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Arthur Carey. 
 
THE 
 
 OXFORD MOVEMENT IN AMERICA; 
 
 OR, 
 
 GLIMPSES OF LIFE 
 
 ANGLICAN SEMINARY. 
 
 BV ^ 
 
 REV. CLARENCE E. WALWORTH, 
 
 Si. Mary's Church, Aibaiiy. 
 
 New York : 
 
 THE CATHOLIC BOOK EXCHANGE, 
 
 1 20 West 60th Street. 
 
Copyright, 1895, by 
 
 CLARENCE A. WALWORTH. 
 
 All rights reseii'ed. 
 
 Printed at the Columbus Pres?, 120 West COth St. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 From Law to Divinity. — Presbyterians in a Quandary. — My Location and 
 
 Surroundings at the Seminary. — Evangelical Friends in the City, . I 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 Studies and Class Incidents. — Hebrew; Exegesis; Dogma. — Cudgels in 
 
 and out of Class. — Lay Baptism, ....... 20 
 
 CHAPTER HL 
 
 Arthur Carey's Crucial Examination. — Practical Value of the Via Media in 
 a Compromise Religion. — Lively Fencing among the Examiners. — 
 Carey warmly Endorsed and Exculpated.--" No. 90" Scores a 
 Triumph, ............ 34 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Protest against Arthur Carey's Ordination. — Central Point of a Great 
 Storm. — Carey's Family. — Further Details of His Life. — Assistant to 
 Seabury. — Early Death and Burial at Sea. — Newman's Interest in 
 Carey, 5' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Students' Missionary Society. — "A Heathen Chinee." — An Oriental Bishop. 
 — A Bishop to the Orientals. — Kip's Heroes. — Henry Martyn. — 
 Heber, 6; 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Further Missionary Aspirations. — " Crazy Richmond." — Tyng's Lecture. — 
 Ward's " Ideal of a Christian Church." — Meditation.— Private Re- 
 treats. — Parish Missions, .......•• 81 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Slowness of the Movement Romeward. — Over-hasty Attempts to Crack the 
 Protestant Nut. — Dunigan.— Baker. — Phinney. — Moehler's " Symbol- 
 ism." — Lives of the Earlv English Saints 95 
 
iv Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Protestant Citeaux in the West. — Nashotah Founded on Monasticism. — 
 Kip's Visit in 1847. — The Founders get Married.— St. Mary's Priory 
 in the Adirondacks. — Episcopalian Sisterhoods, .... 106 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 After Effects of Carey's Ordination. — War on Bishop Onderdonk in Dioce- 
 san Convention. — The Bishop's Masterly Defence. — Judge Duer's 
 Speech. — A Change of Tactics. — The Bishop's Private Character 
 Assailed'. — His Trial and Condemnation, 119 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Break-up at the Seminary.— Professors take Alarm. — Jesuits in Disguise. — 
 Wattson and Donelly Dismissed. — McVickar Withdraws. — Wal- 
 worth, McMaster, and Wadhams Cross over to Rome, . . . 133 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Break-up (continuedj. — Diverging Paths. — Donelly. — Wattson. — 
 Everett. — Piatt. — Whitcher. — American Obedience to Law. — Blind 
 Obedience. — The Chelsea Break-up Echoed in Maryland. — Hewit, 
 Baker, and Lyman 146 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Break-up Echoed in a Low-church Diocese. — Bishop Mcllvaine. — 
 Seminary and Kenyon College at Gambler. — A High-church Parish 
 with a Low-church Pastor. — Tractarianism Crops Out. — A Bomb- 
 shell at Commencement. — The Richards Family of Converts. . 160 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM LAW TO DIVINITY. — PRESBYTERIANS IN A QUANDARY. — 
 MY LOCATION AND SURROUNDINGS AT THE SEMINARY. — 
 EVANGELICAL FRIENDS IN THE CITY. 
 
 IN the summer of 1842 I was a practising lawyer in Rochester, 
 N. Y., being the junior member of the firm of Chapin & 
 Walworth. Our office was in a second story front room of the 
 S.nith Block, so-called, in Main Street, and directly facing the 
 principal hotel in that city. We were doing a good business 
 and I liked my profession well enough. About that time, how- 
 ever, my mind had been turned towards religion more stead- 
 fastly than ever before. I felt growing up within me a strong 
 desire to devote myself entirely to the church. I opened my 
 mind on this subject to the Rev. Dr. Whitehouse, then rector 
 of St. Luke's, and afterwards Bishop of Illinois. I was a mem- 
 ber of St. Luke's choir, and a teacher in the Sunday-school, 
 and was strongly attached to the rector. He encouraged me 
 to follow my inclination, as being both rational and deeply 
 settled, and wrote a letter for me to Bishop De Lancey recom- 
 mending me as a candidate for orders in his diocese. 
 
 Neither my father nor any of my friends made any serious 
 opposition to my purpose, and it was carried into speedy exe- 
 cution. My father's personal library of law-books, a large and 
 fine collection, was sent home to him forthwith ; and when I 
 parted with these very little of law remained with me. I my- 
 self returned to the family residence at Saratoga Springs, to 
 wait for the opening of the next term of the General Theologi- 
 cal Seminary in New York City. I recall only one event which 
 occurred during this interval of any importance to these reminis- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 cences. Although it forms no part of my career at the semi- 
 nary, I introduce it here because it had some influence upon 
 the development of my mind while there. It brought before 
 me in a very practical shape the question of clerical and mis- 
 sionary celibacy, a question which afterwards I found much 
 mooted among my fellow students. 
 
 At my father's request I went with him to attend an annual 
 meeting of the American Board of Foreign Missions. I was 
 very glad to do this, for the work of spreading the Gospel in 
 heathen lands had always seemed to me the best and clearest 
 note of true Christian life in that vague and strangely assorted 
 thing which Protestants name the church. Our house was always 
 opened to every one who bore the name of missionary. It was 
 one of my mother's chief delights to read the pages of the 
 Missio7iary Herald, although little was ever found recorded there 
 except the establishment of some new printing-press, some new 
 translation and publication of Bibles and tracts into foreign lan- 
 guages, and new " signs of interest " in some individuals among 
 the savages who seldom ripened into Christians. 
 
 My father also was fond of attending missionary gatherings, 
 and every morning at family prayers was careful to invoke a 
 blessing upon missionary labors. We children were all familiar 
 with the words of this prayer, which never varied : " We ear- 
 nestly beseech thee, O God ! to give thy special benediction to 
 all those messengers of the Gospel who carry the glad tidings 
 of a Saviour's love to the dark and benighted corners of the 
 earth." Wnen these familiar words came to the ears of the 
 children of the family they often found us gathered together in 
 a group in the middle of the room, engaged in anything but 
 prayer. It was the signal that " Amen " was imminent, and that 
 it was time to find our way back to our chairs. There, kneel- 
 ing with our heads to the wall, we buried our faces in our 
 hands like the older members of the family. It is not very edi- 
 fying to tell of this; the impression of the prayer, however, 
 was not altogether lost upon us. We learned to respect the 
 missionary life as the highest and noblest of vocations. 
 
 I had no scruple in attending this convention of Presby- 
 terians with my father. I myself, although I had joined the 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Anglican Church, was not at this time very Anglican. I was 
 neither a high churchman nor a low-churchman. I might more 
 properly have been called an Evangelical. 
 
 I remember meeting, about this time, an old college-mate — 
 a Presbyterian, I think — who, after hailing me cordially, said : "I 
 understand, Walworth, that you have become an Episcopalian 
 since we met last." I answered, "Yes." "Well," said he, "are 
 you one of the high heels or low heels?" Not willing to be 
 classed with either faction, I answered that I was not aware of 
 any peculiarity about my heels. "Well," said he, "do you care 
 whether your prayer books are printed in black letters or red?" 
 " Not at all." My views, in truth, were very broad in regard to 
 Protestantism, and very narrow in respect to Catholicism. 
 
 At this annual convention I attended not only all the busi- 
 ness meetings of the board, but, as I remember, all the religious 
 services, and did not hesitate to receive communion with the 
 rest. 
 
 The principal action of the American Board of Missions at 
 this meeting was one that opened my eyes very much to the 
 practical fruitlessness of Presbyterianism. The standing com- 
 mittee of the board made a public report to the meeting, in 
 which they recommended that thereafter all missionaries sent 
 out to foreign missions should be single and remain unmarried. 
 The reason was that married missionaries have generally large 
 families, which engross much of their time and cripple their 
 capacity for missionary labor. It was found, moreover, that the 
 children of missionaries carried abroad, or born there, were not 
 only deprived of the advantages of a good education, but were 
 exposed to the evil influences of heathen immoralities. This 
 made it necessary to send them home in large numbers to be 
 maintained at the expense of the board. Hence the recommen- 
 dation of the committee to employ only celibates in foreign 
 missionary labor. 
 
 The report of this committee fell like a thunderclap upon 
 the assembled multitude. Here was, in fact, an unexpected 
 justification of the Catholic Church in her enjoining a life of 
 celibacy upon her clergy, and in her employment of so many 
 women vowed to celibacy in Christian education. The agitation 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary 
 
 of the assembly was intensified by the shock given to a large 
 number of ladies present, wives and daughters both of clergy- 
 men and of laymen. These women, indeed, formed a majority 
 of the audience present. Such ladies, I think it may safely be 
 said, are generally more interested in missionary work abroad 
 than are their fathers, brothers, and husbands, and more inclined 
 to be generous in its support. 
 
 The report of the committee had cast a wet blanket upon 
 the whole assemblage. A silence prevailed which was ominous. 
 
 At this juncture, looking down from the gallery, I saw my 
 father rise on the floor below to address the meeting. He op- 
 posed the recommendation of the committee as a most dangerous 
 experiment, and most injurious to the missionary cause. He 
 dwelt particularly upon the value of woman's work and influ- 
 ence in the foreign field. This sentiment prevailed, and the un- 
 fortunate report was as promptly and effectually suppressed as 
 the guinea pig in "Wonderland" when " Alice " sat down upon 
 him. I asked my father afterwards how he could bring himself 
 to make such an argument. The facts presented by the report 
 were manifestly true, I said, and the conclusion to which the 
 committee had come was inevitable. No missionary woik could 
 prosper with missionaries so handicapped. 
 
 " That's true enough," he replied. " Our foreign missions 
 are doing very little. The expense of supporting the mission- 
 aries would be greatly lessened if they would go without fami- 
 lies and remain unmarried ; but don't you see that in that case 
 we would have no missions at all ? Women would not be em- 
 ployed, men would not go, and all the enthusiasm at home 
 about missions would die out ; besides little money could be 
 gathered to keep them up. Didn't you see how all life was 
 taken out of the meeting by the reading of that report ? " 
 
 I said : " Yes. But what is the use of keeping up foreign 
 missions among the heathen when the heathen are not convert- 
 ed ? " He admitted the scarcity of converts, but in a moody 
 way said : " The thought of foreign missions helps to keep reli- 
 gion alive at home." 
 
 Coming from a lawyer this reply seemed to me very strange 
 and unsatisfactory. It avoided the main issue, and easily ad- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 5 
 
 mitted of a demurrer. The Presbyterians were thus, to my 
 mind, placed in the position of a body of Christians maintain- 
 ing a great humbug. And furthermore another question was 
 brought forward to a prominence. If celibacy was practically 
 necessary to missionary work, why not important also to all 
 laborers in the Christian ministry? To admit this was to 
 score a point in favor of clerical celibacy, if not of popery. I 
 was imbued with the prevalent suspicions of horns and hoofs, 
 but from this time forward I felt that in one strong point 
 affecting true Christian life in the church Protestants were far 
 behind. 
 
 The opening of the fall term next ensuing of the General 
 Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church of New York 
 City found me at Twentieth Street, in my room in the east 
 building. There were two long buildings at that time, each 
 flanked at both ends by dwelling houses for the professors. 
 
 The institution to which I was now attached was of a much 
 higher order, both in the character of its professors and the 
 scholarly habits of its students, than any other that I knew of. 
 Bishop Onderdonk, of New York, was its president. He was 
 a high-churchman of the highest type. He was a fearless 
 and tenacious polemic, and strongly inclined in favor of the 
 Oxford movement. He was also professor of ecclesiastical 
 polity. The text-book that he used in class was Hooker, with 
 free use of a work by Law, the non juror, in all that regarded 
 apostolical succession. His classes were not very frequent nor 
 very regular ; but the subject-matter of his lectures and recita- 
 tions was the all-important one to Episcopalians of apostolical 
 succession, and the divine institution of the clergy in three dis- 
 tinct orders. 
 
 Dr. Samuel H. Turner was dean of the faculty, and taught 
 hermeneutics. It would be difficult to define his position as 
 either high or low. He was not what could be called evan- 
 gelical. He hated cant of all kinds, whether nasal or pom- 
 pous, and when officiating in the chapel expedited his prayers 
 with the utmost simplicity. The students understood him well, 
 and none of them, I think, attributed his carelessness of manner 
 to a want of earnestness. 
 
6 GUinpscs of L'fc i>i an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Dr. Bird Wilson, professor of systematic divinity (at that 
 time we called it dogmatic theology), stood very high in the 
 opinion of the students, though out of class-time he mingled 
 very little with them. He was the "judicious Hooker" of the 
 seminary. He sailed serenely above all the currents and eddies 
 of party wrangling, like the moon above the clouds. His text- 
 book was Pearson on tJie Creed. 
 
 Dr. Ogilby was not a very great man among the faculty, 
 but a very strongly marked one. His branch was ecclesiastical 
 history, in which he succeeded Bishop Whittingham. He was 
 enthusiastically high church, and bitterly opposed to what, in 
 common with the most of his class, he most uncivilly called 
 Romanism, and wis scarcely less hostile to Dissenters. Eccle- 
 siastical history to this professor was not so much a field of 
 truth as a forest of materials from which he lopped cudgels 
 for controversy. His very pronunciation was devoutly English. 
 
 The professor of pastoral theology was the Rev. Dr. Benja- 
 min I. Haight. He heard us preach our sermons in class, and 
 criticised them. His only text-book, as I remember, was a 
 treatise on pulpit eloquence, by Claude, the celebrated oppo- 
 nent of Bjssuet. I owe much to this admirable treatise, and 
 know of nothing to equal it. Dr. Haight was for many years 
 the rector of All Saints' Church, in Henry Street, at the cor- 
 ner of Scannel. He was a man of grave deportment — a via 
 media man, safe and cautious, and consequently not over zeal- 
 ous or vigorous. 
 
 Among all the ofificers of the seminary Dr. Clement C. 
 Moore stands forth most distinctly pictured in my memory. 
 He was the author of the famous verses beginning, " 'Twas the 
 Night before Christmas." His residence was a fine old mansion 
 fronting the seminary on Twentieth Street, on a large plot of 
 ground with pine-trees. There it was, I am glad to believe, 
 that, as he himself tells us, when 
 
 " Mamma in her 'kerchief and I in my cap 
 Had just settled ourselves for a nice winter's nap," 
 
 Santa Claus interrupted him by coming down the chimney with 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. j 
 
 his pack of gifts. Santa Claus himself could not be more wel- 
 come to children than was this odd and genial man upon his 
 appearance in the Hebrew class. He was very particular in his 
 ways; but one great feature of his peculiarity was, that he was 
 utterly unartificial. He was droll, but unconsciously so. He 
 never joked in the class, but always something made the class- 
 room seem merry when he was in it. He was a true scholar 
 in Hebrew. His knowledge of Hebrew words did not seem to 
 be derived from the dictionary alone. He knew each word 
 familiarly, and remembered all the different places where it 
 occurred in the Hebrew Bible, and so could prove its signifi- 
 cance in one place by the meaning which necessarily attached 
 to it elsewhere. 
 
 After this brief introduction of the reader to the mem- 
 bers of the faculty, I now turn back to my own room with 
 its surroundings, and to my first impressions of the institution. 
 The main hall in the east building led from the front, then 
 on Twentieth Street, to the rear, and was crossed by a lateral 
 hall somewhat narrower. My room was in the second story on 
 the west side of the great hall, with windows looking out upon 
 Twentieth Street. Alfred B. Beach, my roommate, and I 
 occupied this apartment as a study room, and each had a sepa- 
 rate sleeping apartment behind and connecting with it. Beach 
 still lives, and is rector of St. Peter's Church in New York 
 City. 
 
 Across the hall, directly opposite our door, was the room 
 occupied by Arthur Carey, a memorable young man, whose in- 
 fluence upon my own life has been very great. I shall have 
 frequent occasion to recur to him in these pages. 
 
 On the opposite or west side of my study, and divided from 
 it by a partition wall, was a room occupied by James A. Mc- 
 Master, the door of which was reached by the smaller passage 
 already mentioned. Beach and I were thus flanked in between 
 two leading spirits of the seminary, widely differing in natural 
 character, but both far advanced in that current which soon 
 afterwards carried so many Anglicans into the faith and com- 
 munion of the ancient church. 
 
 McMaster was an old acquaintance whom I had known at 
 
8 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Union College. He entered the freshman class of that institu- 
 tion when I began my junior year, and I remember well the 
 amusement which, as an eccentric lad fresh from the country, 
 he excited amongst his fellow-students. His unusual height, 
 for even at that time he must have been very nearly six-feet- 
 two, his thin face, prominent nose, eagle eye, and impetuous 
 manner made him conspicuous at once among his companions. 
 They soon found out, however, that he was no ever-green, but 
 one born to command respect. His position at the seminary in 
 Twentieth Street was already a well-defined one ; and although 
 disliked by many for his aggressiveness, no one ventured to look 
 down upon him. 
 
 He was the first to open my eyes to that peculiar atmos- 
 phere which all who came to the seminary must necessarily 
 breathe. Some called it Catholic ; some called it Romish and 
 superstitious; some called it a spirit of reform, and return to 
 true doctrine and genuine piety ; and others regarded it as a 
 relapse into religious darkness and barbarism. Whatever it 
 might be, however, the seminary was recognized by all as the 
 focus of a new religious life in the Episcopalian body. It was 
 not low-churchism, neither was it " high-and-dry." 
 
 McMaster entered my room one evening soon after my 
 arrival, and was in conversation with me for an hour or more. 
 He chanced to use the expression of " baptismal regenerations" 
 It was something perfectly new to me, strange though it may 
 seem, for I was now already an Episcopalian of some five years 
 standing. "What do you mean?" said I. "Baptism is simply 
 a ceremony — something outward and visible to the eye. Regener- 
 ation, however, is the new birth — a change of the soul into a 
 new life. The two words, therefore, put together signify no- 
 thing." My friend, however, insisted that the two words ex- 
 pressed very properly a true Christian doctrine, and one clearly 
 contained in the Holy Scripture. He referred to the baptism of 
 St. Paul, and quoted the words of Ananias : " And now why 
 tarriest thou ? Rise up and be baptized, and wash away thy 
 sins." From this text he argued that baptism, duly received, 
 carried with it the pardon of sin, and that the pardon of sin to 
 Saul involved a new birth given to his soul. I doubted the 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 correctness of this citation, and although McMaster looked for 
 it in the New Testament, he was not able at the time to find it. 
 
 New as this doctrine of baptismal regeneration was to me, 
 and unconvinced as I remained notwithstanding my friend's ar- 
 gument, the very statement of it fixed itself so firmly in my 
 mind that I remained for a long time sleepless during the night 
 revolving the question, and unable to dismiss it. I took the 
 first opportunity I found to cross the hall into Carey's room 
 and ask him to explain what McMaster had meant. 
 
 "I see," said Carey, "that this doctrine appears to you ab- 
 surd. One thing, however, you will be obliged to acknowledge : 
 that it is the doctrine of the church to which you belong." 
 He then opened the Book of Common Prayer and read to me 
 the words of the baptismal service pronounced by the priest 
 directly after applying the baptismal water to the child, which 
 run as follows : " Seeing, therefore, that this child is now re- 
 generate, etc." He then read to me also the passage from the 
 Acts of the Apostles, which McMaster had not been able to 
 find, in which the Apostle Paul gives to the people an account 
 of his conversion and baptism. And we conversed together a 
 long while on this subject. I was not convinced at once, for 
 the idea of grace conveyed to the soul by means of a sacramen- 
 tal ceremony is something utterly inconsistent with the ordinary 
 training of a Protestant mind. I could not, however, dismiss it 
 from mine, and it was not very long before I received it un- 
 doubtingly and with a firmness of conviction which could never 
 afterwards be shaken. It was the entering wedge of a new 
 faith, far broader and deeper than any I then conceived of as 
 possible. 
 
 A very interesting and valuable society had been organized 
 amongst the students for the discussion of theological and other 
 questions belonging especially to the clerical profession. Arthur 
 Carey presided over it at that time, and its debates were well 
 attended by all the prominent students of every shade of opinion, 
 puseyites, evangelicals, and independents, high-churchmen, low- 
 churchmen, and no churchmen-at-all, all gathered together to 
 maintain their distinctive views. I was attracted to one of 
 these meetings soon after my arrival at the seminary, and the 
 
10 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 debate which took place opened before me a new world of 
 surprise. The question as debated turned chiefly upon this 
 point: Whether Protestants, congregated in folds not covered by 
 the Apostolic Succession, were Christians. I was amazed to 
 find that a very strong array of speakers, if not indeed the pre- 
 vailing sentiment, was unfavorable to dissenters as forming a 
 part of Christendom. In all my experience I had hitherto never 
 heard such a point raised. I was shocked as well as amazed, 
 and before the debate closed I took occasion to rise and ex- 
 press my wonder. I was too young in theology to make the 
 necessary distinctions which belong to such a question. I used 
 only the argiivicntJim ad verecundiam. I said that I was the 
 child of Presbyterian parents and that I recognized several of 
 the speakers as having been brought up in that denomination. 
 I thought that some of the opinions expressed there so strongly 
 and freely would sound very strangely at the firesides from 
 which they had come. I acknowledged my inability to deal 
 with the question very logically, but I felt sure that there was 
 a mistake somewhere. Some apologetic explanations were then 
 made for my benefit by the speakers whose remarks had sur- 
 prised me, but they failed to give me any new light or diminish 
 my wonder. 
 
 Carey, the president, was the last speaker. It was his part 
 to sum up the debate, and he did it with a power, a gentleness, 
 a thoughtfulness, and discrimination, which were characteristic of 
 himself and marvellous in one so young. He drew distinctions in 
 defining the words " Church " and " Christian " not very unlike 
 such as would be drawn by a Catholic "to the manner born." 
 His doctrine was all on the High-Church side, and gave no 
 countenance to what is known as Evangelical Protestantism; 
 but there was no wounding in his words, they had in them no 
 personal sting, though some of the speakers must have felt gently 
 rebuked by them. I conceived a strong admiration and love 
 for the young man which has never left me since. One even- 
 ing, shortly after this debate, I was silting alone in my room 
 when Carey entered. I was unoccupied. I could not read 
 evenings, for my sight had begun to fail^a trouble which, dating 
 from that time, has followed me with variations during my 
 
 i'» 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 1 1 
 
 whole life. Carey expressed his sympathy at the condition of 
 my sight, and asked if I would not like to have him read to 
 me. I accepted his offer eagerly. He took up a copy of the 
 New Testament which lay upon my table and commenced read- 
 ing from the Gospel of St. John, opening at the fourteenth 
 chapter and reading through to the end. I had never before 
 then appreciated so fully the solemn beauty of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. Carey was an admirable reader, keeping midway between a 
 tedious monotony and all extravagance of expression. His voice 
 was low and sweet, and had a quietness of suppressed feeling 
 in its tones which was magnetic. He made no comments on any- 
 thing he read, but let the sacred page tell its own story. I 
 never read those chapters now, particularly the three containing 
 our Lord's discourse after the Last Supper, but my thoughts go 
 back to that memorable evening, and I see Carey's kindly face 
 before me and his hair glowing like gold in the lamp-light. His 
 influence over HiJ was at once established, and I thank God for 
 it still. 
 
 McMaster was a man of a very different mould from Arthur 
 Carey, although perhaps the most intimate friend that he had 
 at the seminary. He also exercised a strong influence in the 
 movement towards Catholicism. If he did not bring down much 
 game, he was very effective in starting it, and was always ready 
 for a discussion. 
 
 One day Harwood, a student belonging to an advanced class, 
 was visiting my room-mate and myself, and broached some opin- 
 ions which Beach, a staunch high-churchman, looked upon as un- 
 sound. Neither he nor I could maintain any discussion with a 
 student of Harwood's experience. Beach was glad to call in re- 
 inforcements. He had heard the step of McMaster passing along 
 che hall on his way to descend the stairs. Going quickly to 
 the door. Beach called him back, saying, " Stop, Mac, I want 
 you ! Here's Harwood. He says the Ecumenical Councils are 
 not infallible." McMaster turned back at once. He strode into 
 the room and, throwing his long leg over the back of a chair 
 and resting his arm upon his knee, he fixed his eagle eyes up- 
 on Harwood and vociferated: "Where are your grounds?" 
 Harwood was not a man to be alarmed, and immediately a hot 
 
12 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 discussion ensued which Jasted until both parties had expended 
 their ammunition. Beach and I remained prudently silent. 
 
 I was not a classmate of McMaster's, being in my first year 
 when he was in his third, and can give very little account of 
 him in regard to his proficiency in the regular studies of a 
 seminary course. He was certainly a great reader and was very 
 fond of reading rare books, especially books by Catholic authors, 
 or of old fashioned Anglican divines, little known to Episcopa- 
 lians of the present day. The library of the institution afforded 
 many notable books of either class. Among these I remember 
 the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Catena Anrea. These 
 furnished him with an artillery of heavy guns very formidable 
 in controversy. While busily occupied in his room one day 
 with a volume of St. Thomas on the table before him, he was 
 interrupted by a sudden rap at the door. Knowing it to be 
 locked, and not caring to be interrupted, he made no answer; 
 the knock was repeated, to as little purpose. The knocking 
 still continued, and, it becoming evident that some one was 
 there who believed him to be in and was determined to get 
 admission, he turned his eyes towards the door and saw above 
 it, looking down upon him through the transom, the face of his 
 brother, a Presbyterian clergyman. This brother was as tall as 
 himself, and the door was no screen between them. Seclusion 
 was now hopeless. Our mediaeval student was obliged to turn 
 his attention from the Angelic Doctor to Dr. McMaster, of 
 Ballston* Spa. 
 
 James A. McMaster will, no doubt, figure for a long while 
 in the history of Catholic progress in this country as a promi- 
 nent actor. It is probable that some friend — better acquainted 
 with the events of his later life — will write his biography as it 
 should be written, with care and study. I must, therefore, be 
 pardoned if I pass over the more serious events of his career, 
 and more valuable traits of his character, and endeavor to place 
 him before the reader in such strong lights and shadows, and 
 such colors, as to present a lively picture of the man, but not 
 an analytical study. 
 
 I may as well say here that I found myself occupying a 
 somewhat anomalous position among the students of the Gene- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 13 
 
 ral Seminary. I was no churchman, either high or low ; I had 
 taken no interest in the Oxford movement, and had very little 
 conception of what it was. The accidental circumstance, while 
 studying law at Canandaigua, of boarding and lodging nearly 
 opposite an Episcopalian church, and of having its organist for 
 a fellow-lodger, had led me to join its choir and attend its ser- 
 vices. This I continued afterwards by mere habit until 1839, 
 when I received confirmation at the hands of Bishop Onderdonk 
 at St. Paul's Church, Albany. I was at that time prosecuting 
 my law studies in the office of Stevens & Cagger, of that city. 
 Dr. Kip, afterwards Bishop of California, was at that time rec- 
 tor of St. Paul's, and I had become a singer in his choir and 
 the superintendent of his Sunday-school. No questions had 
 been put to me as to what I believed or did not believe. I 
 found myself in the Anglican Church with apparently the full 
 liberty to believe what I liked and to change my belief un- 
 questioned. I had, no doubt, some very strong religious convic- 
 tions, which I think I would have maintained at the cost of 
 my life; but with these convictions I could without scruple have 
 become a Presbyterian or Methodist as readily as an Episcopa- 
 lian. Such a man cannot be classed as a churchman. I do not 
 think I could very properly have been styled an Evangelical. 
 In the matter of "justification by faith only" I was scarcely a 
 staunch Protestant. That doctrine seemed to me Antinomian, 
 and consequently immoral. I knew that many Protestants ac- 
 quiesced in it who did not practically rely upon it, but I would 
 have been unwilling to profess it in any distinct language if this 
 had been exacted of me. 
 
 Under these circumstances it can easily be understood that 
 I had no bias which kept me from associating freely and 
 intimately with any student, whether dryly high or evangeli- 
 cally low, ritualistic, puseyite, or of still stronger Romanizing 
 tendencies. I readily formed friendships with any one, whether 
 in or out of the seminary, in whose personality I saw the meas- 
 ure of a well-made man. Among my most familiar associates 
 was my cousin, Charles Piatt, who was one year in advance of 
 me. He was the son of Commodore Charles Piatt, of the 
 United States navy, and a candidate of our western diocese. 
 
14 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 In that same class were to be numbered William Everett, who 
 had commenced life as a medical doctor and is now pastor of 
 the Church of the Nativity in Second Avenue. New York City. 
 Harwood was a prominent member of the same class; in her- 
 meneutics, ecclesiastical history, and in almost everything else, 
 holding to German notions, a high churchman in matters of au- 
 thority and externals, but rather low-church in doctrine. Har- 
 wood is still living, holding the rectorship of Trinity Church, 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
 Mason Gallagher was also in Piatt's class, and a candidate 
 of Bishop De Lancey's ; he is still living, I am told, and is 
 now a preacher among the reformed Episcopalians. He was an 
 Irishman, perhaps an Orangeman, of the controversial stamp, I 
 remember little of his polemics, however, except that I fre- 
 quently saw him in the gymnasium. We had a room in the 
 seminary appropriated to gymnastics, with parallel bars, poles 
 and ropes for climbing and swinging, boxing-gloves, etc. This 
 room was much frequented by Gallagher, as also by Wyatt, a 
 very gentlemanly and superior young man, son of Dr. Wyatt, 
 rector of St. Paul's Church in Charles Street, Baltimore. These 
 two I often saw engaged in pounding each other with boxing- 
 gloves. I remember little else of Wyatt, but shall have occa- 
 sion to speak of Gallagher again. In the same class was a 
 Greek from Greece proper, if I remember right, named Stamos 
 Trikaliotes, His classmates remember somewhat vividly how 
 he preached a sermon, as an exercise in Dr. Haight's depart- 
 ment, in which some curious chemical statements convulsed 
 both the doctor and the whole class with laughter. He was, 
 when I knew him, no Greek in belief. He was sufficiently Evan- 
 geHcal in his notions to satisfy even one so profoundly Protes- 
 tant as Bishop Mcllvain, of Ohio. 
 
 A leading and cultivated mind also in Piatt's class was 
 Benjamin F. Whicher, who died recently a Catholic layman 
 Harry Montgomery, afterwards familiar to New-Yorkers as 
 Episcopalian pastor of a church in their city, was, as a student, 
 very enthusiastic in matters of rite, and ceremony, and ecclesi- 
 astical art. Gardner of Maine, a very companionable man, was 
 in my class, and a fondness for the same studies helped to 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 15 
 
 make our friendship more familiar. Geer was our organist and 
 choir-master, and as I met him constantly at practice and sat 
 next to him in chapel, I have him in very distinct remem- 
 brance. Some other faces come back to me vividly enough, 
 whose names I find it impossible to recall. Wadhams, Mc- 
 Vicker, Donelly, Gibson, and other of my familiar associates, 
 were all deeply interested in the Oxford movement, and not 
 much afraid of Rome. 
 
 Carey and McMaster can scarcely be classed with these, for 
 their hearts already looked lovingly and earnestly towards the 
 ancient faith, and I am persuaded that nothing but the example 
 of Newman, Oakeley, and others who were their acknowledged 
 masters, kept them back from the arms of the church. Among 
 the Evangelicals in the seminary I found none that attracted 
 me. I had some friends of this kind, however, in the city. 
 My sister, Mrs. Jenkins, lived in Eleventh Street near Fifth 
 Avenue. Mrs. Codwise, a Presbyterian lady who lived in St. 
 Mark's Place, Eighth Street, was an old family friend. From 
 the first moment of my arrival at the seminary she kept watch 
 and ward over me, suspected me of hair-shirts, crosses and cru- 
 cifixes, and sought to introduce me into a circle of Evangeli- 
 cals, Episcopalians or otherwise. As I frequently took tea at 
 her house and spent the evening with her, I met a variety of 
 clergymen of every possible kind. Each one of these she took 
 care to assure me was eminent, interesting, and lovely. Now 
 and then among them appeared some man of note that might 
 be called eminent if not interesting. Dr. Cummings, of the i • 
 Church of the Puritans and a noted anti-popery preacher, was 
 one of these. I found him very talkative, very bitter, and most 
 unlovable. I went with her one evening to hear him preach; 
 I never heard such bitterness, hatred, and bigotry concentrated 
 into one sermon. "Isn't he fervent? isn't he charming?" said 
 the good lady as we went out. I fear that my reply shocked 
 her more than the denunciations of the minister had done. 
 Most of the divines that I met at her house seemed to me 
 sufificiently dull and dry. I valued the good lady herself above 
 a thousand of them. 
 
 One evening, at her earnest solicitation, I accompanied her to 
 
1 6 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 the museum on the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street. 
 She had been reading about Indian missions and this made her 
 anxious to witness an Indian war-dance. We started early in order 
 to pay a visit first to the Bible Society. Passing through one 
 of the rooms she stopped me suddenly before a large arm-chair. 
 
 "Look at that!" said she. "What do you think that is?" 
 
 "I see nothing," I replied, "but an arm-chair. I remember 
 one in my grandmother's kitchen very like it." 
 
 "No," she said, "it is something more than that. You'll be 
 delighted when I tell you. I want you to sit down in it." I 
 complied. 
 
 " Now then, my dear young friend," she exclaimed, " I want 
 you to understand that you are sitting in the very chair that 
 the 'Dairyman's Daughter' died in. Think of it! How do you 
 feel now ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Codwise," said I solemnly, " I am astonished that a Pro- 
 testant lady so noted for true piety and horror of superstition 
 should endeavor to teach me the veneration of relics." 
 
 " Oh, how provoking you are ! " she exclaimed. " Is it possi- 
 ble that you can sit in that chair — that chair — that chair ! and 
 not be thrilled with emotion?" 
 
 Our visit to the museum was not more successful. I en- 
 joyed the war-dance very much, but the good lady was nearly 
 frightened out of her senses by the ferocity of the painted 
 warriors, who were true Indians, and the terrible ring of their 
 war-whoops. 
 
 "O let us go! take me away!" she said. "I can't endure 
 it. I shall die. This is dreadful." I stood up and looked 
 around upon the crowd. It was impossible to make our way 
 out, and I told her so. She closed her eyes and endeavored to 
 deafen her ears, and so wait for the termination of the exhibi- 
 tion. I presume that her interest in the Indian missions con- 
 tinued, but am confident that nothing thereafter could have in- 
 duced her to become a missionary. In truth, so far as may be 
 judged by the injudicious measures she took to lead my soul 
 in the right way, she had little vocation for the missionary life. 
 
 The great doctrinal bulwark of the Anglican system is well 
 understood to be its claim to Apostolical Succession. One can 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. ly 
 
 scarcely claim to be distinctly Episcopalian until he has learned 
 that. I had not yet learned it when I arrived at the seminary, 
 and attached little importance to it. It did not come up in 
 the seminary course until the second year. I mastered pretty 
 well what there was of it in my first year. It was brought out 
 prominently before the New York public in the famous Potts ~^ 
 and Wainwright controversy, which originated as follows : 
 
 Rufus Choate, the great Boston lawyer and orator, made an 
 address that year in New York City at the celebration of the 
 landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. In the course of his 
 address he spoke of the Pilgrim fathers as having founded " a 
 church without a bishop and a state without a king." This 
 had occasioned considerable merriment in the audience. Dr. 
 Wainwright, of New York, occupied a chair upon the stage and 
 near the speaker. At the dinner which followed, Dr. Wain- 
 wright, when rising to compliment the orator, took occasion to 
 parry the joke by saying that " while a state could very well 
 exist without a king, there could be no church without a bishop." 
 Dr. Potts, the pastor of a fashionable Presbyterian church on 
 Fifth Avenue, took umbrage at this declaration and opened a 
 controversy with Dr. Wainwright in the public papers. The 
 arguments for and against the necessity of a succession of 
 bishops to constitute a church, and for and against the claim 
 of Episcopalians to such a succession, were pretty thoroughly 
 discussed in the debate. 
 
 Being a greenhorn in theology, I followed this discussion 
 with much attention. So did Hiram Walworth, an uncle of 
 mine who resided in Hudson Square. I frequently spent my 
 evenings at his house, and we took pleasure in reading and 
 canvassing the points of this controversy. The necessity of a 
 distinctive order of bishops to constitute a valid Christian 
 church soon became quite manifest to me, though my uncle 
 would not admit it. His objections, however, were always 
 shrewd and forcibly put, and converted wfiat might have been 
 a superficial reading into a careful study. I thus became for 
 the first time a veritable Episcopalian. 
 
 It may not be amiss in this place to add a few more words 
 in regard to this uncle. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 His family were Presbyterians, and he loved to profess him- 
 self as a thorough Calvinist. He was a great joker, and this 
 profession was one of his favorite jokes. He loved to put for- 
 ward the most hideous tenets of Calvinism in their worst form. 
 He held a pew in a Presbyterian church near by, but he did 
 not think it important to attend its services with the rest of 
 his family. When I ventured cautiously to rebuke him for this 
 he would say : 
 
 " What should I go to church for ? I know well enough all 
 the minister could tell me." 
 
 "You ought to go there in order to pray." 
 
 " What do I want to pray for ? It's his duty, and let him 
 attend to it." 
 
 "Yes, my dear uncle," I insisted, "but you need to pray 
 yourself, and maintain the spirit of prayer in your soul in order 
 to save it." 
 
 "No, I don't. I'm elected." 
 
 "Don't be too certain of that, uncle. You need to make 
 your vocation and election sure." 
 
 "Why, it is sure already. Don't you know that full assur- 
 ance is given to the elect?" 
 
 My aunt would often interrupt the conversation with her 
 remonstrances, but it was a merry thing for him to make fun of 
 us both. 
 
 I had also a married sister living in New York, whose resi- 
 dence was on Eleventh Street, as already stated. I took my 
 meals at her house for some time at the commencement of my 
 course, and often spent my evenings there. She endeavored to 
 keep me safe against the dangerous influences of the seminary, 
 and was very glad to read to me such books as she thought 
 salutary. One of these was T)' ^whl^wy's History of the Reforma- 
 tion. No one book ever did so much to alienate me from Pro- 
 testantism. If it had been written by a Catholic, I should have 
 distrusted it ; but it was written by a Protestant, a devout ad- 
 mirer of Luther ; one who looked upon him as above all others 
 the great leader of that revolution, and divinely sent to begin 
 and carry on the movement. I had been brought up to look 
 upon him in the same light. To my sight he had always been 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. ig 
 
 a man of saintly character and a hero. D'Aubigny keeps back 
 much of the vulgar self-indulgence attributed to Luther by 
 other authors, as well as the coarse and gross language which 
 appears in some of his works. But his Luther is no hero. He 
 is simply a religious and political agitator. To my mind he is 
 as much marked by duplicity as by audacity. I do not con- 
 ceive how any unprejudiced and thoughtful man, when listen- 
 ing to this history, could borrow the words of the Evangelist and 
 say of this great heresiarch : There was a man sent from God 
 whose 7iame was Martin Luther. I felt that I had been im- 
 posed upon. The scales dropped from my eyes. I saw Dagon 
 fall to pieces in his own temple. To my sister's great surprise I 
 frequently interrupted her reading by saying : " What sort of a 
 hero is that ? Can a worshipper of Luther make nothing better 
 of him ? " I expressed my surprise in a very similar way to 
 Arthur Carey. " I have had enough of Luther," said L He 
 answered after his quiet manner : " You would probably like 
 Melanchthon better. He is at least more of a scholar — more re- 
 fined and gentle." 
 
 About the same time I encountered an early acquaintance 
 on the ferry-boat to Staten Island. He was loud in his denun- 
 ciations, not only of Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and other re- 
 formers, but declaimed violently against every sect of Chris- 
 tians. " Through their false doctrines and hypocrisy they are 
 demoralizing the world more and more every day." " What 
 benefit, then," I inquired, "has the Reformation been to the 
 world?" He was staggered for a moment, but replied: "Well, 
 it was something at least for religion to get rid of her old rags." 
 He was evidently on his way towards infidelity. On the con- 
 trary, I was more hopeful than ever. Only old clouds of igno- 
 rance and prejudice were disappearing ; new light was break-, 
 ing ; and I felt that I had never parted with any point of 
 Christian teaching that was positive and of a nature to be 
 called faith. 
 
