GLEBES AND SALARIES WITHDRAWN.
It has been made a matter of great complaint against the Legislature
of Virginia, that it should not only have withdrawn the stipend
of sixteen thousand-weight of tobacco from the clergy, but
also have seized upon the glebes. I do not mean to enter upon the
discussion of the legality of that act, or of the motives of those
who petitioned for it. Doubtless there were many who sincerely
thought that it was both legal and right, and that they were doing
God and religion a service by it. I hesitate not, however, to express
the opinion, in which I have been and am sustained by many
of the best friends of the Church then and ever since, that nothing
could have been more injurious to the cause of true religion in the
Episcopal Church, or to its growth in any way, than the continuance
of either stipend or glebes. Many clergymen of the
most unworthy character would have been continued among us, and
such a revival as we have seen have never taken place. As it was,
together with the glebes and salaries evil ministers disappeared
and made room for a new and different kind. Even in cases
where, from some peculiarity in the manner in which the glebes
were first gotten and the tenure by which they were held, the law
could not alienate them from the parish, they have been, I believe,
without an exception, a drawback to the temporal and spiritual
prosperity of the congregations, by relaxing the efforts of the
people to support the ministry and making them to rely on the
uncertain profits of their contested or pillaged lands. The prejudices
excited against the Church by the long contest for them were
almost overwhelming to her hopes, and a successful termination of
that contest might have been utterly fatal to them for a long period
of time. Not merely have the pious members of the Church
taken this view of the subject, since the revival of it under other
auspices, but many of those who preferred the Church at that day,
for other reasons than her evangelical doctrine and worship, saw
that it was best that she be thrown upon her own resources. I had
a conversation many years since with Mr. Madison, soon after he
ceased to be President of the United States, in which I became
assured of this. He himself took an active part in promoting the
act for the putting down the establishment of the Episcopal Church,
while his relative was Bishop of it and all his family connection
attached to it. He mentioned an anecdote illustrative of the preference
of many for it who still advocated the repeal of all its
peculiar privileges. I give his own words. At a time when lobby
members were sent by some of the other denominations to urge
the repeal of all laws favouring the Episcopal Church, one, an
elder of a church, came from near Hampton, who pursued his
work with great fearfulness and prudence. An old-fashioned Episcopal
gentleman, of the true Federal politics, with a three-cornered
hat, powdered hair, long queue, and white top-boots, perceived him
approaching very cautiously one day, as if afraid though desirous
to speak. Whereupon he encouraged the elder to come forward,
saying that he was already with him, that he was clear for giving
all a fair chance, that there were many roads to heaven, and he
was in favour of letting every man take his own way; but he was
sure of one thing, that no
gentleman would choose any but the
Episcopal. Although I am far from assenting to the conclusion
that no gentlemen are to be found in other denominations, or that
there were none in Virginia at that time who had become alienated
from the Episcopal and attached to other churches, yet it cannot
be denied that the more educated and refined were generally averse
to any but the Episcopal Church, while many, of whom the above-mentioned
was a fair representative, were in favour of equal privileges
to all.
[14]
It may be well here to state, what will more fully
appear when we come to speak of the old glebes and churches in
a subsequent number, that the character of the laymen of Virginia
for morals and religion was in general greatly in advance of that
of the clergy. The latter, for the most part, were the refuse or
more indifferent of the English, Irish, and Scottish Episcopal
Churches, who could not find promotion and employment at home.
The former were natives of the soil and descendants of respectable
ancestors who migrated at an early period. For high and honourable
character and a due appreciation of what was required in
ministers of the Gospel there were numerous influential laymen
who would favourably compare with those of any part of the land.
Some of the vestries, as their records painfully show, did what
they could to displace unworthy ministers, though they often failed
through defect of law. In order to avoid the danger of having
evil ministers fastened upon them, as well as from the scarcity of
ministers, they made much use of lay-readers as substitutes. In
some instances, as will be seen, such readers were very successful
in strengthening the things which remained after the Church was
deprived of her possessions and privileges and the clergy had
abandoned their charges. The reading of the Service and sermons
in private families, which contributed so much to the preservation
of an attachment to the Church in the same, was doubtless promoted
by this practice of lay-reading. Those whom Providence
raised up to resuscitate the fallen Church of Virginia can testify
to the fact that the families who descended from the above-mentioned
have been their most effective supports. Existing in greater
or less numbers throughout the State, they have been the first to
originate measures for the revival of the Church, and the most
active and liberal ever since in the support of her ministers.
More intelligent and devoted Churchmen, more hospitable and
warm-hearted friends of the clergy, can nowhere be found. And
when in the providence of God they are called on to leave their
ancient homes and form new settlements in the distant South and
West, none are more active and reliable in transplanting the
Church of their Fathers.
