hardly remind the reader that this allegiance to the Christian Faith was, until very lately, indispensable to the holding of any office under the crown in England, and that receiving the sacrament in the Established Church was the legal test of a man's possessing it. ligion should be established according to the doctrines and rites of the Church of England; every emigrant was bound to allegiance to the king, and to conformity with the royal creed.* Still, it does not appear that any provision was made for the clergy until 1619, that is, twelve years after the commencement of the colony. A Legislative Assembly, elected by the colonists, met that year for the first time, and passed laws for the formation of par clergy; accordingly, the establishment of the Episcopal Church dates formally, if not really, from that year. In conclusion, I ought to state, that in the New-England colonies the ministers of the Gospel had no part, as such, in the civil government. They were confined to their proper office and work. Yet no menishes and the regular maintenance of the had more influence, even in affairs of state. As a body of enlightened patriots, whose opinion it was important to obtain, they were consulted by the political authorities in every hour of difficulty; and although cases might be found in which the leading men among them, at least, did not advise their fellow-citizens wisely, it was much otherwise in the great majority of instances. Such was the state of things throughout the whole colonial age; and to this day, in no other country is the legitimate influence of the clergy in public affairsan influence derived from their intelligence, united with religion, virtue, and public spirit-more manifest, or more salutary, than in New-England. If these colonies might be compared, in their earlier periods, to the Hebrew commonwealth, it is certain that, wherever there was a Moses, there was also an Aaron; and the influence of Winthrop, and Haynes, and Bradford, and Eaton, was not greater or happier than that of their compeers and coadjutors, the Rev. Messrs. Cotton, and Hooker, and Brewster, and Davenport. CHAPTER XVIII. RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND THE VIRGINIA, too, like New-England, was first colonized by members of the Church | of England; but there was a vast difference between the views of the admirers of the English Prelacy of that time and those of the Puritans. The Established Church was then composed, in fact, of two great divisions, which in spirit, at least, have more or less existed ever since, and were represented in the colonization of America by the High Churchmen and Cavaliers of the South, on the one hand, and the Puritans of the North on the other. While the latter left England in order to escape from the oppressions inflicted on them by the Prelacy, abetted by the Crown, the former had no complaint against either, but carried with them a cordial attachment to both. Previously to this, however, and during the governorship of Sir Thomas Dale, the London Company sent over to Virginia a set of "laws, divine, moral, and martial," being, apparently, the first fruits of Sir Thomas Smith's legislation; and from their Draconian character, they give us some idea of the notions entertained in those times of the ways whereby religion< might be promoted by the civil power. They were so bad, it is true, as to be little, if at all enforced. In short, they soon fell into complete desuetude, and were disclaimed, at length, by the company, without whose sanction they seem to have been prepared and sent. Yet there is ample evidence to prove that they breathed very much the spirit of the times that produced them, and of the party in the Church of England to which their author belongeda spirit which, thank God! has long since ceased to exist in that or any other portion of the Church of Christ in that country. The first of those laws that bears upon religion enjoins on the officers of the colony, of every description, to have a care that "the Almightie God bee duly and daily served," that the people "heare sermons," that they themselves set a good example therein, and that they punish such as shall be often and wilfully absent, "according to martial law in the case provided." The second law forbids, upon pain of death, speaking against the sacred Trinity, or any Person of the same, or against the known articles of the Christian Faith. The third law forbids blasphemy of God's holy name, upon pain of death; and the use of all unlawful oaths, upon severe punishment for the first offence, the boring of the tongue with a bodkin for the second, and death for the third. The fourth law forbids speaking disrespectfully of the Word of God, upon pain of death, as well as the treating of ministers of the Gospel with disrespect; and enjoins the "holding of them in all reverent regard and dutiful entreatie,” under penalty of being whipped three times, and of * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. In the original charter of James I. to people were wont to meet for the worship of God, there should be a house or room set apart for that purpose, and not converted to any temporal use whatsoever; and that a place should be impaled and sequestered only for the burial of the dead. "asking forgiveness in the assembly of the congregation three severall Saboth daies." The fifth law enjoins upon all to attend morning and evening, every week-day, in the church for service, at the tolling of the bell, upon pain of losing their daily allowance for the first omission, to be whip- 2. That whosoever should absent himped for the second, sent to the galleys for self from Divine service any Sunday, withsix months for the third. It also forbids out an allowable excuse, should forfeit a all violation of the Sabbath by gaming, and pound of tobacco; and that he who absentcommands the people to prepare them-ed himself a month, should forfeit fifty selves by private prayer for the proper at- pounds of tobacco.