 I had now so far got to be an Episcopalian as to prefer it 
 before any other church, and for positive reasons. This made 
 me feel quite at home at the seminary. In the next chapter I 
 will endeavor to give some idea of class-life there. 
 
20 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 STUDIES AND CLASS IXCIDENTS. — HEBREW ; EXEGESIS ; DOGMA. — 
 CUDGELS IN AND OUT OF CLASS.— ^LAY BAPTISM. 
 
 A FAVORITE class with many of the students at the Chelsea 
 Seminary was that over which Dr. Clernent C. Moore pre- 
 sided — the Hebrew class. There was no study to which my 
 chum Beach and I devoted ourselves with more perseverance 
 and regularity. 
 
 In the annals of the Chelsea Seminary Dr. Moore will not 
 figure merely as professor of Hebrew. He was a prominent 
 patron of the institution, and was closely identified with all its 
 interests. Its very location on Twentieth Street, opposite to his 
 own residence and between the Ninth and Tenth Avenues, was 
 a thing of his selection and due to his choice. He taught in 
 the seminary for thirty years previous to 1850, at which time 
 he retired from active service as professor emeritus. In 182 c 
 he was mide professor of Biblical learning. His second 
 appointment was to teach Oriental and Greek literature. He 
 was the author of a " Hebrew and Greek Lexicon," in two 
 volumes, published in 1809, and other works. It is a strange 
 thing that a man of such great and varied learning as Dr. 
 Moore, so versed in oriental and classic literature and a pio- 
 neer in matters of rare and deep research, should only be 
 known to the general world of readers by one single ballad, 
 "The Visit of St. Nicholas." A volume of poems, his only 
 published work of this kind, was given to the public in 1844, 
 while I was still a seminarian. This volume contains among 
 other things some verses accompanying a gift of flowers to a 
 friend. That friend, Mr. P. Hone, returned an answer also in 
 verse, which so well specifies the various accomplishments of 
 the worthy professor that I need only to give it to the reader 
 in order to furnish a picture of this notable man : 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 21 
 
22 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 " Filled as thou art with Attic fire, 
 
 And skilled in classic lore divine, 
 Not yet content, wouldst thou aspire 
 
 In Flora's gorgeous wreath to shine ? 
 Wouldst thou in language of the rose 
 
 Lessons of wisdom seek t' impart, 
 Or in the violet's breath disclose 
 
 The feelings of a generous heart? 
 Come as thou wilt, my warm regard 
 
 And welcome shall thy steps attend ; 
 Scholar, musician, florist, bard — 
 
 More dear to me than all, as friend. 
 Bring flowers and poesy, a goodly store. 
 
 Like Dickens' Oliver — I ask for Moore." 
 
 The principal object of our studies in Hebrew was to pre- 
 pare us for the class in hermeneutics over which Dr. Samuel 
 H. Turner presided. After reading the first two or three chap- 
 ters of Genesis, our readings in the Hebrew Testament were 
 confined to its Messianic parts. These parts were always care- 
 fully marked out for the Hebrew class by Dr. Turner himself. 
 Dr. Moore confined his teaching strictly to the Hebrew, and 
 the translation of the parts thus marked out, but never med- 
 dled with the interpretation of Scripture. The nearest that he 
 ever came to this in dealing with our class was one day when 
 we were translating the seventeenth verse of the twenty-first 
 Psalm, which, in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate and other 
 Christian versions, reads, "They have dug (or pierced) my hands 
 and feet." When we came to these words, the student whose 
 turn it was translated the passage as above. " Well, yes," said 
 Dr. Moore, "that's the way we read it in our English Bible, 
 but here in this Hebrew Bible we have Kari, which would 
 oblige us to translate the passage as the Jews do, ' Like a lion, 
 my hands and feet.' To be sure, that don't seem to make good 
 sense; but that is no business of mine. I am not here to 
 inculcate good sense, but to teach Hebrew. Some learned peo- 
 ple will tell you that the rabbins have changed the text on 
 purpose. Well, perhaps they did. I didn't. Or, when you 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminar)'. 23 
 
 come to Dr. Turner's class, perhaps he will tell you that the 
 word got changed by careless writing in Hebrew, shortening the 
 tail of the last letter till they turned the van into a yoel. That 
 would change Karu into Kari. In that case, all we need to 
 make it right is to put the long tail on again. Then we 
 have Karn, and can translate the passage, ' They pierced my 
 hands and my feet.' Well, well, well ! Let them fix it their 
 own way. That's none of my business. Here we have Kari, 
 and that means ' Like a lion.' In my class, young man, you'll 
 have to read it that way. I don't bother myself much about 
 old versions, nor old manuscripts, nor old commentators, nor old 
 rabbins. I am only a layman, but I know what Hebrew is 
 when I see it in the book before us. Humph! Go on.'" 
 
 I have already said that the Hebrew class was a great 
 favorite with me as with many others, and what we learned 
 there was of the greatest advantage when dealing with Dr. 
 Turner in the interpretation of Scripture. I have lost some 
 valuable books in my day, sometimes through lending, some- 
 times through the casualties of house-cleaning, and sometimes 
 because an eventful life has forced me to forsake them. For 
 none of these have I mourned so much as for the Hebrew Bible 
 which I interlined most carefully, in my study-room, with equiva- 
 lent English words of the good doctor's rendering. I have 
 never been able to recover it. 
 
 My reminiscences of this seminary are largely made up of 
 scenes from Professor Turner's class-room. I seem to see the 
 professor before me now. I can still recall him most vividly, 
 as he then sat at his desk. He was devoted to his class. His 
 earnest devotion shov/ed itself in his eyes, brows, mouth, nose, 
 and in his very hair, as he gazed upon the Greek Testament 
 before him, or bent his looks upon us to gather in from the 
 expression of our faces the effect of his criticisms. We could 
 see his legs under the desk. There his little hands took a busy 
 part in the exegesis, pinching his trousers at the knees. One 
 foot or the other was always tapping the floor of the platform. 
 His feet were very small. This we could see for ourselves, and 
 I knew from his shoemaker that he was very particular about 
 his shoes. 
 
24 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 All this liveliness on the part of Professor Turner was per- 
 fectly unaffected. Indeed, there was something about him that 
 always seemed to protest against affectation of every kind. 
 When it was his turn to preside at the morning service in the 
 chapel, he protested against that deep-mouthed throttling of the 
 words of the service so frequent amongst his brethren of the 
 clergy. He carried this even to an excess. In his dislike of 
 pomposity he actually danced over very solemn words. He 
 always chose the short absolution, and made very short work 
 of it, too. On the contrary, when reading the lessons from 
 Holy Scripture, he gave a triumphant and jerky emphasis to 
 certain inelegant words of the text which others are apt to skip 
 over lightly, through a sense of delicac} . 
 
 Professor Turner had a strong predilection for those stu- 
 dents who showed a particular interest in his class, and this 
 without exacting any strict adherence to his own interpreta- 
 tions. Indeed, there were some of us that took a quiet 
 pleasure in hunting up authorities which militated with his 
 views. He never manifested any offence at this. Some dialogue 
 like the following would then take place : 
 
 "Well, have you any authority for that interpretation?" 
 
 "Yes, sir; I find Theodoret quoted for it." 
 
 " Ah, indeed, Theodoret ! Well, I don't wish to dispute that 
 Theodoret is an authority, but I must beg leave to differ with 
 Theodoret in this case. Does Theodoret or the commentator 
 who quotes him assign any reasons for their opinion ? " 
 
 The reasons being given, the doctor would then continue: 
 " The authority, no doubt, is highly respectable. I wish I could 
 say as much for the reasons assigned." The doctor would then 
 carefully go over the ground a second time, without offering 
 the least rebuke to the independence of the student, and with- 
 out saying anything to discourage free study, even though 
 dissenters should be consulted or Catholic authors. 
 
 I was one of those who loved to ramble in study of authori- 
 ties, especially after my first year, when I had found out that 
 the world of theological doctrine was broader and deeper than 
 I had ever dreamed of before. I was even bold enough on one 
 occasion to give a translation to the Greek text differing in 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 25 
 
 several respects from the King James version. The passage is 
 that of Hebrews vi. 4, 5, 6. To the surprise of the whole 
 class, I translated this passage as follows: 
 
 ' For it is impossible for those, who were once enlightened, 
 etc., etc., and are fallen away, to be renewed again by penance y 
 
 After hesitating a moment, the professor said quietly: "I 
 don't object, Mr. Walworth, to your reversing of the sequence 
 in this passage, nor your changing the voice of the verb, nor 
 to your using the word penance, which may very well be un- 
 derstood as meaning nothing else than repentance ; but how 
 can 'by penance' be given as a correct translation of "■ eis 
 mctanoian ' ? Eis is a preposition, and is equivalent to loito and 
 into, in English. I do not know of a single instance where any 
 dictionary or translator has given it the sense of by. Do you ? " 
 
 I had anticipated this objection, and it was my good luck 
 to be furnished with one instance in the English Testament it- 
 self. It was easy for the good doctor to dispose of this point 
 in my case. I had little confidence in it and was only amusing my- 
 self. What struck me most at the time was the gentleness, equani- 
 mity, and even respect, with which he treated my presumption. 
 
 I did not get off so easily with another friend, who took it 
 much to heart. In our class was a student from Maine named 
 Gardner, who was not only a good scholar but very fond of 
 hermeneutics, and of all close and nice study in language. He 
 was, moreover, a sincere Protestant, albeit of the high-church 
 stamp. Having occasion to visit his room that same day, he 
 received me with a seriousness that was startling. 
 
 "What is the matter, Gardner ? " I inquired. " Have you re- 
 ceived any ill news ? " 
 
 " O Walworth I " said he, " I didn't think you'd do it. I 
 didn't think you'd do it ! " 
 
 " Why, what have I done ? " 
 
 "I have been anxious about you," he answered, "but I never 
 thought it would come to this." 
 
 " There must be something dreadful in your mind, Gardner. 
 What is it ? What have I done ? " 
 
 " I did not think you would give such a translation to 
 metanoian^penance. Oh! it is too bad; how could you do it.-*" 
 
26 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 " Well," I said, " under all the circumstances, it was a fool- 
 ish thing. Since it grieves you so much I take it back. . Come, 
 my dear fellow, forgive me, and brighten up again." 
 
 But poor Gardner could not be pacified. 
 
 "You'll end in Rome yet, Walworth," he said; "you'll end 
 in Rome." 
 
 It seemed to me at one time that Gardner himself was dan- 
 gerously near the jaws of the same great dragon. He was very 
 nearly led into the doctrine of transubstantiation by a learned 
 work of Dr. Wiseman on that subject. His arguments, derived 
 from a critical examination of the sixth chapter of St. John 
 and from St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (x. 16 and 
 xi. 24-29), seemed to me to be very strong. What struck Gard- 
 ner's mind most forcibly, however, was the immense learning 
 displayed by Dr. Wiseman to show that the words used by our 
 Lord in instituting the Blessed Sacrament, " This is my body. 
 This is my blood," must necessarily be understood literally. 
 The force of the context, the circumstances attending the insti- 
 tution of the Eucharist, and the comparison of various passages 
 referring to the Eucharist before and after its institution, 
 these arguments would seem strong enough to convince any 
 mind that fairly gives its attention to them. Gardner's fond- 
 ness for critical learning, however, made him attach much greater 
 importance to the almost infinite variety of citations from au- 
 thors in almost every language to show the uses of the verb 
 einai, when it is used literally and when it must be understood 
 figuratively. I soon grew tired of all this learned detail, the 
 most of which seemed to me trivial. Gardner, however, was 
 both attracted and alarmed by it. He carried these questions 
 to Dr. Turner, who entered into them with full sympathy. Gard- 
 ner became at last convinced that the saddle-bags were as full 
 on the Anglican side of the horse as the other, and he got no 
 nearer to Romanism. 
 
 I think I caused some considerable chagrin to Professor 
 Turner on another occasion when he was anxious to show off 
 his class at examination. I was called upon to explain the 
 sense of our Lord's words in " the sermon on the mount " 
 where, according to King James's version, he says to his disci- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 27 
 
 pies: " If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. . . . And 
 if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off." I interpreted the 
 passage as applying to an occasion of sin where the dangerous 
 temptation is so great that there is no reasonable hope of escap- 
 ing from sin except by putting away the occasion or flying from 
 it. The doctor was well satisfied with this, but unfortunately 
 carried the matter a little too far by asking me if our Lord by 
 this teaching ever intended that one should actually pluck out 
 an eye or cut off an arm. I answered that I thought the ur- 
 gency of the occasion might sometimes require such extreme 
 measures, if there was no other way of keeping in the grace of 
 God. The doctor was evidently much mortified, as some very 
 notable clergymen were present at the examination. I had, 
 moreover, been the very one to handle this passage at a pre- 
 vious class recitation ; I had extended its meaning with the 
 same literal severity, and the doctor had set me right very care- 
 fully. He therefore counted on me to do him credit before the 
 visiting examiners. His brows gathered with vexation, but he 
 contented himself with setting me right once more. I was sorry 
 to have grieved him, but I really believed that in such extreme 
 cases as I had proposed one could dispense with an eye or a 
 leg, and even lend a hand to getting rid of them. I do not 
 give this incident in order to fix any interpretation upon the 
 passage in question, but only to illustrate the professor's gentle- 
 ness to his pupils, especially to those who took any special in- 
 terest in his class. 
 
 At times the doctor could be petulant enough. During the 
 Christmas vacation at the close of the year 1843 several stu- 
 dents remained at the seminary, including myself and Whicher, 
 also a candidate from our western diocese. Some of us under- 
 took to decorate the chapel for Christmas. We introduced 
 evergreens after the usual manner, and as profusely as circum- 
 stances would allow, especially around the little chancel. Un- 
 fortunately, however, none of us being low-churchmen or evan- 
 gelical, and none having any great fear of Rome before our 
 eyes, we introduced a large evergreen cross at the centre of the 
 chancel railing and directly in front of the desk. Professor 
 Turner, who was also dean of the faculty, having charge of the 
 
28 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 buildings and all the rooms, was either offended at this, or 
 feared that others would take offence. He sent for Whicher, 
 berated him soundly, and ordered that the cross should be taken 
 down. Whicher was disposed to resist this order as being un- 
 friendly to the very symbol of our salvation, and fanatically 
 evangelical. He consulted with his copartners in misdemeanor, 
 who encouraged him to carry the case to Bishop Onderdonk, 
 president of the seminary. This he did. Dr. Onderdonk ex- 
 pressed great surprise at the dean's order, which he considered 
 very foolish and unnecessary. He advised, however, that we 
 should submit promptly and quietly to the dean, who was act- 
 ing strictly in the line of his of^ce and ought to be obeyed. 
 This ended the matter, but left us feeling very foolish. Episco- 
 palians are not so skittish now. Ritualism has taught them to 
 face everything Catholic except good doctrine. They are pre- 
 pared to put on all the robes of popery with the understanding 
 that nothing serious is meant by it. 
 
 It was not very often that anything took place in the class- 
 rooms to invite controversial discussions. Dr. Wilson, who pre- 
 sided over the department of dogmatic theology, was a truly 
 learned man, and what would be called a very sound man by 
 all except ranting evangelicals of the Bishop Mcllvaine stamp. 
 To Dr. Wilson, and to the excellent text-book upon which he 
 grounded himself, I owe a great deal of instruction in funda- 
 mental doctrines of Christianity, which I shall always hold as 
 very precious. Of course I came to the seminary receiving with 
 implicit faith the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. More- 
 over, I thought that I understood it pretty well. In this, how- 
 ever, I was mistaken. I found that my knowledge of this doc- 
 trine was very superficial. This, I believe, is true of almost all 
 Protestant laymen, and indeed of many of the clergy. 
 
 My course in Dr. Wilson's class was never completed, but 
 yet I learned there a great deal concerning the two-fold nature 
 of Christ, which helped me forward in that way toward the 
 true and only church which I was following, unconsciously in- 
 deed and slowly, but none the less surely. The Sacrifice of the 
 Eucharist was not taught in that class as Catholics understand 
 it — a memorial Sacrifice actually and visibly taking place before 
 
G/ii/ipscs of Life in an Anglican Scviifiary. 
 
 29 
 
 their senses; but the perpetual presence of Christ at the throne 
 of his Father as a victim, and so continuing and perpetuating 
 his sacrifice on Mount Calvary, was so vividly presented to my 
 mind that the Catholic Mass, with all its reality and sacredness, 
 became something easy to receive. Then come in the solemn 
 words of our Lord on the first Holy Thursday, " Do this in 
 commemoration of me." Thus the sacrifice of Christ ceases to be 
 regarded merely as 
 a thing of finished 
 and accomplished 
 history. It is some- 
 thing still going on. 
 Although Christ 
 dies no more, al- 
 though the actual 
 death scene can 
 only be repeated 
 as a sacred drama, 
 yet that sacred 
 drama is repeated 
 as a divine insti- 
 tution, with a vic- 
 tim present and an 
 offering ; it is a ; 
 visible sacrament \ 
 with a grace at- f 
 tached to it. It be- f| 
 comes easy now to '> 
 take in the thought 
 
 >' VK, U* V-4J '■*S^«S«-««* ^\^*"'' 
 
 Life at Chelsea Seminakv.- 
 
 ' One of Them." 
 
 that the great Sac- 
 rament is not only perpetuated at a celestial altar in the imme- 
 diate presence of God, but here also amongst us for whose bene- 
 fit the sacrifice is made. It becomes a part of our worship, indeed 
 the greatest and most solemn act of worship which we can offer. 
 The thoughtful mind makes progress in this way from a mere 
 matter of communions consisting at best only of thoughtful medi- 
 tations, to a realization of the Catholic Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 The Hebrews had their altar, but the victims offered at that al- 
 
30 Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seminary. 
 
 tar were only types of the true victim who was not present ; 
 but Christ our pasch is sacrificed for us, and therefore we keep 
 the feast. We also, as the apostle sa}s, "have an altar, whereof 
 they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle." 
 
 Professor Wilson's class and Pearson on the Creed came to 
 me late in my seminary course, but when they did come they 
 did much for me. They did much to help" me forward in my 
 struggle for a sure and full faith, far more than noisier and 
 more exciting disputations out of class. They did more for me 
 also than the less solid but more controversial manner in which 
 our course of ecclesiastical history was conducted. 
 
 Professor Ogilby was a partisan scholar, a controversialist of 
 the via media school. To his mind truth was something which 
 always poised itself skilfully on a medium line, and at a safe 
 distance from Rome on the one side and ultra Protestantism on 
 the other. Adapting all his learning to this via media, as a 
 good strategic point to fight from, he dealt out vigorous blows 
 to the right and to the left. It was dif^cult to say which foes 
 he disliked the most. Catholics or dissenters. If he did not 
 teach much accurate truth, at least he stirred up many ques- 
 tions of historical importance, which his students could study 
 up and discuss outside of the class-room. 
 
 A little while before I entered the seminary he had been 
 party to a discussion with Dr. McVickar, of Columbia College, on 
 the validity of lay baptism. Dr. McVickar maintained the 
 validity of baptism by laymen, which Professor Ogilby denied. 
 It was one of the first questions which I encountered upon my 
 entry into the seminary, and it was some considerable time b-e- 
 fore I arrived at any settled conviction upon the point. It was 
 with me a very practical point, for I had been baptized in in- 
 fancy by a Presbyterian minister; and according to the belief 
 of Dr. Ogilby and a large part of the Anglican clergy, these 
 and other dissenting ministers are laymen, having no valid or- 
 ders. I made up my mind very early to put the validity of 
 my baptism beyond all doubt, by getting myself baptized again. 
 I selected as the minister of this new baptism the Rev. Caleb 
 Clapp, an alumnus of 1839, ^.nd an old friend of mine in Sara- 
 toga, where he married his wife, but at the time officiating in 
 
G/ii/ipscs of Life in an A)iglican Seminary. 31 
 
 New York as rector of Nativity Church, near the East River. 
 I was the superintendent of his Sunday-school, and he entered 
 readily into my views. I reasoned that on the supposition of 
 my first baptism being deficient, no Catholic would ever dis- 
 pute the validity of this new one on the*^ ground of a want of 
 intention on the part of the minister, since Mr. Clapp was a 
 firm believer in the necessity of baptism, and would not admin- 
 ister it thoughtlessly. Episcopalians could find no fault with a 
 baptism administered by Mr. Clapp, since Ihey could not class 
 him as a layman. Baptists could not object to it on the ground 
 of my being an infant and so incapable of receiving it. And 
 lastly neither Baptists nor schismatic Greeks could object to it, 
 since the method of trine immersion was carefully used. I find 
 the certificate of this baptism securely laid away in a package 
 of diplomas, certificates, and other like papers. It is carefully 
 written out on vellum in my own hand, with the exception of 
 the date and signature. Some of the most significant words 
 are heavily done in imitation of Old English lettering, orna- 
 mentally shaded with red. It runs as follows : 
 
 '*1[ bereb^ certit^ that Clarence Walworth was by 
 me baptized into the Church of Christ 'in the Name of the 
 FATHER and of the SON and of the HOLY GHOST,' accord- 
 ing to the mode of 'trine immersion,' on Thursday, the 22d day 
 of June, in the year of our Redemption One Thousand Eight 
 
 Hundred and Forty-three. ^ _ 
 
 Caleb Clapp, 
 
 Rector of the Church of the Nativity in the city and diocese 
 
 of New York." 
 
 I introduce this event of a second baptism with all its par- 
 ticularity because it shows how a neophyte naturally felt bound 
 to entrench himself in a seminary where so many conflicting 
 opinions made the air hot and lively. Some two years later 
 when received into the true fold by Father Gabriel Rumpler, 
 C.SS.R., rector of the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Third 
 Street, New York, I showed him this certificate. He laughed 
 heartily, and said that this made my baptism about as sure 
 as sure could be, and that I need never trouble myself about 
 
32 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 it again. Indeed, I never knew its validity to be disputed except 
 by an old priest who wished to have a little fun. He ven- 
 tured to throw some doubt upon my being a true sheep of the 
 fold yet, for want of salt. I answered that my baptism had 
 taken place in New ''York Bay, which is sea-water and well 
 salted. He insisted that this salt bad not been blessed, and be- 
 sides that the rite used was insufficient for want of the exor- 
 cisms. 
 
 "Come to me," said he, "and I will give you the real thing 
 with all the good old ceremonies that your minister omitted. 
 I will give you the true ia/ sapicntice and drive the devil out for 
 good." 
 
 Caleb Clapp, the dear old friend who baptized me in the 
 waters of the ocean with such scrupulous care, died in 1878. 
 He clung to his old parish of the Nativity. I never had the 
 pleasure to welcome him into the visible body of the true 
 church. That he always belonged to the soul of that church I 
 never doubted, nor that he now rests in the true fold. 
 
 My rebaptism by an Episcopalian minister is by no means 
 a thing so very rare. Episcopalian clergymen generally hold 
 that baptism is a necessary sacrament, or at least a ceremony 
 "of very high importance. Another prevailing opinion among 
 them is that all dissenting ministers who have not received 
 ordination from some bishop whose orders have come down to 
 him regulatly, according to the law of uninterrupted apostolical 
 succession, are really unordained and must be ranked as laymen. 
 Baptism by such ministers is consequently only lay baptism. If, 
 therefore, so they argue, baptism by lay persons is no baptism, 
 the baptism of dissenters at the hands of dissenting clergy is 
 not valid, and needs to be repeated when such persons become 
 Episcopalians. When this repetition takes place publicly, and 
 especially if the subject of this important rite is a person of 
 note, it finds mention in the press and sometimes opens a pub- 
 lic discussion. 
 
 This took place during my second year at the seminary, in 
 the case of the Rev. Augustine F. Hewit, now well known as 
 Superior-General of the Paulists. His father was the Rev. Na- 
 thaniel Hewit, of Bridgeport, Conn. He himself was licensed to 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 33 
 
 preach as a Congregationalist in 1842, but in the following year 
 he was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 Care, however, was taken to rebaptize him at Trinity Church, 
 New Haven, neither he nor the Rev. Dr. Crosswell believing in 
 lay baptism. This excited much surprise, the baptism being 
 performed publicly in the church. The fact was sharply criti- 
 cised at the time, especially by Dr. Seabury in the New York 
 Churchman. On the contrary, it was defended in the columns 
 of the Christian Witness. This repetition of so solemn a rite' 
 was occasioned by the fact that in this case neither baptizer 
 nor recipient then believed in the validity of baptism when ad- 
 ministered by dissenting clergymen. 
 
 All this seems very strange considering that Roman Catho- 
 lics admit the validity of baptism even by heathens, when the 
 intention is to confer Christian baptism, and the necessary con- 
 ditions in rriatter and form are duly observed in the cere- 
 mony. Dr. Seabury notices this and quotes the Council of 
 Trent for his authority. There is something very queer in it 
 all, but nothing so very surprising. Episcopalians in this coun- 
 try, and Anglicans in England, are essentially Protestant, and 
 their antics are remarkable when they try to be Catholic. 
 
 Enough for the present of professors, and classes, and the 
 framing or setting of seminary life. In our next chapter 
 Tractarianism in America will take on a wider life, with Ar- 
 thur Carey for its central figure. 
 
34 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ARTHUR CAREY'S CRUCIAL EXAMINATION. — PRACTICAL VALUE 
 OF THE VIA MEDIA IN A COMPROMISE RELIGION. — LIVELY 
 FENCING AMONG THE EXAMINERS. — CAREY WARMLY EN- 
 DORSED AND EXCULPATED. — "NO. 90 " SCORES A TRIUMPH. 
 
 WHEN at the close of my first seminary year in June, 1843, 
 the students shook hands with Arthur Carey and with 
 each other and went home for vacation, few if any knew 
 that Carey's ordination had been objected to, and that he 
 was to be put upon trial. When we returned to the seminary 
 at the close of vacation, both his trial and ordination were 
 things of the past, but they continued to furnish the most agi- 
 tating topics of conversation in every part of the United States 
 where two churchmen could be found. 
 
 In no place could it be so much discussed, or contribute so 
 much to develop the knowledge of doctrine and the apprecia- 
 tion of the real tendencies of Tractarianism as in the seminary 
 at Chelsea. It furnished thought to every mind that cared to 
 think, and supplemented well the work done in the classes for 
 the next nine months. I know of no better place than this to 
 introduce the history of that trial. 
 
 The examination took place June 30, 1843, i" the Sunday- 
 school room of St. John's Chapel, in Varick Street facing 
 Hudson Street Park, beginning at eight o'clock in the evening. 
 Bishop Onderdonk presided ; and Drs. Berrian, McVickar, 
 Seabury, Anthon, and Smith, and the Rev. Messrs. Haight, 
 Higbee, and Price, composed the examining committee. They 
 had been notified to appear at that time and place (so we find 
 it recorded in Smith's and Anthon's pamphlet) to try Arthur 
 Carey and Mr. Blank for Romanizing tendencies. 
 
 Mr. Carey was there, but Blank did not appear. Blank 
 would very gladly have appeared, and there would have been 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seminary. 35 
 
 fine fun during the trial if he had appeared. He would have 
 made the fur fly. Bishop Onderdonk, in fact, put in appear- 
 ance for Mr. Blank, whose real name was B. B. J. McMaster. 
 " The bishop stated, in relation to one of the candidates, that 
 he would not then be examined, as it had been decided by the 
 faculty that he was to remain in the seminary another year, 
 and that the only duly which would devolve upon the presby- 
 ters then and there assembled was the special examination of 
 Mr. Carey." 
 
 This is all true so far as it goes. There is, however, a very 
 large mental reservation contained in the bishop's statement. 
 It was a convenient reservation under the circumstances. 
 There was an amount of truth attaching to McMaster's 
 absence which it was not prudent to let go to the public. 
 Circumstances have now changed. The trial is now a thing of 
 past history, and moreover the author of these Reminiscences, 
 being no Anglican of any sort of proclivity, and both the trial 
 and acquittal of Arthur Carey, and the subsequent trial and 
 condemnation of Bishop Onderdonk, which was only the 
 natural and necessary sequence of this inquisition held in St. 
 John's Sunday-school, being also things of the past and des 
 faits aeeomplis, I now feel free to give to the public some cir- "^ 
 cumstances of the case which were then suppressed. They 1 
 have already been briefly referred to in my Reminiscences of 
 Bishop Wadhams. I have there simply stated that McMaster 
 was neither brought to trial nor allowed to be ordained, being 
 too heavy a load for the friendly bishop and other friends of 
 McMaster to carry. I will now add a few words to show why 
 it was so heavy to carry poor Mac through an examination 
 which was sure to be made public. 
 
 McMaster, though an earnest man and a most faithful and 
 good Christian, was very unlike Carey in many particulars. His 
 frankness was not like the frankness of Carey. The latter's 
 frankness was due almost entirely to his conscientious truthful- 
 ness. McMaster was naturally frank and outspoken. His 
 frankness was of a character which would not only have 
 thrown his accusers into confusion, but would also have made a 
 show of the Right Rev. Bishop and the whole examining com- 
 
36 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 mittee. It would also have made impossible the exaggerated 
 statements of the examination of Carey put forth by the 
 reverend protestors after the trial and ordination. It would also 
 have made a great difference in the explanatory papers of the 
 reverend doctors who sustained Carey, and which, without 
 denying anything true or affirming anything untrue, yet made 
 a liberal use of the various means of walking around the facts 
 which critics sometimes think they find in the moral theology 
 of St. Alphonsus Liguori. 
 
 Dr. Seabury, Dr. McVickar, Dr. Berrian, and the Rev. 
 Messrs. Haight, Higbee, and Price, all put forth either pam- 
 phlets, sermons, or newspaper explanations, for the purpose of 
 giving their several versions of Carey's answers to the trouble- 
 some questions proposed to him on his examination in order to 
 show what his real belief was; that is to say, whether he was 
 a genuine Episcopalian or a candidate with Romanizing ten- 
 dencies. The statements of these gentlemen must necessarily be 
 taken for true, so far as tJicy go. Their well known characters 
 place them above all suspicion of any wilfully false statement. 
 
 Truth, historic truth, however, obliges one, at this late date, 
 who knew Carey well, and from a closer intimacy with him 
 than any of these gentlemen had, to say that not one of these 
 pamphlets contains a full and fair representation of Carey's real 
 sentiments. Moreover, I knew Carey too well to admit that he 
 made a single reply to the many close questions which were so 
 laboriously and painfully pressed upon him which was not 
 true, candid, and open. Any mental reservation which he 
 employed upon his examination, and every cautious distinction 
 of words which he used, was made only to prevent misunder- 
 standing on the part of his examiners, or on the part of the 
 less learned and less disciplined minds of the public. I know 
 him to have been trained to all the niceties of distinction 
 in language which are necessary to constitute a man of true 
 learning; but I know him also to have been "an Israelite, in- 
 deed, in whom there was no guile." He had no strong preju- 
 dices against the ancient Church Catholic and Roman. He had 
 no bigotry in his heart against Catholics, whom he looked upon 
 as brethren, although by untoward circumstances separated and 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 37 
 
 estranged from himself and from the Anglican communion. 
 But I know that at that time, like McMaster and Wadhams, 
 and many more of us who afterwards became Catholics, he was 
 faithful and true to that communion to which he still clung. 
 His examination was a veritable persecution, although doubt- 
 less not so intended by the generality of his accusers. 
 
 I wish I could say as much of his examiners. I knew them 
 all, with the exception of the Rev. Mr, Price, of St. Stephen's. 
 If I ever had any intercourse with him, it was slight and has 
 since passed away from my memory. All the others I knew, 
 and my memory retains nothing of any of them unworthy of a 
 Christian man or gentleman. This still leaves me room to say 
 that I consider their published pamphlets to be no full and 
 frank record of Carey's examination, nor of his real sentiments 
 in respect to the Catholic Church. 
 
 This obliges me also to say that I have no desire to find 
 fault with these gentlemen for the reserve which they have 
 maintained in their statements to the public of the inquisitorial 
 questions put to Carey and of his replies. They too had be- 
 hind them, in their congregations or in the general public, in- 
 quisitors who were examining them closely and many of them 
 in an unfriendly spirit. They had a right to practise such re- 
 serve as every man, however conscientious, may and must, at 
 times, practise. 
 
 No man can understand the frank sincerity of Arthur Carey 
 upon his trial who does not rightly understand how the Angli- 
 can Church was founded. It was founded by the nervous hand 
 of Queen Elizabeth. She was the Queen of England — she felt 
 herself every inch a queen. She was determined to be the 
 queen of everything in England. She was determined that 
 England's religion should be English, and she believed the best 
 way to make it so was to have an English Church to be ruled 
 in all things by England's government and queen. She must be 
 considered, therefore, as really the founder and really the head 
 of the Anglican Church. She herself and a large body of her sub- 
 jects were, so far as concerned doctrine, strongly biased in favor 
 of the doctrines of the ancient church. She would gladly have had 
 her church purely Catholic and united in one faith. She would 
 
38 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 have no pope, however, but herself to cement that union. On 
 the other hand, a large part of her subjects were not Catholic. 
 They not only hated that ancient Roman See which was the 
 sedes Petri, but they hated also, for the most part, that old 
 established body of doctrine which constitutes the fides Petri. 
 In other words, they were Protestants. They disliked the very 
 name of Catholic, except when carefully explained away. 
 
 Nothing but a compromise could bridge over this great dif- 
 ference between her subjects, and she bridged it with such a 
 compromise. All Englishmen who were prominent enough to 
 be reached by persecution were forced by their fears into this 
 compromise. This compromise is to be found in the Book of 
 Common Prayer. In it the catechism is, so far as it goes, Cath- 
 olic. So is the baptismal service and other special rites. So, 
 mainly, is the entire ordinal of its worship. On the other hand, 
 the Englishmen of Protestant proclivities were propitiated by 
 the "Thirty-nine Articles," which always thunder, or seem to 
 thunder, against Roman Catholic doctrine. To hold these op- 
 posing factions in harmony both Articles and Liturgy are so 
 skilfully hammered out that all parties, both Catholics and Pro- 
 testants, by using the large latitude always practically allowed 
 them, may arrange their consciences comfortably upon the same 
 liturgies and formulas. They were so expected to do in the 
 beginning, and this liberty has at all times been allowed and 
 freely utilized. 
 
 " The Reformation of the Anglican Church, as completed 
 and established under Queen Elizabeth," said the Quarterly 
 Christian Spectator for October, 1843, "was distinctly designed 
 not to expel or exclude from the ministry of the church such 
 men as Mr. Carey. A strong infusion of sound evangelical or 
 Protestant doctrine was put into the articles and the homilies, 
 and evangelical preaching was tolerated, provided the preacher 
 would closely conform to the canons and the rubrics. On the 
 other hand, the liturgy, and to some extent the homilits, and 
 even the articles, were, we do not say Popish or Romish, but 
 'Catholic'; and no pains were spared to conciliate and retain 
 in the church every man who was willing to renounce the pope's 
 supremacy, to subscribe the articles, to obey the canons, and 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 39 
 
 to perform the worship of the liturgy as purified and translated. 
 Thus the reformation of the English Church was essentially a 
 compromise, or an attempted compromise, between opposite 
 opinions. It was designed to include, on the one hand the 
 most extreme Protestantism short of that which rejected the 
 hierarchy, the vestments, and the ceremonies, and on the other 
 hand the most extreme Catholicity short of Romanism." 
 
 John Henry Newman's famous "Tract No. 90" was professed- 
 ly written to show how Catholics in the Anglican Church are not 
 bound to interpret and subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles in 
 a Protestant sense, but may fairly give to its language any lit- 
 eral sense which favors the more ancient and Catholic belief. 
 This Carey also firmly believed, and on this belief all his an- 
 swers to the questions proposed by his accusers were based. 
 Before, however, we proceed to give the details of that trial it 
 may be well to make a few more words of explanation. 
 
 Americans who remember Barnum's museum or his menage- 
 ries will understand what I mean when I say that the Angli- 
 can Church constitutes what Barnum would have called " A Hap- 
 py Family," in religion. A happy family, according to Bar- 
 num's phraseology, was a group of various animals, by nature 
 most hostile to each other, shut up in one cage and obliged 
 per force to keep peace. A dog was made to dwell in apparent 
 harmony with a cat, a cat with a mouse and bird. A monkey 
 kept peace with a parrot. The parrot whistled to call the dog, 
 who wagged his tail at the call while he playfully pretended to 
 bite the cat, who shov/ed no signs of fear. 
 
 A happy family of discordant elements may be constituted 
 naturally, as, for instance, by the fear of a strong and common 
 enemy. Thus, on the Western prairies may sometimes be seen 
 coming out of the same burrow, or sitting quietly at its mouth, 
 a prairie-dog, a rattlesnake, a little horned owl, and sometimes 
 also a rabbit called by the Western settlers " a cotton-tail." For 
 the same reason, so long as the Catholic Church remained pow- 
 erful in England, Catholic schismatics and Protestant heretics 
 burrowed together, and smoked together the pipe of peace with 
 each other. So soon, however, as the supreme rule of the Ro- 
 man See ceased to be a power in England, having been crushed 
 
40 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 out by blood and sequestration, it became necessary for a royal 
 Barnum to come in and keep peace among the discordant sects 
 of Protestantism by the strong hand of power. 
 
 The English Church was constituted as a department under 
 the British Constitution, and no fighting could be allowed in it 
 except a large latitude of thought and debate, which must not 
 disturb the established supremacy of the English crown in all 
 practical matters. Doctrine was, therefore, made to be of little 
 value in the Anglican Church. Unity in a church so constituted 
 could never mean a unity in point of faith ; apostolicity could 
 never mean the faith of the Apostles remaining unchanged in 
 all ages; Catholicity could never mean a common belief in all 
 nations and in all countries ; no standard of holiness could be 
 maintained which should interfere with appointments to of^ces 
 and livings, or the right of communion to any loyal British 
 subject, whatever he might do, or whatever he might be- 
 lieve. 
 
 Out of this compromise, so strange to reason, but which a 
 long experience has shown to be practically successful, has 
 grown very naturally a certain principle, or at least motto, among 
 Anglicans for finding the truth in religious doctrine which is 
 known by the name of the via media. Every Anglican that is 
 really and thoroughly a typical man in his church is a via me- 
 dia man. 
 .. For a preacher to confine himself too much to the Thirty- 
 
 ^Ij nine Articles, and to insist upon the most literal acceptation of 
 |i their wording, shows an inclination to ultra-Protestantism. To 
 j make too much of the strong flavor of old Catholic doctrines, 
 I which is found in the ritual of the Comrtion Prayer Book, and 
 especially to evince a pleasure in finding this to conform in so 
 many respects to the sentiments and worship of Catholics, is 
 thought by Low-Churchmen to show an inclination towards 
 Rome, a thing which they hold to be utterly abominable. Yet 
 in their peculiarly constructed system it is a thing necessarily 
 to be tolerated. Their church is a religious society in the 
 civil order. It is a state church, and as such must stand or 
 fall. 
 
 In the Anglican Church the via media man best represents, 
 
Glivipscs of Life in an Anglican Scjninary. 
 
 41 
 
 in point of theology, that keystone of the bridge which keeps 
 the thing together. To all who stand upon the bridge he quotes 
 as a principle of security, 
 
 " In medio tutissimus ibis." 
 
 To all who look with longing eyes towards either bank he de- 
 nounces Rome on the one side and ultra-Protestantism on the 
 other. This cantiloqnia, if I may so call it, of the via media 
 preacher, is frequently wearisome to those who look for positive 
 doctrine. I have known it to become even ludicrous. I have 
 already said that during my seminary course I acted as superin- 
 tendent of the Sunday-school of the Church of the Nativity, on 
 the east side of the city. It was considered a good idea to 
 gather the Sunday-school children to the morning service, plac- 
 ing them in front between the congregation and the chancel. 
 They were very troublesome to manage in this exposed position, 
 but it was thought to be a pretty thing to do, reminding both 
 them and their parents of our Lord's love for little children. I 
 occupied the front pew just behind them. My duty it was to 
 keep them quiet. At morning service one Sunday a French- 
 Canadian officiated; it was something strange for the little chil- 
 dren to hear a gowned preacher speaking in so peculiar an ac- 
 cent, and it made my task that morning unusually difficult. But 
 when they heard him pronounce, with his strange accent, the 
 familiar words: "My dear bretteren, Rome is on tis side, and 
 ultra-Protestantism is on tat side ; you must keep in te meedle, 
 between te two," the irreverent youngsters could no longer 
 maintain the least restraint. They disturbed the good minister 
 most seriously, and made a great show of me. I was responsi- 
 ble for their behavior. In point of fact the via media, as a way 
 of arriving at any positive truth in the religious or moral or- 
 der, is always absurd, if not ridiculous. 
 
