EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 155 EPISCOPAL CHURCH. English bishops, had either been already aecom- ?Lished or were now conceded. It was found thai hreo bishops had already been elected by their respective diocesan conventions — Dr. Samuel Pro- voost of New York, Dr. William White of Penn- sylvania, and Dr. David Griffith of Virginia. Their testimonials were signed by the Convention, and two of them, l)rs. While and Provoost, were cimseer.'ited in the Chapel of Lambeth Palace, on February 4, 1787. The General Convention of 1789 met in Phila- delphia, to ratify the Constitution, establish the Prayer Book, and enact necessary canons. It was of the utmost importance that there should be unity of the Episcopal Church throughout the length and breadth of the land. The times Were more favorable than before for this con- summation. The national spirit had been at- tuned to unity by the ratification of the Con- stitution and the election and inauguration of Washington three months earlier. The ecclesi- astical spirit had been so far modified since 1785 by correspondence and consideration, that the Convention at once formally affirmed the validity of Bishop Seabury's consecration and enacted ten canons which showed increased and marked re- spect for the episcopal office. They adopted the Constitution with such alterations as allowed representation of a church by clerical members only, and provided for a separate House of Bish- ops when there should be three of that order. On August 8th the Convention took a recess. during which Bishop Seabury and the New Eng- land churches concluded, in view of its action, to join it; and when it reassembled, on September 30th, it represented the whole Church in all its orders. A Prayer Book was adopted, not the 'Proposed Book,' which had cost so much labor, but a simple adjustment of the English Prayer Book to American conditions, with certain verbal omissions and rubrical emendations, which, how- ever, left it essentially the same book. ( See Pbayee Book, Common.) The Communion Office, in accordance with the wishes of Bishop Seabury, was perfected by closer adherence to the Scottish, and therefore to the primitive, liturgy. The Convention adjourned October 16th, leaving the Protestant Episcopal Church fully organized. For twenty years its energy seemed to have been exhausted by its organization. It was un- popular, as being identified with the English Church. It was not alert in action. Its worship was regarded as formal, its discipline as lax. The 20 clergymen and 16 laymen of the Convention of 1789 were increased by only five clerical and four lay representatives in 1811: and only once in those 22 years were there as many as five bishops at any General Convention. From the latter date, however, the Church took a vigorous start, whose impulse has been felt ever since. It was due chiefly to three men, Bishops Hobart of New York. Griswold of New England, and Charming Moore of Virginia, who reconstructed the Church in their dio- ceses, both in number and in character. The leaven spread more widely still. In 1817 some of the Western States were organized into dioceses, and in 1820 the Church is reported as organized, though not supplied with bishops, in all the original States. The pioneer bishop of the West was Philander Chase, consecrated in 1819. Two dioceses. Ohio and Illinois, of which he was suc- cessively bishop, and two colleges. Kenyon and Vol. VII.— 11. Jubilee, founded by him, are his monuments. John Stark Ravenscroft, consecrated Bishop of North Caroline in 1823, did a similar work in the wilder regions of the South, and in .seven i.ii changed • ■ diocese oi foul churches into one Of I Went J I lure. By the ti tf Bishop W hite's death in two great changes had begun to be apparent, which were to characterize the nexl period. One was the crystallization of party 'spirit, which was destined to give rise to heated controver- sies. ( to the one 3ide -t I the < > 1 < 1 Evangi cal party, represented bj such distinguished men as Bishops Burgess, Eastburn, Chase, Lee, Alonzo Potter, M'llvaine, Bedell, and Stewns; by Richard Newton and Alexander II. Vinton and Francis L. Hawks; by Dr. Sparrow of the Vir- ginia Seminary, its most learned theologian, and Stephen II. Tyng, tor years it- recognized leader. The opposite .school, to wdiose growth a great' impetus was given b T the Oxford movement across the sea (though the earlier bishops, Seabury and Hobart and Ravenscroft, are to be classed with it), emphasized the objective, the institutional side of religion — a tendency especially natural in a country where the Church was left to vindi- cate and sustain itself without aid or counte- nance from the State. While for a long time, by a sort of tacit compact, the foreign mis- sionary work was left to the Evangelicals, the home field was cultivated rather by the High Churchmen. The General Theological Seminary (founded in Xew Y'ork in 1S17, and molded by Bishop Hobart's influence) inclined its pupils to the views of the latter. Otey and Kemper in the West acted on their principles ; Breck and Adams founded their associate mission at asho- tah on them. Bishop George Washington Doane of New Jersey, than whom no one in his day was more instrumental in shaping the history of the Church, was the most commanding repre- sentative of this school, as Bishop Whittingham of Maryland was its most learned counselor. The other distinctive feature of the central period of the nineteenth century was the expan- sion of the Church beyond the narrow limits which had at first confined it. The General Convention of 1835 elected the first missionary bishop so called — Jackson Kemper, who became the apostle of the northwestern territory lying east of the Rocky Mountains, founding and fos- tering the Church in Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota. Such vast and unexplored re- gions were confined to the charge of single bishops that one of them used playfully to style himself 'Bishop of All-outdoors': but their labors were so earnest and continuous that it was only a logical consequence of them when, in 1859, the General Convention made the episco- pate coextensive with the boundaries of the United States. The history of the Episcopal Church at. the time of the Civil War is of special importance because of its bearing on both national and religious reunion after peace had 1 n restored. To the influence which she had acquired by the abstinence of her clergy from political strife the delay of the actual conflict was largely due; and a strikingly fraternal spirit prevailed in her councils throughout, even the height of the bitter struggle. When the General Convention met in New Y'ork in 1862, seats were assigned to the
