"The true Center of repose": the Yale Apostasy and Anglicanism in colonial New England

13th September was Yale Apostasy Day.  On that day in 1722 - the day after commencement at Yale - that seven Congregationalist ministers shocked Puritan New England by publicly declaring they doubted the validity of their presbyterian ordination and would seek episcopal orders in the Church of England. Three of the seven - Timothy Cutler, who had been rector of Yale,  Samuel Johnson, and James Wetmore - received episcopal orders in England and returned to minister in the American colonies, Cutler and Johnson in New England, Wetmore in New York.  

While Puritan New England may have been considered unlikely ground in which the Church of Laud might take root, the decades following the Yale Apostasy did see this happen.  (And it was a distinctly Laudian, High Church vision which animated the 'Yale Apostates' and their successors.) As Jeremy Gregory has said, "Up until the early 1760s [when the political context became fraught], the progress of the Church of England in New England was beginning to look like a success story rather than one with in-built failure". Some decades ago, Frederick V. Mills described the Church of England in the American colonies as "a virile church acquiring an impressive amount of self-sufficiency and competence". A particular focus of "Anglican successes in the late colonial period" was Connecticut:

The colony where Anglican churches multiplied most rapidly was Connecticut. In 1761 thirty churches were reported. A survey ordered by the General Court in 1774 noted forty-seven churches and chapels for Anglican worship and an additional twenty congregations that met in court, town, or school-house.

Referring to the 'Yale Apostates', Mills notes, "From the 1760s the church was prospering from the labours and leadership of these men".

What drove the "success story"? Donald F.M. Gerardi pointed to the "sacramental Arminianism" of Samuel Johnson, offering a liturgical and sacramental alternative to the "Puritan piety" of the New England Way.  While we might want to question aspects of Gerardi's use of 'Arminian', there can be little doubt that the liturgical and sacramental piety of the Church of England offered an attractive alternative to the Congregationalist piety and order.  

Another aspect of the "success story", however, may also be - perhaps surprisingly - Anglican preaching, contrasting as it did with both the doctrinal verities of the Puritan pulpit and the emotional appeals of the Great Awakening, sweeping through New England in the 1730s and 1740s. Henry Caner, a 1724 Yale graduate who had been influenced by Samuel Johnson and crossed the Atlantic to receive episcopal orders in 1727, offered, in a 1745 sermon, a defence of the "moral preaching" of the Anglican parish church, derided by the New Light preachers of the Great Awakening. In doing so, Cale does suggest something of why such "moral preaching" offered an attractive alternative to both Puritan doctrinal proclamation of New England orthodoxy and the emotional appeals of the New Light. The "moral preaching" of the Anglican pulpit, Caner indicates, set forth a sober, modest, peaceable vision of life in Christ, contributing to both ecclesial and communal peace and flourishing.

What is more, it was the "moral preaching", Caner declares, which followed the example of the preaching of Our Lord and the Apostles.  In other words, the approach to preaching which critics of 18th century Anglicanism - both then and now - reject and belittle, Caner understood to be more authentically Scriptural, more faithfully expounding Dominical and Apostolical teaching:

This is the Sum and Substance of this admirable Sermon [on the Mount]; in which you may perceive that our Saviour does not threaten them with the Terrors of the Law; nor was there any need he should; for this Discourse being chiefly directed to his own Disciples, who had already escaped the Bondage of the Law, to have threatned them with the Severity of that Dispensation, would have been to turn them over again to their antient Bondage and Subjection. Law, says the Apostle, was our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; but having entertain'd and embrac'd his Religion, we are no longer under a Schoolmaster; but are all the Children of God, by Faith in Christ Jesus: For as many as are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Gal. 3.24 to 27th verse.—Neither is there any Thing here mentioned about Faith; for this also they had already declared, by leaving all to follow him.

The Truth is this.—These Men having already made Profession of Christ, and yielded up themselves to become his hearty and sincere Followers; and being received by him as Members of his Body, or of that Church, which he came to establish, and whereof he himself is the Head, did not need a Discourse about Faith, nor an Exhortation about coming to Christ, so much as proper Instructions in Regard to their Conduct and Behaviour as Christians. They wanted suitable Rules of Instruction, how they might live and act up to the Dignity of that holy Profession they had made; what Duties were incumbent upon them, in Consequence of this their Christian Profession; what Impediments they were likely to meet with; and what was the proper Method to remove them; or with what Temper and Disposition they ought to sustain them.—These were Points more immediately necessary to be opened and explained to Christians, to Men who had already embraced the Faith of Christ.

And accordingly we find our blessed Saviour condescended to teach them these moral Duties. He did not flatter them with a Notion that their closing with him, or getting an Interest in him, exempted them from moral Duties; but taught, that their Obligation to him was increas'd with their Profession; and that they became the Test and Evidence of their Discipleship.—If ye love me (says he) keep my Commandments. And again, He that keepeth my Commandments, he it is that loveth me. And St. John further assures, that he who keepeth his Commandments, dwelleth in him, and he in him. It is not he that impudently presumes. It is not he who confidently claims an Interest in Christ, that shall become Partaker of this Privilege; but he who gives Evidence of his Love to Christ, by keeping his Commandments.