 In order truly to understand the positions of the various ac- 
 tors in this examination of Arthur Carey, and to interpret their 
 utterances fairly, it is necessary, I think, to view the whole af- 
 fair from this stand-point. Carey was sincerely Catholic, and 
 Delieved that under the original compromise he had a right to 
 
42 Glivipscs of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 be, and that, without any necessity of attacking the Roman 
 Catholic Church or any of its members, he could honestly re- 
 main where he was and advocate Catholic principles. Drs. 
 Smith and Anthon were square Protestants, and in all positive 
 Catholicity of doctrine or worship they saw the horns and the 
 hoofs. The rest of the board of examiners, with certain differ- 
 ences in point of latitude, were substantially via media men, but 
 strongly inclined to so much of Catholicism as the Anglican 
 bridge would hold. The Right Rev. Bishop was very much in 
 the same position, with this additional responsibility, that he 
 had to keep the "boys" of the diocese in orcjer, and not let 
 them break things or disturb the diocese. 
 
 In the evening of June 30, 1843, ^^ already stated, the ex- 
 aminers of Arthur Carey assembled in the Sunday-school room 
 of St. John's Chapel, and his formal examination began. It was 
 on Friday, less than two full days previous to the Sunday morn- 
 ing appointed by the bishop for the ordination of candidates to 
 the diaconate. It was well understood by all parties present at 
 this trial that Drs. Smith and Anthon appeared not only as 
 judges but as accusers. Carey was, in fact, a member for the 
 time being of Dr. Smith's congregation. He was a regular at- 
 tendant at St. Peter's, and a teacher in the Sunday-school. To 
 Dr. Smith and his vestry he applied for the required certificate 
 recommending him to the bishop for orders. This certificate 
 Dr. Smith, after a close examination, had refused to sign. 
 Carey then obtained a certificate from Trinity Church. Trinity, 
 if I remember right, was the cathedral, or pro cathedral of the 
 diocese, and a sort of mother of churches for the whole State 
 of New York. 
 
 Drs. Smith and Anthon opened the trial. They proposed to 
 put to the candidate certain questions which they had prepared 
 in writing, and the answers to which they wished to have writ- 
 ten down by Carey. This was objected to by some of the 
 judges. They seemed to consider it a threat of future publica- 
 tion in case that Carey should pass safely through his trial and 
 be ordained. The bishop decided that these written questions 
 might be put in any order the prosecutors desired, and that 
 notes of Carey's answers might be taken and read to him ; but 
 
Gliwpscs of Life in an Anglican Seminary , 43 
 
 that Carey should not be required to formulate his answers in 
 writing. 
 
 The first question proposed by Dr. Anthon was the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 " Supposing entrance into the ministry of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church in this country were not open to you, would 
 you or would you not have recourse, in such case, to the min- 
 istry of the Church of Rome ? " 
 
 Objection was made to this question by some of the com- 
 mittee. Dr. Seabury said it was a hypothetical question and a 
 trap for the conscience, and advised Carey not to answer it. 
 Dr. McVickar remarked that they might as well ask Mr. Carey 
 whether, if he had lived in the time of the patriarchs, he would 
 have married two wives ! Carey, however, expressed his willing- 
 ness to answer, and he did so. He said that the case supposed 
 would be a painful one ; that he did not know what he should 
 do ; that certainly he should come to no hasty decision on so 
 grave a matter ; that he should spend two or three years at 
 least in deliberating on the subject ; that at the expiration of 
 that time he possibly might seek admission to the ministry in 
 the Church of Rome ; but that he thought it more probable he 
 should remain a layman in his own church, since he was satis- 
 fied with it, was attached to it, and had no disposition to leave 
 it. The two interrogating doctors, however, insisted on a cate- 
 gorical answer, or the nearest to it that might be. Mr. Carey 
 then replied : 
 
 " Possibly I might, after due deliberation, but think that I 
 should more likely remain a layman in our own communion, as 
 I have no special leaning towards theirs at present." 
 
 I can add some little testimony of my own in regard to this 
 point from my remembrances of Carey. A few days before 
 this examination, when Carey was in my room, I expressed my- 
 self with some considerable feeling in regard to a seminarian 
 who was thought to have strong inclinations to become a Ro- 
 man Catholic. Carey looked up to me with an air of surprise 
 and said : 
 
 " Do you think it would be so very wrong to join the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church ? " 
 
44 Glimpses of Life in an Atiglican Seminary. 
 
 I replied I thought it would be very wrong for one who 
 knew so much as the student in question. Carey remained very 
 thoughtful, but pursued the subject no further. There can be 
 little doubt that he would have found it dififlcult to make the 
 leap at that time ; but I never knew him to speak unfavorably 
 of the Catholic Church, or of any Catholic doctrine, or of any 
 Catholic as such. 
 
 Before the examination proceeded beyond this point the 
 bishop decided that any member of the committee might offer 
 to Carey such advice, or make such interruptions to questions, 
 as would insure a full and fair trial. 
 
 The second question proposed by Dr. Smith was as follows: 
 
 " Do you hold to and receive the decrees of the Council of 
 Trent?" 
 
 Ansiver : "I do not deny them — I would not positively 
 af^rm them." 
 
 To satisfy inquiries of the committee Carey explained : 
 
 1st, That he did not regard the Council of Trent as oecumen- 
 ical, and of course that he held its peculiar definitions to be 
 open points, and not of faith ; 2d, That in what he might say 
 favorably of the decrees of Trent, he took the decrees in the 
 mere letter, and not as interpreted by the Romish system, and 
 the concurrent sense of Roman divines; and, 3d, That he held 
 the Roman Church responsible for the errors of her system, and 
 the teaching of her doctrines. 
 
 These explanations, omitted in the account given by Drs. 
 Smith and Anthon, are given on the authority of Dr. Seabury 
 and others who favored Carey. Their substantial correctness 
 cannot well be doubted ; but I knew Carey too well to believe 
 that he used the word Romish. I never knew him to apply an 
 insulting word to the Church Catholic and Roman, or to 
 Roman Catholics. 
 
 Proceeding then with the examination, a third question was 
 proposed : 
 
 " Do you, or do you not, deem the differences between the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church and the Church of Rome to be 
 such as embrace points of faith f 
 
 Mr. Carey's reply was at some length, and was not taken 
 
r, 
 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 45 
 
 down in ipsissimis verbis by any one. Drs. Smith and Anthon 
 report that they understood the answer to be, that — 
 
 " If these differences be understood to be matters of 
 doctrine, they would embrace points of faith ; but if, as is 
 believed, they are matters of opinion, they would not." 
 
 Dr. Seabury says that such a report of Carey's answer 
 seems to him mere jargon, and that a young man so well in- 
 structed could not have made it, and did not. Dr. Sea- 
 bury's own account seems equally jargon to Catholics. Dr. 
 Seabury reports that Carey explained that by the word faith 
 he meant tlie fundamental or essential faith, which, says the 
 doctor, is common to the two churches of England and Rome, 
 the differences between the two communions pertaining to the 
 superstructure, and not to the foundation. To a true Catholic 
 theologian the idea of a truly Christian Church building up 
 such a superstructure of unreliable faith upon a foundation of 
 essential faith is a jargon quite as ridiculous as that imputed by 
 Drs. Smith and Anthon to Carey. It is absurd to represent the 
 Church Catholic and Roman as holding the same essential faith 
 with the Church Anglican and un-Catholic. 
 
 Carey is also represented as having stated that the differ- 
 ences between the two churches were more than matters of 
 opinion ; that they were grave doctrines, the truth of which he 
 was not prepared either to deny or positively to aflfirm. These 
 words are simple and intelligible. Many converts from Angli- 
 canism to the true church have formerly stood in the same 
 painful position of doubt. Carey's heart was honest, but his 
 soul was still in the dark. 
 
 The next question brought up was one of these grave 
 points of doctrine on which Sister Rome disagrees with Brother 
 John : 
 
 "Do you, or do you not, believe the doctrine of Transubstan- 
 tiation to be repugnant to Scripture, subversive of the nature 
 of a sacrament, and giving occasion to superstition ? If you do 
 not, how can you ex animo subscribe the 28th Article of our 
 Standards ? " 
 
 Carey's answer, when condensed and reduced to writing, was 
 as follows : 
 
46 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 " I would answer, in general language, that I do not hold 
 that doctrine of transubstantiation which I suppose our Article 
 condemns ; but that, at the same time, I conceive myself at 
 liberty to confess ignorance on the mode of the Presence." 
 
 I have a remembrance of Carey's examination upon this 
 point derived, I think, from one of the editorials published at 
 the time in the Churchman. When Carey was pressed to state 
 whether he believed that the substance of the bread and wine 
 still remained after consecration, he replied that he found a 
 difficulty in affirming this to be his belief since there was a 
 doubt of the existence of any substance in bread and wine 
 apart from its appearances, even before the consecration. In 
 support of this he referred to the Philosophy of the Anglican 
 Bishop Berkeley. This is said to have caused much confusion 
 in the minds of Carey's examiners, and no little merriment out- 
 side. 
 
 In answer to the next question, Carey said that he con- 
 sidered the denial to the laity of the cup at communion as a 
 severe act of discipline, but he declined, however, to say that 
 it was an unwarrantable change in a sacrament. 
 
 Carey was then asked : 
 
 "On which church do you believe the sin of schism rests in 
 consequence of the English Reformation — the Church of 
 England and, by consequence, the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 of this country, or upon the Church of Rome?" 
 
 Under advisement of Dr. Seabury he at first declined to 
 answer the question as being an historical one. The bishop 
 decided the question must be answered. The reply then given 
 was, that in some respects schism rests on both sides. He con- 
 sidered both churches in communion with the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 Dr. Anthon then read the seventh question on the list : 
 
 " Is the Romish doctrine of Purgatory in any respect main- 
 tained by our Standards?" ^ 
 
 The bishop asked Dr. Anthon what view lie entertained on 
 the doctrine of Purgatory as held by the Church of Rome ; 
 to which Dr. Anthon replied that, "with due respect to the 
 chair, he was not under examination." Carey, to whom the 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 47 
 
 distinctions in " Tract No. 90 " were very familiar, answered that 
 he considered the Standards as condemning the doctrine popu- 
 larly held to be the Roman doctrine. 
 
 Carey's answer to the next question was based on the same 
 distinction. 
 
 " Is there any countenance given in the doctrinal Standards 
 of our church for the idea that the departed can be benefited 
 by the prayers of the faithful, or by the administration of the 
 Holy Communion ? And is not that idea condemned by 
 Article 31 of our church?" 
 
 Carey's answer, as agreed to by both friends and accusers 
 present at the trial, was substantially as follows : " that he 
 supposed that idea was not condemned in that article ; his 
 opinion being that the language of the article was popular 
 language, pointed at a popular opinion which was held against 
 the Church of Rome." 
 
 Dr. Seabury, commenting afterwards on this question, is not 
 a little merry at the expense of Drs. Smith and Anthon. The 
 two doctors either forgot for the moment, or were not willing 
 to admit with many theologians of their church, that " the 
 Eucharist is a sacrifice of prayer as well as a sacrament of 
 Communion." 
 
 " How they or any other creature, human or inhuman, on 
 the earth or under the earth," wrote Seabury, "could ever 
 have dreamed of the departed being ' benefited by the admin- 
 istration of the Holy Communion ' passes all comprehension." 
 
 In answer to the ninth question Carey said : 
 
 ** I do not, either to myself or any one else, attempt to 
 prove a doctrine out of the Apocrypha." " The Holy Spirit 
 may have spoken by the Apocrypha, and the Homily asserts 
 the same thing." 
 
 The bishop here drew out, by several questions skilfully 
 put to the accused, certain quotations from the Homilies, sup- 
 porting Carey's view. Carey finally said : 
 
 " I would not fault the Church of Rome for reading the 
 Apocrypha for proof of doctrine." 
 
 Dr. Smith next asked : 
 " Can there be a doubt that, in separating from the Church 
 
48 Glimpses "/ Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 of Rome, the Church of England embraced more pure and 
 Scriptural views of doctrine ? And is not the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church in this country at present more pure in doctrine 
 than the Church of Rome ? " 
 
 Anszver : "There can be a doubt, on the ground that the 
 Church of England retained doctrinal errors, viz., the doctrines 
 of Puritanism, . . ." 
 
 Mr. Carey said that the Roman Breviary and Canon of the 
 Mass were preferable to the Liturgies and Communion Service 
 of the Church of England. The Breviary contained more 
 copious citations from Scripture, and a richer variety of ser- 
 vices. The Roman Canon was in closer conformity with the 
 ancient liturgies. The Communion Service was deficient in not 
 having the Oblation and Invocation. For the purposes of con- 
 gregational worship, Carey was of the opinion that the Angli- 
 can Liturgy was better as being in a tongue understood by the 
 people. 
 
 Carey's answer to the eleventh question, " What construc- 
 tion do you put upon the promise of conformity to the doc- 
 trines, discipline, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church ? " is very ludicrously reported in the pamphlet put 
 forth by the two prosecuting doctors. They represent him as 
 saying that " he did not consider the article«s as binding our 
 consciences in points of faith." Of course Carey said precisely 
 the contrary. It was precisely those declarations in the Articles 
 that were matters of positive faith, which required belief and 
 bound his conscience. He considered that there were mat- 
 ters contained in the Articles which did not present points of 
 faith, and only required an exterior conformity. He quoted in 
 support of this position many divines of his own church, 
 especially the famous Anglican theologian Bishop Bull, who 
 says, speaking of the Thirty-nine Articles, that the church 
 "only propounds them as a body of safe and pious principles, 
 for the preservation of peace, to be subscribed and not openly 
 contradicted by her sons." 
 
 Carey also submitted to the committee that American Epis- 
 copalians are not required by any canon to give, as in England, 
 a distinct and ex aniino assent to the Thirty-nine Articles, but 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 49 
 
 only a general promise of "conformity to the doctrines and 
 worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church," for which he 
 quoted Bishop White as his authority. Carey, however, waived 
 this personal right, and said that he was willing to give his 
 ex animo assent to the Thirty-nine Articles as the assent is 
 given in the English Church. By this he undoubtedly did not 
 mean to give up his right to interpret the articles in the sense 
 given by " Tract No. 90." 
 
 It is impossible for me to give the twelfth question on the 
 list of Drs. Smith and Anthon, either virtually or substantially. 
 The examining committee seem to have fallen into a sort of 
 confusion ; a variety of questions were put by different examin- 
 ers and objected to. Some were allowed and some not. It is 
 probable that whatever No. 12 really was, it stands covered by 
 other questions afterwards substituted. 
 
 Amongst the answers thus elicited I may state the follow- 
 ing: Carey said that as to the invocation of saints, "he did not 
 fault the Church of Rome, provided the invocation was con- 
 fined to the * ora pro nobis,'' or intercessory form." It is not 
 probable that Carey intended himself to be understood that he 
 would have nothing to say to a departed saint except when he 
 wanted something. He simply meant to express his belief that 
 there was nothing they could do for us, except through their 
 interest before the Throne of Grace. The Pope could say as 
 much. 
 
 When asked whether he considered the Church of Rome 
 noiv to be in error in matters of faith he replied : 
 
 " It is a dif^cult question, which I do not know how to 
 answer." 
 
 At the conclusion of the examination Arthur Carey was 
 requested to withdraw. The presbyters present were then 
 called upon by the bishop severally to express their opinions. 
 Drs. McVickar and Berrian, and Messrs. Haight, Kigbee, and 
 Price, expressed themselves as quite satisfied with the fitness of 
 Carey for orders. Dr. Seabury added that he " should esteem 
 it a privilege to present the candidate for orders, as he had 
 sustained his ordeal most nobly." Drs. Smith and Anthon's 
 sentiments were as decidedly unfavorable to the candidate and 
 
so 
 
 Glimpses of Life in an Anglieaii Se miliary. 
 
 to the conduct of the examination. The latter declared that 
 "in the whole course of his ministry he had never attended an 
 examination conducted in a manner so painful, and in which 
 so many impediments were thrown in the way of his arriving at 
 a definite knowledge of the candidate's views." 
 
 The bishop was not prepared to give his decision at that 
 time, but said, with emphatic dignity, that when his determina- 
 tion should be formed he would carry it out without regard to 
 consequences. His decision was afterwards speedily made in 
 Carey's favor. The next Sunday saw him ordained. This was 
 the practical application of " Tract No. 90," and a momentary 
 triumph for Tractarianism. 
 
 The next chapter also will be entirely devoted to Remin- 
 iscences of Arthur Carey. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 51 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PROTEST AGAINST ARTHUR CAREY'S ORDINATION. — CENTRAL 
 POINT OF A GREAT STORM. — CAREY'S FAMILY. — FURTHER 
 DETAILS OF HIS LIFE.— ASSISTANT TO SEABURY. — EARLY 
 DEATH AND BURIAL AT SEA. — NEWMAN'S INTEREST IN 
 CAREY. 
 
 THE ordination of Arthur Carey took place at St. Stephen's 
 Church, New York City, on Sunday morning, July 2, 
 1843. Bishop Onderdonk ordained him, assisted by Dr. Ives, 
 Bishop of North Carolina, and also Dr. Berrian and two 
 others of the examining committee. I was present at this ordi- 
 nation. In my Reminiscences of the Life of Bishop Wad- 
 hams I have given a pretty full account of all that was ex- 
 traordinary in the proceedings, relying simply upon my own 
 recollections. I propose now to give a history of the same af- 
 fair drawn chiefly from an account furnished to the New York 
 Churchman of July 8, 1843. The writer signed himself N. E. O. 
 — Neo-Eboracensis Onderdonk (?) — and is supposed to have 
 been Bishop Onderdonk himself. 
 
 During the ceremony of that eventful Sunday, the usual call 
 having been made upon the people to show cause, if any ex- 
 isted, why the candidate, or any of the candidates, should not 
 be ordained, the Rev. Hugh Smith of St. Peter's and the Rev. 
 Dr. Anthon of St. Mark's, habited in their canonicals, arose 
 successively from a pew in the middle aisle and read their sev- 
 eral protests against the ordination of Arthur Carey. My father 
 and I occupied a pew in the body of the church just under the 
 front of the organ-gallery. The whole scene was in full view 
 before us, and I have forgotten very little of what helped to 
 make it memorable. I have taken care, however, as already 
 stated, to fortify my own recollections by accounts of specta- 
 tors, published at the time, especially that of the bishop himself. 
 
52 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Each protest, says N. E. O., had been drawn up with much 
 lawyer-like formality, and contained the accusation that the can- 
 didate held doctrines adverse to those of his church, and too 
 nearly bordering on popery, and referring for proof to state- 
 ments and circumstances within the bishop's knowledge. 
 
 The manner of the reverend gentlemen was slow and distinct, 
 and, it seemed to me, as solemn as utterance could make it. 
 When the two doctors had finished their protest, "the bishop 
 rose," says N. E. O., " and expressed himself to the following 
 effect, and, I believe, in the following words : 
 
 '"The accusation now brought against one of the persons 
 presented to be ordained deacons has recently been fully inves- 
 tigated by me with the knowledge and in the presence of his 
 accusers, and with the advantage of the valuable aid and coun- 
 sel of six of the worthiest, wisest, and most learned of the pres- 
 byters of this diocese, including the three who are assisting in 
 the present solemnities. The result was that there was no just 
 ground for rejecting the candidate's application for holy orders. 
 There is consequently no reason for any change in the solemn 
 service of the day, and therefore all these persons, being found 
 meet to be ordained, are commended to the prayers of the 
 congregation.' " 
 
 My own memory of the event brings nothing to my mind to 
 correct this statement of the bishop's words as given in the 
 New York ChurcJiman, with one exception. My recollection is 
 very distinct that the bishop's concluding words were: "And, 
 therefore, I shall proceed to ordain all these candidates, not- 
 withstanding the scandalous interruption of these Reverend Pro- 
 testers." 
 
 The bishop then recommended them to the prayers of the 
 congregation, and Bishop Ives began the reading of the litany. 
 The service went on without any further interruption. It is 
 stated without contradiction, so far as I know, that the two 
 protesting clergymen took up their hats and walked down the 
 middle aisle to the front door during the litany. The rest of 
 the congregation remained. 
 
 The impressions on my own mind when witnessing that 
 morning's service still remain unchanged. Believing himself to 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 53 
 
54 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 be doing his duty by ordaining Carey, the bishop could not 
 have gone through with his part with more admirable tact and 
 dignity. For the same reason, if Drs. Smith and Anthon were 
 right in opposing Carey's ordination by a public protest, they 
 were right also in not remaining to witness it. 
 
 " Mr. Arthur Carey has suddenly, and at a very early age, 
 become a historical personage," said the Quarterly Christian 
 Spectator of October, 1843, i^i reviewing these occurrences. This 
 is true enough ; and strange it is that one so gentle and peace- 
 ful as Carey should suddenly become the cause and centre of a 
 bitter strife which shook the entire world of Anglicanism in the 
 United States. The bishop and his advising and consulting 
 presbyters were suddenly put upon their defence. A matter 
 adjudicated and disposed of by the authorities of the diocese 
 had somehow got itself appealed to the whole body of Episco- 
 palians in the country. The bishop and all his counsellors who 
 had taken part in Carey's ordination were obliged to account 
 for themselves to the public, or the whole case would go by 
 default. Disapprobation of what they had done was beginning 
 to be uttered semper, nbiqiie, ab o^nnibiis ; and unless they could 
 do something to turn the tide of opinion they were likely to 
 be overwhelmed. We give them credit, continues the Christian 
 Spectator, for the boldness, skill, and manfulness with which 
 they have conducted their defence. 
 
 Each and every one of the examining committee was obliged 
 by the public excitement to account for himself by some pub- 
 lished statement, explanatory of his action and his reasons for 
 it. Bishop Onderdonk was the first, appearing, as we have seen, in 
 a communication to the CJiureJnnan signed N. E. O. This was 
 followed by various editorials of Seabury in the same periodi- 
 cal, selections from which were aft6j"wards collected into a 
 pamphlet. Drs. McVickar and Berrian soon followed with their 
 versions and explanations. Opposed to these and in vindication 
 of themselves then appeared Drs. Smith and Anthon with their 
 pamphlet. Messrs. Haight, Higbee, and Price were also forced 
 to appear in the public arena. Not one of the committee was 
 able to remain silent. Not only the public excitement, but a 
 special turmoil in their several congregations, forced them into 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seniinary. 55 
 
 some explanation which helped to add new fuel to the gather- 
 ing fire. From the pamphlets put forth by these reverend gen- 
 tlemen, and from the comments of religious and other periodi- 
 cals, and the columns of the daily press, the history of the 
 Carey examination, and of its more immediate and far-reaching 
 results, can be gleaned. 
 
 One result of this agitation was the establishment of a new 
 periodical, which took the name of the Protestant Churchman. 
 Its object was to counteract the influence of Dr. Seabury's 
 ClmrcJiman. Its projector and first editor, the Rev. R. C. Shim- 
 eall, initiated a series of sermons or lectures against Tractarianism, 
 for the delivery of which he enlisted such prominent preachers 
 as the Rev. Drs. Tyng, Anthon, Smith, Bedell, Balch, Stone, etc. 
 
 I do not propose to follow up this great wave of excite- 
 ment, discussion, assertion, contradiction, calls to arms, appeals 
 for peace, which filled for so long a time all our Anglican presses, 
 pulpits, and social hearths throughout the land. Some things of 
 this kind will come in later on. Our present business is with 
 Arthur Carey. Poor, secluded, unobtrusive victim of circum- 
 stances, he was thus suddenly called out from a sort of hermit- 
 age to which his soul had grown accustomed, to be a centre of 
 wonder and study. This is no place to leave him. It was the 
 will of God to take him away quickly from the storm which he 
 had so unwittingly excited — a watery grave lay just before and 
 near him — and yet he was too great a part of that great storm 
 to be suddenly dropped from these Reminiscences. 
 
 I now propose to give to the reader an account of all I can 
 gather or recall of his whole life not already given. 
 
 Arthur Carey was descended from that ancient Devonshire 
 family of Carys which derives its surname from the Manor 
 of Cary in that county. In Domesday book the name is spelt 
 Kari. Arthur's father, John Carey, removed with his family to 
 the United States in 1830. John Carey's father, grandfather, 
 and great grandfather, all bore, like himself, the name of John, 
 and were born in London. This first John Carey, born in 1687, 
 was the oldest son of Francis Carey, who was born at Lisgar, 
 Ireland, and died in Yorkshire. His father was Patrick Carey, 
 who was born in Ireland in 1622, but died at Teignmouth, De- 
 
$6 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 vonshire, in 16S4. Patrick was the fourth son of Sir Henry 
 Carey, the first Viscount Falkland. The various branches of 
 this family scattered through England and Ireland are traceable 
 to their common source not only by their origin in Devonshire, 
 but by their coat of arms won by Sir Robert Gary, of Cocking- 
 ton. The chronicle, as quoted by Burke in his Landed Gentry, 
 runs as follows : 
 
 " In the beginning of the reign of Henry V. a certain knight- 
 errand of Arragon having passed through divers countries, and 
 performed many feats of arms to his high commendation, ar- 
 rived here in England, where he challenged any man of his 
 rank and quality to make tryal of his valor and skill in arms. 
 This challenge Sir Robert Gary accepted ; between whom a 
 cruel encounter and a long and doubtful combat was waged in 
 Smithfield, London. But at length this noble champion van- 
 quished the presumptuous Arragonois ; for which King Henry 
 V. restored unto him good part of his father's lands, which, for 
 his loyalty to King Richard II., he had been deprived of by 
 King Henry IV., and authorized him to bear the arms of the 
 Knight of Arragon, viz., ' In a field silver, on a bend sa. three 
 white roses,' which the noble posterity of this gentleman con- 
 tinue to wear unto this day; for according to the laws of her- 
 aldry, whosoever fairly in the field conquers his adversary may 
 justify the bearing of his arms." 
 
 Sir Edward Gary, of Marldon, in Devonshire, who succeeded 
 to his title in 1616, was one of the leading Gatholics in Devon, 
 and suffered unrelenting persecution on account of his faith. 
 
 Descendants of his known as the Carys of Follaton, County 
 Devon, are Catholic and connected by marriage with the noble 
 Catholic families of Stafford, Petre, Clifford, Dillon, Kenmare, etc. 
 
 Other Carys of the same Devonshire stock are as strongly 
 bound to error as Protestant alliance can make them, being 
 descended from Mary Boleyne, the aunt of Queen Elizabeth, 
 the foundress of the Protestant Church of England. Mary's 
 son, Henry Cary, was created Baron Hunsdon by his royal 
 cousin. 
 
 Arthur Carey, the most noble subject of these Reminiscences, 
 was born, all untitled and all unlanded, in England, in the vi- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 57 
 
 cinity of London, June 26, 1822, and removed with his father to 
 the United States in 1830. He had two brothers, John and 
 Henry. John Carey has a son still living, Mr. Arthur Astor 
 Carey, of Boston. Our Arthur Carey, of the Chelsea Seminary, 
 spent the first years of his life at home in New York City, 
 with the exception of two or three years during which he was un- 
 der the care of Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont. There at the 
 age of twelve a desire was kindled in his heart to devote him- 
 self to the ministry. This purpose, which his father approved, 
 never afterwards left him. I remember that he always spoke 
 with esteem and affection of Bishop Hopkins, although the de- 
 velopment of Carey's mind during his seminary course led to a 
 wide divergence from this early friend in matters of religious 
 doctrine and opinion. 
 
 In January, 1836, he entered the sophomore class at Colum- 
 bia College. He graduated there in 1839, receiving the highest 
 honors of his class, and delivering the customary Greek oration 
 on that occasion. The only rival to contest this honor with him 
 was a son of Dr. Henry Anthon, of St. Mark's Church, then 
 located in Eighth Street. It is a singular coincidence, though 
 otherwise a fact of no special significance, that this rector of 
 St. Mark's should be one of Carey's examiners, his chief accuser, 
 and afterwards, conscientiously enough no doubt, protesting 
 solemnly against his ordination. 
 
 It was said amongst the students at Chelsea Seminary that 
 upon his graduation at Columbia College this remarkable boy — 
 for in years Carey was nothing else — was offered a professorship 
 if he would remain. No honors, however, could stir a soul like 
 his, and he entered the General Seminary of his church at 
 Chelsea. His age when he entered upon his theological course 
 there was only seventeen years and four months. This course 
 he completed in June, 1842. The esteem created in the minds 
 of the faculty at Chelsea by his extraordinary talents and early 
 wisdom, as well as by the moral beauty of his character, was the 
 same as that which remained behind him when he left Colum- 
 bia College. 
 
 I have no hesitation in applying to this extraordinary young 
 man the words so often quoted in Catholic hagiology to desig- 
 
58 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 nate those choice souls among ourselves who die in early youth 
 leaving behind the odor of a holy life : " Consiimmatus in brevi 
 explevit tempora miilta," During that single year at the seminary 
 when Carey was my nearest neighbor, which brought us together 
 daily, he certainly aimed at Christian perfection in his life. I 
 had conversations with him on that subject. In these I took 
 occasion to explain to him the views of certain perfectionists, 
 so-called, amongst the Presbyterians ; and in particular those of 
 Dr. Phinney, a president and, if I remember right, the founder 
 of Oberlin College, Ohio. 
 
 At the time when I first knew Phinney he was a revival 
 preacher among the Presbyterians, very earnest and powerful 
 in his eloquence, argumentative in his methods of persuasion, 
 and quite destitute of all affectation and flourish. Carey had 
 also reflected much on the question of Christian perfection, but 
 his views were very different from those of Dr. Phinney. Per- 
 fection, in Carey's mind, was not any acquirable state of sinless- 
 ness, but a constant progress on the way towards a high mark, 
 with a changeless resolution to discard all sin even the least, 
 and embracing in desire all the Christian virtues. On his re- 
 commendation I purchased a work on Christian Perfection, by 
 Law, the non-juror. This book I read very carefully and en- 
 joyed very much. If Law had better understood, or at least 
 better heeded, the distinctions which Catholics make between 
 commandments of God which bind our consciences under pen- 
 alty of sin and punishment, and counsels of God which, mind- 
 ful of our weakness, only invite us to higher ways of perfection, 
 his doctrine would be quite Catholic. 
 
 Many a sincerely pious Protestant takes pleasure in singing 
 that beautiful song whose constant refrain is 
 
 " Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
 Nearer to Thee." 
 
 Many such an one drinks in much of the wonderful sweet- 
 ness attaching to the words, and yet is far behind either Carey, 
 or Law, or even Phinney, in the appreciation of true Christian 
 perfection. The reason is that, unlike these three, they have 
 
Glivipscs of Life in an Anglican Scvmiary. 59 
 
 not learned to discard the immoral doctrine of justification 
 by faith alone, without need of holy works or advance in 
 virtue. 
 
 In Carey's case, be it understood, Christian perfection was 
 something far beyond an appreciated doctrine. His life was 
 holy and lovely. For one year, during which our chamber 
 doors faced each other, I saw him constantly and closely, but 
 for all that sight or sound could tell, to me his character was 
 faultless. He was not within the visible fold of the church, but 
 certainly many graces that streamed forth from that church had 
 reached him and produced their fruit within him. 
 
 He was at this time, as I have said, very young, younger 
 than myself. Not only I, but every one in the seminary, 
 including the most venerable among the professors, looked up 
 to him with respect as a man of God. How short a time to 
 gather so much virtue ! It could not be difficult for such a 
 young man as that to secure permission from the faculty of the 
 seminary to keep his room there for yet another year after his 
 graduation when he would arrive at the canonical age for ordin- 
 ation. This enabled him to use the library of the institution 
 while he pursued his studies in private. 
 
 During this time, apparently so quiet for him, that great 
 storm was brewing which broke upon his solitary habits and 
 gentle heart like a thunderbolt. It was then, as we have seen, 
 that occurred the public charges against his fitness for ordina- 
 tion. It was at the close of the seminary course in June, 1843, 
 that his trial on these charges before Bishop Onderdonk and a 
 committee of clergymen chosen for that purpose was held. A 
 few days after, on July 2, Bishop Onderdonk, overruling these 
 charges, ordained him at St. Stephen's Church; and thus closed 
 his career as a seminarian, though not quite all his seminary 
 associations. Several of his old companions, not only those 
 studying at the seminary but others still remaining in the city, 
 took pleasure in visiting him at his new lodgings. This was 
 down-town, at loi Charlton Street. McMaster, in particular, 
 passed many an hour with him. They walked together, talked 
 together, and read together, eagerly discussing every new publi- 
 cation that issued from Oxford, and prospecting together over 
 
6o 
 
 Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seminary. 
 
 every storm that threatened their church and every opening in 
 the clouds that gave hope of coming sunshine. 
 
 Carey was now in orders, with a career before him, a life to 
 lead in the ministry, and high duties to perform. The reader 
 will be anxious to know where he was stationed, what charge 
 was assigned to him, what position he assumed. In short, it is 
 necessary to give some account of his afterlife in the face of 
 that world in which he had become so prominent a character. 
 But Carey needed rest. He had been in a state of excite- 
 ment. This excitement 
 before and after his or- 
 dination had been so great 
 upon one of his nervous 
 and feeble constitution 
 and sedentary habits that 
 his exhausted nature de- 
 manded repose. He had 
 neither strength nor heart 
 to enter upon any labori- 
 ous work in the ministry. 
 It was, however, no matter 
 of conscience with him, 
 and he allowed himself, 
 as usual in such cases, to 
 be overruled by the urging 
 of Bishop Onderdonk and 
 the advice of friends. He 
 accepted for six months, 
 at least, an invitation from 
 the Annunciation Church 
 — then on the corner of Prince and Thompson Streets— under 
 the charge of his friend and patron. Dr. Seabury. He was to 
 assist the doctor as deacon, with a salary of five hundred dollars. 
 It is easy to conceive that many eager friends, to say noth- 
 ing of many others in a curious public, would resort to this 
 church on Sundays to see him and hear him preach. Of 
 Carey's parochial labors I have little remembrance of my own. 
 I had duties on Sunday in a different direction. I was superin- 
 
 James a. McMaster. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 6i 
 
 tendent of a Sunday-school in a far different part of the city, 
 near the East River, and my route to it lay in another direc- 
 tion. Once, however, in the autumn of 1843, I made an occa- 
 sion to go and hear him preach. I went in company with 
 McMaster, and well I remember the day. The crooked streets 
 which served as our roadway there would have made the walk 
 to me a perfect labyrinth, but I had no difificulty to get there 
 with such a guide. McMaster must have been a regular attend- 
 ant on Carey's preaching during the short time it lasted. He 
 knew every twist and turn that lay before us. Bleecker Street, 
 which we followed for awhile, serpentine as it is, seems to me 
 now a good type of our own crooked course towards Rome. 
 We were not very long in getting to our destination that Sun- 
 day morning, for McMaster's long strides and rapid movements 
 hurried me forward till my breath was nearly gone. I seem to 
 see him now, with coat-sleeves that never reached his wrists, 
 and trousers that never covered his ankles. I think he was a 
 little proud of this peculiarity. Carey himself, who was 
 McMaster's chief or at least nearest model in all things possi- 
 ble to imitate, was rather negligent in his dress. At least his 
 pantaloons always bulged out at the knees ; I think, however, 
 caused chiefly by frequent kneeling. I do not remember the 
 subject of Carey's sermon that morning, but I carry with me 
 still a vivid picture of him as preacher. To me Carey himself 
 was a sermon, that needed no words. He stands in my 
 memory like a young St. John, Evangelist ; or one like New- 
 man, Dalgairns, or the Paulist Father, Francis Baker, my own 
 dear friend and long companion on the missions. 
 
 Carey did much more than preach in the Annunciation 
 parish. His duties were not necessarily very burdensome. Yet 
 to a man like him, so earnest and so conscientious, to accept 
 any responsible position is to begin active work. In Carey's 
 case souls were at stake, and a life of leisure was not to be 
 thought of. In a letter to his friend and fellow seminarian, 
 Edgar P. Wadhams, dated October 23, 1843, Carey gives some 
 account of how his time was occupied while serving as assistant 
 to Dr. Seabury. 
 
 "I preach on Sunday afternoons," he writes, "and open the 
 
62 Glimpses of Life in an A^iglican Seminary. 
 
 church for Wednesday and Friday services, morning and even- 
 ing, and saints' day services. I was afraid to begin with daily 
 services, and the doctor thought better not at present. He 
 says I may do anything I please, and he will never interfere 
 with me, but always support me, which is pleasant, at all 
 events." 
 
 Dr. Seabury, in a funeral sermon preached in the following 
 April on receiving the news of Carey's death and burial at sea, 
 enlarges somewhat upon Carey's account of himself, or rather 
 tells us what Carey's humility would never allow him to say or 
 even think. 
 
 " You saw " — he said from the pulpit, looking down upon 
 many tearful eyes that met his own — " you saw the sober and 
 serious earnestness with which he threw himself into his paro- 
 chial duties. You saw his faithfulness in the Sunday-school, his 
 solicitude for the poor and af^icted, and his love for all 
 the members of Christ. You were impressed with the natural- 
 ness and quiet solemnity with which on week-days and holy- 
 days, as well as Sundays, he performed the services of the 
 church. You heard his sermons on every Lord's Day during 
 the short time he was with you, and you know the depth, the 
 simplicity, and the unction with which he preached to you the 
 Gospel of Christ. But after all it was not any one thing, so 
 much as the manifest godliness of this young man, the fire of 
 holiness pervading all that he said and did, and communicating 
 itself to all who heard him, which gave him the hold which he 
 had on your hearts." 
 
 Not only the fire of holiness which Dr. Seabury attributes 
 to Carey, but also a wondrous facility for fortifying his argu- 
 ments in preaching or in conversation by apt and telling words 
 of Scripture, is easily accounted for by the following fact. We 
 learn on the same authority that it was Carey's rule to read 
 through the Old Testament three times and the New Testa- 
 ment five times a year. He believes also that he gave three 
 hours daily to private devotional exercises, unless unavoidably 
 interrupted. 
 
 The funeral sermon of Dr. Seabury, from which I have 
 gathered the above information and much that follows, is hap- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seminary. 63 
 
 pily preserved in the New York State Library, amongst its 
 bound documents. 
 
 Carey commenced his services at the Annunciation Church on 
 the second Sunday of October, 1843, about three months after his 
 trial and ordination. " He continued to discharge them until 
 the 29th of December, on which day he took to his bed of a 
 fever. After two or three weeks the fever abated, and hopes 
 were entertained of his recovery. But the energies of his system 
 did not rally; and he was left in a declining state which, in the 
 judgment of his medical advisers, rendered expedient a vojage 
 to Cuba. For four or five years before he had been affected 
 with incipient disease of the heart, which, though not very ur- 
 gent, showed itself in occasional paroxysms, when different ex- 
 citing causes called it into action. On Sunday, March 17, he 
 was enabled to ride to church and to join in the prayers of 
 his loved people for his safe and prosperous voyage. After 
 this grateful but most agitating service he conversed for a few 
 minutes with some of his anxious and still lingering flock, and 
 at the doors of the church laid his attenuated hand upon the 
 heads of some of the Sunday-school children, for whom he 
 cherished a most lively and affectionate concern. 
 
 "On the 23d of March he embarked with his father for 
 Havana. The voyage, though not stormy, was rough and disa- 
 greeable ; but every discomfort was borne by the sufferer with 
 the same meek and placid resignation by which his life had 
 been distinguished ; not a murmur escaped his lips on any occa- 
 sion of annoyance. On the ist of April he raised a very 
 small quantity of blood, but not enough to excite any alarm. 
 On the 4th of April, however, he had a return of the same 
 symptom, and continued to bleed from the lungs, though very 
 slowly, for about an hour, when without any apparent diminu- 
 tion of strength, and with his eyes open and calmly fixed on 
 his father, without a struggle or even the slightest perceptible 
 movement of muscle, he expired at the early age of twenty-one 
 years and ten months. 
 
 " On the next day (Good Friday) the body was committed to 
 the deep, in the full belief that the earth and the sea will 
 simultaneously give up their dead. The church burial service 
 
64 Glimpses of Life i)i an Anglican Sc miliary. 
 
 was impressively read by Mr. Grosvenor, a gentleman connected 
 with the Seaman's Friend Society, the subdued and reverent 
 demeanor and tearful eyes of the passengers and crew evincing 
 the hold which the gentleman-like manners, and the mild and 
 meek deportment of the deceased, had gained on their hearts. 
 The burial took place about fifteen or twenty miles north east 
 of the Moro Castle, on the very day on which the deceased, 
 had he lived, would have landed in Havana." 
 
 Not alone Captain Joseph Spinney, but all on board the 
 vessel, showed the most generous consideration at this trying 
 time. 
 
 I cannot refrain from transcribing here a touching reminis- 
 cence of Carey recorded by Rev. A. F. Hewit, in his memoir 
 of Baker : " For a long time afterward his poor father might 
 be seen every day standing on the Battery and gazing wistfully 
 out to sea, with mournful thoughts, longing after the son whom 
 he had lost." 
 