* tendance upon the public worship, forenoon and afternoon, upon pain of losing their week's allowance for the first omission, the same and a whipping for the second, and death for the third. 3. That there should be a uniformity in the Church as near as might be, both in substance and circumstance, to the canons. of the Church of England; and that all persons should yield a ready obedience to them upon pain of censure.† The sixth enjoins upon every minister within the colony to preach every Sabbath Upon the company being dissolved, the morning, and catechise in the afternoon; to colony fell under the immediate governhave a service morning and evening every ment of the crown, which thenceforth apday, and preach on Wednesday; "to chuse pointed the governors, as well as decided, unto him foure of the most religious and in the last instance, upon all laws passed better disposed" to maintain a sort of spir- by the Assembly, the Council, and the govitual police, and to see that the church beernor. And from about the year 1629, the kept in a good and decent state, and that laws requiring conformity to the Estabhe keep a register of births, deaths, bap-lished Church were strictly enforced, and tisms, &c., " upon the burthen of a neglect- infractions of them visited with severe penfull conscience, and upon paine of losing their entertainment." alties. eventually, fallen throne and altar, and many of the friends of both found refuge there during Cromwell's Protectorate. It may be remarked, however, that the colony did not meet with such a recompense from the restored royal house as its loyalty justly merited. During the period of the "Grand RebelThe seventh law commands "all who lion" in England, and while the Commonwere then in the colony, or who shall wealth lasted, Virginia sympathized strongthenceforth arrive, to repair to the minis-ly with the cause of the tottering, and, ter, that he may know, by conference had, their religious knowledge; and if any be deficient, they are enjoined to go to him, at times which he shall appoint, to receive farther instruction, which, if they refuse to do, the governor, upon representation of the fact, shall order the delinquent to be whipped once for the first omission, twice In 1662, in obedience to instructions from for the second, and every day till acknowl-the crown, the Virginia Legislature enactedgment be made and forgiveness asked for the third; and also commands every man to answer, when catechised respecting his faith and knowledge upon the Sabbath, upon pain of the same peril."+ Such was Sir Thomas Smith's code, and truly it may be said to promote religion with a vengeance. To the credit of the governor and council, it seems never to have been enforced. Previously to the dissolution of the company, in 1624, the Colonial Legislature passed a number of laws relating to the Church; three of the most important were as follows: 1. That in every plantation where the ed several laws for the more effectual support of the Established Church, the promotion of the education of youth generally, and of candidates for the ministry in particular. But it was long before the "college" contemplated by these laws was actually established. Early in the eighteenth century, if not even sooner, the laws of Virginia, requiring strict conformity to the Established Church, must either have been modified, or had begun to fall into neglect, there being positive evidence that Presbyterian meetings were held for public worship in 1722. From that period until the Revolu * For some time after the colony of Virginia was planted, all provisions were served out from the com-dium. mon storehouse. It was not long, however, before this plan of having all things in common gave place to the "individual principle" of each having what he could gain by his personal exertions. These laws must be considered far more intolerant and abhorrent to the spirit of Christianity than any of the statutes taken by the New-England Puritans from those of the Hebrew Commonwealth. *Tobacco was the chief article of traffic which the country produced at that time, and was often used as a substitute for a monetary circulating me† It will be seen, from these laws, that the actual legislation of the more liberal "Cavaliers" of the South was not a whit more tolerant than that of the bigoted "Roundheads" of New-England. So it ever is; the religion of the world, with all its vaunted liberality, is found to be more intolerant, wherever it has a chance, than serious, earnest, evangelical piety. tion, avowed dissenters increased steadily disposed persons." From that time glebes and rapidly, and previously to 1775 there and a clergy began to be spoken of, and were many Baptist, Presbyterian, Luther- churches were ordered to be erected at the an, and Quaker churches within the colo-public cost. But we shall see that the ny. Still, the Episcopal Church predomi- Established Church made slow progress in nated, and it alone was supported by law. North Carolina. Maryland, founded by Roman Catholics, As long as New-York was under the had no union of Church and State, no legal Dutch government, the churches of that provision for any religious sect, and toler- colony supported their pastors by volunated all until 1692,* when Protestant Epis-tary contributions, and there was no union copacy was established by law, the coun- of Church and State.