a matter of fact Bishop De Lancey never expressed an opinion on the subject in any official way ; he only said (see p. 179 above), that "in this Diocese there are no emblematic candles on the Altar," and " no substitution of the Surplice for the Gown in the pulpit," except in "the emergency of not having a Gown," which latter "emergency " soon after became the rule, without any au- thorization or any objection on the Bishop's part. (Journ. 1846, p. 48.)
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censured for having done so .* So the lights were constantly used in some parishes through most of his Episcopate, with his full knowl- edge, and without one word of objection from him. He protested strongly against the positions of Bishop Hopkins's " Law of Ritual- ism " in regard to vestments, even white and coloured stoles, which however came to be later a general fashion here as everywhere else. t I have already noted his express sanction and example of the Eucha- ristic use of alb and chasuble.# He did not like the omission of the Litany after Morning Prayer on Communion Sundays ; but he would not interfere where that omission was a parochial " use." But the truth is that the Bishop was apt to be governed very much in such matters by his confidence (or want of it) in the clergyman's loyalty to the Church.
But with all the Bishop's peculiar ideas of ceremonial, which were sometimes puzzling and perplexing to those who did not know him well, he had a rare liturgical instinct which somehow always brought him out right in the end. § His own part in the service-attitude, read-
* It was in this particular case that Bishop Coxe told me that he expressly did not enforce his opinion, but gave his advice on account of the state of feeling in that parish ; and added emphatically that "for his own part, he would be glad to see Eucharistic lights on every altar in his Diocese, but felt bound to wait until they were expressly authorized."
t Here the Bishop was, it seems to me, entirely in the right, so far as the Daily Office is concerned, as is clearly shown in the full and conclusive evidence of primitive usage in Marriott's " Vestiarium Christianum." But the later use of coloured stoles as Eucharistic vestments is quite another thing, and would, I am sure, have met with no objection from Bishop Coxe. In fact, he "desired " white stoles for Easter-Tide to be authorized. ( Kalendar, I. 119.)
# See Ch. XXXV. p. 234. These vestments were in use in a small number of churches in the Diocese all through Bishop Coxe's time. It will be remembered that he wrote the Report of the Committee of the House of Bishops of 1886 on " Vestments," which expresses the opinion that the " historic fact " of the use of the mitre by Bishops Seabury and Claggett " justifies any Bishop in resuming
it." But I cannot imagine that any process of reasoning would have induced the Bishop himself to resume that "vestment." He would have been glad, like Bishop Lyman, to lay aside his "chimere " in summer or exchange it for a " cloth cope " in winter.
§ On one memorable occasion, the clergyman in charge, who had been reduced to despair at the Bishop's changes in the arrangement of the service at the last moment, said to me after it was all over, " I never saw a man who had such a capacity for tangling things all up, and then bringing perfect order out of them all
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ing, gestures, were according to no rule except his own, but impressed every one with the aspect of deep and sincere devotion ; and, on the rare occasions when he was willing to sing his part in the Eucharistic Office, with the added melody of a voice whose every utterance was sweet to hear.
One would gladly linger long on these personal traits, which have left a charm in the very memory of the good Bishop on all who had the happiness to know him. But I have only left myself room to tell briefly the story of his last days.
Up to the Council of 1896 the Bishop had kept up fairly with his usual work, officiating frequently when at home in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents at the Church Home, which was then vacant by the decease of the Rev. Henry S. Huntington. On Easter Day he offi- ciated and preached four times, at S. Philip's, Trinity, Fort Porter and S. Paul's, and the next day gave a Lecture to the University Club on " English University Men " whom he had known .* I should note that he had taken his full part in the General Convention of 1895, at Minneapolis, where he preached the opening sermon, one remem- bered and often mentioned as of extraordinary power and eloquence. He also " presided in the Commission on Christian Unity, and wel- comed the Rev. Dr. Smith, from the Committee of the Presbyterian General Assembly, to a Conference."t At Minneapolis he officiated in the Swedish Church of S. Ansgarius, and the Swedish Rite as revised by Bishop Kemper ; but he is careful to record that he read the Gospel in the Missa and gave the Benediction in English. Later comes a conference with the Bishop of Utah "on the condition of
at the end." It was at the same service that the Bishop interrupted a venerable clergyman who had begun the First Lesson two or three chapters out of the way, with " my dear brother, we cannot have the wrong lesson on such a day as this !" and found the place for him.
* " Blessed be God for enabling me to do, and to enjoy doing, this day's blessed work, and that of the Octave just concluded. Amen. On this day, one-and-thirty years ago-blessed be God for His sparing mercy-Bishop De Lancey resting from his labours, I began my work as Diocesan Bishop. Forgive me all my mistakes and faults, Blessed Jesus, my Master and Redeemer. Amen." (Bishop's Journal of 1896, not published by him.)
t " A week full of work; full of mercies; full of wonders; for this North- west is full of wonders in itself ; and Faribault and its Bishop are the greatest of all. Finally, this last record renews the Savoy Conference in a better spirit." Journal, p. 207.