 It may seem to some of my readers that I have yielded too 
 much to imagination and affection in portraying the character 
 of Arthur Carey, and overdrawn the picture. Or, it may be 
 thought that I have rested too much upon the testimony of 
 other friends, prejudiced like myself in his favor. For this rea- 
 son I now turn willingly to a witness who must be acknowl- 
 edged on all hands to be free from any such bias. Dr. Hugh 
 Smith, rector of St. Peter's, may be set down as in many re- 
 spects Carey's most forward and unrelenting adversary. Carey 
 was a Tractarian ; Smith was bitterly opposed to Tractarianism, 
 and must rather be classed even as a low-churchman, if not an 
 evangelical. Dr. Smith was Carey's principal accuser, both be- 
 fore the trustees of the seminary and when put upon examina- 
 tion before his bishop. He was the principal and earliest mo- 
 tor in opposing Carey's ordination, more forward and urgent in 
 opposition than Dr. Anthon, the other accuser. He believed 
 Carey to be alienated from the doctrine and discipline of the 
 Anglican Church, and more consonant in mind and heart with 
 what he called Romanism. For these reasons he considered 
 him unfit for orders, and protested solemnly against the action 
 of Bishop Onderdonk at St. Stephen's Church, during the very 
 
Glivipscs oj Lt/c in an Anglican Seniijiary. 65 
 
 ceremony of ordination and while that church was crowded with 
 spectators. For the same reasons he continued to denounce 
 Carey's bishop after the ordination was over in pamphlets, ser- 
 mons, and contributions to the newspapers. Is such a man to 
 be looked upon as biased in Carey's favor? On the contrary, 
 must we not take him as a most disinterested and honest wit- 
 ness in every word which he utters in Carey's praise? Will it be 
 said that perhaps Dr. Smith did not know Carey well enough 
 to testify to the moral side of his character? He ought to 
 know him and know him well. During the four years that 
 Carey roomed at the seminary he was a member of the doctor's 
 congregation ; he was a teacher in the doctor's Sunday-school ; 
 he attended service regularly at the doctor's church, and re- 
 ceived communion at his hands. It was to Dr. Smith, as pas- 
 tor, that Carey felt himself obliged to apply for a canonical 
 certificate recommending him for ordination, meeting, of course, 
 with a refusal. No higher testimony to Carey's moral character 
 can be brought than that of such a man. Then let him come 
 upon the stand. This is what he says : 
 
 " I had, from an early period of his connection with St. 
 Peter's, understood that he (Care}) embraced the doctrines of 
 the Oxford school ; but such was my conviction of the purity 
 and excellence of his Christian character, and of his quiet and 
 studious habits, and of his love for truth, that I was not only 
 willing, but anxious, to have the benefit of his services in my 
 Sunday-school." — True Issue for the True CJnircJiman. 
 
 To this need be added only one more tribute. It is that 
 of a periodical as unfriendly to Carey's doctrinal tendencies as 
 Dr. Smith himself. The Quarterly CJiristian Spectator of Octo- 
 ber, 1843, reviewing Carey's ordination, commented in these 
 terms upon his character : 
 
 " He appears to have been not only diligent and successful 
 in study, but eminently amiable and blameless in his deport- 
 ment, the pride of his teachers and the joy of his friends." 
 
 From this time forward an "angel face" will no longer be 
 found in these reminiscences. I am not aware of any biography 
 or even sketch of Arthur Carey which is not sadly fragmentary , 
 or which pretends to completeness of any sort. 
 
66 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 About sixteen months after Carey's death, in the latter part 
 of August, 1845, when James A. McMaster, Isaac Hecker, with 
 myself, all fresh converts to the Catholic Church, were passing 
 through London on our way to the Redemptorist novitiate at 
 St. Trond, in Belgium, the first named separated from us long 
 enough to visit John Henry Newman, then still connected with 
 the Anglican Church, and dwelling in retirement at Littlemore, 
 near Oxford. When introduced into his library McMaster found 
 him occupied in a manner not altogether strange to so busy a 
 student. His right foot rested upon the seat of a chaii ; he 
 stood bending over a book which he held in his left hand, the 
 contents of which he devoured simultaneously with a sandwich 
 administ-ered to his mouth by the right. When McMaster in- 
 formed him that he had become a Catholic and was about to 
 become a religious, Newman expressed no surprise and made 
 no unfavorable comment. Only two months later he was him- 
 self a convert. McMaster spoke to him of Carey, who was not 
 unknown to him. The doctor showed much interest in Carey 
 and asked many questions concerning his career. When, how- 
 ever, McMaster urged him to write a biography of him, as one 
 of his own" most prominent and gifted disciples, the doctor de- 
 clined. Carey, he said, was an American, and only some Ameri- 
 can more closely and intimately connected with his life could 
 do him justice. 
 
 All those who could have filled such a role have either passed 
 away or are little likely to undertake the task. For want of a 
 better biographer, ard that the memories which I can supply 
 may not be lost at my death, 1 have made this too brief ac- 
 count as complete as my scant means allow me. His family 
 motto was: ''Dto cari nihilo carcnt'' — "The dear to God are be- 
 yond want." I venture to add these words, Rcquiescat in pace. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Se)ninary. 67 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 STUDENTS' MISSIONARY SOCIETY. — "A HEATHEN CHINEE." — AN 
 ORIENTAL BISHOP. — A BISHOP TO THE ORIENTALS.— KIP'S 
 HEROES — HENRY MARTYN. — HEBER. 
 
 THE opening of my second year at the seminary found me 
 in many respects unchanged from what I had been twelve 
 months before. In regard to the diversities of faith and opinion 
 which existed among Episcopalians it would have been hard to 
 classify me. I could no longer be called an Evangelical. The 
 scales had fallen from my eyes. Luther was no longer a hero. 
 The reading of D'Aubigne's history had left him mirrored to my 
 mind as an ambitious, restless, and dogged man, but one whose 
 loud professions of zeal were merely the shams of a demagogue, 
 while his private life showed grovelling instincts inconsistent with 
 a man inspired by a divine influence. And so it was In some 
 degree with all the other reformers I knew of. Whatever good 
 there might be in them, they shone no longer like stars in my sky, 
 and with me they carried no authority. Nevertheless I was still 
 Protestant, and in my eyes the Reformation continued to wear a 
 certain providential character. It had proved, I thought, a good 
 broom. The same hands that wielded the broom had also 
 moved away much useless furniture. 
 
 Some of the Tractarians in England loved to call themselves 
 " Apostolicals," and there was a good deal about their move- 
 ment which seemed to be apostolical. William George Ward, 
 one of the leaders of this stamp in England, in his Ideal of a 
 Chrisiia?t C/nirch, proposes as a practical test to show whether a 
 church is apostolical or not, to load the existing framework 
 with all possible good. " If it will bear it, all is well.- If not, 
 God himself has solved for us the question and the system 
 breaks down of itself." 
 
 I had long felt a strong calling to missionary work. If the 
 
68 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Anglican Church lent itself zealously and generously to mission- 
 ary labors, it afforded at once a strong test of her genuineness 
 and opened to me a field in which I could joyfully labor. The 
 General Seminary had its missionary society. I had joined it 
 at the beginning of my course, and I commenced this, my sec- 
 ond year, with a new interest in its meetings. I was elected 
 president of this society. Its members took much pleasure in 
 reading such accounts as they could procure concerning church 
 missions in foreign parts, and we discussed them at our meet- 
 ings. 
 
 At one of these meetings we were favored with the atten- 
 dance of a church missionary from China. He entertained us 
 with an account of that country and of the wide field there 
 opened to missionary enterprise. He had little, however, to say 
 of any actual converts made, or of any very tangible influence 
 exerted upon the inhabitants. He had brought home with him, 
 at the expense of the Church Missionary Society, a Chinese who 
 was, he told us, a man of note in his own country, a scientist 
 and of remarkable intelligence. This yellow gentleman, he ac- 
 knowledged, was no Christian and gave no evidence of any ten- 
 dency in that direction. He made some disturbance during the 
 missionary's address by his restlessness. Our meeting was in the 
 seminary chapel. The organ there excited the curiosity of the 
 Chinaman, and, without any apparent sense of discourtesy, he 
 left his seat among the auditors to examine the organ, looking 
 over and sounding the keys with great care, and kneeling down 
 behind the box to scrutinize the pipes and the complicated 
 action. Under these circumstances the lecture could not last 
 long. We were all collected very soon about him, much amused 
 by his movements. He laughed with great delight, and made 
 various signs to show how well he understood the character of 
 the instrument and how its work was done. 
 
 In point of fact this Chinese philosopher on exhibition at 
 our meeting had nothing whatever to do with missionary labor 
 in China. Any Chinese curiosity in a show-box would have an- 
 swered the same purpose. When the missionary wanted audi- 
 ences he helped to draw. It paid him also to lend his services 
 in this way, yellow skin, slanted eyes, and pig tail, to the Church 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary . 69 
 
 Missionary Society. It was not a little disappointing to many 
 earnest minds in our society, that this sight of a Chinaman was 
 about all that our memories could retain of the lecture on 
 missionary experience in China. 
 
 The Church Missionary Society, however, scores a better 
 point against other Protestants, or thinks so, when a live bishop 
 of any kind whatever appears from the East. It was about 
 this time that Mar Yohannan, a Nestorian bishop from the moun- 
 tains of Ooroomiah, was introduced to the notice of American 
 Protestants. He came over to this country under the auspices 
 of the American Board of Missions, and was received with 
 great acclamation by pious Presbyterians everywhere. He was 
 no convert to anything, but he hobnobbed very comfortably with 
 his new friends and made a good thing of it. I saw him at 
 Saratoga. He spent some days at our house, on my father's in- 
 vitation, and was a great curiosity. My mother was quite de- 
 lighted to receive him as a guest. It seemed to her a blessing 
 to have him. His friendly connection with foreign missionaries 
 was in her mind an all-sufificient guarantee. Everything about 
 liim seemed right to her, except that he was an inveterate 
 smoker. She abominated smoking as something irreligious at 
 least, if not wicked. He was quite satisfied, however, to pass 
 the greater part of his time on the front piazza, where he could 
 smoke freely. His Nestorianism did not seem to need repairing, 
 but his clothing did, and the girls of the family set themselves 
 to work to make him a new outfit. I remember well the great 
 glee with which they surveyed the immense amount of blue 
 cloth necessary to sew up into trousers. 
 
 A theory was started that Mar Yohannan and his people 
 were descended from the lost tribes of Israel, and this was a 
 great boom for the American Board. These, it must be remem- 
 bered, were the days of Charlotte Elizabeth — " Old Crazy Bess," 
 as McMaster was pleased to call her in his irreverent style. 
 She was then still living. Her writings were in wide circulation, 
 and Protestant piety had been excited to the highest pitch of 
 interest in all that regarded Israelites, and everything that looked 
 forward to the conversion of the Jews. Episcopalian Protestants 
 also, at least those of the high-church school, were much inter- 
 
'JO Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 ested in Mar Yohannan for peculiar reasons of their own. He 
 was a bishop, and, although schismatical in worship and hereti- 
 cal in faith, had an undoubted succession from the Apostles. 
 Several of their bishops sought out interviews with him and en- 
 deavored to draw from him some expressions recognizing a 
 fraternity of this kind. So far as I remember their efforts were 
 unsuccessful. Mar Yohannan knew very well on which side his 
 bread was buttered, and either evaded their questions or put 
 them to confusion by replies more consonant with the Evangeli- 
 cal tone of the Presbyterian missionaries with whom he con- 
 sorted. 
 
 The greater part of the students at the seminary were not 
 merely Episcopalians in name, but strongly attached to that 
 feature of church government which divides their organization 
 into dioceses with a bishop at the head of each diocese, with 
 presbyters and deacons under these as distinct orders of the 
 clergy. The majority of them, indeed, believed this feature 
 of their church to be not only a thing of divine institution, 
 but necessary to constitute a true Christian ministry. They 
 believed in the necessity of an apostolic succession. To constitute 
 this succession it is necessary that a bishop's ofificial right to repre- 
 sent Christ should be traceable back to the Apostles, through an 
 uninterrupted series of ordinations. This taken alone, without an 
 historical union of belief and a visible brotherhood in obedience to 
 one rule, is, to be sure, a very slender thread. It separates them 
 very little from the confused crowd of Protestants with whom in 
 doctrine they agree so closely. It assimilates them very slightly to 
 the ancient church from which they differ so widely. On the other 
 hand, their difference from all Oriental schismatics is as wide as 
 ever. There is no community of faith between them, and yet Epis 
 copalians are well known to be proud of a certain supposed unity 
 with these ancient Eastern churches. 
 
 What I have said is enough to account for the general 
 interest taken by Episcopalians in Dr. Southgate, who became a 
 very prominent figure in the religious world at the very time when 
 Tractarianism was at its height. He was sent to Constantinople 
 as an Episcopalian missionary in 1840. He was called home 
 and sent back again in 1844, with the valuable title of bishop 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seniinai-y. yi 
 
 attached to his name. It was hoped by this means to establish 
 an alHance, or at least to manifest some sort of unity, between 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Greek churches of the 
 Eastern world. 
 
 We students of the seminary became much interested in 
 Dr. Southgate, and particularly those of us who belonged to the 
 missionary society at Chelsea. It seemed to present high hopes 
 to all those of us especially who looked forward to a missionary 
 life as one that might become our own. Dr. Southgate was 
 made ready to appear at Constantinople with all the prestige 
 attaching to the rank of bishop. We, too, might soon follow, 
 and under the shadow of his apostolic powers gather in Greeks, 
 Armenians, Nestorians, to — well, it is hard to say what! These 
 Oriental churches had a real antiquity, and an acknowledged 
 episcopate, which we had not. If they took us into partnership 
 it would set us up. In return for this brotherly embrace we 
 could communicate to them that superior spirituality which we 
 had derived from Protestantism. 
 
 All this seems to me, of course, very foolish, very dreamy 
 and very unpractical now. In our seminary, however, at that 
 time, it did not seem so. There was plenty of matter in this 
 mission to Constantinople to excite young hearts to a high 
 enthusiasm. I do not remember that Carey, McMaster, or 
 Everett, or any advanced Tractarians, took much stock in it. 
 
 I may as well at once say here by way of anticipation that 
 Bishop Southgate's mission to Constantinople proved to be a great 
 failure. He was not recognized by Eastern Christians as a bishop, 
 or as differing essentially from other Protestant missionaries. He 
 only succeeded in raising a war of recrimination between himself 
 and Presbyterian or Congregational missionaries who had preced- 
 ed him in that field. And this war was fought over again before 
 the American public. I will give the history of it. It helped to 
 hurry forward some anxious hearts on their way to Rome. 
 
 It has already been said that Bishop Southgate began his 
 missionary labors at Constantinople in 1840, at which time he 
 was a priest. From October, 1844, he continued his services 
 there as bishop. In 1850 he resigned his charge and returned 
 to America. We know of no mission since to replace it. No 
 
72 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary 
 
 mention is made of any in the Church Almanac and Year Book 
 for iSg2. It will throw light upon the hopes and disappoint- 
 ments of many hearts, both in the seminary and outside of it, to 
 give some little detail of the position of Dr. Southgate at Con- 
 stantinople, and of the circumstances that made his mission 
 fruitless. Much of its history can be found in printed pam- 
 phlets of the time. One of these is entitled A Vindication of 
 the Rev. Horatio Southgate. This pamphlet, issued for the 
 information of members of the bishop's own denomination in 
 the United States, contains not only a vindication of his con- 
 duct against charges made by the American Board of Foreign 
 Missions, but also counter-charges against the Presbyterian mis- 
 sionaries in that city. In answer to this was pubHshed a 
 " Reply " reviewing the whole history of the quarrel. 
 
 According to the bishop's statements the Congregationalist 
 missionaries at Constantinople had so far concealed their real 
 character that an impression generally prevailed among the 
 Armenians that they were clergymen of the English Church and 
 were for some time supposed to be bishops. This impression 
 was strengthened by their assuming the Episcopalian clerical 
 dress, using the Common Prayer Book, making the sign of the 
 cross in Baptism, and other like practices unknown to Congre- 
 gationalists at home. 
 
 These charges are not denied by the missionaries in their 
 " Reply " as facts, but they repudiate the motive given, that 
 they wished to pass themselves off for Anglican ministers. 
 They allege as a counter-charge that a great change had taken 
 place in Dr. Southgate's demeanor towards them upon his 
 returning to Constantinople as a bishop. Upon his first coming 
 to Constantinople he was very cordial and friendly. He sat 
 down at the communion table with them, received the sacra- 
 ment from their hands, and took part with them also in the 
 administration of it. He attended public service regularly with 
 them on the Sabbath, sometimes preaching for them and some- 
 times listening to their preaching ; and often had he bent the 
 head together with them in prayer, he taking his turn without 
 book or stated form. 
 
 After his visit to America, from which he returned to Con- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 73 
 
 stantinople as bishop, he was entirely metamorphosed, and 
 determined to act on the most exclusive high-church principles. 
 As a man he professed to be ready to live with them on terms 
 of civility; but as a Christian, and especially as a Christian 
 minister, he seemed to wish to have no visible relations with 
 them. He would not consent even to have a prayer-meeting in 
 common which they formally proposed, lest it should be sup- 
 posed by others that he recognized them as true ministers of 
 Christ, equally with himself. 
 
 The hopes founded by Episcopalians upon Dr. Southgate's 
 appearance in Constantinople, and the apparent motives for his 
 changed demeanor towards the missionaries of the American 
 Board, may be seen in great part in the fact that he brought a 
 letter, signed by seven bishops of his church, addressed to the 
 Greek and Syrian patriarchs, in which the proposition is for- 
 mally made for a certain kind of friendly alliance and co- 
 operation. 
 
 Another point of missionary policy is to be noted here. On 
 the one hand, it seemed all-important to Bishop Southgate's 
 mission to Constantinople to make him appear as much as pos- 
 sible like an Oriental bishop. On the other hand, it would never 
 do to have him mistaken by the Orientals for a Roman Catholic 
 bishop. It was for this reason that the Rev. A. F. Hewit, now 
 a Catholic priest and Superior of the Paulists, was not allowed 
 to go with him, as he desired. Hewit was known at that time 
 to have strong inclinations in favor of Roman Catholic doc- 
 trine. He was already very much of a Tractarian and of a 
 character too frank to hide it. Appleton's Cyclopcedia of Ameri- 
 can Biography puts this in still stronger language. It says of 
 Hewit : " He was selected to accompany Bishop Southgate as a 
 missionary to Constantinople, but the missionary committee 
 refused to ratify the appointment on the ground that Mr. 
 Hewit held beliefs that were distinctively Roman Catholic." 
 
 The committee were wise in their generation. Hewit was 
 too earnest a Christian to play the part of a via media man 
 very satisfactorily, or impose himself upon Orientals for any- 
 thing but what he really was. In 1846 he was received into 
 the Roman Catholic Church, and is well known in that Church 
 
74 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 for a long, strongly marked, and most successful missionary 
 career. 
 
 Failures of missionary enterprises like this of Southgate do 
 not suddenly and completely extinguish the hopes that lie in 
 faithful and ardent hearts or destroy their confidence in the 
 organizations to which they belong. What matters Constantino- 
 ple or all the ancient Eastern churches on a map of the world ? 
 So Anglicans sometimes say both in England and in America. 
 Have we not a great missionary history to show in Hindustan 
 and in the rest of our Indian empire ? In order to coun- 
 teract any dangerous inferences that might be drawn from his 
 praise of the " Early Jesuit Missions in North America,' Bishop 
 Kip says of them : " There is not a recorded instance of their 
 permanency, or their spreading each generation wider and 
 deeper, like our own missions in India." This bold statement is 
 in singular contradiction to actual facts. 
 
 In 1869 Sir William Hunter was entrusted by the Indian 
 government with the statistical survey of India. According to 
 his report the census of India for 1891 opens to us the follow- 
 ing statistics: The total number of Christians in all India, includ- 
 ing Burmah, is 2,601,355. Of this number about 700,000 are 
 Protestants of one or other denomination, rather more than 
 300,000 are Jacobites, who hold the doctrines of the Eastern 
 Church, and 1,594,901 are Catholics. Of these latter 221,000 are 
 Syrian Catholics, in communion with Rome but having their 
 own rite and clergy, and the rest are Catholics of the Roman 
 rite. 
 
 How bold, bald, and untruthful is Dr. Kip's boast in face 
 of these documentary facts! Even India herself, that country 
 so thoroughly and terribly subjugated to British rule, that 
 golden mine of British wealth, that fairy field of Anglican labor, 
 has harvested far less to the English Church than to the influ- 
 ences of the Catholic religion, all poor and unsupported as it 
 is. Sir William Hunter says that "the Roman Catholics work 
 in India with slender pecuniary resources." He also allows 
 that " the priests of the Propaganda deny themselves the com- 
 forts considered necessaries for Europeans in India. They live 
 the frugal and abstemious life of the native, and their influence 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 75 
 
 reaches deep into the life of the communities among whom 
 they dwell." 
 
 These facts were not so well known to the seminarians of 
 my day at Chelsea ; not even to those of the missionary society, 
 who were best informed in these matters. There prevailed 
 amongst us, however, much suspicion of the actual truth, and 
 much gloomy foreboding in regard to the future. 
 
 In comparing Anglican missionaries with the early Jesuit 
 missionaries of North America Dr. Kip says: 
 
 " Our own church has equally her Acta Sanctornm. 
 The annals of no church give a loftier picture of self-sacrifice 
 than that furnished by Henry Martyn, when he abandoned the 
 honors of academic life and exchanged his happy home at 
 Cambridge for the solitary bungalow at Dinapore — the daily 
 disputes with his Moonshee and Pundit — or the bitter opposi- 
 tion of the Mohammedans at Shiraz. And nowhere do we 
 read of a nobler martyrdom than his, when he lay expiring at 
 Tocat, without a friend to close his eyes or a sympathizing 
 voice to address him. So, too, it was when Heber left the 
 peaceful retreat of Hodnet, to suffer and die under the burning 
 heats of India." 
 
 Far be it from me to decry the merits of Martyn or of 
 Heber, or of other pious ministers in the Anglican fold or any 
 other. It is, nevertheless, neither true nor edifying to put these 
 estimable men on the same platform with Isaac Jogues, Rene 
 Goupil, Brebceuf, Lalemant, Rasle, Daniel, Junipero, Abella, 
 and a host of others who literally left all their natural friends 
 to dwell in perpetual danger amongst savages, ending their lives 
 in torturing, starvation, or violent death. A room called the 
 chamber of martyrs in the college of the Missions Etrangeres at 
 Paris is full of mangled remains, of instruments of torture, and 
 other tragic mementoes of missionaries of the same heroic 
 mould, who in our day have ended their lives in China. 
 
 Neither Martyn nor Heber can be set down as martyrs. 
 Whether either can fairly be considered as a confessor for his 
 faith is very questionable. That they were both very estimable 
 and pious Christian men is to be admitted freely. 
 
 Henry Martyn was a real missionary, and constantly during 
 
y6 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican ::^enii}iary. 
 
 his whole career in India and before that, while dwelling in 
 England, and waiting as a candidate to be ordered to his field 
 of labor, showed signs of a true zeal for the conversion of the 
 heathen. The best evidence of this zeal is the fact that, re- 
 fusing to take up his abode in Calcutta or any other large 
 town, already crowded with Europeans and with clergymen 
 ministering to Europeans, he clung firmly to his station at 
 Dinapore, where he was in the very midst of a heathen world. 
 There, also, although made safe against danger by the pres- 
 ence of British soldiers, he was deprived of nearly all such 
 social life as could naturally be agreeable to him. There was 
 much of privation and voluntary sacrifice in this. There was 
 much also of missionary work, the most congenial and agreeable 
 of which was his literary labor in translating the Bible and 
 Common Prayer Book into Hindustanee and Persian. How 
 nearly such a life approaches to the heroic must depend upon 
 that degree of courage and endurance which one attaches to 
 the idea of heroism. What seems to detract most from the 
 heroism of such a career as Martyn's is a weakness of love- 
 making, in which we find him engaged while in England, kept 
 up until the very time of his departure, — and the fact that some 
 years after, while at Dinapore, he writes home to this old love, 
 
 whose name we only know as L , off'ering her his hand in 
 
 marriage. This offer was declined. The marriage of a man 
 involves many duties, and these not a little engrossing. Duties 
 not only to the wife who has received his vows, but to a fam- 
 ily of children, which will in the course of nature form about 
 him. To a missionary devoted to his work as a divine and 
 special vocation, this married life, however attractive, is incon- 
 gruous. It must necessarily interfere with the engrossing de- 
 mands of apostolic labor. It is difficult to harmonize it with a 
 life of missionary heroism. 
 
 Martyn would probably have done much better where simple 
 heathenism only existed, unsupported by any learned philos- 
 ophy. He himself was little provided with liberal learning. 
 Quite deficient in anything like systematic theology or philoso- 
 phy, he was unable to cope with the trained minds he encoun- 
 tered even at Dinapore. His task was still more difificult at 
 
Glivipscs of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 77 
 
 Shiraz. There he came in contact with Mohammedans, Brah- 
 mins, Buddhists, Jews, and others, many of them well trained to 
 philosophic distinctions. It seems strange that once when 
 closely questioned by Mohammedan teachers in regard to the 
 person of Christ, he should have endeavored to explain the 
 Christian doctrine of the Incarnation by saying: that zve did not 
 consider his human nature eternal (see Sargent's Memoir of 
 Martyn, chap ix. p. 321). This was very satisfactory to the 
 Mohammedans, as well it might be. 
 
 Mrs. Heber, widow of the bishop, in her biography of her 
 husband, gives us his estimate of Henry Martyn as follows: 
 
 " Many of Martyn's sufferings and privations he saw were 
 caused by a peculiar temperament, and by a zeal which, disre- 
 garding all personal danger and sacrifice, led that devoted 
 servant of God to follow, at whatever risk, those objects which 
 would have been more effectually attained, and at a less costly 
 sacrifice, had they been pursued with caution and patience." 
 
 I give this estimate for what it is worth. I have not been 
 criticising the wisdom or patience of Martyn, but his title to 
 rank as a hero among missionaries. Whatever his title in this 
 roll of honor may be, he cannot be classed as a typical Angli- 
 can, or as in any way an example of piety or virtue deriving 
 its source from the Church of England. Although holding 
 orders in that church, he was in all his religious views and in 
 the spirit and tone of his piety an Evangelical Puritan. This 
 shows itself in a certain disagreeable technical dialect found 
 everywhere throughout his diaries, journals, and letters, which 
 belongs to Puritan piety, and is in no way characteristic of 
 Anglicanism. This is not at all astonishing, since the books 
 which he most delighted in for pious reading were, after the 
 Bible, the works of Baxter and John Newton, while his chief 
 model as a missionary was David Brainerd. 
 
 Bishop Heber cannot rightly be classed with Henry Martyn. 
 It is difificult to look at the bishop as being a missionary at all. 
 However gifted with other qualities which entitle him to 
 respect, his vocation to heathen lands came when the British 
 cabinet gave him the appointment of Lord Bishop of Calcutta. 
 His appointment found him officiating tranquilly as rector at 
 
jS Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Hodnet. He sailed for India with his wife and child in 1823, 
 and remained in occupation of his diocese until his death in 
 1826. This death was caused by imprudently taking a cold 
 bath after a day of labor and exhaustion. He visited his vast 
 diocese faithfully, as every faithful bishop must, confirming and 
 otherwise ministering not only to Europeans, but to native con- 
 verts, when such fell in his way. There was no special priva- 
 tion or self-sacrifice in this. The whole crowd of Englishmen 
 who flock to Hmdustan meet the same inconveniences and 
 dangers. To be Lord Bishop of Calcutta was to rank high in 
 India, second in importance only to the governor-general him- 
 self. When setting out to visit his vast new diocese, in the 
 second year of his residence in India, as he himself tells us, he 
 started on his journey up the Ganges with three vessels, two 
 besides the one in which he and his domestic chaplain, Rev. 
 Martin Stowe, travelled. 
 
 "Ore of these," he writes, "is a cooking boat, the other for 
 our luggage and servants ; . . . twelve servants are thought 
 a very moderate travelling establishment for myself and a single 
 friend ; and that the number of boatmen for the three vessels 
 amounts, I believe, to thirty-two." 
 
 On leaving his boats to travel by land at Allahabad his 
 train or caravan consisted of "twenty-four camels, eight carts 
 drawn by bullocks, twenty- four horse servants, including those 
 of the archdeacon and Mr. Lushington, ten ponies, forty bear- 
 ers and coolies of different descriptions, twelve tent-pitchers, 
 and a guard of twenty sepoys under a native officer." All, 
 servants and sepoys, were heavily armed. At every settle- 
 ment where he arrived he was met by British officials, and 
 was received with distinction by rajahs, princes, and native 
 kings. 
 
 This is all very right. We only mention it to show that 
 Bishop Heber's vocation in India was not one of a nature to 
 rank him among the heroic missionaries of history. 
 
 Bishop Heber undoubtedly ranks high among Christian 
 poets. He could not have united the spirit of a Christian with 
 the lofty conceptions of a poet without being able to appreciate 
 the highest type of a Christian missionary. One is not sur. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminai-y. 70 
 
 prised, therefore, to find amongst his poems this beautiful 
 tribute. I give only one stanza of one of his best hymns: 
 
 "The Son of God goes forth to war, 
 
 A kingly crown to gain ; 
 His blood-red banner streams afar ! 
 
 Who follows in his train ? 
 Who best can drink his cup of woe, 
 
 Triumphant over pain, 
 Who patient bears his cross below. 
 
 He follows in his train." 
 
 That Dr. Kip should have instanced Bishop Heber as a 
 specimen of this class of heroes must be attributed to the fact 
 that he is the author of that celebrated hymn, the opening 
 words of which are familiar throughout the world — 
 
 " From Greenland's icy mountains. 
 From India's coral strand, — " 
 
 I do not give any more because all the beautiful lines that 
 follow are 'known by heart to so many thousands. A poet's 
 special vocation, however, and his inmost character, are not 
 necessarily indicated by a single hymn however widely spread. 
 Bishop Heber is also author of the following beautiful lines 
 addressed to his wife, who remained at Calcutta while he was 
 visiting his diocese : 
 
 " If thou wert by my side, my love. 
 How fast would evening fail 
 In green Benagla's palmy grove 
 Listening the nightingale I 
 
 " If thou, my love, wert by my side. 
 My babies at my knee. 
 How gaily would our pinnace glide 
 O'er Gunga's miimic sea." 
 
 There are seven more stanzas in the same strain, all beaU" 
 
8o Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 tiful poetry and all coming undoubtedly from his innermost 
 heart. 
 
 The reader may perhaps wonder that in these reminiscences 
 of a seminary life I should linger so long upon details concern- 
 ing missionaries not connected with our institute at Chelsea. I 
 have done it for a special purpose. In the first place, I have 
 wished to show that Episcopalians are not behind other Protest- 
 ant Christians in their appreciation of missionary work. In 
 the second place, this work in their church puts on some special 
 features of its own. These features are suitable to its own 
 peculiar pretensions. It claim.s an ancient and apostolic charac- 
 ter. It claims also a certain sort of Catholicity, something 
 which binds it to all ancient churches throughout the world. 
 These two claims are founded upon their supposed apostolic 
 succession. All this, as I hope, will serve to show how amongst 
 candidates for orders inclined to Tractarianism, but earnestly 
 anxious to save their confidence in their own church, there 
 grew up a yearning after a life of missionary monasticism. 
 This last point will find its development hereafter. This yearn- 
 ing led to hope. This hope led to a break-up. Patience, good 
 reader. Land ahead ! 
 
Glimpses of Life in an A)igliean Seminary. %\ 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FURTHER MISSIONARY ASPIRATIONS. — "CRAZY RICHMOND." — 
 TYNG"S LECTURE.— ward's "ideal OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH." 
 — MEDITATION. — PRIVATE RETREATS. — PARISH MISSIONS. 
 
 THE reader of this series of reminiscences will already have 
 seen that the missionary question opened a large field of 
 hope, doubt, and anxiety to myself and to other Anglican 
 students within the seminary and outside. The attraction 
 to such work was especially strong in minds progressing 
 towards Catholic faith. During my second year's course at the 
 sem.inary I made acquaintance with a very peculiar sort of per- 
 son, an Episcopalian minister of the diocese of Rhode Island, 
 whom I frequently met at a house near the seminary where I 
 boarded. It was the Rev. James C. Richmond. He was dis- 
 tinguished by the sobriquet of " Crazy Richmond " frcm his 
 brother, who was, if I remember right, an officiating clergyman 
 at Manhattanville. This James Richmond had a sort of roving 
 commission in Rhode Island, and loved to carry the title of 
 missionary. On learning that I was president of the missionary 
 society at the seminary and much interested in missionary en- 
 terprises of every kind, he urged me to join with him in doing 
 something with the neglected poor in New York City. On 
 Sundays, when going to a Sunday-school attached to Nativity 
 Church, near the East River, I frequently passed through 
 Tompkins Square, where a large number of poor people loved 
 to gather on all Sundays and holidays of leisure to find fresh 
 air and amusement. Richmond had heard me speak of this. 
 To his quick intelligence and eager activity it suggested an 
 opportunity to labor among the poor. He would conduct the 
 services of the church and preach in the open square, while my 
 part would be to lead in the singing. I would very willingly 
 have engaged in an enterprise of this kind if I had felt more 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 confidence in Mr. Richmond's prudence, and had not feared that 
 our movements might come to clash with the authority of 
 Bishop Onderdonk. Upon this he offered to apply to the 
 bishop for permission, although he did not seem to think it 
 necessary. 
 
 This application and its result is incidentally recorded in a 
 pamphlet published in 1845, during a melee of pamphleteers who 
 rushed into print after the memorable trial of Bishop Onder- 
 donk. This pamphlet is entitled Richmond's Reply to '^Richmond 
 in Ruins.'' In this publication Mr. Richmond had occasion to 
 refer to two visits made by him to Bishop Onderdonk, and 
 says : 
 
 " He [the bishop] has also mingled my call upon him July 4 
 with another call in August or September, which I made after 
 a conference with Clarence Walworth in reference to my duty 
 of preaching in the German language to the churchless and 
 almost Godless Germans that assemble around Tompkins 
 Square. On the last visit I said not a word that could be tor- 
 tured into an implication of a shade of a wish to 'return to 
 his diocese.' On the contrary, after saying that I was desirous 
 of preaching to the Germans, and felt that I was bound to do 
 so by my ordination vow, 'to seek for Christ's sheep that are 
 scattered in this naughty world,' and that it was not through 
 duty, as I previously told C. W., "but for courtesy that I waited 
 on him, having already not only a privilege but an obligation 
 thus to officiate, with the consent of the nearest rector or rec- 
 tors ; he asked, on my reference to the Catholic Oak, what 
 was there accomplished. ' My friend, if you are doing so much 
 good in Rhode Island, why not remain there?' I replied: 'I 
 intend to do so; but having one spare Sunday, I thought it 
 would be best to help you and begin here ; then the people 
 who wish to talk can spend as much of the winter as they 
 like in discussing the merits of the movement, and the ques 
 tion of my sanity, pro and con, and by next summer they will 
 be tired of the talk, and when I come again it will be an old 
 story, and the ice will have been effectually broken, and the 
 way prepared for others.' He wittily replied, 'I am afraid, my 
 friend, it would freeze over again this winter.' I waited a mo- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 83 
 
 ment, weighing and appreciating the bo7i mot, and then replied 
 nearly thus, in my stupid way : ' Bishop, the ice is of long 
 standing ; the neglect of the poor is old and crusty, and do 
 you not think by breaking it up once now, the new ice would 
 break more easily next summer ? ' " 
 
 My recollections accord very well with those of Mr. Rich- 
 mond above given, except in two or three particulars. The 
 Germans in the vicinity of Tompkins Square were not at this 
 time destitute of church privileges. There was a Catholic 
 Church near by the square, on Third Street, with preaching in 
 German. Those who frequented the square were by no means 
 all Germans. To many English was their native tongue, and I 
 think that nearly all the crowd could speak it, and were em- 
 braced in our intentions. I think, also, it was not intended to 
 confine ourselves to one Sunday. This, of course, could do 
 but little good. The bishop refusing permission, of course our 
 project failed. 
 
 It is not really necessary to the purpose of these reminis- 
 cences to say anything more here of Mr. Richmond. Neverthe- 
 less, having been once introduced, it may not be too much of 
 a digression to add one passage more from this same pamphlet. 
 It develops still more the peculiar character of the man. It 
 shows somewhat his idea of himself and his consciousness of 
 the light in which he stood in the eyes of many others. It 
 shows also the light by which he surveyed his critics and esti- 
 mated the value of their opinions: 
 
 " My 'erratic peculiarities' I gratefully admit, and thank my 
 stars that I am not so humdrnm as most other people, who 
 walk with pious care in their forefathers' steps, just as some 
 farmers always plant their potatoes in the old way because it 
 was good enough for their grandfathers." 
 
 I have never since this occasion, so far as I remember, been 
 called upon to take part in any religious services conducted in 
 the open air, except at the laying of some corner-stone or 
 monument; or when in some parish, at the beginning of a 
 mission, it was thought necessary to speak to a crowd in the 
 street and invite them to services in the church ; or when at 
 its close a memorial cross was erected in the open air ; or 
 
84 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 when soldiers on their way to war were gathered in camp to 
 hear Mass, make their Communion, and listen to preaching. I 
 have dwelt, perhaps, a little too much on this Tompkins 
 Square project, and on the figure of this peculiar man. I have, 
 however, an excuse for it. It will be necessary for him to 
 appear again in the course of these reminiscences in matters of 
 deep import to the Chelsea Seminary, to the New York diocese, 
 and to Anglicanism generally. 
 
 The agitation which pervaded the air at the time of my 
 seminary course, and which was at its highest height at that 
 time, was fed from many sources, and reached to every 
 Anglican circle. It was fed by every new tract which issued 
 from Oxford ; by the British Critic, which was the principal 
 organ of the Tractarian movement ; by the Lives of the Early 
 English Saints, and by other volumes of books and published 
 sermons for and against the movement ; by every attempt to 
 engraft some Catholic practice into Anglican worship ; and by 
 every attempt on the part of authority, either civil or ecclesias- 
 tical, to stifle the movement. All these things reached the 
 seminary and became subjects of eager discussion. It was a 
 contest between old sleep and new life. It could not be kept 
 out of any society instituted at the seminary. I recall to mind 
 an instance where oi'r society for the encouragement of foreign 
 missions divided itself into high and low church partisans, the 
 question being whether a certain sermon or lecture delivered in 
 the Church of the Ascension, before the society, should be 
 published by it or not. The lecturer had been the Rev. Dr. 
 Tyng, a prominent clergyman of that day. A motion had been 
 made and carried at one of the regular meetings of the society, 
 that the reverend doctor should be asked to furnish the manu- 
 script of his lecture for publication. Some of the members who 
 had been absent were dissatisfied with this, and a new meeting 
 was called to reconsider the matter. A few words will suffice 
 to explain the cause of dissatisfaction, and of the contest which 
 ensued. 
 
 Dr. Tyng was a very prominent and talented low-churchman. 
 This alone would not have been enough to constitute a diffi- 
 culty in publishing his lecture. It happened, however, that 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 there was a vacancy at this time in the bishopric of Penn- 
 sylvania, and Dr. Tyng was known to be a candidate for the 
 ofifice. His lecture had been quite free from anything that 
 savored distinctly of evangelical low-church manship. Consider- 
 ing the peculiar atmosphere which prevailed at the seminary 
 this was not to be wondered at, but a thing which excited 
 much remark was that the 
 reverend doctor had assum- 
 ed a certain high-church 
 tone in some parts of his 
 lecture. This was looked 
 upon by many as an insin- 
 cere bid for support in his 
 pretensions to the mitre, 
 and the majority of our stu- 
 dents, who were either Trac- 
 tarians or at least high- 
 churchmen, were not will- 
 ing that the seminary should 
 seem to lend any endorse- 
 ment to the man. 
 
 At the second and special 
 meeting of the missionary 
 society, called as above stat- 
 ed, the attendance was un- 
 usually large. A motion 
 was offered, if I remember 
 right by Dr. Everett, to re- 
 scind the action of the re- 
 gular meeting. An eager 
 contest ensued. The low- 
 churchmen were in the mi- 
 nority, but, led by Harwood, they showed a great skill in endeavor- 
 ing to protract the debate, which was very animated, and to pre- 
 vent any decisive vote being taken before adjournment The high- 
 churchmen were equally determined, equally skilful, and equally 
 watchful. I have reason to remember this contest very well. 
 I was president of the society at the time, and it was my first 
 
 Rev. William Evkrett. 
 