Our Saviour's whole Sermon is indeed entirely composed of such Points of Doctrine, as some by Way of Disparagement, have presumed to call moral Preaching, and legal Instruction. But surely those Men who had the Happiness to hear him, had quite different Notions about Preaching, from these People. They, we read, were in Raptures; were fill'd with Admiration; were even astonish'd at his Doctrine. Even the unconverted Multitude plainly saw the Excellence of his Discourse. That noble Majesty, and unaffected Simplicity of Expression, surprised and charmed them. They perceived the Doctrine came from God. They were convinced that a divine Authority attended him; because the Precepts he taught were worthy of God; and had a direct and natural Tendency to promote the Happiness of Men.

As Caner suggests at the conclusion of this extract, such "moral preaching" is the way of wisdom and flourishing, expounding the vision of the human person in communion with God in Christ. He also points to Saint Paul as an example of how preaching which expounds the moral vision of Christianity is key to commending the faith:

St. Paul addressing himself to the Roman Governor Felix, a very wicked Man, did not entertain him with a Set of figurative Expressions; such as closing with Christ, or roling himself upon Christ [phrases, we assume, which characterised New Light preaching]; but he soberly and earnestly recommended to him, the Beauty and Necessity of Temperance and Righteousness, founded upon the very weighty Motive of a future Judgment.

Such "moral preaching", so often regarded by opponents and later commentators as a weakness of 18th century Anglicanism, actually gave expression to what Andrew Davison has identified as a need in contemporary Christian teaching: "an attractive, sane and wise account of being human". In an age in which the sermon often shaped public discourse, it is not difficult to imagine how the "moral preaching" of the Anglican pulpit in colonial New England would be regarded as "attractive, sane and wise" compared to the Puritan and New Light alternatives.

Having defended the "moral preaching" of the Anglican parish church, Caner then turned to the sober moderation and peaceable concord of Anglicanism, opposed to both "obstinate untractable Inflexibility" of the New England way and the "wavering unsettled Disposition of Mind" of the Great Awakening:  

It has been the Glory of our Church always to oppose itself to such Excesses, whether they arise from Superstition or from an opposite Character, from Weakness of Understanding, or from Perverseness of Will. And we have Reason to bless God, that those who serve at her Altars, have generally been so modest, as to be content with that excellent Provision, and the Wisdom of those Rules which she has prescribed to their Conduct.—And doubtless it would contribute much to the Success of our Ministry, and to our Consolation in the Discharge of it, if you my Brethren of the Laity, would pay the same Deference and Regard to the Prescriptions of our Church; which require us to discountenance all Disorders, and whatever has a Tendency to overthrow the Peace and Unity of the Church.—It is doubtless your Duty to try all Things; but having found out that which is wise and good, ye will do well to hold it fast; and not spend your whole Lives in seeking after new Things, or in giving ear to every one, who shall be so vain and presumptuous as to tell ye that ye are wrong.—A wavering unsettled Disposition of Mind, is surely of as ill Consequence as an obstinate untractable Inflexibility: As one shuts out all Light from the Understanding, so the other confounds, by the various and contrary Refractions of its Rays.—A Medium in this, as in all other Cases, is the true Center of Repose.—It is a very easy Thing to bestow ill Names upon the best Things; but as ye must be supposed to understand the Constitution whereof ye have profest yourselves Members, it will discover a great Degree of Weakness at least, to give so much as an Ear to those who would draw ye off from this, till they have agreed upon something to substitute in its Stead.—If ye steadfastly continue in the Things ye have learned, till that time comes, ye will be in no great Danger of a Change. 

Here, then, was Anglicanism as "the true Center of Repose", shaped by the wisdom, modesty, and reserve of conformity to the liturgy, the stable constitution of the Church of England, and its reasonable moderation avoiding both Sectarianism and Enthusiasm. Note, too, how Caner appeals to the dignity of the laity, with their right and duty to "to try all Things" and to reject those who "be so vain and presumptuous as to tell ye that ye are wrong".  This invoked a well-established Anglican polemic that episcopacy and conformity secured an ordered liberty against both the crowd and the consistory, no less than against papal pretensions.  As Jeremy Taylor had declared of episcopacy at the consecration of the Irish bishops in 1661, "it is the greatest preservative of the people's liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand, and Anarchy and licentiousness on the other". 

 In terms of the growth of Anglicanism in colonial New England - the flowering of the Yale Apostasy - this sense of the peaceable and sober moderation of Anglicanism, in the face of both the narrow confines of Puritan orthodoxy and the irrational disorder of the Great Awakening, offered an attractive reflection of "the author of peace and lover of concord ... whose service is perfect freedom". The success of Anglicanism in Colonial New England, therefore, may have been assisted by two characteristics of 18th century Anglicanism which continue to be criticised and caricatured: "moral preaching" and a determined commitment to 'moderation' in the face of Enthusiasm. This is not to detract from the attraction of Anglican sacramental and liturgical life, but it is to suggest a more holistic vision of the Anglican parish and tradition which flowed from the Yale Apostasy, allowing the Anglican way to take root in New England.

I have tended to end each Yale Apostasy Day post by referring to how appropriate it is that the commemoration occurs just as New England prepares to enter into the mellow beauty of its Fall.  That mellow beauty enchants and comforts, drawing forth a joyful gratitude for a rich harvest and evoking a quiet, peaceable domesticity.  Again this year I am struck by how fitting it is that such is the background to Yale Apostasy Day, echoing the sober moderation of the Anglican pulpit and parish, "the true Center of repose".