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Nevada, and the results of work among the Mormons ;" a conference at New York (in January, 1896) on the Revision of the Constitution and Canons ; a Lecture to the Church Club on " an Ideal Hymnal "; devotions and lectures to the Candidates of his Diocese in the General Theological Seminary ; preaching at Lakewood, N. J. (his frequent place of rest those last years), to the servants and employees of the house, on the Imitation of Christ in Lent (several times repeated) ; consecrating the Rev. Dr. Satterlee as Bishop of Washington in Cal- vary Church, New York, his own former church ; further conferences with the new Bishop, on the Standard Bible, and with the Seminary students ; and so on .*
After the Council of May, 1896, it was evident to all that the Bishop was a stricken man. But he officiated three times in Buffalo on Whitsun Day ; presided the next day at the Annual Dinner of the Alumni of the General Theological Seminary, and on Wednesday at the Examinations and Commencement ; on Thursday and Friday held various conferences in New York, and on Saturday, at Geneva, " with Mr. Chew, regarding the proposed new chancel of Trinity Church, and my burial place; " on Trinity Sunday, in S. Paul's, Buffalo, held an examination, and ordinations to the Diaconate and Priesthood ; the following month, officiated at a special office and visitation for the Livingston Park School in Rochester, at Geneseo, Mount Morris, Phelps, S. Margaret's School and the Church Home, Buffalo, De Veaux College, the De Lancey School for Girls and Hobart College ; and on the third Sunday after Trinity, June 21, held his last Ordination in my little church at Phelps, admitting Mr. Cuth- bert O. S. Kearton to the Diaconate, t and officiating at Clifton Springs
* " Feb. 26. One hundred years since the death of Bishop Seabury. R. I. P. " Feb. 29. The last Leap Year Day I shall ever see, probably. ' So teach us to number our days.' Amen." Journ. p. 208.
t On this day he notes : "The Solstice already reached. Eheu ! 'So teach us.' Renewed the thoughts of June 27, 1841, when Hobart and I were ordained to the Diaconate, on this Third Sunday after Trinity, five and fifty years ago. How long and patiently the Lord has borne with my imperfect services ! Blessed be His Name. Miserere Jesu. Amen."
The Bishop's Sermon at this Ordination was in strict accordance with the Rubric ("declaring the duty and office of such as come to be admitted," etc.), and his address to the candidate is noted in my Diary as " the most fitting and impressive that I ever heard on a like occasion." But he was quite ill, and kept his room from the end of the service till he went to Clifton Springs at 5 P. M., taking no food but a little malted milk. I think he did not preach in the evening.
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in the evening. The next Sunday he held a Confirmation at Jamestown, at the other end of the Diocese, and preached, though too ill to stand .* The next day, at Randolph, " weak, and at times in pain, unable to digest a scant invalid's breakfast," he " worked through the day, officiating, preaching and confirming, with exhortation ; " and the day following, " spent in pain and growing weakness," he officiated at the funeral of Gen. Howard in Buffalo. The next day, July I, he held various conferences, met the Board of Education, and distributed, as every year, the " Ketcham Medals " at the Acad- emy ; on the 4th attended the special service at S. Paul's ; on Sun- day, the 5th, " did a day's work, though suffering greatly," having " an early celebration, Morning Service in private at home, then went to Trinity Church, to hear the Sermon by a young clergyman who wishes to come into the Diocese ; in the afternoon drove to the pretty little church of S. Jude, which I opened as an oratory, preached, and confirmed, thence drove to the Rectory, took only a little malted milk which I had brought with me ; thence to S. Stephen's Church, where I confirmed with exhortation only. +God grant me His aid !+ Amen." After a laborious day on Monday, with letters, etc., " preparing to leave home," he officiated on Tuesday, the 7th, amid similar work, at the opening exercises of the National Education Convention in Buffalo, (his last public duty,) and at a late hour in the evening reached the Sanitarium at Clifton Springs, where his few remaining days were spent. On the following Sunday, the 12th, he " confirmed a sufferer in the hospital " of the Sanitarium. On the 18th, Satur- day, is the last entry in his Journal. " So I reach the close of another week. How short my time is ! May I work while my time lasts. Amen."t
It seems that on Monday the Bishop felt much better, and for this and other reasons was preparing to return home. He went out
* " Gave address from my chair in a familiar way as to a dear people, whom I thought proper to take into my confidence. A Blessed Day."
t On Thursday, the 16th, I went to the Springs to see the Bishop, who, though very feeble, was bright as ever, but evidently much worried about dio- cesan matters. As I left him after an hour's talk (not much of it by me), I said, " Bishop, I wish you would go away and not think of the Diocese or anything in it for six weeks." "O, if I only could ! " said he. And then followed a loving remembrance to my daughters and thanks for " their kind care of him " at his recent visit,-the last words I heard from him.
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and bought tickets for himself and his wife, and afterwards sat longer than usual at dinner, in an earnest and (it must have been) deeply interesting conversation on "the Resurrection of the Body." A few minutes later the end came, as Bishop Andrewes prayed that it might come to him, " Christian, acceptable, sinless, shameless, and if it please Thee, painless."
There is little to be added. On Friday, July 25, the body of the great Bishop was laid to rest in the spot which he had closen and con- secrated, and where three of his children were buried, under the altar window of Trinity Church, Geneva. By his own desire the services were as simple as possible. There was an early and second Eucha- rist before the Burial Service at half past two. Seven Bishops (of Maine, Albany, Springfield, Kentucky, Pittsburgh, North Dakota and Ohio), and ninety clergymen were present, with a great number of laymen representing authorities and parishes of the Diocese, and from other dioceses. Owing to a heavy rain, the Committal was attended only by the Bishop of Albany and the bearers, the family looking on from the vestry room, while in the church hymns were sung and the Benediction given by the Bishop of Maine. After the service a Minute on behalf of the Clergy was read, and brief addresses were made by Bishops Doane, Neely, Seymour and Leonard .*
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