* But on its falling try divided into parishes, and the clergy, into the hands of the English, as the royal as in Virginia, supported by a tax upon the governors and other officers sent over to inhabitants. This was one of the results administer public affairs were all admirers of the Revolution of 1688 in England, and of the Established Church of England, they of the wide-spread abhorrence of popery very naturally wished to see it supersede which prevailed at that time, and long af- the Dutch Church, while, at the same time, terward, both in the mother-country and the English tongue supplanted the Dutch her colonies. Gradually, and not without as the language of the colony. Governor encountering many obstacles, the Episco- Fletcher, accordingly, in 1693, prevailed on pal Church advanced in the number of its the Legislature to pass an act for the estabparishes and clergy until the American lishment of certain churches and ministers, Revolution, and though all other sects had reserving the right of presentation to the ever been tolerated, was the only one sup- vestrymen and church-wardens. This act ported by the State. Of the good and bad was so construed, two years after, that effects of that establishment we shall speak Episcopal ministers alone received the hereafter. benefit of it, although this does not appear to have been the expectation or the intention of the Legislature. From that period till the Revolution, the Episcopal was the Established Church, although, at the time of its becoming so, it was reckoned that nine tenths of the population belonged to other communions. In South Carolina, all sects were at first protected by the Proprietaries. In 1704, however, the friends of the Episcopal Church having, by the arts of Nathaniel Moore, obtained a majority of one in the Representative Assembly of a colony two thirds of whose inhabitants were not Episcopalians, abruptly disfranchised all but East and West New-Jersey, united into themselves, and gave the Church of Eng- one province, and placed under the adminland a monopoly of political power. But istration of the crown in 1702, had its future the dissenters having appealed to the government laid down in the commission House of Lords in England, the acts com- and instructions to Lord Cornbury. Tolerplained of were annulled by the crown, and, ation being allowed by these to all but paconsequently, repealed by the Colonial As-pists, and special "favour" invoked for the sembly, two years afterward. Neverthe- Church of England, that church was so far less, although the dissenters were tolera- established there, seventy-three years beted, and admitted to a share in the civil fore the American Revolution. In Penngovernment, the Church of England re-sylvania there never was any union of mained the Established Church of the province until the Revolution.† 46 Church and State, nor, so far as I know, any attempt to bring it about. Delaware In the same year, 1704, influenced by was separated from Pennsylvania in 1691, zeal or bigotry, the Proprietaries forced a and from that time had its own governors, Church Establishment upon the people of under the immediate control of the crown. North Carolina, though presenting at that But in Delaware, as well as in New-Jersey time an assemblage of almost all religious and in Georgia, the colony of the good denominations--Quakers, Lutherans, Pres- cavalier, James Oglethorpe, who loved byterians, Independents, &c. But, accord-"the King and the Church," there can harding to the royalists, the majority were Quakers, Atheists, Deists, and other evil* Strictly speaking, it might be said that this statement is not quite exact. For when Cromwell's commissioners came into possession of the colony, in 1654, the Legislature, which was wholly subservient to Clayborne, a tool of the Protector, passed a law suppressing public worship among Roman Catholics and Episcopalians. And four years afterward, Fendall, acting as governor, at first in the name of the Proprietaries, and afterward by his own usurpation, undertook to persecute the Quakers. But both these exceptions were of short duration. + Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. ii., p. 18, 19. ly be said to have been an establishment, as the "favour" shown to the Episcopal Church secured a maintenance for a very It cannot be said, I fear, that the early Dutch colonists, or, rather, their colonial governors, were very tolerant. Though there was no union of the Church and State, they were very jealous of allowing any other than the Reformed Dutch Church to exist among them. A little band of Lutherans, who joined the colony almost at its commencement, were not allowed to hold their worship publicly until the country passed into the hands of the English.