III - The Clergy and Religious Liberty

Summary

In September 1756, Reverend Thomas Barton of Carlisle wrote to Reverend William Smith of Philadelphia soliciting letters of endorsement from Reverend Gilbert Tennent and Reverend Francis Alison to be used in selecting candidates for the Proprietary party's electoral ticket. Alison was an Old Light Presbyterian, Tennent a New Light; Barton and Smith were Anglicans. Yet, in the crisis of war these clergymen buried their distrust of each other in order to cooperate in a kind of political maneuvering that all thought appropriate. This ministerial involvement in politics raises the issue of how the clerics understood their role in worldly affairs and what they thought of the relation of church and colony.

Ministers who opposed pacifism for theological reasons – and all of the above did – also disliked the Quaker party. The Quaker political, economic, and social domination of Pennsylvania imparted a sectarian flavor to cultural life. Regularly ordained clergymen with university or college degrees received little respect from denominations that made the term “hireling ministry” seem like one word.

In Europe clergy and magistrates worked together to support the social order and both groups expected and normally received deference. Virtually all the Lutheran, German Reformed, and Anglican clergy, and even many of the Presbyterians immigrated as adults to Pennsylvania from areas with state churches. They then required, according to immigrant Lutheran minister Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, seven years of seasoning to Pennsylvania conditions before becoming effective.