Laudianism in the land of the Pilgrim Fathers

As New England is on the cusp of entering into the yearly celebration of its glorious Fall, it seems appropriate that the anniversary of the 'Yale Apostasy' occurs at this time.  It was on the 13th September 1722 that Timothy Cutler (pictured) - then rector of the college which stood at the heart of Puritan New England - and six other Congregationalist ministers publicly declared, in the words of one of their number, "that they could no longer keep out of the communion of the Holy Catholic Church, and that some of them doubted of the validity, and the rest were persuaded of the invalidity, of Presbyterian ordination in opposition to Episcopal".  Four of the seven would make the journey across the Atlantic to be ordained deacon and priest by bishops of the Church of England in 1723, three of them returning to minister in New England.

What was it that took root amidst the unlikely landscape of Puritan New England, with its Congregational church polity and Calvinistic principles?  A recent study of Anglicanism in colonial Boston summarises it as follows:

Beyond the initial crisis of identity that the Yale apostasy prompted in Congregationalist circles, these public defections testified to the attractiveness of Anglican ordination, which the converts held as valid through the apostolic succession of bishops, and the Book of Common Prayer as a liturgical manual for worship.

There is, of course, a name for such adherence to episcopacy as apostolic and conformity to the Book of Common Prayer: Laudianism.  

One of the Yale Converts, Samuel Johnson, gave an account of episcopacy of which Laud would have heartily approved (quoted in Ingram's Religion, Reform and Modernity in the Eighteenth Century):

from the facts of Scripture, compared with the facts of the primitive church immediately after, and so downward it appeared very plain that the episcopal government of the church was universally established by the Apostles wherever they propagated Christianity.

As for the Book of Common Prayer, this has been convincingly demonstrated by Donald F.M. Gerardi as not less significant in Johnson's abandoning of the 'New England Way': "The Prayer Book, in itself, was an effective missionary".  The role played by William King's 1694 defence of the Prayer Book - A Discourse Concerning the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God - was significant.  Gerardi notes:

The book was, in short, a classic statement of the sacramental Arminianism of the Caroline Church.  Its theology was Laudian in emphasis and its scholarship showed that sensitivity to history that made many Churchmen of that age leading Patristic scholars.

We get a similar sense of how these Laudian commitments to episcopacy as apostolic and conformity to the Prayer Book defined the Anglican witness in colonial New England in the words of another of the Yale Converts, James Wetmore. Wetmore had been pastor of the First Congregational Church in New Haven, Connecticut, at the time of the 'Yale Apostasy'.  In a publication in 1730, he set forth the apostolic nature of the episcopal order:

The Apostles were appointed by Christ, and to them the chief Management of this Work of Preaching the Gospel to all the World was committed: They had authority to admit others as Partners with them in this Work, either as to their full Power and Office, or to some part of it; accordingly they appointed Presbyters and Deacons to assist them in some parts of their Work, to preach and baptize &c. and where they found it needful they appointed one of superior Gifts and Abilities in the Fulness of their own Office, to preside over Clergy and People, and ordain as many others as they should find it necessary; thus it was in the Instances of Timothy and Titus.

And when the Apostles all died, the Work was carried on after the same manner, as we are fully informed by ancient History. The chief Governors of the Church, the Bishops, to who the Apostles committed their Churches together with the same Power themselves had, they proceeded still, as the Christian Faith gained Ground in the World, to increase the Number of Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters as well as Deacons, as they found Occasion.

In the same publication he offered a distinctly Laudian call to conformity to the rites and ceremonies of the Book of Common Prayer:

Which is all I need say, in answer to all the Exceptions that are taken, against the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England: Tho' the Fitness and Expediency of our Rites and Worship, has been over and over proved and represented in so clear a Light, by many worthy Hands, as one would think sufficient, to put our Adversaries out of all Countenance.

I must entreat you, to lay aside your Prejudices and think modestly and humbly of these things; and prefer Unity and Peace of the Church, before the pleasing of your Fantasies, in things of an indifferent Nature. Remember what St. James says, III. 14, 15. if you have bitter Envying and Strife in your Hearts, glory not and be not against the Truth, this Wisdom descendeth not from Above.

Men may think themselves wise enough, to mend the settled Forms and Rites of Religion, but if it be done in Envy and Strife, such Wisdom descendeth not from Above, it does not come from God.

In the funeral sermon for Cutler, the most significant of the Yale Converts, who would minister to an Anglican congregation in Christ Church, Boston until his death in 1765, we find this Laudian and High Church tradition embodied in Cutler's life and ministry:

And as he had deliberately entertained a high opinion of the constitution of the church of England, so he was ever zealous in its defence. At the same time he took particular care not to vary from its rules, but endeavoured to support its interests and preserve its authority with great integrity. His firmness and zeal, his attachment and perseverance in the true faith and principles of the Christian religion deserve the greatest notice, at a time when so many sit loose to the fundamental articles of it, think lightly of the great mysteries of our redemption by Christ, and if they stop short of barefaced infidelity, plunge into the gulf or dead sea of latitudinarianism, under the specious name of morality.

That the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, with the bleak theological system of the 'New England Way', should have been blessed with the rich glory of the New England Fall is a rather appropriate metaphor for Laudianism taking root in such a theological landscape.