-Professor Schmucker's "Retrospect of Lutheranism in the United States," p. 6. small number of ministers only, and that more for the benefit and gratification of the officers connected with the government, and their families, than with the view of reaching the bulk of the people, who preferred other modes of worship. differed in some important respects from that which prevailed in the South, I shall give a separate consideration to each, and begin with New-England. Let us first consider what were the advantages resulting from this union. In fine, as the colonial period drew to a 1. It is not to be denied that it proved close, there were only two colonies in beneficial, by securing the ministrations of which the civil power did not employ its the Gospel to the colonial settlements, as influence in supporting one or other of two fast as these were formed. The law proCommunions or Churches. In New-Eng- vided that the country occupied should be land it gave its support to Congregational- divided into "towns," or parishes, with wellism, or, as it is called in Britain, Inde- defined boundaries, and that as soon as a pendency, that being established in all the certain number of families should be found colonies of that province, with the single residing within these boundaries, a meeting small exception of Rhode Island. In the should be called by the proper local officers, colonies to the south of these, from New- and steps taken for the establishment of York to Georgia, with the exception of public worship. The expense of building Pennsylvania, Episcopacy was the favour-such a church as the majority of the inhabed form. Even in these last, however, itants, or legal voters, might choose to there were material differences in the ex-erect, was, like other taxes, to be levied on tent to which the principle of a church establishment was carried out. In NewJersey, Delaware, North Carolina, and Georgia, that establishment was quite inconsiderable, whereas in Virginia, Maryland, New-York, and South Carolina, it may be regarded as having been widely and powerfully influential. Were we to select two colonies from each of these divisions as examples of the two favoured types of Church government, so diverse, yet about equally favoured by legal enactments and a public provision, we should take Massachusetts and Connecticut in the North, and Virginia and Maryland in the South. In these we may compare and contrast the nature and influence of Independency, or the most popular form of church organization, with Episcopacy; or Puritanism with High-churchism, among the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans of the New World. CHAPTER XIX. THE INFLUENCES OF THE UNION OF CHURCH IN entering upon this part of my work, I should like my readers to understand that 1 wish simply to state the results, good or evil, of the union of Church and State in America, in so far as these were the proper fruits of the particular sort of union existing in one or other, respectively, of the two important sections of the country above mentioned; and that I have no intention of discussing the advantages or disadvantages of a union of Church and State in the abstract. We have to do, therefore, with the actual results in America, not with what they might have been in other circumstances. And as the union between Church and State in the Northern section the people of the township, according to their properties and polls, and the pastor's stipend was, in like manner, to be fixed by the decision of the majority at a like meeting of legal voters, and raised by a general yearly tax. Thus it will be seen that the township was left to decide what sort of building should be erected, how much should be expended upon it, and the amount of the pastor's stipend. As the pastor was chosen by the people, without any interference on the part of the civil authorities, or any other person, individual or corporate, the evils of patronage were unknown. In the choice of a pastor, however, be it observed, that it was the invariable rule from the first, that he should be called by the "church," that is, by the body of believers or actual members of the church-the communicantsand afterward by the "town," that is, by the legal voters, the vote of a majority of them being requisite to the validity of a call. This plan, so eminently Democratical, seemed calculated to give all parties their rights. In case of the "church" and the "town" disagreeing as to the choice of a pastor, some means were almost always found for bringing about unanimity. Such, in brief, was the plan pursued for above 150 years in Massachusetts, and, if I am not mistaken, in all the other New-England States, where the civil power was in union with the Church. Such a law as this, if enforced, it will be admitted, must have made the establishment of public worship keep pace with the increase of the population, wherever that became numerous enough, in any given direction, for the building of churches, and also must have secured to ministers of the Gospel a steadier, and possibly, too, an ampler support than otherwise. But it may be questioned whether the New-England Puritans, with the dispositions and the objects they had in view in coming to the New World, would not have accomplished they exposed themselves to the greatest of their own accord, and on what is called of evils-evils whose disastrous influence the voluntary plan, very nearly the same on Truth have not ceased to be felt down results, as we see is now done in Maine and to this day. elsewhere, since the union between Church 3. While the above law, no doubt, had and State has ceased. I am willing, how-the