86 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 experience in ruling troublesome points of order in a sharp 
 contest. It seemed to me as if all the discordant elements that 
 are combined in Anglicanism had broken their compromise and 
 had gathered into that one room where our meeting was held, 
 while it had become my duty to bring the confusion back to 
 order. The Rev. Dr. Everett, however, now rector of the Church 
 of the Nativity on Second Avenue, was the spirit which really 
 presided at the meeting. He managed the forces of the majority, 
 pressed his motion to a decisive vote, and so the matter ended. 
 The lecture was not printed. 
 
 A few of the members of this society not only felt strongly 
 interested in foreign missions, but actually locked forward to a 
 missionary life for themselves. This interest, however, had not 
 been originated by anything going on in the Anglican Church, 
 nor did it find there any serious encouragement. I do not 
 know of any seminarians of my time that ever entered into the 
 missionary field. All the life that existed in Episcopalianism 
 was concentrated in a struggle to keep itself alive. All really 
 earnest hearts anxious to be engaged in gathering abandoned 
 or neglected souls into Christ's fold were driven about wearily 
 from hope to hope, not willing to sink back into despair, and 
 yet not knowing where to settle. Surely, they argued, that 
 great church to which we belong must somewhere have a heart 
 corresponding to the pulsations which we feel. 
 
 It was such a time as this and such a juncture of circum- 
 stances that saw the appearance of Ward's Ideal of a Christian 
 ChiircJi. 
 
 The book itself did not appear until the close of my second 
 year at the seminary, namely, in June, 1844, but much of the 
 substance of the volume had been published during that year 
 in the British Critic, of which both Ward and Dr. Newman 
 had been editors. 
 
 The numbers of the British Critic had always been eagerly 
 welcomed by Tractarian students at the seminary, until the 
 violent opposition excited by it in England brought it to a sud- 
 den stop. 
 
 We did not all of us find time or means amidst our studies 
 to read these numbers of the British Critic, but McMaster, 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary 
 
 87 
 
 Everett, and a few others of the higher classes did. I have al- 
 ready given in my Reminiscences of Bishop Wadhams a letter 
 of Arthur Carey's, written from his lodgings in Charlton Street, 
 a few lines of which I will repeat here. Carey says to his friend 
 in the Adirondacks: 
 
 " McMaster is now sitting by my side ; he has just come 
 down from the seminary, and is now reading to me out of the 
 October number of the British Critic."' 
 
 In my mind's eye I 
 seem to see him now, 
 with those large young 
 eyes beaming with intel- 
 ligent interest at Ward's 
 disclosures in regard to 
 Catholic meditation and 
 Catholic mission work, 
 with a smile on his lips 
 at McMaster's more em- 
 phatic ebullitions of de- 
 light. 
 
 It is well known that 
 Ward's Ideal not only led 
 to its author's public con- 
 demnation by the au- 
 thorities at Oxford, but 
 was the culmination point 
 at which Tractarianism 
 broke down, and after 
 which a crowd of con- 
 verts, both in England 
 and America, came flut- 
 tering into the ark. This 
 makes it necessary for me 
 
 to revive the memory of this book and give some idea of its 
 contents. 
 
 The principal significance of Ward's Ideal, and that which 
 made it so intolerable to its adversaries, was that it was so 
 pointedly practical. It represented the Roman Catholic Church 
 
 Cardinal Newman. 
 
88 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 ias full of practical piety, and, on the other hand, represented 
 the English Church as lost in a lifeless formality. For brevity's 
 sake I shall confine myself to such parts of this remarkable work 
 as touch upon the care due from the Christian Church to her 
 candidates lor orders ; how such a church must train them to 
 piety, virtue, and Christian perfeo^ion, and how she needs must 
 hold them to their daily duties as ministers of religious worship, 
 instruct and animate them in the work of saving souls, and par- 
 ticularly the souls of those who are the most destitute and aban- 
 doned. 
 
 With abundant quotations from recognized works, this as- 
 pect of the Roman Catholic Church is exhibited by Ward, and 
 the absence of similar provisions in the English Church is point- 
 ed out : Meditation, to make the truths of religion more vivid ; 
 constant examination of conscience, that sin may not be passed 
 over or forgotten ; occasional retreats, as a fresh start after 
 neglect ; the literature of ascetic theology and hagiology to 
 stimulate in the service of God by example and precept ; the 
 confessional for pardon and direction ; moral theology to save 
 priests from caprice, and give them the benefit in advising their 
 penitents of the experience of the Corporate Church, — here, says 
 Ward, are the spiritual weapons of the Church of Rome; and 
 where, he asks, can we find their counterpart in England ? — 
 {William George Ward and the Oxford Movement, by Wilfred 
 Ward, pp. 279 and 289 ) 
 
 Mr. Ward does not content himself with general declarations 
 in favor of such practical work among Roman Catholics. He 
 gives an account of the actual Rule of Life carried out in a French 
 Ecclesiastical Seminary, as furnished him by the rector. Such 
 a rule of life will be nothing new to Catholic readers. They 
 may find it interesting, however, as showing how plainly this 
 fearless Anglican divine shook the red scarf before the eyes of 
 John Bull. John, of course, received it as a bitter taunt, but 
 not a few of John's children were pained to the heart by it, 
 and grieved over it as those grieve who gaze upon graces for- 
 feited. 
 
 The French rector divides this rule of life adopted in his 
 seminary into eighteen points of practice. For brevity's sake I 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 89 
 
 will content myself with merely naming the most of these 
 points. These are : vocal prayer at half-past five in the morn- 
 ing, followed by meditation ; after this the holy sacrifice of the 
 Mass; visiting the altar where the Holy Eucharist is kept, and 
 praying before it for a quarter of an hour each day ; a spiritual 
 reading each day from some book of piety ; reciting the chap- 
 let — that is, a third part of the rosary ; a religious discourse 
 spoken every evening by the superior to the whole community, 
 called the Spiritual Conference. The day is finished by evening 
 prayer said in common. The prayers then recited are the Lord's 
 Prayer, the Angelical Salutation, the Apostles' Creed. Confession 
 of sinfulness is made by a prayer called the Confiteor ; then 
 acts of faith, hope, and charity, and of contrition, are made. 
 Prayers are then offered up for the dead. In conclusion, the 
 superior gives out the subject for next day's meditation. The 
 rule advises the students to fix their thoughts upon it just be- 
 fore going to sleep, and as soon as they awake. 
 
 Twice in the course of the day, when assembled in the 
 chapel, during a pause in the prayers a private examination of 
 conscience is made by each one. The first is made at noon, 
 just before mealtime, and is called the particular examination — 
 this means an examination as to the progress made in some vir- 
 tue specially proposed by each for his own acquisition, or in 
 conquering some vice proposed in the same way for correction. 
 A more general review of conscience for the day is made in the 
 evening. 
 
 Each student is required to read a chapter in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures twice in the day. It would be a departure from the ob- 
 ject intended by the rule to spend this time in reading to im- 
 prove one's self in learning, or to satisfy one's curiosity. The 
 motive here proposed is the quickening of the heart. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to mention prayers at rising and get- 
 ting into bed, before and after meals, at the ringing of the An- 
 gelus, at the beginning and ending of classes, pious aspirations 
 at the sound of the clock, etc., which are common not only to 
 ecclesiastical seminaries but to all Catholic colleges and convent 
 schools. 
 
 Mr. Ward quotes his French informant as stating that the 
 
90 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 superior of a seminary must keep his door open to the students 
 at all times. He must " cease to be a man of study. He must 
 give up the notion of being a learned man, otherwise he will 
 not be able to do the good which the diocese expects of him." 
 
 I also pass over what the good rector says in regard to the 
 confessions and communions of the students and their selection 
 of a spiritual director. Our Tractarian students at Chelsea, 
 particularly those belonging to the missionary society, were 
 more specially interested at this crisis in what the good French 
 rector said to Mr. Ward about the practice of meditation and 
 spiritual retreats, as used at the seminary. These naturally 
 lead up to that great surprise which the Ideal of a Christian 
 Church brought to us, in its account of the " giving of missions." 
 
 The most important spiritual exercise noted by the French 
 rector in the list furnished by him to Mr. Ward, as inculcated 
 upon the students by rule, is mental prayer or meditation. 
 This, indeed, is found in all Catholic seminaries. The rector 
 speaks of it in the following terms : 
 
 " Mental prayer, or a meditation ; in which the student first 
 bows down in adoration before God, acknowledging himself un- 
 worthy of keeping himself fixed in his divine presence, and call- 
 ing upon the Holy Spirit to help him in his meditation. He 
 then enters on the consideration of the subject proposed for 
 meditation, all the while frequently entering into himself, by 
 acts of humiliation, by making good resolutions, and one special 
 good resolve for that very day." 
 
 These meditations, with some vocal prayers before and after, 
 are made in the chapel and last half an hour. At the semina- 
 ries of St. Sulpice they continue for an hour. This matter of 
 meditation requires some further explanation. Protestants' are 
 not easily made to understand what Catholics mean by medita- 
 tion. And Catholics who have never been Protestants do not 
 know what Protestants mean when they use that word. Among 
 Catholics prayer is generally distinguished into two kinds, oral 
 and mental ; but oral prayer is not always uttered according to 
 a prescribed form of words. As a general rule Protestants, 
 whether in public or private prayer, do not follow any set form 
 of words, except when they repeat the Lord's Prayer. Angli- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seminary. 91 
 
 cans, indeed, follow a ritual in public worship, and the Com- 
 mon Prayer Book contains a form of prayer for family worship. 
 The general rule, however, is to follow the lead of their own 
 thoughts when praying. Their prayers, indeed, are not medita- 
 tions. A good memory for thoughts and phrases, coupled with 
 a certain degree of pious excitement, is all that is necessary to 
 furnish a facility for vocal prayer. Nay, more than this, prayer 
 may be purely mental in the sense of being inarticulate, and 
 yet not constitute meditation considered as prayer. When a 
 Protestant minister is said to pray extempore, it simply means 
 that he is preaching to his hearers over the divine shoulders. 
 Whatever claim it may have to be called mental prayer, it is 
 by no means meditation. At best, it is only fervent oratory. 
 No doubt private and silent prayer among Protestants does of- 
 ten reach to true prayer of mind and heart. I am not aware, 
 however, that it ever takes that form of systematic study dur- 
 ing a set time which is called meditation in the " Exercises " of 
 St. Ignatius, and can be taught to students in a seminary or a 
 convent, or to novices in a religious order. 
 
 When, during my course at the seminary in Chelsea, I read 
 Mr. Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church, and what the French 
 rector wrote to him concerning mental prayer, I was unable to 
 understand how it could be systematized and taught. I under- 
 stood it better when, a little later, on my way to the Adiron- 
 dacks with Bishop Wadhams, then a deacon of the Episcopalian 
 sect, we had for fellow-traveller on the Champlain Canal a young 
 Catholic priest recently ordained in Ireland. We questioned him 
 very closely upon this subject, and, although not apparently a 
 man much given to seclusion or meditation, he was able to give 
 us a very satisfactory account of what he had been taught in 
 regard to the nature of meditation and the means of practising 
 it profitably. The substance of what he told us may be found 
 thoughtfully and beautifully presented in Addis and Arnold's 
 Catholic Dictionary, now a familiar book among Catholic Amer- 
 icans : 
 
 " Meditation in its narrower and technical sense may be de- 
 fined as the application of the three powers of the soul to 
 prayer — the memory proposing a religious or moral truth, the 
 
92 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 understanding considering this truth in its application to the in- 
 dividual who meditates, while the will forms practical resolutions 
 and desires grace to keep them." ..." The method given 
 by St. Ignatius in his exercise is that generally recommended 
 and used, at least till the person who meditates forms a method 
 of his own." 
 
 In truth it may be said that the more thoroughly the habit 
 of mental prayer is acquired the less necessity for the use of 
 method. The "points" selected for meditation become shorter; 
 a single verse of Scripture, a single stanza of a familiar hymn, 
 or indeed a single line or expressive word, furnishes to the soul 
 all the matter needed to start with. A thousand cumulative 
 thoughts cluster around it, the fruit is soon ready to be 
 gathered, holy affections of the heart are sooner reached ; holy 
 purposes and resolutions grow up so spontaneously that all 
 thought of method is cast away. The hour or half-hour ceases 
 to be long, until meditation is abandoned for other duties with 
 regret. 
 
 I do not stop here to introduce the idea of contemplation, 
 where all process of reasoning ceases and is lost in a sort of 
 passive beholding, a high grade of prayer to which only a few 
 Christians reach. 
 
 The French seminary rector quoted in Ward's Ideal supposes 
 the nature and purpose of meditation to be well understood, 
 and gives us only the methods to be adopted in order to make 
 it successful and fruitful. A habit of spiritual reading is neces- 
 sary as the more remote preparation for it. This furnishes the 
 mind with material for thought. To bow down in silence, to 
 call to mind the presence of God, and to invoke the Holy 
 Ghost, are the immediate steps to be taken when beginning 
 this kind of prayer. St. Ignatius intensified its power and ex- 
 tended its influence over souls by introducing his system of 
 spiritual retreats, in which an entire month was given to soli- 
 tude and meditation. This time is now often shortened to a 
 week, or even three days. These meditations, moreover, were 
 systematized into an admirable series, so arranged that each 
 meditation should naturally lead up to another. The soul is 
 made to consider by turns and progressively the object of its 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Scviinary. 93 
 
 being, its destiny, its sins, the punishment due to sin, the 
 remedies provided through the mercy of God, the means of 
 sanctification through his grace, until at last in this sacred soli- 
 tude the soul is brought forward to the highest desires for 
 union with its Maker, to the strongest resolves to live for the 
 glory of God alone. 
 
 The Catholic Church is furnished with a large number of 
 priests who have trained themselves by long study and careful 
 experience to guide others through these spiritual exercises, as 
 St. Ignatius trained his first companions in the order which he 
 founded. 
 
 Finally St. Vincent de Paul began his work of popular mis- 
 sions in country parishes for the benefit of the poor, and es- 
 pecially those most destitute of instruction and spiritual succor. 
 This new form of domestic missionary work has now grown to 
 be almost universal in the Catholic Church, carrying everywhere 
 into the bosom of her fold in a rational way, and with a deep- 
 er and fuller power, a reformation of morals and a quickening 
 of spiritual life which the wild emotional efforts of Wesley 
 and Whitefield could not bring about. These missions, regarded 
 in the light of the means and methods employed and the 
 effects produced, may be considered as the natural outgrowth 
 of spiritual retreats. The large audiences gathered cannot be 
 brought to the same solitude and silence, but much of retire- 
 ment from the world is practically involved in their constant 
 attendance at the church. They cannot meditate as in more 
 private retreats, but an unusual amount of reflection is involved 
 in listening to so many daily sermons and instructions, and 
 taking so much part in prayer. Skilful missionaries consult to- 
 gether upon the order of subjects to be introduced. The con- 
 fessional shows how far the good seed sown has produced good 
 results and what is still most wanting, and both the order of 
 preaching and the special way of treating each sermon may be 
 varied accordingly. In fine, the method of " giving missions " 
 has grown to be a peculiar science and holy art unknown out- 
 side of the Catholic Church. 
 
 All the above is introduced in this place as belonging to 
 these reminiscences of a Protestant seminary at a most momen- 
 
94 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 tous period. We seminarians at Chelsea were all of us more or 
 less interested in a great attempt to galvanize Anglicanism. 
 Ward's new book introduced us to Romanism, so called, as fur- 
 nishing the best practical ideal of a true Christian Church. 
 One prominent sign of its vitality lay in its wonder-working 
 custom and method of giving missions. His book gave a de- 
 scription of a mission furnished to him by a prominent Roman 
 Catholic, with most interesting details of its purpose, plan, and 
 effects. It was a new light. Mr. Ward's book is not accessible 
 to me at this moment, and perhaps it is not necessary at this 
 time to introduce any extracts from it. Suffice it to say that 
 for the most part the conduct of these missions is left to mis- 
 sionaries reared in convents. To this circumstance is due in 
 some degree the fact that many of us students, when looking 
 forward to our own career in the ministry, were led to associate 
 monasticism with our aspirations to a life of missionary labor. 
 
Glimpses of Lijc in an Anglican Seminary. 95 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SLOWNESS OF THE MOVEMENT ROMEWARD.— OVER- HASTY AT- 
 TEMPTS TO CRACK THE PROTESTANT NUT.— DUNIGAN. — 
 BAKER. — PHINNEY. — MOEHLER'S "SYMBOLISM." — LIVES OF 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH SAINTS. 
 
 CATHOLICS whose attention had been called to the nov- 
 elties brewing at our seminary must have thought it very 
 strange that it took us so long to find out where the truth 
 lay and to embrace the whole Catholic faith, worship, and church 
 with one confiding hug. It needs but a short argument to 
 show that only the Catholic body has true unity and that 
 variation is the very law and life of Protestantism. This ought 
 to be enough to bring them all into the true fold by a short 
 and easy process. Men who think thus, however, think so very 
 superficially. In real life the best and most earnest minds are 
 not accustomed to travel by these short cuts. An extensive 
 horse-breeder and trainer once said, in answer to a question of 
 mine: "Horses, sir, are very intelligent animals, and when they 
 see an old charred stump on the roadside they know very 
 well that it's nothing but a stump. But you see they are very 
 cautious creatures ; nature has made them so, and they don't 
 know at first sight what is behind the stump." 
 
 It was the same thing with many of us at the seminary. 
 We soon got used to discussions about the church. We soon 
 learned to understand that Christ instituted a visible church, 
 organized a tangible and approachable body. That church he 
 ofificered himself, giving it not only a complete doctrine to 
 transmit, and sacraments furnished with grace, but also a 
 divine mission, or right to act in his name. This right, we 
 understood, could only be transmitted by that church and in it. 
 This mission or divine current of jurisdiction is interrupted by 
 schism and ceases to flow into a severed member. All this was 
 
96 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 pretty much understood by the more advanced Tractarian 
 students at the seminary, and yet they were by no means pre- 
 pared to leap at once into the ancient church. Other questions, 
 profound and precious, lay before them still unsolved. Let me 
 here refer to an incident which occurred at some time during 
 my second year at the seminary, precisely when I cannot 
 remember, which exemplifies how hard it is for Catholics ** to 
 the manner born " to understand the perplexities and needs of 
 a Protestant outsider searching for the truth. 
 
 I went down-street one day to Dunigan's bookstore. He 
 kept at that time, if I remember right, far down in Broadway, 
 or possibly in William or Nassau Street. I inquired for 
 Moehler's Symbolism. He said to me (I think it was Dunigan 
 himself) : 
 
 " I don't think it is Moehler that you want." 
 
 "What then do I want?" I returned. 
 
 " The right book for you," he said, " is Bossuet's Variations 
 of Protestantism.'' 
 
 " No, sir. You are mistaken. The variations of Protest- 
 antism have been going on since Bossuet died, and perhaps I 
 know of many variations that he never heard of." 
 
 " Ah," said he, " I think I understand you. What you need 
 is Milner's E)id of Controversy. That's something quite re- 
 cent." 
 
 " No," I persisted, " I do not need Milner either. I read it 
 through and through, and feel no call to refer to it any more. 
 I know its contents pretty well and have gathered much truth 
 out of it, but it is not the end of controversy for me. I have 
 other questions to solve and deeper ones. What I want is 
 Moehler's Symbolism^ 
 
 He gave me a compassionate smile, but found the book for 
 me and I took it home to my room in the seminary. It 
 proved to be a treasure indeed. I think I learned of the ex- 
 istence and contents of this book from some reference or re- 
 view of it in the British Critic. It had made a deep impres- 
 sion on Dr. Newman's mind. 
 
 Protestants are not heathens ; far from it. Their reasons 
 cannot be reached by the same easy and simple means which 
 
Glimpses of Life in an A)igl'Lcaji Scviinary. 97 
 
 suffice for the ignorant heathen. When the Christian revelation 
 is fairly presented to the heathen mind, their ignorance has so 
 little to show in opposition that they are more ready to em- 
 brace it trustfully and in its entirety. The obex, or obstacle, to 
 truth presented by their simple superstitions is a comparative- 
 ly small one. The Protestant mind, on the contrary, however 
 cultivated, is by no means simple, nor in the same sense 
 ignorant. It is nearer the truth to say that they know too 
 much. They are oftentimes, to quote St. Paul, "more wise 
 than it behoveth to be wise." Their minds are too much pos- 
 sessed with things that are not so. - The obex which they pre- 
 sent to Catholic truth is something multitudinous, complex, 
 over-refined. It is so engrafted, so commingled with their 
 pious emotions, so closely webbed and interwoven with all their 
 past thoughts and memories, that they mistake prejudice for a 
 rational conviction. True doctrine "in a nutshell" is not 
 truth presented in a form in which they can receive it. The 
 attempt so frequently made thus to present it, and settle the 
 whole question at once, is well illustrated in my memory by an 
 anecdote from the experience of Father Baker, the Paulist, 
 which I have from himself. During the time when he was 
 stationed as rector at St. Luke's Church, Baltimore, a priest 
 rang the bell at his door and asked to see him. He presented 
 no card and gave no name. Biker's sister, who opened the 
 door, noticing this and not liking the exterior make-up of the 
 visitor, whose language and style of dress were something new 
 to her, was somewhat alarmed and disinclined to introduce him 
 tc her brother's room. This, however, she did. He took his 
 seat and immediately opened the purpose of his visit. What he 
 said was substantially as follows : 
 
 " I have heard of you, Mr. Baker. I understand that you 
 have strong inclinations toward the Catholic Church, but you 
 remain still in doubt. I can prove to you in a few short words 
 that she is the only true church. Now listen to me attentively 
 for a moment. See here ! The church is necessarily one, for 
 Christ her founder is one, and he only made one. Keep that in 
 mind. Now then : the church is also holy, for Christ made her 
 so, in order to sanctify the world. Keep that in mind also." He 
 

 ^^^ 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seniinary. 99 
 
 then proceeded in like manner to show that the true church 
 must be Catholic and apostolic. After this, in the same brief 
 manner, he went on to prove that only the Roman Catholic 
 Church bore these four marks of being the true one. Father 
 Baker listened in silence to what he had to say, but was quite 
 surprised to see the good father rise after completing this short 
 argument ; a hearty shaking of hands followed, and satisfied 
 with this the enthusiastic visitor withdrew, feeling that he had 
 finished his job. He was a good man and a most exemplary 
 priest. He belonged to a class of men to be met with every- 
 where. Wadhams and I heard of him during the course of this 
 year, or the winter of the next, while among the Adirondacks. 
 McMaster had been visited by him in his retirement at Hyde 
 Park, and had been highly pleased by him, for this priest had 
 seen much, and there were few places in the United States which 
 he had not visited ; he knew something of everything. He 
 came to me shortly after I became a Catholic and proposed to 
 me a variety of good devotions. I did not care to be ham- 
 pered with too many things all at once, and in this I was sup- 
 ported by the counsel of a wise director. Such men do not 
 generally bring about many healthy conversions. But if treated 
 wisely and gently by their superiors, and not trusted with the 
 management of difficult matters, they may do more good than 
 wiser men with less worthy motives. 
 
 I fear to have set down too strong an example to illustrate 
 well the point I would present. Many Catholics even with bet- 
 ter regulated minds often make serious mistakes when under- 
 taking to lead converts into the church. 
 
 The false maxims to which Protestants have become accus- 
 tomed may be digested and generalized, and so briefly stated 
 as to find room in a nutshell. That nutshell, however, they will 
 never acknowledge. They know that in their hearts there is a 
 religion deeper, truer, and more solid than that nut holds. You 
 may crack that nut before their eyes, but they do not feel hurt 
 by your vigorous hammer. 
 
 A little more than three years after leaving the seminary at 
 Chelsea I happened to be in Birmingham, England. The Rev. 
 Dr. Phinney, of Oberlin College, was there at the same time 
 
lOO Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seviiuary. 
 
 preaching ; I had got acquainted with him some six years ear- 
 lier when in the United States. I admired the man and felt 
 much attached to him. Another gentleman, whose acquaintance 
 I had made in America, was also in Birmingham at the same 
 time ; this was Baron Schroeder, a highly educated Catholic 
 layman from Germany. He persuaded me to go with him on a 
 visit to Dr. Phinney at his lodgings. Dr. Phinney and his wife 
 received us both very cordially and we had a long and pleasant 
 interview. A good part of the time was spent in amicable con- 
 troversy. I was, of course, but a novice in theology. The 
 baron was a well-educated scholar, especially in philosophy. 
 Professor Phinney, intellectually far superior to either of us, was 
 not only an eloquent and powerful preacher, but an expert in 
 doctrinal discussion. I only introduce this visit here to illus- 
 trate what I have said, that Protestantism, if it be understood 
 to comprise all that constitutes the religious life and belief of an 
 earnest Protestant, cannot be reduced to the compass of a nutshell. 
 
 *' Gentlemen," said the good doctor in the course of conver- 
 sation, " I am not prepared to say that I hold no religious er- 
 rors. Some of these may possibly be important errors. One 
 thing, however, I cannot allow myself to admit. To allow that 
 I do not understand the Christian religion in its substantial and 
 essential features is a supposition from which my whole soul re- 
 coils." 
 
 I give Dr. Phinney as a type of an earnest and intelligent 
 Protestant. There was a vast amount of belief in him. No 
 nutshell could cover it. 
 
 Moehler had studied well the age in which he lived. He knew 
 the Protestant mind. He knew that it could not be captured 
 by a single syllogism, and that a few texts establishing church 
 authority are seldom sufficient to bring an educated Protestant 
 to the true faith and into the true fold. Moehler devotes his 
 book on symbolism not only to these but to all the doctrines 
 which belong to religious faith and worship. He treats of the 
 attributes of God, the nature of man, man's relations with God, 
 the nature of grace, etc. He compares together carefully the 
 acknowledged symbols of Protestantism and Catholicity, and 
 presents both in their real light to religious souls who wish to 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. loi 
 
 live by the true law of spiritual life. Such Protestants are the 
 only ones that come to the Catholic Church, or at least that 
 come to stay. Catholic polemics in our day must learn new 
 texts of Scripture, glean new maxims from the Christian fathers, 
 and provide new fish-hooks and more efficient bait. So far as I 
 know of, no convert of the Chelsea Seminary was brought to 
 the door of the Catholic Church either by Milner's End of Con- 
 troversy or Bossuet's Variations, strong though they be. 
 
 The general spirit which characterized that seminary was, to 
 the best of my recollection and in my opinion, a good one. 
 There was a value attached to sound doctrine, and very little 
 attached to the idea that " it makes little difference what a man 
 believes, if only he be sincere." Dogmatic theology — that is to 
 say, the science of presenting religious truth in its true aspect 
 and in its proper relations with other truths — stood high in honor 
 there. I cannot remember that I ever heard dogmatic theology 
 spoken of respectfully until I came to the seminary at Chelsea. 
 Religion and all that is worth knowing about religion is gener- 
 ally supposed by Protestants to come to one as Santa Claus 
 comes to the children, while they are not looking out for it, 
 but asleep. 
 
 Our Tractarian students at Chelsea ranked high among the 
 others as diligent scholars, and this gained for them favor with 
 the professors, the majority of whom were by no means Trac- 
 tarian. It is not to be wondered at that students of this stamp 
 when once introduced to Moehler's Symbolism, should become 
 fascinated with it. It was not a book which professed to teach 
 Catholicity in six easy lessons which should avoid all necessity 
 of investigating farther. It did not profess to furnish an all- 
 sufficient egg which should develop itself and required no brood- 
 ing to bring it to a development. Moehler takes up the whole 
 of Catholic doctrine, yet article by article. The external marks 
 of the true church, which prove her right to teach, are not 
 omitted. The doctrines which she teaches are also all brought 
 forward and have their own distinct grounds to stand upon. 
 The acknowledged councils of the church with her canons and 
 decrees when cited are given in her own words, not fearing to 
 commit her to her own declarations. Side by side with these 
 
102 Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seminary. 
 
 are placed the doctrines of the Protestant reformers, expressed 
 in their own words. The Anglican Church, with her symbols 
 or formularies of doctrine and worship, is placed side by side 
 with the Roman Catholic, as the queen in " Hamlet " is made to 
 look first at the portrait of her husband and then upon the face 
 of her crowned paramour — 
 
 " Look here, upon this picture, and on this." 
 
 Moehler understands well the effect necessarily produced up- 
 on a fair mind by two faithful portraits thus distinctly presented 
 in their own dress and with their own native features. Then 
 the beholder with a genuine conviction may say of the true 
 king— 
 
 " See, what a grace was seated on this brow," 
 
 while the other has little but his clothing to present, and stands 
 
 " A king of shreds and patches ! " 
 
 a mere show of apostolical succession, without any rightful in- 
 heritance of divine mission, holding forth a Common Prayer 
 Book which comprises in one cover a jumbled jargon of doc- 
 trine. 
 
 Moehler's Symbolism did more to lead me to a comprehensive 
 knowledge of the Catholic faith and to take the final step of 
 entering the Catholic fold than any other book. I have always 
 preferred it above all others as a book to lend to thoughtful 
 and studious Protestants. 
 
 I have perhaps said enough to show what doctrinal vitality — 
 that is, what eagerness to know the real truth — existed among 
 Episcopalians at the time included in these reminiscences, and 
 was perhaps more focused at our seminary than anywhere else in 
 America. It would be a great oversight to make no mention of 
 a spirit still more precious and vital which I found kindled there 
 and which must account for many conversions to the faith. 
 Arthur Carey was the chief centre of this flame, as he was the 
 chief leader in the inquiry after truth. His residence at the 
 seminary occupied a period of four years, including one year 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Scmitiary. 103 
 
 during which, being too young for ordination, he kept his old 
 room, mingling as freely with the students as a secluded life of 
 study and prayer like his would allow. Every one was glad to 
 know him, even those who looked upon him as all the more 
 dangerous from the very fact of his being pious, sincere, and 
 virtuous. His sayings about religious topics of the day were re- 
 peated about among us from mouth to mouth, as the last words 
 would be cited that came from Newman or Dalgairns. Not all 
 were disposed to follow his opinions, but no one could afford 
 to be ignorant of what he thought and said. It cannot reason- 
 ably be doubted that at the bottom of the Tractarian move- 
 ment there lay, not merely a demand for pure and Catholic 
 truth but also for a holy life. The spirit of high and dry 
 churchmanship did not preside at the seminary. It was, no 
 doubt, the real spirit of Anglicanism, but it was as unpalatable 
 to Tractarians as it was to Evangelicals, and more so. 
 
 In this state of things it was impossible that books emanat- 
 ing from Oxford, and showing the new kindled piety which 
 breathed there, should not find free circulation at the seminary. 
 Keble's Christian Year lay liere and there upon the tables of 
 those who loved poetry. Soon followed the Lyra Apostolica, to 
 which Keble, Newman, Hurrell Froude, and many other leading 
 spirits of the " Movement " contributed words burning with 
 piety and often radiant with the truest poetry. Faber was 
 better known at that time as a romantic poet, but he was re- 
 cognized " as one of them," and as such found a few readers 
 amongst us. But a greater charm than any of these possessed 
 was to be found in the Lives of the Early English Saints. This 
 was a series of biographies written by Anglicans of the Oxford 
 school, and was a most influential element in its great move- 
 ment towards real Catholic truth and life. The series was con- 
 fined to English saints. There was wisdom in this restriction. 
 It took into account English national prejudice by showing 
 lives of sanctity lived on English ground. At the same time 
 an honest presentation of English sanctity in early times 
 would be sure to show how little it looks like modern 
 Anglican piety, and hovv distinctly it presents itself associated 
 with the doctrines, worship, and austere practices of the Church 
 
I04 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 of Rome. The writers of these lives did not propose, nor in- 
 deed consciously intend, to lead their readers to relinquish their 
 own communion and unite with the Roman Catholics. What 
 they proposed is well stated by Wilfrid Ward in his book en- 
 titled William George Ward and the Oxford Movement (chapter 
 vii. page 142). He says : 
 
 " The love of Rome and of an united Christendom which 
 marked the new school was not purely a love for ecclesiastical 
 authority. This was indeed one element ; but there was another 
 yet more influential in many minds — admiration for the saints of 
 the Roman Church, and for the saintly ideal as realized especi- 
 ally in the monastic life. We have already seen how this 
 element operated in Mr. Ward's own history. Froude had 
 struck the note of sanctity as well as the note of authority. 
 He had raised an inspiring ideal on both heads ; and behold, 
 with however much of practical corruption and superstition 
 mixed up with their practical exhibition, these ideals were 
 actually reverenced, attempted, often realized, in the existing 
 Roman Church. The worthies of the English Church — even 
 when sharing the tender piety of George Herbert or Bishop 
 Ken — fell short of the heroic aims, the martial sanctity, gained 
 by warfare unceasing against world, flesh, and devil, which they 
 found exhibited in Roman Hagiology. The glorying in the 
 cross of Christ which is the key-note to such lives as those of 
 St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier, while it recalled 
 much in the life of St. Paul, had no counterpart in post-Re- 
 formation Anglicanism." 
 
 As early as the long vacation at Oxford of 1842 the idea 
 suggested itself to the mind of Dr. Newman of getting out 
 this series of the Lives of the English Saints, and immediate 
 measures were taken to secure writers and prepare for publica- 
 tion. The first of the series reached our seminary, I think, in 
 the winter of 1843 ^^^ '44> during my second year's course. I 
 have no complete list by me of the saints comprised in this 
 series, but it included the Life of St. Stephen Harding, founder 
 of the Cistercians, which involves much of that of his disciple, 
 the great St. Bernard, St. Austin of Canterbury, St. Woolstan, 
 St. William, St. Paulinus, St. Bega, St. Gilbert, St. Richard and 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 105 
 
 his family, and Legends of Hermit Saints, some of these writ- 
 ten by Newman himself. 
 
 These biographies were couched in language more or less 
 watered to suit Anglican ears ; but no daintiness of style nor 
 dilution of matter could conceal the fact that the early English 
 saints were utterly unlike Anglicans of the present day. In his 
 Apologia pro Vita Sua Dr. Newman gives us his motives for 
 starting this new enterprise. 
 
 " I thought it would be useful," he says, " as employing the 
 minds of men who were in danger of running wild, bringing 
 them from doctrine to history, and from speculation to fact ; 
 again, as giving them an interest in the English soil and the 
 English Church, and keeping them from seeking sympathy in 
 Rome, as she is; and further as seeking to promote the spread 
 of right views." 
 
 This plan, however, for holding back earnest and truth-seek- 
 ing minds from the necessary consequences which attach to 
 truth, could not and did not work. Scarcely had his project 
 taken wing than he was forced to write to a friend : " Within 
 the last month, it has come upon me that, if the scheme goes 
 on, it will be a practical carrying out of No. 90 ; from the char- 
 acter of the usages and opinions of ante-reformation times." 
 
 So indeed it was. Like No. 90, it forced matters onward 
 to a crisis both in England and America. It did more than 
 this. It led many eager minds to a more special consideration 
 of monastic life as combining in its bosom a special grace for 
 self-purification and perfection with a zeal for missionary labor. 
 St. Stephen Harding, of Citeaux, was the model of a monk to 
 whom the whole world had nothing to offer. St. Bernard, his 
 great disciple, carried out from Citeaux a burning heart to 
 which the world of souls was always appealing. 
 
 In the next chapter I propose to show how the admiration 
 for monasticism thus aroused led ardent souls among the Chel- 
 sea graduates and students to projecting monastic institutions 
 in their own church and actually experimenting in them. 
 
lo6 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A PROTESTANT CITEAUX IN THE WEST. — NASHOTAH FOUNDED 
 ON MONASTICISM. — KIP"S VISIT IN 1 847. — THE FOUNDERS 
 GET MARRIED. — ST. MARY'S PRIORY IN THE ADIRONDACKS. — 
 EPISCOPALIAN SISTERHOODS. 
 
 THE last three chapters show how Tractarian doctrines, so 
 rife at the Chelsea Seminary, acting upon a spirit of in- 
 terior piety and zeal for the salvation of souls, and combining 
 both of these together in the same bosoms, led on gradually 
 to an eagerness to introduce something like monastic life into 
 Anglicanism. Americans are a people too practical and enter- 
 prising to be much attracted by thumb-sucking saints. Even our 
 transcendental pantheists of New England, inclined as they are 
 betimes to contemplation and fond of Brahminical lore and 
 legends, are not easily disposed to sit dreaming with their backs 
 against the trunks of trees until their hair grows into the bark. 
 At Brook Farm the stirring motto was 
 
 Hast thou aught to teach, then teach it ; 
 Preach it 
 
 Loud and long ; 
 
 Sing it if it be a song. 
 Be thou prophet, be thou poet, 
 If thou know it, go it — 
 
 Strong. 
 
 When Dalgairns's Life of St. Stephen Harding first found its 
 way across the water to Chelsea, the sensation it produced was 
 intense. St. Bernard was not an Englishman, and his character 
 and career could not easily be put forth directly in a series of 
 Lives of the English Saints. But St. Stephen, the founder of 
 Citeaux, could give his name to a volume which should bring 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 107 
 
 forward luminously the career of the great St. Bernard, the 
 master-spirit of the Cistercian Order. St. Bernard was one of the 
 very holiest of contemplatives ; and yet, forced from the seclu- 
 sion which he loved by his burning zeal, by the constant needs 
 and pressing calls of Christendom, his voice was made to resound 
 throughout the whole Continent of Europe. He was, in truth, 
 the very type of a missionary monk. 
 
 Something like Citeaux was already existing in the Anglican 
 Church of America. It was at Nashotah, in Wisconsin. This 
 institute was in reality an attempt, under the name of a mis- 
 sionary station, to found a veritable monastery. Its founder was 
 James Lloyd Breck, a graduate of the Chelsea Seminary of 1841. 
 Associated with him were two of his classmates, William Adams 
 and John Henry Hobart. That the intention was to found a 
 monastery is evident from a letter, now in my possession, written 
 by Breck to Wadhams, October 21, 1842, inviting him to come 
 and join them. The letter says : 
 
 " If, dear Wadhams, you conclude to come, remember we re- 
 ceive you on the ground of our first principles, which are: (1) 
 so long as connected with this institution to remain unmarried ; 
 (2) to yield implicit and full obedience to all the rules and regu- 
 lations of the body ; (3) community of goods so long as commu- 
 nity of purpose ; (4) teaching on the staunch Catholic principles ; 
 (5) preaching from place to place on circuits — route, mode, etc., 
 to be determined by the bishop, or by one authorized by him." 
 
 An earlier letter to the same from Adams breathes the same 
 spirit. " Dear brother," he writes, " if you can in almost every 
 way deny yourself, can be content to remain unmarried for an 
 indefinite period, to live on the coarsest food, to deny yourself 
 the pleasure of cultivated society ; then come to Wisconsin." 
 
 As Nashotah, then an object of longing interest to many 
 hearts at the General Seminary, grew in a few years to be a 
 flourishing institution, though far different from what its foun- 
 ders intended to make it, it may be well to give some further 
 description of this institute and its locality, in its early days. 
 Bishop Kip, of California, visited it as early as 1847. I gather 
 the following materials from a pamphlet of his, published at 
 that time, entitled A few Days at Nashotah. The lands of the 
 
Io8 Glunpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Nashotah Mission were adjoining those of Bishop Kemper, then 
 having charge of the territory in which this mission was included. 
 On their first arrival Breck, Adams, and Hobart had assigned 
 to them Prairieville, with a circuit of thirty miles around. Af- 
 ter nine months they settled at the Nashotah Lakes. Bishop 
 Kip thus describes their location : 
 
 " The whole of this part of the country is intersected by the 
 most beautiful lakes, so that from a hill a few miles distant 
 eleven can be counted in sight, while more than double that 
 number can be found in a circle of twelve miles. They are of 
 various sizes, the largest being about two miles in length — some 
 dotted with islands — the water perfectly clear, and the shore 
 generally a high bluff, rising many feet above the surface. Two 
 of these, which approach within a hundred feet of each other, 
 and are united by a little brook, have retained the Indian name 
 of Nashotah, or Twin Lakes. On the bank of one of them, 
 where the shore rises fifty feet above the water, and then spreads 
 out into a level plateau, covered with oak-trees standing in 
 clumps (an oak opening), are the mission buildings." Across this 
 lake and on a small prairie are remarkable Indian mounds, 
 twelve feet high. One represents a tortoise, another a serpent, 
 another a bear. Large trees grow on some of them, showing 
 great age. 
 
 In 1847, when ^ip wrote, the institution had grown from the 
 one-story log-house, described in my Reminiscences of Bishop 
 Wadhams, to eight or ten low wooden buildings, and he tells 
 us that " The view from this spot is probably one of the most 
 enchanting that the world can furnish." 
 
