THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
oaths which the clergy had assumed led to suspicion and a straining of the relations between them. In maintaining conscientiously their allegiance to their English authorities, the clergy endured in many instances not only mental anguish but severe bodily persecution and suffering. Yet notwithstanding this position of some, it is to be remembered that the Declaration of Rights in which the evils endured by the colonists were forcibly set forth was written by George Mason, a member of the Church in Virginia, and that not less than two-thirds of the signers of the Declaration of Independence as well as its author, Thomas Jefferson, were likewise members of the Church. And when the national independence was finally achieved, it was from this same Church that a large proportion was drawn of the men who were chiefly responsible for the adoption of the Constitution and the filling of the important posts in the administration of public offices. This is evident when such names are mentioned as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Marshall, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Morris, Francis Hopkinson, John Randolph, Patrick Henry, and the Pinkneys.
The disquietude of these days and the suspicion
of Toryism hid lurking in the minds of many, joined
to the paucity of clergy, made the growth of the
Church difficult for years. It was not
3. Growth until the more general appreciation of
and its really missionary character, say,
Critical about 1830, that progress became
Questions, wider and more evident. From that time on, this progress has continued uninterruptedly until of late its growth has increased in more rapid proportion than that of any other religious body, gaining even upon the ratio of growth in the general population of the country. It has passed safely through several crises succeeding that of the period of the war for independence. One of these was contemporaneous witETtEe OxjbrxLMover ment in the Church of England, about the middle of the nineteenth century (see Tractarianism) . Under the excitement engendered by the ecclesiastical controversies involved in this movement, the parties which had for some time existed under the names of High Church and Low Church became more pronounced in their differences, and not a little acerbity of feeling was manifested. This spirit of partizanship continued to assert itself more or less for a generation, even in regard to things of a ceremonial character which, in the light of the harmony and good-will now existing, seem trivial if not utterly insignificant. Another and a momentous crisis arose out of the Civil War- Among the prominent men who participated in the scenes preceding and following this sad epoch, were many, both North and South, who were equally prominent in the church. Satisfied of their ultimate success in establishing the Confederacy, the southern dioceses set up an independent organization, and broke off all formal communication with their brethren in the Xorth. These, however, with a charity most admirable, ignored the fact of any separation; at the General Convention held at New York, in the year 1862, the names of the seceding diocesesjwere regularly called and seats assiRnecTtnem as before. Nor
did these dioceses allow that any separation had taken place except upon purely political questions, declaring by the hands of their Committee on the state of the church that " though now found within different political boundaries, the Church remains substantially one." When the General Convention met at Philadelphia in 1865, two Southern bishops (Thomas Atkinson and Henry Champlin Lay) were present and some deputies from three Southern dioceses, one of them, the Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, being consecrated bishop of Tennessee during the session. Some anxiety as to a complete reunion was felt on account of incidents that had occurred during the war. One. was the taking of arms by the Right Rev. Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana, who became a major-general in the Confederate army. His death in battle removed the first difficulty. The other was the consecration of the Rev. Richard Hooker Wilmer as bishop of Alabama without the consent of the whole Church, as required by the canons in force before the war. This matter, however, was satisfactorily adjusted, and the Church presented to a still distracted nation the first spectacle of complete reunion, the influence of which was potent in hastening the settlement of all remaining disputes, ecclesiastical, political, and social. The only case of schism with which the church had had to deal was that of the formation, chiefly by its own ministers, of what is known as the Reformed Episcopal Church (see Reformed Episcopalians). These, with a small following of laymen, persuaded that there were in the Prayer-book what they called " Romanizing germs," in Dec, 1873, formed the organization named, under the leadership of the Right Rev. George David Cummins (q.v.), assistant bishop of Kentucky, and the Rev. Charles Edward Cheney (q.v.), of Chicago. Both of these were deposed, after they had been treated with great leniency in the hope that they would abandon their separatist attitude.
In 1880, a joint committee of the two houses constituting the General Convention was appointed to consider whether " the changed conditions of the national life do not demand certain alterations in the Book of Common Prayer, in the di- 4. Modern rection of liturgical enrichment and
Develop- increased flexibility of use." The study ment. of this important subject occupied the attention of the church for twelve years, so that it was not until 1892 that the revised prayer-book was authorized for use. No radical change was proposed; no alteration was made in the standards of doctrine, and the prevailing principles of liturgical construction and ritual were studiously maintained. What was accomplished was the correction of the few typographical errors; the elucidation of rubrical obscurities or inaccuracies; the restoration of some canticles and versicles omitted originally from the English book, special prayers for Unity, Missions, Rogation-days, etc., an altar service for the Feast of the Transfiguration, second offices for Christmas-Day and Easter Day, proper psalms for special occasions; the revision of the lectionary; the printing of the psalms and canticles with the musical colon, and of the Articles of Religion at the end of the volume, with