effect of keeping out of the governever, to allow that the system I have de- ment of the colony all influences which in scribed was in this respect decidedly bene- those trying times might militate against ficial. The mere support of public wor- its best interests, it is no less certain that ship was certainly never provided for in a it kept away men of a troublesome charmore popular or less exceptionable man-acter. Many, in fact, who made the exner. I speak of the law as it stood at the periment, speedily became weary of a coloutset, and for a long while thereafter. ony where their restless spirits found little We shall see presently what evils flowed or no scope for interference, and accordfrom it. ingly soon left, either for some other colony, or for England. Such, I consider, were the most important advantages resulting from the union of Church and State in Massachusetts, and some other of the New-England colonies; and I am not disposed to deny that these advantages were of no small moment in the circumstances in which the colonists were placed. I have next to point out some of the evils resulting from it. of the first cases of this kind was that of Roger Williams, in 1633-35, and it shook the colony to its centre. That remarkable man had been educated for the English bar under the patronage of Sir Edward Coke; but influenced by the conviction that he was called to the ministry, he took orders in the Established Church. Expelled from that Church by the bishops, on account of his Puritanical principles, he came to Boston in 1631. 2. I have already stated that in Massachusetts, and if not in the Connecticut colony, at least in that of New-Haven, political trust and power were confined to members of the churches. It were absurd to suppose that this law was adopted as a means of promoting religion; its authors were too well acquainted with human nature to have any such expectation. Their grand object was to confine the exercise of political power to persons in whom they 1. It gave rise to internal difficulties of could confide. As they have been severe- the gravest nature with such of the cololy censured for their intolerance in this nists as were not disposed to agree to all respect, very much from ignorance, I con- the measures by which it was carried out, ceive, of their peculiar position, I may be and led to the adoption of the harshest allowed to dwell for a moment on the sub-proceedings against those persons. One ject. They had made a long voyage to establish a colony in the wilderness, where they and their children might enjoy liberty of conscience, and worship God in purity. Being all of one mind on the subject of religion, as well as other great points, they thought that they were fully authorized to establish such a colony, and certainly it would be hard to prove that they were not. In these circumstances, what more natural than their endeavouring to prevent persons from coming in among them to defeat had consented to the charter. The success of the their object? Desiring, above all things, Puritans in America awakened the jealousy of Laud that their institutions should continue to and all the High Church party among the clergy. be pervaded in all time coming with the Proof was produced of marriages having been perspirit in which they had been commenced, formed in the colony by civil magistrates; and it was discovered that the whole colonial system of they determined, in order to secure this, Church government was at variance with the laws that none but the members of their church- of England. A most formidable conspiracy was es should enjoy the rights and privileges formed against New-England, and never were coloof citizens, and by this they hoped to guard ordered, by the royal council, to be produced in Engnies in greater danger. Even the letters patent were against both internal and external ene- land; and nothing but the greatest adroitness on the mies. Dreading interference on the part part of the colonists postponed a compliance with of England, alarmed lest the partisans of the measure, for the primate, Archbishop Laud, and the Prelacy, from which they had just es- his associates actually received full power over the caped, should come among them and over-dictate laws, govern the Church, &c., &c. EveryAmerican plantations, to establish the government, throw their institutions, both civil and re-thing seemed to threaten ruin. In the mean while ligious, their object was to put an impas- the colonists remonstrated, defended themselves in sable gulf between themselves and persons who had no sympathy with their views and feelings. And this object they certainly accomplished. They rescued their institutions from the clutches of Charles I. and Archbishop Laud.* But in doing so * It is well known that Winthrop and his company were scarcely settled three years in Massachusetts before King Charles began to repent that he their letters as well as they could, and raised money to fortify Boston. They had great need, truly, to authority among them. As it was, nothing saved be vigilant in respect to the admission of persons to them, probably, but the breaking out of the civil war in Great Britain, which gave Charles 1. enough to do at home. For the details of these matters the reader is referred to the writings of Winthrop, Savage, Hubbard, Hutchinson, Hazzard, and the excellent statement in Bancroft's History of the United States," vol. i., p. 405-414. |