 Breck, formerly at St. Paul's College, Flushing, L. I., had 
 been a pupil of the Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, whose beautiful 
 church on the corner of Twentieth Street and Fifth Avenue, 
 New York City, was building in 1843, ^"<^ eagerly watched by 
 us seminarians. We looked upon the worthy doctor as neither 
 low nor high nor dry, but as a true Catholic in our romantic 
 sense of the word. He was particularly a favorite among stu- 
 dents of the ritualistic type. He was admired then as a poet, 
 with a keen taste for church architecture, author of the beauti 
 ful hymn, " I would not live alway," now known also as the 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 109 
 
 founder of St. Luke's Hospital, under the care of Episcopalian 
 nuns. The Paulists in Fifty-ninth Street have a beautiful cruci- 
 fixion by Guido, as a testimonial of gratitude to Father Deshon 
 from Dr. Muhlenberg, for helping to guard his hospital during 
 the draft riot in 1863. 
 
 Muhlenberg was visiting Break's institute when Kip was 
 there. At that time the washing of the institution was done by 
 students for poverty's sake. They had also a baptistery there ; 
 i. e., " a flight of steps leading into the water at a convenient 
 depth for immersion, where a platform has been placed on the 
 bottom." Bishop Kip gives as a reason for this, that many of 
 the settlers around were Baptists ; but from what I know of 
 Breck, and that strong yearning existing then as now among 
 Anglicans for some show of union with those happy Oriental 
 Greek churches which practise immersion, they would have done 
 the same thing if these modern Anabaptists had migrated 
 further westward. Bishop Kip gives us the mode of immersion 
 at Nashotah, which, he says, is different from the way in which 
 it is performed among the Baptists (i. e., more genteel), where 
 the individual is immersed backwards. Here he kneels in the 
 water, the officiating priest places one hand behind his head, 
 and, taking him at the same time by the hand, bends him for- 
 ward till the immersion is complete, and then aids him in rising. 
 
 In addition to the practice of poverty, celibacy, and obedi- 
 ence, which, as we have seen, Breck and Adams announced to 
 Wadhams as requirements of their institute, the principle at- 
 tached to monasticism since the time of the earliest hermits 
 and cenobites of the desert, that labor must be associated with 
 prayer, was carried out after some fashion at Nashotah as late 
 as Bishop Kip's visit. He tells us that during the summer 
 vacation, which lasted from the middle of June to the middle 
 of November, the studies were suspended and the students 
 labored eight hours a day. Many of these were in the harvest- 
 field, where they were seen by Kip at work. " We found," said 
 he, "about a dozen employed in getting in the wheat, on a 
 tract which had been cleared and brought into cultivation since 
 the mission was established." I find no account of contempla- 
 tive prayei as filling up the hours not occupied by labor or 
 
no Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 study, but a routine of life is given in which appear hours for 
 chapel service, with days for receiving communion, etc., as in 
 ordinary seminaries and colleges. 
 
 This whole mission of Bishop Kemper, with the bishop's 
 house and seminary at Nashotah for its centre, was the carry- 
 ing out of a scheme to draw Episcopalian emigration and to 
 colonize and Anglicanize the emigrants. It much resembles 
 Archbishop Ireland's more recent colonization plan for Minne- 
 sota, and, like that plan, was eminently successful. The plan 
 of the Nashotah plant contemplated at one and the same time 
 colonization, missionary labor, and monastic life. The first two 
 parts of this plan have succeeded wonderfully well. The suc- 
 cess of the last was very short ; love got into the tub and the 
 bottom fell out. 
 
 This Nashotah property was held by the Rev. James Lloyd 
 Breck, in trust, for the education of students both theological 
 and academical. In 1841 they had one student. This number 
 had increased at the time when Kip visited it, in 1847, to 
 twenty-three students. At that time the members of the mis- 
 sion had seventeen stations for preaching and lay reading, with- 
 in a circuit of thirty miles. The students acted as lay readers 
 and catechists among the emigrants of the neighborhood. The 
 idea of the three founders was to establish an institution which 
 should be essentially monastic. The bishop humored this idea, 
 for Breck and his companions were valuable men, and, however 
 visionary their special hopes might be, it would have been a 
 dangerous thing to discourage them. The letters of Breck and 
 Adams from which we have selected short extracts, but which 
 are given at greater length in the Reminiscences of Bishop 
 Wadhams, show the eager anxiety for celibacy and monastic 
 life which reigned in the bosoms of the writers. But the aim 
 of Bishop Kemper is better disclosed by his friend, Dr. Kip, 
 who writes not only to recommend the institution to the pa- 
 tronage of Episcopalians generally, but takes care to excuse and 
 explain away certain apparent tendencies to Romanism which 
 hover about the place. Dr. Kip writes : 
 
 " One of the most common charges against the institution 
 is, that the doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy is inculcated. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. iii 
 
 We take, therefore, this opportunity to deny it. Such is not 
 the case. The only foundation for the story is, that a student 
 upon joining the institution pledges himself not to form any 
 engagement with reference to matrimony during his union with 
 it. The moment he is ordained he is, of course, left free to do 
 as he pleases. We believe that there is no one acquainted with 
 the state of things in some other seminaries of our church but 
 must feel that it would be better for the students if they were 
 under the restriction of this rule. If there was less visiting, 
 there would be more theology." 
 
 Dr. Kip's pleasant way of waving off the charges and sus- 
 picions against Nashotah agree as little with my own remem- 
 brances of the time as they do with Breck's own letters. I was 
 one of several candidates for orders whose missionary aspira- 
 tions blending with the love of solitude and a yearning for 
 the graces attached to a spiritual life in the cloister drew me 
 strongly to Nashotah, and I applied to my father for permis- 
 sion to join that institution and finish my studies there. But 
 the rumors above mentioned had reached his ears and made 
 him hesitate. He consulted Dr. Horatio Potter, afterward 
 Bishop of New York, and then rector of St. Peter's Church in 
 Albany. Dr. Potter advised him by no means to consent to it, 
 as Puseyism reigned there in its worst forms. This ended the 
 matter for me. Bishop Kemper utilized the zeal and labors of 
 Breck and his Tractarian friends, but all for his own purposes, 
 not for theirs. Breck's airy vision soon melted away like a mist. 
 
 Hobart left Nashotah in its infancy to take a wife. Six of its 
 early students, finding that its monastic character was nothing 
 but a thin garment cautiously tolerated by authority and for a 
 present purpose only, broke away from the delusion to unite 
 with the Catholic Church. Three of these, McCurry, Graves, 
 and Robinson, visited me at St. Peter's Church, Troy, in 1859, 
 the time of their emancipation. McCurry, by my advice, at- 
 tached himself to the diocese of Albany, and upon his ordina- 
 tion was appointed assistant priest in St. John's Church, in Al- 
 bany City. A vacancy occurring in the church at Cooperstown, 
 he was sent there to supply the place temporarily, and died there. 
 He was a most valuable and pious priest. Graves also took or- 
 
112 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 ders in the Catholic Church, connecting himself with one of the 
 Wisconsin dioceses. Robinson was rector of the Church of 
 the Holy Name of Jesus, at Chicopee, Mass., but within the 
 last few months he died. 
 
 Although John Henry Hobart's connection with Nashotah 
 was so brief, yet the fact of his being a graduate of the Chel- 
 sea Seminary, with a memory still fresh in its halls, when I ar- 
 rived there, as a forward Tractarian, the son of an illustrious 
 bishop and himself remarkable for high personal qualifications, 
 seems to demand further notice in these Reminiscences. I saw 
 him and conversed with him only twice. The first time was at 
 Saratoga Springs. It must have been, I think, in the summer 
 of 1844. My object was to obtain such information as I might 
 concerning the community and life at Nashotah. His answers 
 to my inquiries impressed me very much in his favor as a young 
 man of unusual intelligence, honorable feeling, and refined cour- 
 tesy. He spoke frankly of the Nashotah Institute and of his 
 former companions, Breck and Adams. His statements concern- 
 ing the institute were always highly favorable, and of his friends 
 there he spoke with much regard and affection„ He did not 
 attempt to make the least defence of his act in leaving them. 
 
 " You must not expect me, Mr. Walworth, to offer any ex- 
 cuse for my action," he said, " beyond my own weakness and 
 instability of purpose. My companions were too noble and 
 spiritual for me. Their vocation is a higher one than mine, and 
 cheerfully will I recommend this community to any young man 
 who can keep pace with such spirits as Breck and Adams, and 
 make such sacrifices as they make. So far as I am concerned 
 the public will be my judges, and will, no doubt, judge rightly." 
 
 There was a truthfulness and dignity in this frank and sim- 
 ple confession of weakness which, to my mind at the time, 
 amounted to sublimity. I thought I saw in it a generosity 
 of nature which made him worthy of his distinguished father 
 and of his noble-ipinded sister, the convert-wife of Dr. Levi Sil- 
 liman Ives, who became more distinguished as a Catholic lay- 
 man than he had been as Protestant bishop. He was near kins- 
 man, moreover, to Mother Seton, foundress of Emmittsburg, 
 the mother-house of the Sisters of Charity in this country; a 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 113 
 
 kinsman, too, of James Roosevelt Bayley, who died Archbishop 
 of Baltimore. Every soul is precious in the eyes of God. Is it 
 an ill-directed sentiment to feel sad that a gifted young man, 
 so connected with converts to the true church, should have 
 died without its pale? His death occurred in 1889. He was 
 assistant minister of Trinity Church, New York City. 
 
 Following Hobart's advice, I visited the Rev. Mr. Tucker, 
 now and for many years past rector of Holy Cross Church, in 
 Troy, well known as founded through the charity of Mrs. War- 
 ren of that city. Tucker was a graduate of Chelsea, well known 
 there to us both and thoroughly intimate with Breck and 
 Adams. I have no distinct recollection of my interview with 
 Tucker except that it was a very pleasant one, and that he was 
 well posted in what concerned Nashotah, of which institute he 
 was a warm advocate. 
 
 The next time that I saw Hobart was also at Saratoga 
 Springs, after I had become a Catholic. He was not at all sur- 
 prised, nor did he express the least regret. I myself should not 
 have felt the least surprise at that time had I heard of his do- 
 ing the same thing, although in such a case, having matrimony 
 in view, he would have been obliged, like Dr. Ives, his brother- 
 in law, to live as a layman. 
 
 Adams was a better school-master than he was pioneer or 
 monk. Breck's deeper spirituality and greater energy were in 
 the beginning far more valuable in drawing zealous young Trac- 
 tarians to what promised to be a life of mortification, devotion, 
 and missionary enterprise. Bishop Kemper knew well how to 
 avail himself of such qualities without letting his horse run 
 away with him. As time advanced, however, students gathered 
 and emigrants fell into line. This brought into greater promi- 
 nence and gave more comparative value to the scholarly quali- 
 ties and more sedentary habits of Adams. The institute at 
 Nashotah shaped itself more and more to the ordinary wants 
 and ways of an Episcopalian seminary and college, while play- 
 ing monk became more of a nuisance to all interested parties, 
 who really cared nothing for monk or cowl. 
 
 Adams soon took a wife. What special circumstances led to 
 this I cannot tell, but it is a fact of history that Cupid smiled 
 
114 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 upon him in the form of his own bishop's daughter. His voca- 
 tion became thus settled. He is still a professor at the Nasho- 
 tah Seminary, his department being that of Systematic Divinity. 
 
 Mr. E. C. Arnold, a convert, now public librarian at Taun- 
 ton, Mass., and once a bookseller at Milwaukee, was quite fa- 
 miliar with Nashotah in its early years. I have from him the 
 following account of Breck's subsequent career: 
 
 *' Adams's marriage to Bishop Kemper's daughter was a great 
 grief to Breck, and as he felt unable to cope with the ' married 
 influence,' he eventually turned his back on Nashotah and 
 started a similar institution at Faribault, Minn. While there 
 he paid Bishop Grace several visits, and we sent him books from 
 Milwaukee ; but ere long he got entangled matrimonially himself, 
 and that put an end to his earlier dreams." 
 
 His last station was in California. He died rector of St. 
 Paul's Church, Benicia, in that State. One monument to the 
 busy life of this remarkable man is found in the " Breck 
 Mission and Farm School," Wilder, Minnesota. 
 
 The only other attempt to introduce monasticism into the 
 Episcopalian Church in the United States in which I took part, 
 or of which I have any personal recollections, was a scheme 
 which originated also at the General Seminary in the City of 
 New York. The central figure in this scheme was Edgar P. 
 Wadhams, a graduate of the class of 1843, who received dea- 
 con's orders immediately after graduation and was put in charge 
 of the whole of Essex County. I suppose I must name myself 
 as the second figure in the plan, since I was the only one of 
 the cenobites that actually located himself at the proposed 
 scene of operations, which was the village of Wadhams' Mills, 
 in the old homestead of that family. Our actual community 
 consisted of two. Deacon Wadhams and myself. We occupied 
 the second story of the house. Widow Wadhams presiding over 
 the lower story. Our flat (the convent which we dedicated to 
 St. Mary) comprised two large rooms with hall and stairway. 
 The room at the south end was the convent kitchen, with a 
 bed for my accommodation. The room at the north end, a 
 very large one, was at once the larder, general store-room, lum- 
 ber loft, and carpenter's working shop. Wadhams occupied a 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 115 
 
 small bed-chamber on the first floor, there being no place for 
 him in the cloister above. Our chapel, to which we had no 
 
 Edgar P. Wadhams as Bishop of Ogdensburg. 
 
 claim except on Sundays, was the village school-house. On 
 Christmas we celebrated Episcopalian Mass in Widow Wad- 
 
Ii6 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 hams' parlor which was richly decorated for the occasion with 
 evergreens. We had no other common oratory than the com- 
 munity kitchen ; the stove, cupboard, dining-table, bed, and 
 washstand harmonizing sufficiently well with our simple devo- 
 tions. For brevity's sake I may call this our Chapter-House. 
 Here also Wadhams and I had our spiritual readings when we 
 two were alone. Sometimes, however, to please Widow Wad- 
 hams, this exercise was held in her kitchen, for she loved to 
 assist at these readings when she could, especially when we read 
 from the Lives of the Saints, Alban Butler's simple "Lives" 
 delighted her especially. On these occasions two of her grand- 
 sons, children of William Wadhams, a Presbyterian deacon, as- 
 sisted, for they lodged and boarded with their grandmother. 
 The kitchen-girl also could not always be absent, unless she 
 stayed outdoors. A stranger could not easily have distinguished, 
 even in the premises outside the house, between the cloister 
 and the world. The cow-house was under the jurisdiction of 
 the convent, for Prior Wadhams owned the cow, and I kept 
 her apartments clean for her "with my spade and shovel"; and 
 I kept the cow. Prior Wadhams also owned a pony named 
 Beni, who was lodged on the other side of the highway, in the 
 stable of Deacon William Wadhams. All the other out build- 
 ings belonged to Mrs. Wadhams, with all the pigs, hens, ducks, 
 geese, turkeys, and doves that occupied or frequented them. 
 
 This location of our monastery was only a temporary one. 
 About a mile distant to the northward lay a beautiful tract of 
 land, where a large creek, after tumbling down from among the 
 Adirondack Mountains, made a wide sweep around an extensive 
 farm of meadow backed by woodland, then headed directly for 
 the little village or corners named Wadhams' Mills, passing 
 close behind our house, to leap over a fine fall and supply 
 water for the village mill. Our future hopes were all centred 
 in the farm just mentioned. It was the hereditary property of 
 our prior. On it we saw in the dim future a noble monastic 
 pile giving shelter and seclusion to a cowled community of con- 
 templatives, missionaries, scholars, and a thousand other vision- 
 ary things of religious dream-land. This vision melted away in 
 the next spring time, leaving nothing but a log hut that never 
 
Gliwpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. wj 
 
 received either community or roof. Our monastic pile, if it 
 still remains, is only a pile of logs. 
 
 My memory recalls no fruitful experiments among Episco- 
 palians to found monastic communities of men. Religious com- 
 munities of women have had better success. The reader will 
 remember that when Dr. Kip visited Nashotah he there met 
 the Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg on a similar visit. It may be that 
 the latter had already at that time some enthusiastic predilec- 
 tion for monasticism. The first introduction of religious sister- 
 hoods amongst Episcopalians in this country that I remember 
 was when Dr. Muhlenberg, of New York, put St. Luke's Hospi- 
 tal under charge of such women. Similar sisterhoods are now 
 not at all unfrequent. A boarding-school for young ladies, 
 named Kemper Hall, now exists at Kenosha, Wisconsin, under 
 charge of ladies of this kind. They are called the Sisters of 
 St. Mary. Other sisters bearing the same title are found at 
 Memphis, Tenn. ; Peekskill, N. Y. ; Islip, L. I. ; Rockaway Beach, 
 and at six different locations in New York City. These seem 
 to belong to one general order, the time of first foundation 
 reaching back as far as 1865. Besides these, other Episcopalian 
 societies of religious ladies are to be found bearing various 
 titles, such as the following : The Sisters of the Good Shep- 
 herd, of the Holy Communion, of the Holy Child Jesus, of St. 
 John the Evangelist, of SS. Philip and James, All Saints' Sis- 
 ters of the Poor, Colored Sisters of St. Mary and All Saints, 
 Sisters of St. Martha, of the Holy Nativity, of the Holy Name, 
 of St. Monica. They are located at New York, Albany, St. 
 Louis, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Baltimore, Louisville, Providence, 
 Tyler in Texas, and Fond du Lac, Wis. 
 
 Some of these are branches of conventual institutes of the 
 Church of England ; for example, that of St. John Baptist, New 
 York; that of St. Margaret, Boston; that of All Saints' Sisters 
 of the Poor, Baltimore. So far as I know, and as I believe, all 
 these sisters are considered as nuns. They wear some fashion 
 of religious habit and are not easily to be distinguished at 
 sight from Catholic sisters, except that their eyes are not much 
 cloistered, and that their gait and walk have not received any 
 apparent modification since they put ofT their secular dress. 
 
Il8 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 The CJmrch Almanac and Year Book for i8g2 exhibits an exist- 
 ing and recognized order of deaconesses. What they are I 
 cannot tell ; whether they are nuns or not, nor when they first 
 became a feature of Episcopalianism. They are specially edu- 
 cated to their work, one training-school being in New York 
 and one in Philadelphia. A still older one, called the Church 
 Home, has existed in Mobile since 1863. 
 
 To what extent the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedi- 
 ence are enjoined amongst these Protestant nuns is more than 
 I can tell. I remember, however, that when Dr. Muhlenberg 
 introduced his Sisters into St. Luke's Hospital it was said that 
 their vocation was cemented by vows, and that the vow of 
 chastity consisted in an obligation to remain single until it 
 should please God to call them to some other state of life. 
 One thing should be set down as undoubted ; that no part of 
 all this tendency toward the monastic life is an outcrop of 
 Protestantism, but must be attributed to the Tractarian move- 
 ment. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 119 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AFTER EFFECTS OF CAREY'S ORDINATION. — WAR ON BISHOP ON- 
 DERDONK IN DIOCESAN CONVENTION. — THE BISHOP'S MAS- 
 TERLY DEFENCE. — JUDGE DUER'S SPEECH. — A CHANGE OF 
 TACTICS. — THE BISHOP'S PRIVATE CHARACTER ASSAILED. — 
 HIS TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION. 
 
 IN these reminiscences hitherto my memory has been occupied 
 with the rise and growth, in the United States, of Tractari- 
 anism, or what is more popularly known as the Oxford Move- 
 ment, We had, in truth, a little Oxford on this side of the 
 Atlantic. It was located in a little suburban appendix to New 
 York City, known as Chelsea. Its name was the General Theo- 
 logical Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 The Oxford Movement in the United States came in due 
 course of time and very naturally to a convulsive conflict, a close 
 grapple of controversial contention and angry feeling which agi- 
 tated Anglicanism throughout the whole country. The imme- 
 diate occasion of this was the examination and ordination of 
 Arthur Carey, an account of which has already been given in 
 the third and fourth chapters of these reminiscences. 
 
 A very salient statement of the causes which led to this 
 struggle and of circumstances which aggravated the excitement 
 was thus given, at the time, in the columns of the Quarterly 
 Christian Spectator for October, 1843 • 
 
 " Such an occurrence as the ordination of Mr. Carey with the 
 protest of two eminent clergymen against him, on the ground 
 of his being in effect a Roman Catholic, became the town's 
 talk; and filled the newspapers, not only in the City of New 
 York but everywhere else. Nor did the news from Europe just 
 about those days help to divert the public attention from these 
 matters. The astounding progress of O'Connell's movement for 
 giving to Popery its natural ascendency in Ireland ; the ad- 
 
I20 
 
 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 mired secession of one-half of the Established Church in Scot- 
 land ; the universal agitation in England about Tractarianism, 
 together with the University censure of Dr. Pusey himself at 
 Oxford, gave to an ecclesiastico-religious question of this kind 
 a new and surprising power of interesting the whole people." 
 
 It was impossible that so fierce a conflict could go on long 
 without a break-up of Tractarianism, such as it was, for in point 
 
 of numbers Tractarians were 
 
 by far the weaker party. It 
 is also impossible to describe 
 this break-up without giving 
 some account of the trial and 
 condemnation of Dr. Benjamin 
 T. Onderdonk, President of 
 the Seminary and Bishop of 
 New York. To this we devote 
 the present chapter. 
 
 The ordination of Carey 
 made Bishop Onderdonk the 
 central point of a violent storm. 
 The bishop could not properly 
 be called a Tractarian, he was 
 rather a High-churchman ; but 
 believing the Anglican Church 
 to have been established on a 
 compromise in matters of doc- 
 trine, he was willing to give 
 that compromise its largest 
 latitude. This made him a 
 great protector of Tractarians, 
 whether clergymen or seminarians looking forward to ordina- 
 tion. He was no great favorite at our seminary, but all the Trac- 
 tarian students in the institution recognized him as a protector. 
 His ordination of Carey now made him a target. Every 
 evangelical zealot, whether bishop, priest, or layman, entered 
 upon a war the success of which seemed to depend necessarily 
 upon the downfall of the bishop. As for him, his Dutch blood 
 was fully aroused, and until his character was undermined he 
 
 Dr. Benjamin T. Onderdonk. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 121 
 
 stood the shock of battle like a veritable Van Tromp. The war 
 against him was not carried on merely in social circles and in 
 the columns of the press, and in multitudinous pamphlets ar- 
 raigning his action in the ordination of Carey ; it broke out 
 openly and vigorously in the first convention of his diocese that 
 met after the ordination. This was in the latter part of Sep- 
 tember, of the same year, at St. Paul's Chapel in New York 
 City. It was the largest gathering of delegates in convention 
 since the formation of Western New York into a separate dio- 
 cese in 1838. 
 
 On September 28, 1843, Judge Oakley, chief-justice of the 
 Superior Court, opened fire upon the bishop in full convocation 
 by the introduction of two resolutions in themselves not at all 
 unreasonable, but in view of all the circumstances quite out of 
 season if the end which he proposed to himself was the resto- 
 ration of peace. 
 
 The first resolution was that the delegates from New York 
 to the next general convention should be instructed to procure 
 such an authoritative interpretation of the rubrics as should 
 settle the question whether clergymen have the same right as lay- 
 men to object to a candidate in response to the call of the 
 bishop at the ordination ceremony. 
 
 The second resolution looked forward to the procuring of a 
 canon providing that upon the application of two presbyters ob- 
 jecting to the fitness of a candidate, a trial shall be had with 
 notice of time and place, so that the two objectors may be 
 present, and that the answers to all questions put to the can- 
 didate shall be placed on record. 
 
 These propositions seem innocent enough. We must con- 
 sider, however, the time and circumstances which called them 
 forth, all the heated discussions to which Tractarianism had 
 given rise both in England and America, the suspicions so rife 
 in regard to the orthodoxy of the General Seminary, the exami- 
 nation of Carey so widely published with all its particulars, and 
 above all, the startling protests of Drs. Smith and Anthon at 
 his ordination so summarily and indignantly disposed of by 
 the bishop. It then becomes evident that the introduction of 
 these resolutions into the New York convention was simply 
 
122 
 
 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 the casting of an additional firebrand into the Anglican com- 
 munion. 
 
 The attack was foreseen by Bishop Onderdonk. His opening 
 address and the whole result of the convention show how well 
 prepared he was to meet it. 
 
 The principal speaker in behalf of the resolutions was John 
 Duer, Esq., a lay delegate from Dr. Anthon's parish of St. 
 
 Mark's, a zealous Low-church- 
 man, and one of the most dis- 
 tinguished jurists of the country. 
 He was surrounded and sup- 
 ported by many prominent lay- 
 men, some of them lawyers like 
 himself. His manner in speak- 
 ing is thus described by a friend 
 in an article published in the 
 New York American of October 
 
 2, 1843: 
 
 " We have rarely seen an 
 instance where the sense of the 
 holy place in which he stood 
 and of the sacred nature of the 
 topics he was discussing seem- 
 ed more thoroughly to pervade 
 the mind of the speaker, and 
 to impart to him the mastery 
 over the impulses with which 
 he seemed struggling to a more 
 impassioned style and burning 
 thoughts." 
 
 It is difficult to pass without some notice the utterances of 
 so strong a man on an" occasion so memorable. A pamphlet 
 published at the time by Harper & Brothers, and preserved in 
 the State Library, enables us to refresh our dim recollections of 
 Judge Duer's argument. We only give a few passages, select- 
 ing such as are most likely to interest our readers. In the 
 course of his speech, after having waived all personal applica- 
 tion of any of his remarks to the chair (Bishop Onderdonk), 
 
 Judge John Duer. 
 
Gliuipses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 123 
 
 and making the supposition that a bishop might arise whose 
 own mind should be deeply infected with the very errors against 
 which, as a church, Episcopalians had protested, he said : 
 
 " I have already spoken of testimonials and preparatory 
 examinations. The only apparent security is the required sub- 
 scription of the candidates to our Articles of Religion, but 
 what security is that subscription against those who believe 
 in the innocence of mental reservation ? What security 
 against those who have I een taught to interpret the Articles 
 in a sense that robs them wholly of their Protestant char- 
 acter, and renders them easy to be reconciled with the most 
 obnoxious doctrines and practices of Rome ? Under such 
 a bishop there would be no diflEiculty in finding candidates 
 of the necessary pliability of conscience. Rome herself, 
 acting upon the system that in other countries she is known 
 to have pursued, would supply them. She would send her 
 own emissaries into your church, and not only permit but 
 command them to become its ministers. Far from considering 
 their subscription to your articles as a crime, she would en- 
 courage and reward it as an act of pious obedience : the end 
 to be obtained would sanctify the means. In the present state 
 of the church, viewing the actual progress of certain doctrines, 
 and the multitude and zeal of those who have embraced them 
 — remembering the caution with which these doctrines were first 
 promulgated and the lengths to which their authors have now 
 boldly advanced, it cannot be said with truth that the dangers 
 of which I have spoken are so remote and improbable that it 
 would be useless to adopt measures of precaution. A Romanist 
 bishop in a Protestant church is no longer an improbable event." 
 
 A little later the speaker refers to Tractarianism, and to the 
 New York Churchman in particular, as follows : 
 
 " The doctrines of the Tractarian writers of Oxford have, 
 in certain quarters, been openly embraced — have been propa- 
 gated in the diocese with unusual diligence and zeal, and in a 
 journal which claims to be the legitimate organ of the church, 
 have not only been avowed in their full extent, but have been 
 defended and maintained with signal ability, skill, and learning." 
 He adds : " They have become a favorite study of the youth 
 
124 Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seviimxry. 
 
 in our seminary, the future candidates for orders, and by many 
 of the younger clergy who have issued from the seminary they 
 have been passionately embraced, and are now zealously propa- 
 gated." 
 
 The distinguished orator took occasion to champion the 
 rights of the laity, to which, in his view, Tractarianism was 
 especially hostile. "If you would lead the laity," he said, ad- 
 dressing the chairman, "the laity must know where you are 
 going. If you would govern their conduct, you must gain their 
 confidence by convincing their reason. If you claim from them 
 an implicit faith, the claim is sure to be rejected, and those 
 who, properly instructed, would have been glad to follow, will 
 be prompt to abandon you." Then, bringing his argument to 
 bear specifically upon the resolutions, he concludes: "In one 
 sense the spiritual powers of the bishop to ordain cannot be 
 limited ; he may ordain whom he pleases, but his power to or- 
 dain those who are to be received as ministers of the church is 
 necessarily subject to such regulations as the church may 
 impose. To deny this is to subvert the whole constitution of 
 the church — is to demolish the edifice, in order to build the 
 prerogative of the bishop upon its ruins. It is to make each 
 bishop the pope of his diocese." 
 
 A remarkable feature of this memorable convention is the 
 careful courtesy with which the chief combatants treated each 
 other. It could scarcely be otherwise, for they were all gentle- 
 men and bred to understand the laws of courtesy. Their ex- 
 pressions of mutual esteem, however, were simply formal. Like 
 pugilists before a combat, they shook hands, well knowing the 
 fearful encounter which was to follow. 
 
 The bishop opened the synod with great dignity and sol- 
 emnity, not affecting to conceal his consciousness that a storm 
 was brewing and that he was prepared to meet it. His words, 
 however, were kind and offered no provocation to attack unless 
 a manly defence of himself and of the presbyters who had 
 acted with him at Carey's examination is to be considered as such. 
 
 " Wicked attempts," he said, " are making without to rend 
 us asunder by jealousies, and to provoke the disunion of our 
 happy communion. To meet this, be we all as one man — cling- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Scniiiiary. 125 
 
 ing to Christ, his cross, and his church, let us resolve that we 
 will be one in order, in affection, and in all the graces of the 
 Christian faith." 
 
 In like manner Judge Duer, before closing his argument, 
 professed his desire for peace and proffered as terms of peace 
 the acceptance of the hostile resolutions for which he con- 
 tended. Addressing himself to the clergy and laity who had 
 already shown their opposition to the resolutions on the day 
 previous, by seeking to have them laid upon the table, he said : 
 
 "Will you reject our overtures of peace? Instead of receiv- 
 ing, will you dash from our hands the olive branch we tender? 
 We entreat you to remember that if by your votes these reso- 
 lutions shall be rejected, it is upon you alone that the responsi- 
 bility will rest ; you and you alone will be answerable to your 
 church and to your God for the consequences that may follow." 
 
 These professions of a desire for peace sound well, but were 
 necessarily unavailing. The famous words so well uttered at 
 the beginning of our American Revolution may readily be 
 applied to the mutual declarations of amity so formally made 
 at this New York convention. 
 
 " Gentlemen may cry * Peace ! peace ! ' but there is no peace. 
 The war is actually begun." A bugle-note of war was sounded 
 when the seminary at Chelsea was first assailed and Carey's 
 ordination objected to. Some miserable details excepted, all 
 that followed was inevitable. 
 
 This Diocesan Convention of 1843 was the culminating point 
 in Bishop Onderdonk's career. He stood at that time the fore- 
 most bishop in an ecclesiastical body comprising many distin- 
 guished priests and prelates. He was in that body the most pow- 
 erful, courageous, and reliable champion of the High-church party. 
 Although much that occurred at that time has faded from my 
 memory, the long years have obliterated little of the picture 
 then imprinted of that fearless, ready-witted, and sagacious 
 man. He confronted his enemies in the convention at every 
 point. They retired from it at its close beaten and baffled. 
 And this was not caused by any insufficiency on their part, for 
 they included in their number some of the foremost men of 
 the day, flowers of the clergy and pillars of the bar. The tri- 
 
126 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 umph of the evangelical cause came later and was achieved by 
 less respectable means. 
 
 To explain my meaning it will be necessary to give the 
 reader a sketch of the initiation and progress of a movement 
 against Bishop Onderdonk's private character. This was carried 
 on at first in secret, but afterwards was brought out in the 
 form of public charges preferred by his enemies and resulting 
 in his trial and condemnation by an ecclesiastical tribunal. 
 
 The first combined efforts of the Evangelical party of Angli- 
 cans against Tractarianism in America had been directed against 
 the General Seminary in Chelsea, and only included Bishop On- 
 derdonk as president and professor of that seminary, and the 
 best-known defender of the rights of Tractarians to hold their 
 principles in the Anglican fold, to exercise their ministry in that 
 fold, and to use the advantages of the seminary. 
 
 The institution was governed by an ample Board of Trus- 
 tees, to which all the bishops belonged ex officio. The attack be- 
 gan during a meeting of the board assembled at the seminary 
 for the June examinations of 1843. Drs. Smith and Anthon 
 proposed to the trustees that the examining committee should 
 direct their attention especially to points involving Tractarianism, 
 in order to draw out any bias of the students in this direction. 
 The trustees declined to do this on the ground that the busi- 
 ness of the committee was not to examine, but to attend up- 
 on the examination as conducted by the professors and to re- 
 port the result. Drs. Smith and Anthon were, however, added 
 to the examining committee, and it was suggested to them that 
 a request to the professors to examine any particular student 
 or students with special distinctness on any particular topics, 
 would undoubtedly accomplish their object. This course, we 
 are informed, was taken ; but nothing appears to have been 
 elicited by this means either to prove or disprove the suspicions 
 which had been excited. Drs. Smith and Anthon were not sat- 
 isfied with the manner in which the resolutions moved by them 
 had been disposed of. Still less were they satisfied the next 
 day, when a third resolution, requesting that the sermons which 
 the members of the senior class had handed to the professor 
 for inspection might be brought to the committee, shared the 
 
Glimpses of Life in av Anglican Seminary. 127 
 
 fate of its predecessors and was laid to sleep with them. (See 
 Quarterly Christiaii Spectator for October, 1843.) 
 
 This direct attempt of the Evangelical or Low-church party 
 to purge the seminary of tendencies Romeward was soon dis- 
 continued for a less direct but more effectual method of v/ar- 
 fare. Bishop Onderdonk, as we have said, stood foremost as 
 the protector of Tractarians. He was fearless and powerful. 
 To prostrate him would leave the cause he favored demoralized 
 and without a head. There were existing circumstances which 
 seemed to pave a way to effect his ruin, by assailing his char- 
 acter. 
 
 The first suspicions that the bishop's private life was open 
 to attack on its moral side began to circulate about the time 
 that I first came to the seminary, namely, in 1842. This ap- 
 pears by the testimony of the Rev. Paul Trapier, the record of 
 which may be found in a pamphlet published by that gentle- 
 man in 1845, directly after the Onderdonk trial. I do not 
 think the students of the seminary knew anything of such ru- 
 mors until they were made public by the action of his prose- 
 cutors. 
 
 Mr. Trapier tells us that these rumors were well known 
 among the presbyters of South Carolina gathered in convention 
 in February, 1844. Mr. Trapier himself, who was prominent 
 among these, was also a trustee of the General Seminary at 
 Chelsea, New York, and an active Evangelical. He is well known 
 to all who remember these sad transactions as the most active, 
 untiring, and unrelenting of the bishop's adversaries. Three 
 other presbyters are mentioned in his pamphlet as associated 
 with him in bringing to light the evidence of misconduct relied 
 upon by the presenting and prosecuting bishops. Two of these 
 presbyters I knew personally. One of them. Mason Gallagher, 
 was with me at the seminary during my first year, and was at 
 that time a candidate for orders from Western New York. 
 Gallagher is still living, a minister of the Reformed Episcopa- 
 lians. Another was the Rev. James C. Richmond, already men- 
 tioned in our sixth chapter and bearing, as there stated, the 
 sobriquet of " Crazy Richmond." 
 
 The convention of the South Carolina Diocese, in February, 
 
128 Glivipscs of Life in ajt Anglican Seminary, 
 
 1844, joined in the attempt already referred to by passing a re- 
 solution to inquire into the state of the General Seminary. 
 Rumors were already rife, as we have said, against the personal 
 character of the Bishop of New York, but were not publicly in- 
 troduced into the proceedings of this convention. They had 
 their influence, however, upon these proceedings, as Mr. Tra- 
 pier informs us, and helped to secure a majority in favor of the 
 action there taken. He says: 
 
 " My conviction is that though the alarm was more extensive 
 on the subject of Tractarianism, yet there could not have been 
 the majority requisite for any action of the convention had not 
 others of its members been uneasy about the moral influence 
 of the Right Reverend Professor. As it was, the two sets of per- 
 sons combining, such majority was secured." 
 
 Mr. Trapier himself tells us that he was not very apprehen- 
 sive of Tractarianism infecting the seminary, and that he was 
 not much disposed on its account to carry out — any further than 
 duty might demand — the resolution of his convention. The ru- 
 mors concerning the moral misconduct of Bishop Onderdonk 
 were, in his view, more serious as they were rapidly spreading 
 among the laity. He arrived at the General Seminary for the 
 meeting of the Board in June, 1S44., with a determination rather 
 to make a special investigation into these private rumors. He 
 returned home, so he tells us, without any success. No one 
 could be found to stand to his assertions, none could allow the 
 seal of confidence to be broken, and yet many were whispering. 
 
 At the next General Convention of the Church, which met 
 at Philadelphia, and which Trapier attended, he was seemingly 
 no nearer to his purpose than before. But one day, during the 
 sessions of this convention, he was in the yard of St. Andrew's 
 Church when he was informed by Mr. Gallagher that affidavits 
 could be procured. The two resolved to consult Mr. Memmin- 
 ger, a lay deputy from South Carolina, and found that he was 
 already better posted than themselves, and intended to bring 
 the matter out in open convention on the question of receiving 
 the report of the trustees of the seminary. Instead of this, 
 however, after consultation they concluded to put the matter 
 into the hands of the bishops only, and they drew up and signed 
 
Glijiipscs of Life m an Anglican Seminary. 129 
 
 a memorial which was handed to Bishop Meade. A few days 
 after Bishop Chase returned the paper to Mr. Trapier, the bishops 
 having decided to present the matter in another shape. The 
 reason assigned was that the conduct of Onderdonk as profes- 
 sor could not be inquired into without involving his character 
 as bishop. Nothing was publicly done at the meeting of this 
 General Convention. It is not probable that anything effective 
 upon Tractarianism or the General Seminary or Bishop Onder- 
 donk could have been done in General Convention, so long as 
 his private character remained unassailed. The evangelicals, 
 therefore, took the matter into their own hands. A trial of 
 Bishop Onderdonk for immorality was determined upon. Bishops 
 Meade, Otey, and Elliott undertook to present the case, and 
 the time was fixed upon. The bishops would not consent to 
 hunt up evidence, as one of them expressly declared to the 
 Rev. Mr. Trapier. Trapier tells us that he thought this rather 
 hard on the signers of the memorial ; for he as one of them 
 "had certainly had no expectation of being called upon to do 
 more than put the bishops as a body into the way of getting 
 at information by calling before them the clergymen whose 
 names were therein mentioned," and that he " did not at all 
 relish being transformed, though in a righteous cause, from the 
 sufficiently odious position of an informer into the one yet more 
 so of a prosecutor." The bishops, however, persisted, and Trapier 
 and Memminger consented to the parts assigned them, Memmin- 
 ger acting a lawyer's part in receiving testimony and preparing 
 affidavits, which work was done in New York. 
 
 The foregoing facts, gathered from Mr. Trapier's pamphlet, 
 seem to me important to these reminiscences, as they show how 
 the immediate field of war was transferred from the seminary 
 to more secret action elsewhere, and finally to the scenes of 
 the memorable trial of the New York bishop. 
 
 The proceedings of the actual trial of Bishop Onderdonk were 
 all published, and therefore well known to me as well as to the 
 entire public. Of this preliminary work, however, of hunting up 
 evidence and of urging witnesses to come forward I should 
 have known nothing at the time had I not accidentally become 
 acquainted with the Rev. James C. Richmond, whom I have al- 
 
130 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 ready mentioned as very forward in the movement. He talked 
 freely of the part which he had taken in it. 
 
 There is good evidence to show that the bishop could have 
 conciliated this adversary if he had thought it prudent and 
 proper to do so. This we learn from Mr. Richmond himself, 
 in his "Reply" to the pamphlet entitled "Richmond in Ruins." 
 
 The bishop is quoted as having made the statement that 
 Mr. Richmond had called on him, and expressed a warm desire 
 to return from Rhode Island to the diocese of New York, that 
 he might be the bishop's friend and stand by him in his trou- 
 bles. This is partially confirmed by Richmond himself. He 
 states that he said to Dr. Onderdonk : " Bishop, are you aware 
 that it is in my power to render you more service than any 
 presbyter?" The bishop, he tells us, instead of saying, "What 
 do you mean, sir?" blushed and was silent. 
 
 One who would have been very insignificant as an active 
 ally was thus permanently made into a most dangerous foe. It 
 was a repetition of the old story of Paris and the Tendon Achilles. 
 
 The court of bishops for the trial of Onderdonk convened 
 December 10, 1844, in the Sunday school building of St. John's 
 Chapel, New York Cify. 
 
 Philander Chase, Bishop of Illinois, being senior bishop, was 
 in the chair. Bishop Ives of North Carolina, Bishop Hopkins 
 of Vermont, and twenty other bishops were present. Rev. Bird 
 Wilson, D.D., of the seminary, was unanimously elected secre- 
 tary, which office, be it remembered to his great credit, he de- 
 clined. Bishop Whittingham acted instead as clerk and secre- 
 tary. Presentment was made by Bishop Meade of Virginia, 
 Bishop Otey of Tennessee, and Bishop Elliott of Georgia. 
 
