Upon the other side of the box was this inscription: "Thomas Ludlow Ogden Jonathan Lawrence William E. Dunscomb William H. Harison Adam Tredwell Building Committee. Robert Hyslop Richard Upjohn, Architect, James Thom, Sculptor, James Vandenbergh, Master Mason, CHAPTER X. GROWTH AND INFLUENCE OF THE PARISH. Recurrence of the Question of the Bishop's Salary-Remarks on the Outlook-The General Convention of 1841-The Archives of the Diocese of New York Cared for by the Vestry-St. John's Park-Resignation of William Johnson as Comptroller-Election of W. H. Harison-Paintings and Portraits Belonging to the Corporation-The Action of the Vestry in Regard to a Rural Cemetery-Purchase of the Cemetery at 155th Street-Improvements in Church Music under Dr. Hodges-Establishment of Musical Scholarships-Repairs on St. Paul's Chapel-New Organ for Trinity Church -Memorial from St. John's Chapel for its Erection into a Separate Parish-Petition Refused by Vestry-Judge Furman's Report on the Bogardus Claims-Party Feeling in the Diocese-Ordination of Arthur Cary-Stormy Scene in the Diocesan Convention. TH HERE is a painful and dreary monotony in the Records of our Parish whenever we strike the subject of the maintenance of the Episcopate in the Diocese of New York. It is a humiliating fact that this Diocese, the first, the largest, and the wealthiest of all, has never had, and has not to this day a fund adequate to the decent and dignified support of its head. For this culpable negligence there is, in later times, no excuse. So long as the Bishop of New York was also the Rector of Trinity Church, it was right that the Parish should provide for him; but when the double relation ended, the Diocese should have taken the lead in the maintenance of the Episcopate. To this duty it remained indifferent for many years; and the record is one of incessant and humiliating petition to the Vestry for help to do what Churchmen throughout the State were able to do and ought in conscience and honor to have done. These petitions, almost abject, and the responses to them, often sharp and justly An reproachful, are strewn profusely on our records. instance occurs during the summer of 1841, when fresh appeals were made, backed by the admission that out of 148 parishes only 36 had contributed to the salary of the Bishop, and when the Vestry, perceiving the indifference of the people to their duty, determined "that the convention of this Diocese having failed in the performance of the condition on which the annual appropriation for the support of the Episcopate in the Diocese was made by the Vestry and assented to by the Convention, it is no longer obligatory to contribute to the said fund," and ordered that the appropriation should cease at the expiration of one year from the adjournment of the next Convention.1 Here this painful subject shall be dismissed: the reader shall not be annoyed by further details. But, to sum up all, let this be observed, that at the period now reached in this history, there is ground for a suspicion that something worse than mere inertia was at the bottom of the neglect of duty. Dark days were coming fast: the Oxford Movement had been felt on this side of the water; it had attracted and repelled with a force proportioned to the power and vital issues of that glorious and salutary revival. Party spirit had been kindled to flaming point; it grew ever stronger and more bitter; high church and low church joined in mortal conflict; it was well known that the Bishop, the Rector of Trinity Church, and many of the clergy and laity of the Parish were in sympathy with the cause of catholic recovery and restoration; and perhaps, for that very reason, under the influence of vague alarm, and theological views, many had become alienated, the sense of obligation to the chief office in the Church 1 Records, liber iii., folio 300. Journal of the Diocese of New York, 1841, pp. being dulled by personal dislike of its incumbent for the time being. And so things drifted on; perilous times were at hand; times of sharp controversy and mutual detestation; and the hour was not far off when the venerable head of the Diocese, assailed with vigor by his foes, and borne down by what we believe to have been unfounded calumny and false accusation, was brought to trial, and received a cruel and intolerable sentence of "indefinite suspension from the exercise of his Episcopal office," and so, when at the zenith of his power and influence, was suddenly dragged from his chair and buried alive. Let us pass on. The General Convention met in St. Paul's Chapel, on Wednesday, October 6, 1841. It was attended by twenty-one bishops, seventy-nine clerical, and fifty-seven lay deputies. The venerable Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, Dr. Griswold, although feeble, presided in the House of Bishops with the dignity which distinguished him. Dr. Wyatt was chosen President of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, and Dr. Henry Anthon, Secretary. The deliberations were animated, the special topics of consideration being the expediency of extending the Episcopate to the Republic of Texas and the Maryland Colony on the West Coast of Africa, the increase of the term of probation of ministers from other Christian bodies, and the regulation of clergymen Episcopally ordained removing into the United States from a foreign country. A protest against the legality of the election of the deputies from New York and Delaware was referred to a special committee,' of which the Rev. Dr. Wm. Cooper Mead, of Connecticut, was chairman. The report lucidly explained the rights of a diocese in the passage of Canons, and declared the legality of the elections.2 1 The deputies from New York were Drs. Lyell, Anthon, Berrian, McVickar, Messrs. Thomas L. Ogden, Peter A. Jay, James Emmett, and Stephen Warner. On Tuesday, October 12th, the Rev. Alfred Lee, D.D., Rector of Calvary, Rochdale, Pennsylvania, was consecrated Bishop in St. Paul's Chapel. The Presiding Bishop, Dr. Griswold, was Consecrator, assisted by Bishops Moore, of Virginia, Chase, of Illinois, Brownell, of Connecticut, and Onderdonk, of Pennsylvania. Morning Prayer was read by the Rev. Stephen W. Prestman, of Emmanuel Church, Newcastle, Delaware, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell, of Trinity Church, New Haven, Connecticut. The Testimonial from Delaware and the Consent of the House of Bishops were read by the Rev. Dr. Wainwright, Secretary of the House; the Testimonial from the Lower House by the Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Mead.1 The presenters were Dr. Meade Assistant Bishop of Virginia and Dr. Onderdonk Bishop of New York.2 Dr. Lee had been elected on May 26, 1841, as Bishop of Delaware, a diocese which, although organized in 1791, had previously, on account of financial weakness, been under the charge of the Bishop of Pennsylvania. The first Bishop of Delaware lived to become the ninth Presiding Bishop of the American Church. The sessions of the Convention after the opening service were held in St. John's Chapel; the House of Bishops occupying one of the Sunday-school rooms. The closing service was held in St. John's Chapel, on Friday morning, October 19th. The pastoral letter was read by the Presiding Bishop. The subject was the "Doctrine of our Church on the Article of Justification by Faith in connection with that on the necessity and place of good works." 4 1 The Rev. Dr. Anthon, owing to illness, had resigned early in the session the office of Secretary, to which Dr. Mead succeeded. Journal of the General Convention, 1841, p. 95. Bishop Lee died April 12, 1887, in the eightieth year of his age. 4 Dr. Stone's Life of Bishop Griswold, p. 423. |