RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Prosper of Aquitaine Protestant Episcopalians
PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIANS.
I. History.
In Colonial Days (§1). Independent Organization (§ 2). Growth and Critical Questions (§ 3). Modern Development (§ 4).
Missionary Work (§ 5). II. Polity and Organization. Episcopal Polity (§1). Legislation and Administration (§ 2). Discipline (§3).
Organizations, Educational, Benevolent.
and Others (§4). Statistics (§5).
Brotherhood of St. Andrew (§ 6). Cowley Fathers (§7).
I. History: The history of this Church, which
is the lineal descendant and successor in America
of the Church of England, may be said to be coeval
with the voyages of Englishmen in this direction.
Even when, on or about June 24, 1579,
i. In Sir Francis Drake made only a tem-
Colonial porary landing on the coast of what Days. is now California, his chaplain, the Rev. Francis Fletcher, held regular services out of the Book of Common Prayer, and in a manner claimed the new territory for the Church of England. In the early patents or chapters granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, and others who landed on the Atlantic coast, toward the close of the sixteenth century, particular stress was laid upon the obligation to convert the heathen aborigines, and it was stipulated that the Christian faith as taught by the colonists should be in agreement with that of the same church. Records exist of baptisms performed about this time in various places, from the southernmost to the northernmost settlements, even as far as the Kennebec, in Maine, and of other public services held with more or less frequency, all of them antedating by a number of years the arrival of the Mayflower colony at Plymouth (1620). The first church-building of which there is any reliable account was erected at Jamestown, Va., under the auspices of the Rev. Robert Hunt, who had formed part of the colony that landed here in 1607 The same claim of priority is made in behalf of one erected, it is said, in the year 1607 in Maine, by those attending the services of the Rev. Richard Seymour (thought by some to have been the great-grandson of the Duke of Somerset). From this time on, the record of Church life and work is but a meager one until the close of the century, although all along the Atlantic coast there are not a few instances of a growing desire for greater religious privileges, and an equally growing sense of responsibility in the matter of Christianizing the Indians and Negroes. Many individual Churchmen in England, including the archbishops of Canterbury and the bishops of London (to whose jurisdiction the colonies were formally attached), showed more or less interest in this missionary enterprise from time to time ; but it was not until the organization in 1701 of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts that the Church began its more aggressive career in America (see Missions, B., II, 4, § 4). It was, however, greatly hampered in its work until nearly the close of the eighteenth century by the utter lack of bishops. The episcopate forming so essential a part of its integrity, the want of it could not be met by any other means, although occasionally some temporary expedients were suggested, especially with reference to the due supply of ministers from among
the residents. The only recourse for ordination and confirmation was to the mother-land.
For various reasons, partly political and partly ecclesiastical, and not altogether appertaining to
England, the consecration of bishops
2. Inde- for America was delayed year after
pendent Or- year, until in the year 1784, at Aber-
ganization. deen, the Rev. Samuel Seabury was
consecrated bishop of Connecticut by the canonical number of prelates, all of them Scottish non-jurors. In 1787 the Rev. William White was consecrated bishop of Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Samuel Provoost bishop of New York; both in Lambeth Palace by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, assisted by the bishop of Bath and Wells and the bishop of Peterborough. In 1790 the Rev. James Madison was consecrated in the same place bishop of Virginia, and in 1792 at the General Convention, held in New York, the Rev. Thomas John Claggett was consecrated bishop of Maryland by Bishops Seabury, White, Provoost, and Madison. By this fusion of the two equally valid sources of orders, all doubts were set at rest, and the controversy as to the validity of Bishop Seabury's consecration was practically ended. In the mean time, the Church was busily engaged, through its diocesan and general conventions, in completing its independent national organization. The Prayer Book, finally ratified in the year 1789, was substantially the same as that of the Church of England, from which the chief departures were the omission of the Athanasian Creed and the substitution of essential features of the Scotch communion office. This latter change was made largely through the efforts of Bishop Seabury, who had promised his influence to this effect before his consecration. Among the missionaries belonging to this period, were John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, all of whom died, as they had lived, in the communion of the Church of England. The character of the church in not a few important particulars in these early days was due to Bishop Seabury and Bishop White, both of whom, while differing in many respects, were men of ability and influence, and of unswerving loyalty to their principles. In the formative stage of independent existence, the intensity of the former and the conservatism of the latter were happily combined to avoid serious errors. In connection with the political troubles arising toward the close of the eighteenth century, the Church was confronted with grave perils and difficulties. Among the clergy, there was the strong feeling of indebtedness on every score to their fatherland which made them hesitate, naturally enough, to side with those who were ready for revolution, prepared as many of them were to recognize the injustice shown the colonies. And among the laity, this loyalty to the
Protestant Episcopalians