 The prosecuting bishops, as also Bishop Onderdonk, were 
 represented by counsel, eminent lawyers of New York City. 
 The presenting bishops were represented by Hiram Ketchum 
 and Girardus Clarke. Bishop Onderdonk chose for his counsel 
 David B. Ogden and David Graham. 
 
 The charge against Bishop Onderdonk, made by the present- 
 ing bishops, was that of immorality and impurity, nine separate 
 instances being specified. No attempt to commit any criminal 
 act was either proved or allegtd. The offences proved con- 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Senii)iary. 131 
 
 sisted rather of maudlin familiarities indulged in by a half- 
 conscious man overheated with wine, and generally before wit- 
 nesses the fact of whose presence precludes all suspicion of 
 criminal intent or any definite purpose. It was impossible for 
 the counsel of the accused bishop, or for his friends, to make 
 any complete and satisfactory defence of his conduct. It was 
 easier, however, to palliate these offences and to show that his 
 guilt was far less than his enemies would make it out to be. 
 None of the instances alleged against him had occurred within 
 two years and a half of the trial. 
 
 Under all the circumstances of the case it seems strange that 
 such strong measures should have been taken, and that any 
 number of Episcopalian bishops should have been willing to 
 bring such scandalous matter to so public an exhibition. Ladies 
 of high respectability and perfectly innocent were brought out 
 in open court to testify, to their own confusion, and all that 
 they said was paraded in the public newspapers. The proceed- 
 ings of this extraordinary court, including the testimony of wit- 
 nesses and the full arguments of the counsel, were published, by 
 authority of the bishops themselves, in a pamphlet of three hun- 
 dred and thirty-three pages, and a copyright secured. One 
 young lady implicated in these disagreeable matters absolutely 
 refused to appear and testify. Her name, however, and the 
 nature of the insults offered to her all went freely before the 
 public and appeared on the record of the proceedings. 
 
 The court remained in session during twenty-four days, 
 i.e., from the tenth of December to the third of January inclu- 
 sive. On that day the judgment of the court was publicly an- 
 nounced, in which the respondent was declared guilty of six of 
 the charges specified by a majority of the court, consisting of 
 eleven bishops. The verdict of guilty having thus been reached, 
 it became necessary for the bishops to decide what the sentence 
 of the court should be, namely, whether the punishment should 
 be deposition, or suspension, or only admonition. The votes of 
 the bishops on this question were given by ballot, each bishop 
 signing his own name and sometimes also assigning on the bal- 
 lot his reasons for the mode of sentence which he approved. 
 There were several ballotings without arriving at any conclu- 
 
132 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 sion. Several of the bishops then changed their votes. Some 
 of them gave as their reason for this, the necessity of securing 
 a majority for some form of censure. Some of Bishop Onder- 
 donk's friends, who voted at first for a simple admonition, 
 ended by agreeing to a sentence of suspension to ward oil a 
 more serious censure. 
 
 Suspension was the sentence finally arrived at and declared 
 by the court. 
 
 This sentence was never removed. A Standing Committee 
 was empowered to represent temporarily the ecclesiastical au- 
 thority of the diocese. Finally, in November, 1852, Dr. Wain- 
 wright was consecrated to take charge of the see, with the title 
 of provisional bishop. This qualified title he continued to bear 
 until the death of Bishop Onderdonk, which took place April 
 30, 1861. 
 
 The influence of this downfall of Bishop Onderdonk upon 
 Tractarianism in the United States, both at the Seminary and 
 elsewhere, will be presented and pictured to the reader in chap- 
 ters still to come. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Angliean Seminary. 133 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BREAK-UP AT THE SEMINARY.— PROFESSORS TAKE ALARM. — JESU- 
 ITS IN DISGUISE. — WAITSON AND DONNELLY DISMISSED. — 
 MCVICKAR WITHDRAWS.— WALWORTH, MCMASTER, AND WAD- 
 HAMS CROSS OVER TO ROME. 
 
 THE trial and degradation of Bishop Onderdonk, of New 
 York, was a substantial triumph for the Evangelical party 
 in the Protestant Episcopal Church. It effected in the United 
 States in many respects what the condemnation of Ward had 
 brought about in England, although accomplished by differ- 
 ent means. In England it was a square, open fight. It was 
 made evident that the Mother Church there would not tolerate 
 any further advance of Tractarianism, and this spirit prevailed 
 even amongst High-churchmen of every variety of color and 
 degree. The High-churchmen in the United States, however, 
 had not taken so much alarm. Hitherto they had resisted all 
 the efforts of evangelicals to meddle with the situation of things 
 at the General Seminary. They had with great unanimity sus- 
 tained the ordination of Arthur Carey, believing that all the 
 leanings of Carey towards Roman Catholic doctrine and 
 customs were at least things to be tolerated in the same way 
 that the leaning of evangelicals towards the doctrines and 
 fashions of dissenters found tolerance. 
 
 So confident were the High-church bishops of maintaining 
 the toleration that they desired for their own views and for a 
 very large latitude in those views, that they ventured some- 
 times to indulge in a very humorous vein when dealing with 
 the alarm felt by the opposite party. This sportive mood dis- 
 played itself sometimes even in their General Conventions. In 
 the convention held at Philadelphia in October, 1844, Bishop 
 Chase presiding, it was proposed to send certain questions to the 
 faculty of the Chelsea General Seminary in order to ascertain if 
 
1 34 Glimpses of Life in an A nglican Seminary. 
 
 Tractarianism was not propagated at that institution with the 
 connivance and even with the open aid of some of its pro- 
 fessors. From the autobiography of Professor Turner (page 
 192) we learn that forty questions were prepared and for- 
 warded from the House of Bishops. 
 
 Some of these questions ran as follows : 
 
 "Are the Oxford tracts adopted as text-books in the 
 seminary ? Are they publicly or privately recommended to the 
 students? Is Tract go used as a text-book, or (so) recom- 
 mended ? " 
 
 " Are the works of the Rev. Dr. Pusey, Messrs. Newman, 
 Keble, Palmer, Ward, and Massingberd, or any of them, used 
 as text books, or publicly or privately recommended in the 
 seminary ?" 
 
 " Are the superstitious practices of the Romish Church, such 
 as the use or worship of the crucifix, of images of saints, and 
 the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and other saints, adopted, 
 or publicly or privately recommended in the seminary ? " 
 
 The questions just given emanated unquestionably from 
 spirits of the Low-church type. They are ridiculous when the 
 character of any of the professors of the seminary in my day 
 is taken into account. How much fun was to be found among 
 the right reverend bishops convened at Philadelphia may be 
 gathered from the following questions, which were put in to 
 serve as foils to the mischievous thrusts of the Low-church pre- 
 lates : 
 
 " Is Calvinism, comprehending what are known as the * five 
 points,' so taught or recommended ? Is any one of the five 
 points so taught or recommended?" 
 
 " Are the works of Toplady, of Thomas Scott, and John 
 Newton, and Blunt on the Articles, or any of them, used as 
 text-books, or publicly or privately recommended to the 
 students of the seminary ? " 
 
 There is not so much fun in some of the other questions 
 which intimate at the seminary the teaching of rationalism. 
 These seem to be aimed chiefly at Professor Turner. There 
 cannot be the slightest justice in them. Out of deep respect 
 for the memory of that learned scholar and truly good man, I 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 135 
 
 deeply regret them. They belong, however, to the history of 
 the time, they are quoted by himself in his autobiography; no 
 call of delicacy requires me to leave them out. 
 
 " Is the German system of rationalism — that is, of rejecting 
 everything mysterious in the doctrines and institutions of the 
 
 Professor Samuel H. Turner. 
 
 Gospel, and making human reason the sole umpire in theology, 
 adopted or so recommended in the seminary? Are German or 
 other authors who support that system adopted as text books, 
 or so recommended as guides of theological opinion?" 
 
 Had the opponents of Bishop Onderdonk left his private 
 character unassailed, they would have gained nothing in their war 
 
136 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 against the seminary or the stout old Bishop of New York, 
 who was a champion too doughty for any honorable weapons 
 which they could bring to bear upon him. 
 
 As it was, however, they conceived that they had scored for 
 the time being a substantial triumph in accomplishing his de- 
 gradation and suspension. Many churchmen who had stood by 
 the bishop in defence of Carey were not prepared to justify, nor 
 willing to appear before the public as justifying, all that was 
 proved against the bishop on his trial. They felt humiliated in 
 his humiliation. They felt demoralized and in a way discour- 
 aged. They became afraid to identify themselves with him in 
 anything, even in what they believed to be right. 
 
 All this made a great difference with matters at the semi- 
 nary. Our principal defender, the Bishop of New York, had 
 now become defenceless. Those professors there who were either 
 friendly to us or naturally indisposed to listen to anything which 
 could disturb the seminary now became timid. They would 
 gladly have shielded Tractarian students, but dared not. Pro- 
 fessor Ogilby, on the other hand, though professedly a High- 
 churchman and intolerant towards dissenters, was in his way a 
 good deal of an Orangeman and always ready for a fight against 
 anything that was really Catholic. He was now ready to take 
 the lead in purifying the seminary of all Romanism. He soon 
 succeeded in making things lively at Chelsea. He took it 
 into his head that there was an organized party both in the 
 seminary and outside, including clergy, whose object was to 
 Romanize the Episcopalian Church. 
 
 One day near the close of December, 1844, Professor Ogilby 
 sent for one of the students named Wattson, of the middle class, 
 and accused him and several other students of being engaged 
 in this conspiracy. The manner in which this suspicion arose I 
 never knew until lately. The particulars have been furnished 
 me by Wattson's own son, the Rev. Lewis Wattson, of King- 
 ston, N. Y., with permission to use his communication freely. 
 His father, Joseph N. Wattson, one day jokingly said to Pres- 
 cott, who subsequently became a member of the English Socie- 
 ty of St. John the Evangelist, known in the Anglican Church 
 as the Cowley Fathers : " Don't you know, Prescott, that there 
 
Glimpse's of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 137 
 
 is a number of Jesuit students in disguise here at the General, 
 and that when they have made all the converts they can, they 
 are going openly to Rome themselves? " Prescott took the joke 
 in dead earnest and reported it to the dean. Upon this Watt- 
 son was called up before the dean. In due course of time he, and 
 another student named Donnelly, of the same class, namely, that 
 of 1846, were publicly tried upon charges founded upon this 
 misconception. They were acquitted for want of sufificient proofs, 
 but for all that they were quietly dismissed. 
 
 The other students implicated by name in this supposed plot 
 were Taylor, Piatt, McVickar, and myself. Of these Piatt was 
 a graduate belonging to the diocese of Western New York and 
 already in orders. Of Taylor I have no special recollections, 
 though he belonged to my class. I find his name included in 
 a list of alleged conspirators named by McVickar in a letter 
 written at the time to my friend Wadhams, afterwards Bishop 
 of Ogdensburg. This letter I have given nearly in full in my 
 Reminiscences of Wadhams. I myself was at the time not in 
 the seminary, although nominally a student still. I was resid- 
 ing during the latter part of that autumn, and during the winter 
 and spring of 1845, with Wadhams in the Adirondacks. He was 
 in deacon's orders, having charge, under Bishop Onderdonk, of 
 Essex County. His principal stations were Ticonderoga, Port 
 Henry, and Wadhams' Mills. I did not belong to the jurisdic- 
 tion of Bishop Onderdonk, but had received from him a license to 
 act as lay-reader. This empowered me to conduct the morn- 
 ing and evening service as provided in the Book of Common 
 Prayer in the absence of my friend, as also to read a discourse 
 from any book of sermons published by some clergyman of the 
 church in good standing. 
 
 I do not remember to have read in public anything except 
 from the " Plain Sermons," which were discourses of simple 
 practical piety intended to be free from points in controversy 
 and unobjectionable to any Anglican congregation. 
 
 McVickar, mentioned as one of the partners in this complot, 
 was a son of the Rev. Dr. McVickar of Columbia College, one of 
 the most learned of the clergy of the New York diocese and one 
 of those examiners of Arthur Carey who had decided in his favor. 
 
138 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Henry McVickar had his trial before the faculty on the 
 seventh of January. A special charge was made against him 
 of recommending Romish books, and of believing in the papal 
 supremacy. In the letter above mentioned McVickar states 
 
 that the information came through P . This may be the 
 
 same student upon whom Wattson played his perilous joke. 
 
 It does not appear that anything was made out against 
 McVickar at his trial, except that the latitude of opinion which 
 he had used was detrimental to the interests of the seminary. 
 His judges furthermore alleged that not McVickar, but they 
 themselves were the best judges of what was thus detrimental. 
 This claim McVickar allowed, and said that if they would point 
 out how they thought he had injured it, he would avoid it for 
 the future. Afterwards he thought he had allowed too much, 
 for they restricted him so closely that he felt himself thorough- 
 ly hampered by his own promises and preferred to leave the 
 institution. He retired to rooms in Columbia College, where he 
 prosecuted in private his preparation for orders. He did not 
 count, however, upon receiving orders at all. In a letter to 
 Wadhams, dated Maundy-Thursday, 1845, he says: "I am ex- 
 tremely doubtful whether I can obtain orders without exciting 
 new commotions and troubles; and if I think so when the 
 time comes I shall not apply for them." 
 
 Whitcher (Benjamin F.), belonging like myself to the West- 
 ern diocese of New York, was also involved in these troubles, 
 although, being a graduate and in deacon's orders, he was no 
 longer responsible to the faculty of the seminary. On a visit 
 to New York at the time, he informed his friends there that 
 he had been summoned to appear before his bishop. All those 
 supposed to be in this popish conspiracy were reported to their 
 several bishops. It is certain that Bishop De Lancey gave little 
 heed to the charges made against myself. He never spoke to 
 me or wrote to me on the subject. In fact I never knew that 
 I had been denounced to him except through McVickar's let- 
 ters. For this confidence in me I feel grateful to him ; I have 
 never ceased to cherish his memory as a loved and honored 
 friend of my youth. 
 
 Dr. William Everett, now rector of the Catholic Church 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglicaji Seminary. 139 
 
 of the Nativity in New York City, name loved and revered by 
 all, then residing not far from the seminary and within easy 
 reach of the students, a post-graduate of the last class, was as 
 much a papist as any of us, but I cannot find that he was at 
 all involved in this alleged conspiracy. I suppose the reason to 
 be that, like Arthur Carey, he was considered too valuable a 
 man to lose whatever his religious tendencies might be. 
 
 One thing connected with this complot is and, I fear, ever will 
 be a profound mystery. Who could the concealed Jesuits be? 
 Among all the faces at the seminary, still familiar to my mem- 
 ory, I cannot recall one that fills the picture. Shall we look 
 for them among the faculty ? It could not be Bishop Onder- 
 donk, the president. He was bold, open, and outspoken in 
 maintaining the right of Tractarians to toleration in the Angli- 
 can fold. But boldness and frankness are not the supposed 
 characteristics of Jesuitism, and he would never have been 
 selected by that terrible society to act in such a capacity. 
 Dr. Turner could never be suspected of acting in such a role. 
 He was a most devoted student of the Bible, and so familiar 
 with it that he seemed to know it all by heart ; besides this, 
 although not averse to quoting from the early Fathers in the 
 interpretation of Scripture, he leaned more to modern Anglican 
 commentators, and especially to such German authors as he 
 considered to be reliable critics in matters of biblical text. 
 Moreover, as dean of the faculty, he took not a little part in 
 this very scare of which we are speaking. Professor Ogilby 
 was a most violent antipopery man and hated Romanism more 
 even than he scorned Dissent. Professor Haight could not have 
 been one of them. If so, he died in the same disguise. Good 
 Dr. Moore must be acquitted of any such suspicion. Although 
 learned in the Hebrew and gifted as a poet, he was as simple 
 and hearty a man as Santa Claus himself. Moreover, while 
 teaching us Hebrew from the Hebrew Bible, he made it an 
 invariable rule, as being a layman, never to interpret the pas- 
 sages he translated. By this rule he cast away, as a concealed 
 Jesuit never would, his best opportunity to poison our minds 
 with popery. The only two left about the institution who had 
 any easy access to the students were Professor Bird Wilson, 
 
I40 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 who taught theology, and a good old man who presided over 
 the coal-bins and furnaces. One gave out doctrines more or 
 less new to us, and the other furnished fuel and fire. If these 
 were Jesuits, they concealed themselves most effectually. No 
 suspicion ever fell upon either of them. 
 
 Among the students themselves I can recall only two that 
 can possibly lie open to suspicion. One had been a Catholic. 
 He did not always give the same reasons for having joined the 
 Episcopalian Church. Sometimes he alleged that it was because 
 when he was a Catholic he was not allowed to read his Bible. 
 This made him very interesting to a society of pious ladies who 
 maintained him at the seminary. He told McMaster once that 
 it was because he couldn't stand the fasting imposed upon him 
 in the Catholic Church. This roused McMaster's indignation, 
 who confronted him with the first reason given, insisting upon 
 it that he should stand upon one story or the other, and say 
 whether he had come over to Protestantism for the love of his 
 Bible or for the sake of his belly. 
 
 The other student had been brought up in the Greek 
 Church, and consequently early imbued with all that is held to 
 be odious in Catholic doctrine except the supremacy of the 
 Roman See. This one redeeming trait stripped him of horns 
 and hoofs and made him welcome to Protestantism. Even 
 thus, however, he might be a concealed Jesuit, but I am not 
 aware that any such suspicion fell upon him. 
 
 The sensitive dread of Jesuitism which prevailed about 
 this time, and had succeeded at last in placing a time-honored 
 institution under public surveillance, was not confined to Chelsea, 
 nor to the Episcopalian Church. It showed itself amongst other 
 Protestant sects. A professor of an Eastern college one day 
 enlarged before his class on a subtle policy attributed by him 
 to the Church of Rome of locating Jesuit spies wherever an 
 opportunity was afforded of doing mischief. "They locate 
 themselves," said he, " in every city, every town, every com- 
 munity, every social circle, with an eye upon every family. I 
 should not be surprised to learn that there is a concealed 
 Jesuit, perhaps in this very institution, perhaps in this class- 
 room at this very moment." The impression made upon the 
 studerits was not a very solemn one. 
 
G limps iS of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 141 
 
 That Break-up of Tractarianism at the Seminary to which 
 I confine myself in these reminiscences as closely as possible, 
 for the sake of preserving the necessary unities, was not pre- 
 cisely coincident with the general tide of conversions, either 
 in England or in America, which carried so many Tractarians 
 into the Catholic Church. 
 
 In a series of lectures delivered at London by John Henry 
 Newman, in 1849 ^r 1850, he compares the great breakup of 
 Tractarianism to an incident related in X\\q. Arabian Nig]its, when 
 Sindbad, the sailor, and his companions found themselves 
 stranded on what they took to be an island, but was in reality 
 the back of a sleeping whale. The merry crew amused them- 
 selves in dancing, and shouting, and a variety of other antics 
 on the back of the unconscious creature, and with perfect safety. 
 When, however, they proceeded to build a fire upon his back 
 the great fish woke up to a sense of pain and, becoming conscious 
 that mischief was going on, he shook himself suddenly free 
 from these disturbers or his peace. In England the Tractarian 
 coals grew too hot for toleration when William George Ward, 
 at Oxford, published his Ideal of a Christian Church. Ward's 
 speedy condemnation followed, and all the Tractarians who 
 really meant anything by their Catholic antics were either 
 obliged to take refuge in the real Catholic Church, or else recon- 
 cile themselves to those quiet slumbers so congenial to their 
 Anglican mother. 
 
 The breakup of Tractarianism in the United States was 
 simultaneous with that in England. In the Mother Country and 
 in the Mother Church the coals on the whale's back lay hottest 
 at Oxford, and there the first nervous shock of the sleepy old 
 creature made itself felt. The Seminary at Chelsea was the Ox- 
 ford of American Anglicanism, and there occurred also the 
 first throes of that convulsion which forced so many enthusias- 
 tic young Tractarians either to climb back into the Protestant 
 ship and stay quiet, or else take to the water and swim for 
 their lives. 
 
 One student had already left and united with the ancient 
 church before the whale began to flop. This was Edward W. 
 
142 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Putnam, of the class succeeding mine. His conversion occurred 
 in 1844. It took place so quietly that many of us did not 
 know of it when he left us. Even now I do not know any de- 
 tails to show the special reasons and circumstances which led to 
 his conversion. About three years afterwards he took priest's 
 orders in the Catholic Church. I think he must have been or- 
 dained for the diocese of Albany, for I find his name in the 
 parish records of St. Mary's, Albany, officiating under Bishop 
 McCloskey during the first year of his pontificate in that dio- 
 cese, after that prelate's transfer from New York. He was a 
 good, zealous, and fervent priest, and his memory still remains 
 in benediction among the few Catholics of Albany who are old 
 enough to look back to his time. The latter part of his life 
 was spent in Maine. He was a fruit of the Tractarian move- 
 ment, but he does not belong to that great break-up of which 
 I am now speaking. 
 
 The first conversion consequent upon the great scare at 
 Chelsea in January, 1845, was my own. I was not at the 
 seminary when the scare took place, although my name was 
 involved in the supposed conspiracy. Its influence upon my 
 life, however, was almost instantaneous. The reader must 
 here recall the pretty little by-play of founding a monastery 
 which Wadhams and I, in connection with McVickar, were 
 carrying on among. the Adirondacks in Essex County. This 
 air-drawn convent of the future went down at once into the 
 ocean when the scared fish shook his sides and dived. 
 McVickar crawled back at once into safe quarters. Our beauti- 
 ful Fata Morgana disappeared like a dream. Prior Wadhams, 
 although suddenly unfrocked, still held his mission in Essex 
 County and could take time to feel his way out. But I was 
 completely afloat. Crawl back like McVickar and others, I 
 would not. Go forward in pure dreamland, wit! o.it a single 
 peg to hang a hope on, I could not. Neither could I go home 
 to my father's house at Saratoga, and to the village circle 
 which surrounded it. There the atmosphere was more stifling 
 even than the sham pretences to Catholicity so rife in Episco- 
 palian Protestantism. Besides this, my Tractarian course had 
 been so contrary to the wishes of my parents and other old 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 143 
 
 friends near the homestead, that it seemed to me a call of 
 honor to become independent, and by earning my own living 
 acquire a right to follow my own conscience. The monastic 
 bond between myself and Wadhams being broken, there was 
 nothing to keep me any longer by Wadhams' side. Our 
 vocations lay along different lines, and I must strike out a 
 separate path for myself. I therefore made arrangements to 
 work at a lath-mill in Essex County until I could see my 
 way distinctly to join the Catholic Church, and enter its priest- 
 hood. Before I could carry out this plan, McMaster arrived at 
 Ticonderoga on his way to Canada, and my friend and I went 
 down there to meet him. On learning my determination to 
 become a Catholic, and my preliminary purpose of becoming a 
 miller's boy, McMaster said : 
 
 " Don't do that. I can tell you where to go. I've stumbled 
 on a priest in New York City that is just the man to receive 
 you into the church. It is Father Gabriel Rumpler. He is the 
 superior of a convent of Redemptorist priests in Third Street, 
 New York. He is a most remarkable man, full of learning, 
 wisdom, experience, and a truly holy man. And besides that, 
 it is an order of religious missionaries. You were always wild 
 after missionary work. You can't do better than join them." 
 
 The account he gave of Father Rumpler and of the 
 Redemptorists put an end at once to my project of going into 
 the lath business, It opened a practical door by which to 
 enter the Catholic Church. It promised me a wise Ananias to 
 take me by the hand and direct my course among the new 
 faces which were soon to gather around me, and in the new 
 life which lay before me. My determination to become a 
 Catholic was fixed and resolute. To unite with the Catholic 
 Church all I needed was an introduction to it. The oppor- 
 tunity was now offered and I embraced it immediately. 
 
 Wadhams and McMaster accompanied me from Ticonderoga 
 village to the steamboat dock by the old fort to see me off. I 
 urged the former to take the same step without delay. 
 
 "Don't hurry me, Walworth," said he; "I am in a position 
 of responsibility and confidence, and when I leave, if leave I 
 must, it shall be done handsomely. You have no charge. You 
 
144 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 have only to let your bishop know what you are about doing, 
 and then do it." 
 
 *' Go ahead, dear old boy," said McMaster. " I'm ashamed 
 to have you get the start of me, but I'll follow you soon. I've 
 been fooling about with these Puseyite playthings too long. 
 Look for me in Third Street when I get back from Montreal." 
 
 There we parted. I took the steamer for Whitehall. Mc- 
 Master took the same boat on its return and made his visit to 
 Canada, and Wadhams went back, lonely and desolate, to his 
 room at the village inn at Ticonderoga Falls. 
 
 A couple of days later found me knocking at the convent 
 door in Third Street. I found in Father Rumpler the very 
 man I needed. The Redemptorist convent and church were 
 wooden structures at that time and very shabby. Everything 
 was new and poor. I liked it all the better for its destitution. 
 
 During my stay in New York I stopped with my sister, 
 Mrs. Jenkins, who resided with her husband and children in 
 Eleventh Street, near the corner of Fifth Avenue ; but I visited 
 the convent in Third Street every day. Father Rumpler 
 examined me very particularly, to see how near my religious 
 convictions were in accord with Catholic faith and how far my 
 intelligence of Catholic doctrine extended. My answers were 
 satisfactory, and he said : " I see no reason to delay your re- 
 ception into the church. Is there anything in Catholic doc- 
 trine which you find difficult to believe?" I answered: "No, 
 father. I do not understand Indulgences, but whatever that 
 doctrine really is, I am willing to take it on trust without the 
 least doubt that whatever the church believes and teaches is 
 true." He smiled and said : 
 
 •' Well, that has the true ring of faith. You can take your 
 time to study up that question, and now about your baptism." 
 
 I told him what I knew about my baptism when an infant 
 by a Presbyterian minister; and the subsequent ceremony of 
 trine immersion in the waters of New York Bay administered 
 by my old friend, the Rev. Caleb Clapp. He said that the first 
 baptism was probably done right and so valid, but if not, the sec- 
 ond was superabundantly sufficient, and could not be made surer. 
 
 On Friday, May 16, 1845, I made my profession of Faith, 
 
Glimpses of Ltfe in an Anglican Seminary. 145 
 
 in the Church of the Holy Redeemer, in the presence of three 
 or four witnesses only, and thus terminated at the same mo- 
 ment my connection with the Chelsea Seminary and with the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church. On the following Sunday I made 
 my first Communion at the same altar. Shortly after I was 
 confirmed at St. Joseph's Church, on Sixth Avenue, by Arch- 
 bishop Hughes. 
 
 In the meantime McMaster had arrived at New York. He 
 took up his quarters with the Redemptorists, and was there re- 
 ceived into the church. Both of us had come also to the deter- 
 mination to embrace the religious life in the Redemptorist Or- 
 der. About the middle of June I went to visit my parents at 
 Saratoga, where I remained two or three weeks. I then re- 
 turned to New York, and on the 2d of August I set sail, in 
 company with McMaster and Isaac Hecker, for the novitiate at 
 St. Trond, in Belgium. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary for me to give any further details 
 concerning the conversion of McMaster and that of Wadhams, 
 since that would be only to repeat what has already been pub- 
 lished at some length in my "Reminiscences" of the latter. I 
 may be excused in like manner for observing the same reticence 
 in regard to my friend, Henry McVickar. He never became a 
 Catholic. He died, not long after his leaving the seminary, 
 still an Episcopalian and in deacon's orders. Another of the 
 same family, Lawrence McVickar, more happy than Henry, 
 found his way into the Catholic Church at Chicago, or Milwau- 
 kee, during the sixties. He was a nephew of Dr. John Mc- 
 Vickar, of Columbia College, and therefore a first cousin of my 
 old friend and fellow-seminarian. He also died young. 
 
 In my next chapter I propose to continue my account of 
 the great break-up of Tractarianism in the United States, in- 
 troducing especially what I remember or have ascertained of 
 other old companions at the seminary whose names have been 
 introduced to the reader in these Reminiscences. 
 
146 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE BREAK-UP (CONTINUED). — DIVERGING PATHS.^DONELLY. 
 — WATTSON. — EVERETT. — PLATT. — WHITCHER. — AMERICAN 
 OBEDIENCE TO LAW. — BLIND OBEDIENCE. — THE CHELSEA 
 BREAK-UP ECHOED IN MARYLAND. — HEWIT, BAKER, AND 
 LYMAN. 
 
 ONE of the principal students at the seminary suspected 
 of Romish tendencies, and even of being engaged in a 
 complot against the interests of the seminary and the peace of 
 Protestant Episcopalianism, was James B. Donelly, of the class 
 of 1846, As I have already stated, on his trial before the faculty 
 he was acquitted for want of definite proof, but was for all that 
 obliged to leave the seminary. Dr. Sfabury befriended him, 
 and found employment for him in the office of the New York 
 CJiurchman. Perhaps, also, Donelly served, as Carey had done 
 before him, as assistant to Seabury in the little old Church of 
 the Annunciation, since known as St, Ambrose's, on the corner 
 of Thompson and Prince Streets. 
 
 I had some correspondence with Donelly while he was thus 
 engaged in New York and I was residing with my friend Wad- 
 hams in Essex County, before my entry into the Church Catho- 
 lic. I sent him an article which I wished to have published in 
 the Chicrchman. The spirit of the article was altogether too hot 
 for even Dr. Seabury to handle, as he informed me through 
 Donelly, who urged me to come down to New York and have 
 a talk with the doctor about it. 
 
 Later, after my profession of faith, Donelly made a visit to 
 the Redemptorist Convent upon my invitation, made acquain- 
 tance with Father Rumpler, and looked at the church and 
 convent buildings with great interest. He seemed much de- 
 pressed and under great restraint, more so when talking with 
 me than when in conversation with Father Rumpler. Whether 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 147 
 
 the extreme poverty which prevailed everywhere was repug- 
 nant to him or not I cannot say, but he returned no more and 
 I never saw him again. 
 
 It is certain that shortly after this last interview of ours 
 Donelly had it in his mind to enter the Catholic fold, but 
 needed encouragement to carry it out. One day when passing 
 by the Catholic Cathedral on Mulberry Street, in company with 
 Wattson, his classmate and co-conspirator, he proposed to the 
 latter to make a call on Archbishop Hughes. Wattson hesitat- 
 ed for awhile, but finally declined the offer, and the golden 
 opportunity of grace passed away from both for ever. This 
 incident I have from Wattson's own son, now rector of St. 
 John's Church, Kingston. In an interview with this latter gen- 
 tleman he communicated to me many incidents derived from 
 his father concerning these early days, with full freedom to 
 publish all he communicated. His father said to him once : 
 "Had I accepted Donelly's invitation at that time and visited 
 Archbishop Hughes, there is little probability that either you 
 or. I would now be Episcopalians." 
 
 Some things communicated to me by Wattson (the younger) 
 he put down on paper, for I feared to trust my memory too 
 far. Among these I find the following: 
 
 " Donelly, on leaving the seminary, was ordained by Bishop 
 Onderdonk and was assistant to Dr. Seabury. Pressure becom- 
 ing too great, he was forced to leave New York and so far 
 ostracised that he took some outofthe-way parish in the South 
 and shortly after died." 
 
 From all that I can hear of James B. Donelly, he died a 
 broken-spirited man. He was naturally too much of a man to 
 thrive while trampling upon his conscience. 
 
 Joseph N, Wattson, after being dismissed from the semi- 
 nary, sought his Diocesan, Bishop Lee of Delaware, who 
 calmly told him, "Young man, my advice to you is: go to 
 Rome, for that is where you belong." He was finally or- 
 dained to the priesthood in the diocese of Maryland, by Bishop 
 Whittingham. He afterwards went to Mississippi, but at the 
 breaking out of the Civil War returned to Maryland and re- 
 mained there until a few years before his death, which occurred 
 
148 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Scjuijiaiy. 
 
 in Kingston, New York, in 1887. By a singular coincidence 
 Bishop Lee ordained to the diaconate in June, 1885, the Rev. 
 Lewis T. Wattson, now rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, 
 Kingston, New York — and he was presented by his father, Jo- 
 seph N. Wattson, whom Bishop Lee years before had advised 
 to go to Rome. 
 
 William Everett, known familiarly amongst us by the name 
 of Doctor, was as far advanced as any of us in Tractarianism, 
 but was of a prudent and quiet disposition, besides being highly 
 esteemed for his scholarship, wisdom, and high moral qualities. 
 I cannot remember that he encountered any difificulties in the 
 way of his graduation or receiving of orders. He did not enter 
 the true church until 1850 or 1851. I met him for the first 
 time after my own conversion, and after my return from Eu- 
 rope, while engaged in giving a mission at Saint Peter's Church, 
 Barclay Street, where he visited me. 
 
 It was a great joy to meet my old companion again and 
 greet him as a Catholic. He is still on duty as rector of Na- 
 tivity Church in New York, over which he has presided for 
 many long years. 
 
 My cousin, Charles Henry Piatt, one of those included with 
 me in the charge of conspiracy against Anglican Protestantism 
 and the interests of the seminary, was, at the time, a graduate 
 and already in orders at Rochester. He was then as near to 
 Rome as man can come without actually crossing the gulf. 
 When Bishop De Lancey, of the Western diocese, received my 
 letter asking him to take my name off from his list of candi- 
 dates, he said to Piatt, "What will your cousin do? Will he 
 go over to Rome ? " Piatt answered that of course I would. 
 His manner was so indignant and the words he added were so 
 full of contemptuous bitterness for the thraldom in which he 
 felt himself enwrapped, that the bishop felt it necessary to em- 
 ploy every means to hold him to his chains. Several of Piatt's 
 letters to Wadhams may be found in my "Reminiscences" of 
 that good bishop. They show how near he then came to his 
 salvation. 
 
 A short time before my departure for Europe and the Re- 
 demptorist novitiate, I wrote to my cousin urging him to 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 149 
 
 come to New York and see me off. He replied that he could 
 not come. That to do so would involve a decision to leave the 
 Anglican communion, and that he could not break his mother's 
 heart by taking 5uch a step. I have lost his letter and remem- 
 ber in general only its substance. The state of his conscience 
 is clearly shown in the first words of the letter, which I re- 
 member very distinctly. Tt began thus : 
 
 '* Dear Cousin: I thank my God that your feet are at 
 last planted upon the ' Rock of Peter.' " 
 
 Poor man ! He lived to marry and have a family. He 
 served as chaplain in the army of the Union. He never be- 
 came a Catholic. At the time of his death, in 1869, he was 
 rector of Christ Church, Binghamton, N. Y. 
 
 The. influence of my cousin's example was very unfortunate 
 upon his classmate, co-conspirator, and most familiar friend, 
 Benjamin W. Whitcher. I had sent to him a similar invitation 
 to come and see me before I left for Belgium. At first he was 
 inclined to do so and endeavored, though in vain, to engage 
 Piatt to accompany him. Of this he informed me in his reply, 
 saying also that he could not venture to come alone. When 
 denounced, as we have seen, for his Romanizing tendencies, he 
 was summoned to his bishop for examination, and there was a 
 delay about his ordination. A letter of Piatt's dated April 6, 
 1846, which is given in the " Reminiscences " of Wadhams, tells 
 us something of this affair. We read as follows : 
 
 " Whitcher is in priest's orders. He had a hard time win- 
 ter before the last. They passed him to the priesthood last fall; 
 but he was plump with them, and kept nothing back." 
 
 Whitcher must be classed amongst that large number of 
 Christian workers, apparently very zealous at first, who are 
 covered by our Lord's rebuke when he says, " No man putting 
 his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the king- 
 dom of God." His first backward step was when he took 
 orders in the Episcopalian communion. The second was when 
 he took a Presbyterian wife. Still later on, becoming a widow- 
 er, he took a second wife, and became surrounded by a family 
 of children. Ten years of his life passed away in this false 
 position when, much shorn of his former strength and demoral- 
 
150 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 ized by loss of self-respect, he found his way into the Catholic 
 Church, r I will give in detail that part of his conversion with 
 which I had something to do. 
 
 In 1855, if I remember rightly, I was engaged in giving a 
 mission at St. Patrick's, Utica. Whitcher, at that time, had 
 charge of an Episcopalian church near by at Whitesboro.' One 
 day a card was brought up to my room bearing the name of 
 my old friend upon it. I soon had him by the hand. I antici- 
 pated a warm discussion, for I have never found any Protest- 
 ants more fierce in controversial fencing than old Tractarians 
 who have backed away from their earlier convictions. I was 
 therefore resolved, if possible, to get in the first thrust. After 
 he had taken his seat and we had got past the first natural 
 greetings, I said : 
 
 " Well, Whitcher, don't let us dodge the one great matter 
 we are both thinking of. Why are you not a Catholic long 
 before this?" Without showing the least signs of fight, 
 Whitcher dropped his head and answered : 
 
 " Sure enough, that is the great question, and I don't know 
 how to answer it." 
 
 " Ten long years of your life have passed away," I con- 
 tinued, " and still here you are, looking one way and rowing the 
 other. How can you do it? How can your conscience bear it?" 
 
 "Conscience!" he repeated mournfully; "don't talk of con- 
 science. I don't know that I have any conscience left." 
 
 His case was a plain one. I urged him to do his duty 
 manfully and wiihout further delay. To this he agreed. " Only 
 give me two or three weeks," said he, " to settle up a few 
 affairs, and I promise you that I will then go to Father Mc- 
 Farland and put myself in his hands." This promise he car- 
 ried out faithfully. Father McFarland, then in charge of St. 
 John's Church, Utica, is now well remembered as the third 
 bishop of Hartford, Conn. Whitcher has published a full his- 
 tory of his conversion, giving his religious life as Presbyterian 
 and Episcopalian. In this will be found some account of his 
 connection with the break-up at the seminary, and his examin- 
 ation before his bishop. It is called "The Story of a Convert, 
 as told to his former parishioners after he became a Catholic." 
 
Glimpses of Life in a7t Anglican Seminary. 151 
 
 I do not think that the incidents thus far given or any 
 others that I may give tend to show anything like a spirit of 
 disobedience to superiors in young Tractarians or any others in 
 America who followed the Oxford movement. Whatever those 
 educated under European influences may think of us, the virtue 
 of obedience and respect for rightful authority comes as easily 
 and naturally to true Americans as to any other people. The 
 great crisis which most threatens the prosperity of our country 
 at the present time is one which shows foreign lawlessness 
 reaching to anarchy combined against American law and order. 
 So long as Americans remain American, nihilism and anarchy 
 imported from abroad will have to bow before the majesty of 
 law. And let me add, the more that Americans study the 
 Catholic Church and its religion, from her own doctrines, from 
 her own decrees and her own authors, the more they will find 
 that true obedience and true liberty are twin sisters. At the 
 bottom of this whole matter lies the primary question : In what 
 does the true virtue of obedience consist ? 
 
 I have the following incident from Father Isaac Hecker, 
 late superior-general of the Paulists. It came to him from the 
 lips of Cardinal Barnabo, who was so long Prefect of the Propa- 
 ganda in the days of Pius IX. Once, when presenting and 
 recommending to that Pontiff an appeal from an American 
 religious against his superior, the Holy Father said: 
 
 " What shall we think of these Americans ? Do they under- 
 stand obedience ? " 
 
 The cardinal replied : 
 
 " I do not think they know much about blind obedience. I 
 do think, however, that they understand what true obedience 
 is, and that they practise it as well as any other people." 
 
 Another incident goes more thoroughly into the question. 
 I have it from Bishop Lynch of Charleston, one of the most 
 learned and gifted prelates that our American hierarchy ever 
 knew. He was a student at Rome in the time of Pope Gregory 
 XVI. 
 
 A young American had been admitted into the English 
 College there, and held a room in the building during the 
 rectorship of Dr. Wiseman, afterwards cardinal. He had nearly 
 
152 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 completed his course of studies when a young Englishman of 
 a distinguished family applied for admission into the same 
 college. It was full. The rector endeavored to make place for 
 him by persuading our American student to give up his room 
 and pursue his studies privately, promising him that he should 
 graduate like the rest and receive his diploma. 
 
 The student replied that he did not value his position in 
 the institution simply for the privilege of a diploma, but v/as 
 particularly anxious to have the benefit of the whole course of 
 studies. For this reason he declined to withdraw. He persisted 
 in this determination notwithstanding all that the rector could 
 urge, and although a day or two was given him to consider. 
 Dr. Wiseman then took a short and decisive way to enforce his 
 will. Oil returning to his room one morning the student found 
 his door locked and all his furniture moved out into the cor- 
 ridor. No remedy was left him but to appeal to higher au- 
 thority. He did appeal to the Cardinal Prefect of the Pro- 
 paganda. The cardinal was surprised and displeased. He con- 
 sidered that the young man had been wronged. He promised 
 to see him restored to his rights, and appointed a day when 
 he should call again. 
 
 When presenting himself again on the day appointed he did 
 not find the cardinal prefect so resolute. He was told that Dr. 
 Wiseman was a very eminent man whose standing and influence 
 at Rome were very high. It would be far more prudent and 
 advisable to yield to his desires, instead of persisting in an op- 
 position which would be almost sure to prove fruitless. The 
 unfortunate appellant saw that he had little to hope from the 
 present appeal. 
 
 "I will not trouble your eminence any further," he said, "in 
 this matter, if you will promise to do me one favor, which will 
 cost you very little. Will you obtain for me a private audience 
 with the Holy Father himself?" 
 
 This promise was readily given. At the audience thus 
 obtained the Holy Father listened with great attention, noting 
 down carefully certain particulars. " I will make further in- 
 quiries into this affair," he said, " and that at once. Give me 
 your present address, and leave all the rest to me." 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 153 
 
 It was not long before some of the Papal sbirri appeared 
 at the English College and moved all our student's furniture 
 back into his room. This, of course, settled the whole matter 
 so far as that case was concerned. Another point, however, 
 was settled in the mind of the English rector. 
 
 " So long as I am head of this college," said he, " no 
 Americans shall get into it again. Jhey zuont obey anything but 
 laioy 
 
 I have always taken great pleasure in this anecdote because 
 I consider it to be highly complimentary to the American 
 character. I am free to confess that blind obedience finds little 
 favor in this country. St. Francis of Sales, when conversing 
 one day with certain young sisters of the Order of the Visi- 
 tation on the virtue of obedience, was asked what they should do 
 in case one of their superiors should give some order that would 
 be contrary to the laws of God or of the Church ? Francis re- 
 plied that in that case they should not obey her, any more 
 than if the superior were to say, " Sister, go into the garden 
 and gather some flowers, and throw yourself out of the window 
 that you may get there the sooner," when the sister should 
 gently and respectfully answer : " Mother, if you please, I will 
 go down the stairs." 
 
 I have already said that the progress of the Oxford move- 
 ment in the United States, although generally adverse to a 
 blind obedience, was not characterized by a spirit of disobedi- 
 ence, though this was frequently charged against some of them 
 by their bishops and other superiors. We have seen something 
 of this overstraining of authority in the experience of Henry 
 McVickar at the Chelsea Seminary, which led to his withdrawal 
 from that institution. Some of the bishops in their dioceses 
 carried on things with a much higher hand. I will here refer 
 to a few instances with which I am most familiar, or which are 
 most accessible to me. Let us begin with the diocese of 
 Maryland. 
 
 William Rollinson Whittingham was one of the foremost 
 figures of the Episcopalian communion at the period of which 
 I am treating. He graduated at the Chelsea Seminary in 
 1825, and officiated as professor of ecclesiastical history from 
 
154 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 1836 to 1840, when, being made bishop, he moved to Baltimore 
 and assumed charge of his diocese. I am glad to introduce 
 Bishop Whittingham to the reader, not only because of the im- 
 
 Rev. Uwight Lyman. 
 
 portance of his diocese and of his own personal eminence, but 
 because, so far as he dared to be so, he was a Tractarian. 
 Arthur Carey had been one of his pupils at the seminary. 
 After Carey's ordination Whittingham endeavored to secure 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 155 
 
 him for his diocese, but without success. Several young men, 
 however, not unlike Carey, soon gathered around the new 
 bishop and looked up to him as a guide and protector. Three 
 of these, afterwards converts to Rome, are especially memora- 
 ble. Dwight Lyman became an inmate of his family. When 
 Lyman went to Hagerstown to pursue his studies at St. 
 James's College, Nathaniel Augustus Hewit took his place with 
 the bishop's family, in Courtlandt Street. Directly opposite, 
 on the same street, resided Francis Baker. The bishop's 
 demands upon the obedience of these three rare young church- 
 men were remarkable, and remarkable was their docility. 
 Father Hewit says in his Memoir of Baker: 
 
 " In Bishop Whittingham's own eyes, he was himself the 
 equivalent of the whole Catholic episcopate. Consequently, 
 what he and his colleagues and predecessors in the Anglican 
 Church had decreed had full Catholic authority, and was just 
 as final and authoritative as if the whole world had taken part 
 in it. Hence the assertion of a despotic, exclusive authority of 
 the Anglican Church, concentrated in his person, over every one 
 who acknowledged his jurisdiction. He would not permit us 
 to attend any Catholic services, or read any Catholic books, as 
 an ordinary thing." Hewit was anxious to read Mohler's Sym- 
 bolism and Ward's Ideal of a Christian ChnrcJi, but did not do 
 so on account of the bishop's prohibition. He even gave up 
 using certain Anglican books of devotion to please him. Hewit 
 says : " Baker was equally obedient with myself at that time ; 
 although afterward, when he was governed more by common 
 sense and a just sentiment of his own rights, he read whatever 
 he thought proper." 
 
 The compliance, however, which Bishop Whittingham and 
 other Episcopalian bishops of his type required from their neo- 
 phytes was not so much an obedience to law, for Episcopalian- 
 ism in the United States has very little ecclesiastical law to 
 back it up. The bishop stands in the midst of his clergy only 
 as primus ifitcr pares. He is superior in dignity rather than in 
 power. He has not much authority of a kind that can be en- 
 forced. He can neither appoint a rector to a parish nor re- 
 move one from his charge. He has no cathedral properly so 
 
156 Glimpses of Life in an Anglieein Seviinary. 
 
 called ; that is to say, a seat, or see, in any mother church around 
 which the other churches of the diocese cluster as dependencies. 
 The actual state of things is illustrated by the fact that in New 
 ii^ork for many years the bishop occupied the position of assis- 
 tant minister in Trinity Church. So at Baltimore Bishop Whit- 
 tingham, who for a long time was rector o'f no church there, 
 had no authority in any of the churches. He could not, for in- 
 stance, ofiliciate or preach at St. Paul's Church, in Charles Street, 
 without permission of Dr. Wyatt, who was the rector. 
 
 There is, however, another kind of authority not founded on 
 any canonical law, which Episcopalian bishops often claim, and 
 is carried even farther in that denomination than in the Catho- 
 lic Church. It is simply that authority exerted over the opinions, 
 actions, and general life of others founded upon a deference to 
 some superiority in age, office, dignity, or experience ; or upon 
 a combination of these qualities in a class of prominent men. 
 It often has no other sound reason to enforce it than the argii- 
 mentiim ad verecundiani. In the Anglican Church this sort of 
 authority was liberally and often successfully employed to keep 
 young Tractarians from going to Rome, or otherwise following 
 their consciences in the ruling of their lives. In my " Reminis- 
 cences " of Bishop Wadhams I have shown what warning letters 
 were addressed to him, urging him to yield the dictates of a 
 conscience already thoroughly enlightened to sagacious guides 
 and politic trimmers who had no authority to appeal to but 
 grave beards and pompous phrases. 
 
 This solemn cantiloqnia went very far in the diocese of 
 Maryland. Bishop Whittingham himself was so far committed 
 to Catholic innovation in matters of outward form that it was 
 hard to drive his young colts with a safe and steady rein. He 
 was himself the first to wear long cassocks, reaching nearly to 
 his heels. He could not quarrel with his neophytes if they wore 
 theirs a little longer. This caused them sometimes to be mis- 
 taken for Catholic clergymen. One day on Saratoga Street 
 Baker, when passing by two boys who were playing together on 
 the sidewalk, was saluted very reverentially by one of them. 
 Baker felt pleased, but was soon taken down by the other boy^ 
 who cried out : 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 157 
 
 " Hello ! What are you taking your hat off to ? That ain't 
 no priest. What's the matter with you?" 
 
 Baker felt at the time as if he had been caught in a sort of 
 fraud, but often told it afterwards as a good joke. 
 
 The bishop at the same time favored also the use of crosses 
 in the churches, the removal of pulpits towering above desks 
 and communion tables underneath, and the substituting of some- 
 thing in their place more like altars. Hewit, Baker, and some 
 others eagerly followed the bishop's lead, and would gladly 
 have pushed their imitation of Roman observances much far- 
 ther. This they could not very well do at St. Paul's, where they 
 attended, for Dr. Wyatt was omnipotent there and clung to the 
 more Protestant practices in which he had been brought up. 
 There they contented themselves with kneeling with their faces 
 towards the altar, though the rest of the congregation faced the 
 other way. Providence soon opened a better way to play Catho- 
 lic. They came to know a well-disposed rector of a rather 
 small brick church in a poor district of Baltimore. He 
 warmly sympathized with Hewit and Baker in their Catholic 
 tendencies, and allowed them to remodel the interior of the 
 church and to imitate Catholic ceremonies according to the full 
 desires of their heart. This liberty they carried so far that the 
 congregation became alarmed and remonstrated ; and as the 
 bishop seemed indisposed to interfere, they began to forsake 
 the services. The parish was threatened with ruin both spiri- 
 tual and financial. At this juncture a power more effectual than 
 that of the bishop interposed. This was the rector's wife. With 
 her it was a matter of bread and butter, and she interposed 
 her authority so effectually that all the innovations were brought 
 to a stop. The obnoxious symbols on the window curtains were 
 banished out of sight. The chancel was restored to its former 
 simplicity, containing no longer anything bearing resemblance 
 to an altar, but revealing as before the old marble-topped com- 
 munion table which, like so many others^ would have served as 
 well for a washstand. 
 
 Hewit, Baker, and D wight Lyman, whose names we have 
 brought so prominently forward amongst the Tractarians of 
 Maryland, must not be set down as characterized by a spirit of 
 
158 
 
 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 ritualism. Outward forms have often real value as symbolizing 
 essential doctrine, and therefore minds most earnestly seeking 
 for doctrinal truth must needs often attach much importance to 
 ceremonies. The cross is typical of the atonement, the altar of 
 a continued visible sacrifice, and rich and costly vestments, 
 when attainable, are acknowledgments of the presence of God 
 in the temple. But these young men cannot be classed with 
 
 Very Rev. A. F. Hewit, D.D., C.S.P. 
 
 those who place ceremony, dress, or any show above truth and 
 true worship, or place quaint fashions or antique curiosities above 
 sincere and heartfelt devotion. It was an easy thing for them 
 to yield up cassocks or Roman collars when their bishop de- 
 sired it. 
 
 When the time came for Hewif s ordination to the diaconate 
 he gave his assent to the Thirty-nine Articles in the sense of 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Aftglican Seminary. 159 
 
 " No. 90." Baker was passed for ordination to the priesthood 
 by the bishop, despite his unqualified rejection of Articles 22 
 and 31, besides some others. 
 
 It was not long before Whittingham himself fell under sus- 
 picions of popery, and was obliged to defend himself against 
 the open attacks of one of his own clergy, the Rev. Henry V. 
 D. Johns, rector of Christ's Church. It was to avoid the charge 
 of popery that he put an end to the very novelties which he 
 himself had introduced. Paralyzed by this change of front on 
 the part of their bishop, many of the clergy and students dropped 
 quietly back into the old ways. Some who felt it hard to keep 
 quiet left the diocese. 
 
 Hewit, Baker, and Lyman yielded much at first. It was not 
 long before they found their consciences put to a far severer 
 test. They were expected to abandon what they felt to be the 
 only way to truth. This brought them speedily to a decisive 
 "break-up," like that which took place at the Chelsea Seminary. 
 Hewit was the first to take refuge in Rome. His conversion 
 followed close upon that of John Henry Newman in England. 
 He was received into the Catholic Church at Charleston, S. C, 
 in 1846, at the close of Holy Week. 
 
 Baker, whose attachment to the Anglican Church reached 
 farther back, lingered several years longer. He was received in- 
 to the Catholic Church by his old friend and comrade. Father 
 Hewit, April 9, 1853. The reception took place in the little 
 chapel of the Orphan Asylum of the Sisters of Charity, in Bal- 
 timore. I was then residing at the Redemptorist Convent in 
 Saratoga Street, and saw him in his visits there during the days 
 of his preparation. My memory is still fresh with the keen in- 
 terest I took in the conversion of a man already so distinguished. 
 Baker was ordained to the priesthood September 21, 1856, in 
 the Baltimore Cathedral. Present on that occasion and in 
 priestly vestments was D wight Lyman, his old friend and co- 
 partner in so many vicissitudes of joy and grief and trials of 
 conscience. A few days later Hewit, Lyman, and Baker cele- 
 brated together a solemn votive Mass of thanksgiving at St. Al- 
 phonsus' Church, for the same great grace. 
 
i6o Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE BREAK-UP ECHOED IN A LOW-CHURCH DIOCESE. — BISHOP 
 MCILVAINE —SEMINARY AND KENYON COLLEGE AT GAMBIER. 
 — A HIGH-CHURCH PARISH WITH A LOW CHURCH PASTOR. 
 — TRACTARIANISM CROPS OUT. — A BOMB-SHELL AT COM- 
 MENCEMENT. — THE RICHARDS FAMILY OF CONVERTS. 
 
 IN the last chapter I have attempted, according to my feeble 
 means, to show how the break-up of Tractarianism at the 
 Chelsea General Seminary was echoed in the rest of the United 
 States and particularly in the diocese of Maryland. There the 
 bishop of the diocese was a High-churchman, inclined to favor 
 Tractarianism, and was, intellectually speaking, the leading mind 
 among that class of bishops. If his courage had been equal 
 to his inclinations, he would have been beyond all question the 
 "great gun" of his class. The Low-church party had also its 
 " great gun," equally well loaded and more apt to go off. This 
 was Charles Pettit Mcllvaine, second Bishop of Ohio, who suc- 
 ceeded to his diocese in 1832. 
 
 The peculiarity of his evangelical views may be accounted 
 for by the fact that he was educated at Princeton, and was a 
 professor at a very similar institution, the University of the City 
 of New York, at the time when he was selected for the bishop- 
 ric of Ohio. 
 
 One of his earliest appointments after ordination was to St. 
 Ann's Church, Brooklyn. The call to this church came in 1827. 
 While there we find him taking part in the formation of an 
 evangelical society or conference of clergymen belonging to 
 New York City and vicinity, called the Protestant Episcopal 
 Clerical Association. The object of this association was stated 
 in its constitution to be the promotion of the personal piety 
 and of^cial usefulness of its members, by devotional exercises 
 and by conversation on missionary and other religious subjects. 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. i6i 
 
 This enterprise was promptly squelched by Bishop Hobart as 
 something likely to prove mischievous, something that might 
 lead to " cant " and perhaps to a partisan influence. The word 
 "cant" I quote from Bishop Hobart. One of its members 
 being a professor at the General Seminary, it was thought that 
 this influence might be extended to the students. 
 
 Some members of the association afterwards grew up to 
 higher views. Mcllvaine never did. In his whole life and doc- 
 trine I can find nothing characteristic of Episcopalianism ex- 
 cept that he used the book of Common Prayer, and attached 
 some importance to Apostolic Succession. Baptismal Regenera- 
 tion he scouted, while he was in no respect behind Calvin in 
 maintaining the doctrine of "total depravity," or behind Luther 
 in his extravagant presentation of the great Protestant heresy 
 of "justification by faith only." 
 
 While a student in the seminary I went one Sunday morn- 
 ing to hear him preach on this last doctrine, which was his 
 favorite theme. I think it was at St. Mark's, on Eighth Street. 
 It made the blood fairly creep through my veins to listen to 
 him. This must have been in the early summer of 1843, when 
 he was on a visit to New York, soliciting aid for his institu- 
 tions at Gambier, Ohio. It falls within my purpose to give the 
 reader some idea of these institutions. It will show the bishop 
 such as he was in his own domain, at work in the seat of his 
 power, with his principal materials for good or evil near at 
 hand, surrounded by his clergy and neophytes. We shall then 
 be better able to understand what a formidable adversary to 
 Tractarianism was such a man, so fortified by his position in 
 public life, so animated by intelligence and energy of character. 
 
 In a published appeal for financial aid, dated New York, 
 June 27, 1843, he tells us that the principal buildings of the 
 institutions at Gambier were the residences of the bishop and 
 of the president of Kenyon College, and five professors' houses. 
 The students of the college paid for their instruction, but the 
 course at the seminary was free. A village had grown up at 
 this location. The whole tract of land consisted of four thou- 
 sand acres. Thriving farms were scattered about where only a 
 few years before nothing could be seen but a primeval forest. 
 
i62 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 Much of this reminds us of the growth of Nashotah at about 
 the same period, leaving out the longings of Breck and his 
 companions for the ancient faith and for monastic seclusion. 
 
 Bishop Mcllvaine had at that time in his diocese fifty-nine 
 clergymen. Of these, twenty-seven were educated in part or 
 entirely at Gambier. Others educated in part or entirely there 
 had moved out of the diocese. We know by other testimony 
 that some left because the bishop made it too hot for them. 
 Only one student of the General Seminary had come to him 
 since his accession to the episcopate. 
 
 Dr. Mcllvaine was not the sort of man to govern his dio- 
 cese with a velvet hand. The direct powers of the episcopate 
 are very limited in the Protestant Episcopal Church, but it was 
 not his way to economize such power as he had. His tempera- 
 ment was polemical. Although rightly ranked as an evangelical, 
 his spirituality consisted more in a protest against " good 
 works " as having any intrinsic value than in a tendency to 
 sentimental piety. There was a great deal of the Presbyterian 
 in him, but he would have made a poor Methodist. He 
 opposed himself openly to camp meetings and to all such revi- 
 vals as either originated or resulted in breaking up the quietude 
 of Christian souls. 
 
 His views on the subject of revivals are given in full and at 
 length in a " charge " to his clergy delivered at Chillicothe, 
 September 5, 1834. It is a strange thing that a Revival of 
 the true Presbyterian or old-fashioned Congregational type should 
 have taken place in his own college at Gambier, some five years 
 later, the results of which were truly remarkable. We give an 
 account of this Revival as written by the hand of an eye- 
 witness, Mr. William Richards, who "got religion" on that 
 occasion. It is taken from a public lecture of Richards' deliv- 
 ered many years later. 
 
 "It commenced," said the lecturer, "without preparation or 
 special efforts — no one knew how ; but it went on until nearly 
 every student was counted as a ' convert.* The last month or 
 two of the college year, 1839, ^^^ given up mainly to this 
 revival, as the saving of souls was considered of vastly more 
 importance than mere learning, or any other earthly interest. I 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 163 
 
 allude to this event and mention the fact that I was one of the 
 subjects, simply for the purpose of setting before you what was, 
 and perhaps still is, the evangelical notion of ' getting religion.' 
 ' Seekers * were diligently impressed with the notion that they 
 must expect, seek, and pray for a * change of heart.' And 
 when, after a sharp struggle, sometimes short and sometimes 
 lasting days or weeks, one could at last get up in meeting and 
 say with tears of joy that 'At such an hour and such a place 
 [possibly behind a big log in the woods, or in the loft of the 
 barn, or in the closet if he has one, or elsewhere], while agon- 
 izing and praying to the Lord, suddenly light came in upon his 
 soul, and he was convicted and felt happy ! ' — then he was 
 regarded and received as a convert. He had * experienced reli- 
 gion ' ; he was no longer a mere worldling ; he had come out 
 from the world ; the old Adam was put off ; old things had 
 passed away and all things had become new ! While this ex- 
 citement lasted there was a happy state of feeling. But it is 
 not in the nature of man to keep up that excitement continu- 
 ously. The tension must give way, and lassitude and coldness 
 follow. Then came in many cases the surprising and painful 
 discovery that the change of heart was not a radical change 
 after all — that the old man Adam was not conquered and put 
 off, and that it was still just as easy as of old to be wicked, to 
 get angry, to lie or swear, or slander, or have bad thoughts, or 
 be worldly minded." 
 
 I have given the above details simply to furnish a picture 
 in a general way of the state of things in a Low-church diocese 
 at the period of which I treat. I have given also the ordinary 
 characteristics of an evangelical or Low-church bishop presiding 
 in such a diocese. In this case, however, it must not be for- 
 gotten that the bishop happened to be, not merely a type of 
 his class, but the leading evangelical bishop of that day, tower- 
 ing in intelligence, energy, and importance above every other 
 Low church bishop. The following sketch of the man has been 
 given to me by one of his own clergy, now a Catholic layman, 
 Henry L. Richards, of Winchester, Mass. I have seen the 
 bishop and heard him preach. I have a very vivid recollection 
 of that occasion. I remember very well, also, my own con- 
 
164 
 
 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 ception of the characteristics of the man derived from others 
 
 and stored away in my memory. I cannot pretend, however, 
 
 to place him before my readers in such true colors as those 
 
 furnished me by this venerable convert, who was educated 
 
 Henry L. Richards. 
 
 under the bishop's own eye at Kenyon College and Seminary 
 and was even a favorite pupil. Mr. Richards is still, at the age 
 of eighty years, after a laborious life in business, in the full 
 vigor of his remarkable faculties, active in charities and literary 
 pursuits. This is what he says of Bishop Mcllvaine: 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 165 
 
 " The bishop was in many respects a remarkable man. He 
 had a good deal of religious fervor and enthusiasm, and a great 
 horror of Popery. He was arbitrary, dignified, and not very 
 accessible except to his particular friends and sympathizers. 
 He was interesting and effective in his extemporary sermons 
 and addresses, but his formal written discourses were rather 
 stilted and heavy." 
 
 Amongst all evangelical enthusiasts, especially ladies, Bishop 
 Mcllvaine was a hero, a sort of apostolic divinity. I remem- 
 ber well the worshipful words of an excellent Presbyterian lady 
 of New York City already introduced to my readers. Anything 
 clerical was to her something angelic ; even I, boy that I was, 
 stood in her regard as something like Raphaels round-cheeked 
 cherubs, with very little wings put on to atone for cheeks and 
 eyes extraordinarily human. But Bishop Mcllvaine, though 
 most violently and bitterly evangelical, with his high talents and 
 fine elocution, was something superhuman. " Isn t he perfectly 
 wonderful? ' she would say to me. " Isn t he lovely?" I 
 could not enter into her enthusiasm at all, though I would 
 willingly have done so, for she was very dear to me, and I was 
 always glad to please her. I acknowledged that he was won- 
 derful enough. I wondered at him myself, but I thought him 
 altogether unlovely. I could very well have used the terms 
 applied by the celebrated Rufus Choate in praise of a Massa- 
 chusetts judge : 
 
 " We look upon him as a heathen looks upon his idol. We 
 know that he is ugly, but we feel that he is great.' 
 
 Of course, in such a diocese as Ohio, administered by such 
 a man, Tractarianism could not have, comparatively speaking, any 
 very great foothold. 
 
 The reader will remember, perhaps, the incident given in 
 Chapter H., of the putting up in the seminary chapel at 
 Chelsea of a cross surrounded with evergreens, preparatory to 
 midnight services on Christmas eve. This the students were 
 obliged to take down by order of Dr. Turner, dean of the 
 faculty. We learn from the worthy doctor's own Autobio- 
 graphy, that this incident, apparently so trifling in itself, was 
 brought before the public in consequence of a communication 
 
1 66 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 to Dr. Turner from the Bishop of Ohio, who had heard of this 
 affair and wanted to be informed about it. Dr. Turner tells 
 us that he gave Bishop Mcllvaine an exact account of this 
 matter in his reply, and consequently it became public. It was, 
 moreover, made a subject of public ridicule, so the dean tells 
 us, by a church paper. This looks like the work of Dr. 
 Seabury of the Churchman. An English work entitled Records 
 of Coiincils noticed the same affair with similar ridicule of the 
 dean's action. Fun also was made of it during the General 
 Convention of the Episcopal Church at Philadelphia in 1844. 
 
 There was very little of war against Tractarianism, either in 
 private machination or popular excitement, where the shadow 
 at least of Bishop Mcllvaine's hand did not appear. 
 
 Henry L. Richards, already quoted, says of the atmosphere 
 pervading the bishop's institutions : " There was no conflict in 
 the seminary or college because he was careful to secure pro- 
 fessors of his own stripe of churchmanship. There were several 
 * old-fashioned ' High-churchmen (you know what that meant in 
 those days) among the clergy, but they were careful not to 
 render themselves obnoxious to episcopal authority. The bishop 
 was always glad to get rid of High-churchmen and to fill their 
 places with those who sympathized with him. He was apt to 
 give the cold shoulder to all who taught the sacramental 
 system, while those who preached the Calvinistic doctrine of 
 justification by faith only received his warmest friendship." 
 
 But Tractarianism had found its way even into Ohio, at the 
 time of which I am writing. And when the great break-up 
 came at Oxford and at Chelsea Seminary, it brought trouble 
 even to Ohio and to Bishop Mcllvaine, while it introduced 
 young men of high culture, great talent, and eminent virtue 
 into the fold of the Catholic Church. Foremost amongst these 
 were several members of the Richards family, of whom five 
 now living are known to me. To the kindness of some of 
 these I am indebted for a large part of what I have already 
 written concerning Bishop Mcllvaine and his diocese, and for 
 what I have still to write. 
 
 I scarcely know where to begin the story, but perhaps it 
 makes little difference. There was one parish in the diocese of 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglic an Seminary. 167 
 
 Ohio, almost if not absolutely the only one in the State, where 
 High-church ideas prevailed. It was, at least, the principal and 
 leading one of that sort. This was St. Paul's, at Columbus. 
 Bishop Mcllvaine thought it a matter of high importance to set 
 a guard over this congregation, to keep it from spreading in- 
 fection, and if possible to lead it into more evangelical paths. 
 
 In 1842 the bishop appointed to this charge a young man 
 reared under his own eye, and moulded to his own thoughts and 
 methods. This was the Rev. Henry L. Richards, already men- 
 tioned, a graduate of Mcllvaine's Theological Seminary at Gam- 
 bier, and an approved evangelical. He has said of his theo- 
 logical studies : " It was during the ' Oxford ' controversy that 
 we were under the bishop's instruction, and our principal text- 
 books with him were a small volume on Jnsiification by Faith 
 Only, and a good-sized octavo on Oxford Divinity, which he 
 wrote about that time to stem the tide Romeward, which he 
 had the penetration to see was flowing rapidly in that direc- 
 tion." 
 
 It can easily be seen that such a young man was one after 
 the bishop's own heart. So thoroughly had he become imbued 
 with the bishop's sentiments that he had been allowed to preach 
 his own sermons in the country around Gambler before he was 
 ordained. But, alas ! 
 
 "The best laid schemes o* mice and men 
 Gang aft a gley." 
 
 Dr. Mcllvaine was doomed to be disappointed in his man. St. 
 Paul's congregation were not brought down to the evangelical 
 tone, but their young pastor was ere long elevated to higher 
 views of Christian faith. Christian worship, and the value of 
 sacraments. The change came about after this wise. 
 
 In the congregation of this young church at Columbus one 
 of the principal parishioners was Mr. Isaac N. Whiting, the well- 
 known bookseller and publisher. Through the friendship and 
 courtesy of this gentleman, Richards became better acquainted 
 with the standard works and arguments of the High-church 
 party. He was introduced to a new world of thought, in which 
 
1 68 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 High-church authors spoke for themselves. In brief, the young 
 pastor not only became a High-churchman, but passed rapidly 
 through that unmeaning middle ground, and became a Tracta- 
 rian. This change soon showed itself, not only in his sermons 
 but was made manifest to the very eyes of the congregation in 
 the altar and other fixtures of the church, and in various decor- 
 ations. The marble-top communion table with desk above and 
 behind it, and pulpit towering above both table and desk, were 
 discarded and gave place to something more like a real altar, 
 in appearance at least. 
 
 These things could not be kept long from the knowledge 
 and attention of such a bishop as Mcllvaine. He had not been 
 contented up to this time in guiding the minds of his collegians 
 and seminarians safely through the snares of pompous prelacy 
 and wicked popery. His wrath against these things, already suf- 
 ficiently kindled, had been blown into a white heat by the ordi- 
 nation of Arthur Carey. In a charge to the clergy and laity, 
 at a convention of his diocese held in September, 1843, he had 
 denounced Tractarianism and openly condemned the action of 
 Bishop Onderdonk ; and his prominence and rule in Ohio were 
 so recognized that the convention had seconded this onslaught 
 by resolutions passed unanimously. 
 
 In such circumstances the new altar at St. Paul's, Columbus, 
 could not stand long. The young rector was ordered to take 
 it down. He obeyed, albeit reluctantly and under protest. He 
 sawed out the panels and made an honest table out of a mock 
 altar that had no sacrifice. The bishop knew very well that, to 
 all Episcopalian intents and purposes, a true washstand was as 
 good as a mock altar, but his object was accomplished by this 
 surrender of the young rector. There were several long and 
 solid communion tables in the diocese besides that at Columbus, 
 with embroidered covers or antependiums resembling piano-covers, 
 but this one he was determined to make an example of as a 
 Romish innovation. Thereby, moreover, he humbled a new and 
 somewhat refractory young Tractarian. The young Tractarian 
 is still living and full of life at the advanced age of eighty years, 
 and able to laugh both at himself and the bishop. 
 
 The resolute bishop had still more thunder in reserve. The 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 169 
 
 priest of St. Paul's was a caput notahile. The other offenders could 
 say to themselves, Prom I a Jove, procnl a fulmine, and besides 
 this they could just as well be attended to a little later and one 
 at a time. The bishop took occasion from the above incident 
 to issue a pronu)iciamento against Roman altars in Protestant 
 churches which attracted considerable attention and criticism at 
 the time. Amongst his works may be found a pamphlet pub- 
 lished in 1846, entitled "Reasons for Refusing to Consecrate a 
 Church having an Altar," 
 
 In 1849 Henry Richard's health becoming poor he went to 
 New Orleans. At this time he had become a Roman Catholic 
 in belief. In the heat and enthusiasm of his new conviction he 
 returned to his home in Columbus, Ohio, " expecting to carry 
 with him to Rome a number of his devoted High church friends." 
 In this he found himself grievously disappointed. This disap- 
 pointment caused his own courage to fail. He still remained 
 for two years lingering and afraid to make the great leap which 
 is always necessary to bring one out of a false church into the 
 true fold of Christ. These were the two most unhappy years 
 of his whole life. In addition to the agony engendered in his 
 own mind, his condition was embittered by the opposition of 
 friends and the estrangement of his nearest kindred. It is not 
 necessary to mention these painful things in detail. In the 
 month of November, 185 1, came a sickness unto death. He 
 found himself in the bosom of his family prostrate and helpless, 
 apparently just at the gate of eternity and yet outside the pale 
 of that great church to which his faith clung and in which his 
 heart lay. He called for a priest. His demand was refused. 
 It so chanced that in this extremity he 
 
 " Found not a generous friend, nor pitying foe." 
 
 He had a brother, indeed, who sympathized with him, of 
 whom more by and by. But that brother was at the time far 
 away. Kind Providence here interfered, and in a manner as un- 
 expected by our young Tractarian as by those who should have 
 listened to the cries of his conscience and befriended him. The 
 crisis passed away, leaving him still weak but rallying. The 
 sympathizing brother came on the wings of the wind to his 
 
170 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 succor. This brother, named William, a younger man, but, like 
 Henry, of advanced Catholic views and likewise a thorn in 
 Bishop Mcllvaine's side, proved for the time a successful peace- 
 maker. He made arrangements to remove the patient to his 
 own home in Newark, Ohio, where he nursed him until his re- 
 covery. 
 
 William had hoped to persuade Henry to delay the great 
 step, and was prepared with many reasons for such delay. Pre- 
 cisely the contrary happened. The foolish via media grew 
 meaningless before the strong light which Henry's mind and 
 conscience were able to throw upon the questions which came 
 into discussion between them. 
 
 On January 25, 1852, Henry L. Richards was received into 
 the Catholic Church, and the great chasm was closed which had 
 separated him for awhile from the home of his conscience. 
 Fortunately this step did not separate him from his family, 
 though it broke up his connection with the congregation of St. 
 Paul's at Columbus, and with Anglicanism. He had acted as 
 rector of this parish of St. Paul's from 1842 to 1852. When he 
 sent in his formal resignation, Bishop Mcllvaine was manly 
 enough to say that he respected him a great deal more for his 
 consistent action than those who had the same views and senti- 
 ments yet continued to remain where they were. A strong and 
 conscientious man is always a thorn in the side of a superior 
 who rules by an unwarranted authority. Under the circum- 
 stances, no wonder that the bishop felt relieved. 
 
 Being a married man with a family, the advent of Henry 
 Richards into the Church closed up to him all avenues to a life 
 in the priesthood. To a highly intellectual and theological mind 
 like his this loss of a cherished career mu.st have been a great 
 sacrifice. But he made this sacrifice and others manfully, hope- 
 fully, and even cheerfully. He acknowledges that he had many 
 trials to meet at first, but insists that he has always looked 
 upon these as his greatest blessings. He entered promptly into 
 business, beginning in New York City as clerk to Edward Frith, 
 a Catholic gentleman, agent in America for Sanderson Brothers 
 & Co., Sheffield steel manufacturers. His active, energetic life 
 in this new vocation has brought to him in his old age comfort 
 
Glijiipscs of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 171 
 
 and prosperity, without diminishing his faith and piety, or his 
 interest in all that concerns the welfare of Christ's Church or 
 the happiness of his fellow-man. He is the centre of a family 
 group of Catholics, including the wife of his youth and several 
 children. One of these, his oldest son, is Henry Richards, edi- 
 
 WiLLiAM Richards. 
 
 tor of the Sacred Heart Review, published in East Cambridge, 
 a prosperous Catholic paper. To this, as well as to other papers 
 and magazines, he himself, at the advanced age of eighty years, 
 is a frequent and valued contributor. His second son, William, 
 is an enterprising and thriving dealer in iron and steel. His 
 
172 Gliuipscsof Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 youngest son, the Rev. J. Havens Richards, S.J., is the well- 
 known and honored President of Georgetown College, D. C. 
 
 Among other members of this numerous Catholic family of 
 Richards is William, Henry's brother, of whom I have already 
 had occasion to speak as once resident in Bishop Mcllvaine's 
 diocese, and concerning whom there remains more to be said. 
 
 William Richards, a little younger than Henry, and like him 
 early placed under the dominant influence of Bishop Mcllvaine, 
 was also a student at Kenyon College, graduating with his 
 brother in 1838. Although strongly religious, the natural bent 
 of his mind was towards philosophy, and his pathway to religious 
 truth from the errors of Protestantism lay along a weary course 
 of philosophic wandering. After his graduation at college he 
 remained at the institution for awhile making special studies 
 in history, philosophy, and law, under the instruction of the 
 Rev. Dr. William Sparrow, whom he terms a learned and com- 
 petent teacher, although a radical Protestant. In 1842 we find 
 him at the Yale Law School in New Haven, where he still kept 
 up his readings in philosophy. 
 
 From these brief details I hasten forward in order to carry 
 out my purpose of connecting him with the break-up of Trac- 
 tarianism in the Ohio diocese. William Richards had carefully 
 kept his eye, all this while, on the progress of his brother Henry 
 towards Catholic truth, and sympathized with him strongly. It 
 became his fate to take part also with that brother and others 
 in troubling the peace of Bishop Mcllvaine. 
 
 In the summer of 1844 he received and accepted an invita- 
 tion from the faculty of Kenyon College to deliver an oration 
 at the coming commencement. This took place in August. 
 
 It was a great occasion, and for any one interested in Ohio 
 Churchmanship, with a desire in his heart to formulate his views, 
 a most desirable audience. For William Richards, a pretty well 
 fledged Tractarian, it was a bold thing to attempt formulating 
 his at such a time and place. If Tractarians were present in his 
 audience they were all well handicapped. He was or had been 
 recently a law student at Yale, but Yale was not in the diocese 
 of Ohio. His leaders in philosophy, Cousin, Lieber, Carlyle, and 
 Brownson, were not represented there ; still less Newman, Pusey, 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 173 
 
 and Faber of Oxford, or Dr. Seabury of the New York CJmrch- 
 man. Kenyon College, however, was there, with a great part of 
 its affiliation ; and Charles Pettit Mcllvaine, head of the college 
 and seminary, and facile princeps of Low-churchism in the United 
 States, was there in all his glory, and with far more than his 
 full canonical power. 
 
 " He was the heart of all the scene." 
 
 It was in such a place, before such an audience, and in such 
 a presence, that William Richards, a graduate of Kenyon, and 
 still only a student, unlaureled in any profession, dared to intro- 
 duce his philosophical and theological bomb-shell. His philo- 
 sophical aberrations from current Evangelical tradition might, 
 perhaps, easily have found pardon. Older men than he was 
 are expected betimes to slip up in such matters. What Ameri- 
 can cares for a few powder-crackers in a barrel ? But why speak 
 disrespectfully in such an atmosphere of private judgment ? 
 Why intimate that the sacred right of private judgment, so 
 precious in the eyes of Protestant Evangelicals, and so strongly 
 intimated in the Thirty-nine Articles, is inconsistent with the 
 Twentieth Article, which puts forth in plain terms the following 
 declaration to be subscribed by all the English clergy : 
 
 " The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and 
 authority in controversies of Faith." 
 
 It is true that the Church of England has so little authority 
 that she dares not attempt to hold a convocation to decide any 
 question of faith or doctrine, and that she has never enjoyed 
 this privilege since she was first begotten. She cannot even 
 interfere authoritatively in matters of ceremony without permis- 
 sion of the prime minister, or the sanction of the state Court of 
 Arches. This is very true, but it only makes the presumption of 
 young Richards all the more apparent. Private interpretation 
 may be very uncivil although quite rightful. Such was, in fact, 
 the general judgment that day at Kenyon College. 
 
 This oration embraced, moreover, one more telling point, one 
 more novelty which startled not only the bishop but the whole 
 audience. It was a sigh for unity, and that a unity from which 
 was not excluded the ancient church, Catholic and Roman. 
 
174 Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 
 
 This remarkable oration was the topic of discussion at all the 
 dinner-tables that day in Gambier, and the universal comment 
 was : " That young man is on the road to Rome ! " 
 
 At the end of his oration, as William Richards left the stage 
 and walked down the aisle, he met a friend, a lawyer of Colum- 
 bus, who was to deliver the next oration. He saluted Richards 
 with the blunt question : " What did you mean by that ora- 
 tion?" The answer was: "I meant just what I said." "Well," 
 said his friend, " I brought two orations with me — the best one 
 on ' French Literature,' and the other on * William Leggett,' 
 and now I am going to give you a counterblast by giving the 
 ' Leggett ' document." This second oration proved to be as 
 radical in politics as any Evangelical discourse could be in reli- 
 gion, but not quite so startling at Gambier that day as the 
 utterances of Richards. 
 
 Among those present at these exercises was the Rev. George 
 Denison. He was rector of the church at Newark, where 
 Richards resided, and nephew of Bishop Philander Chase. It 
 was a great annoyance to him at the dinner-tables that day to 
 be obliged to admit to numerous questioners that the Tractarian 
 orator was a parishioner of his. 
 
 William Richards fulfilled the prophecies so freely made con- 
 cerning him on this commencement day which we have described. 
 He became a Catholic. He lives amongst us now, one of the 
 most honored names in the church's long list of educated con- 
 vert laymen. A manuscript lecture of his delivered in 1887, 
 before the Carroll Institute, for the benefit of the Brownson 
 Monument Fund, has been generously put in my hands, and 
 aided me much in the preparation of this chapter. I have only 
 used such incidents and dates as lend themselves to my especial 
 purpose. 
 
 Those who would study the great social problems of our day 
 by the light given to a true Catholic made competent to speak 
 from the bosom of a long experience, ripened by a careful and 
 thoughtful philosophy, and by a truly spiritual faith which 
 always recognizes duty both to God and man, should read the 
 essay of this same William Richards of Washington, printed in 
 the " Proceedings of the American Catholic Congress of 1889." 
 
Glimpses of Life in an Anglican Seminary. 175 
 
 In the present chapter I have only picked a few seeds from 
 the surface of a large field, confining myself to the locality of 
 a single diocese and to a short period of three or four years 
 memorable in my own life. Bishop Mcllvaine, Gambler, with its 
 theological seminary and Kenyon College, lie before us as plain as 
 I know how to picture them. These are in contrast with Bishop 
 Whittingham and scenes which surrounded him at the same 
 period. Both these localities connect by wires with the Chelsea 
 Seminary, which in many respects must be considered, at the 
 period in question, as the centre of electric fire. It is a sort of 
 drama that we have attempted to present, and trust that we 
 have sufficiently preserved " the unities." The unity of action 
 must be looked for in that momentary confusion which we Trac- 
 tarian converts unwittingly united to produce. A sudden break- 
 up came first. After that break-up there settled upon many 
 grateful hearts in America a sweet and long-abiding peace. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
BX5925 .W24 
 
 The Oxford movement in America : or, 
 
 Princeton Tlieological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00004 0461 
 
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 MOVEMEN 
 IN AMERICJ 
 
 OR 
 
 GLIMPSES 
 OF LIFE I 
 ANGLICAN 
 SEMINA 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. 
 
 CLARENCl 
 
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