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The Ecclesiastical Trials in Massachusetts of Oliver Sherman Prescott
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
Every one who have ever been comforted by hearing the words “By this authority I absolve thee” spoken by one of our priests after a penitent confession, is indebted to Oliver Sherman Prescott; and might give thanks to God that he lived and fought in courts ecclesiastical in these United States of America.
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References
1. Typescript statement author unknown found in a miscellaneous file of materials marked “Prescott, ” deposited at the Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, Mass. Hereafter, materials cited from this file are marked, SSJE File.
2. Manross, W. W., A History of the American Episcopal Church, 3rd ed. rev. (New York: Morehouse-Gorham, 1959), p. 304Google Scholar, notes that Prescott and Charles Grafton were the first two Americans professed in the Society of St. John the Evangelist (Cowley Fathers), but does not otherwise mention Prescott. Chorley, E. Clowes, Men and Movements in the American Episcopal Church (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946), pp. 340–41Google Scholar, gives a brief account of Prescott's ritualist controversy with the Diocese of Pennsylvania in the late 1870s, but does not cite Prescott's trials in Massachusetts. Tiffany, Charles C., A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (New York: Christian Literature Co., 1895)Google Scholar; McConnell, S. D., History of the American Episcopal Church, 8th ed. (New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1899);Google Scholar and Perry, William S., The History of the American Episcopal Church, 1587–1883, two vols. (Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1885)Google Scholar, do not mention Prescott at all.
3. SSJE File.
4. Ibid.
5. See Dawley, Powel Mills, The Story of the General Theological Seminary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 145–179.Google Scholar
6. Typescript taken from the diary of the Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell, dated Sept. 18, 1847, SSJE File. Prescott was ordained as a deacon at New Haven, Sept. 16, 1847, on which occasion the preacher was the rector of the Church of the Advent, Boston, the Rev. William Croswell, Harry Croswell's son.
7. See my unpublished doctoral dissertation, Levi Silliman Ives: Priest, Bishop, Tractarian, and Roman Catholic Convert (Duke University, 1970), pp. 102–114, 170–218.Google Scholar
8. French, William Glenney, “History of the Order of the Holy Cross at Valle Crucis, North Carolina” pp. 31–32Google Scholar. This typescript is owned by the Reverend William Penfield, Litchfield, Conn., and a microfilm copy, for restricted use, is at the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
9. Prescott joined the staff of the Church of the Advent apparently in October of 1849. See the forward by Erving Winslow in Grafton's, Charles C.A Journey Godward, Vol. IV of Works (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1914)Google Scholar. Prescott's date of arrival is mistakenly given as the autumn of 1848 in The Advent in the City of Boston: A History of One Hundred Years, 1844–1944 (Boston: Printed for the Parish, 1944), p. 29Google Scholar. He was canonically received into the diocese on Nov. 14, 1849. See transcript, SSJE File.
10. DeMille, George E., The Catholic Movement in the American Episcopal Church, 2nd ed. rev. (Philadelphia: Church Historical Society, [1950]), p. 81.Google Scholar
11. Eastburn's address, Journal, Diocese of Mass., 1848, pp. 27–28.
12. Eastburn's address, Journal, Diocese of Mass., 1849, p. 24.
13. Eastburn's address, Journal, Diocese of Mass., 1850, p. 32.
14. He took care to express his approval of the fact that the reading desk at the new Chapel of St. James, Roxbury, faced the congregation in the traditional, Low Church manner. See Berry, Joseph Breed, History of the Diocese of Massachusetts, 1810–1872 (Boston: Diocese of Massachusetts, 1959), pp. 161–162.Google Scholar
15. Prescott's parochial report, Journal, Diocese of Mass., 1851, p. 93. The account of Prescott's trials in the Parish of the Advent, pp. 33–34, however, reads as though Prescott were associated with the parish throughout this period of time.
16. These facts are first mentioned in a letter signed “Reporter” to the Churchman, July 19, 1851.
17. The reference is to the Rev. John Murray Forbes, rector of St. Luke's, New York City, and president of the New York Ecclesiological Society, immediately prior to his conversion to Roman Catholicism in late 1849.
18. Banner of the Cross, Dec. 7, 1850.
19. Dr. Harry Croswell, his former rector in New Haven, thought Prescott's intended defense lame: “… if he makes no better defence before the Ecclesiastical Court than he does in private conversation he will be convicted of the heresies with which he is charged.” Entry in Croswell's diary, Aug. 14, 1850, in typescript in the SSJE File.
20. For Dana, see: Lucid, Robert F., ed., The Journal of Richard Henry Dana, Jr., three vols. paginated consecutively (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1968)Google Scholar. Adams, Charles F., Richard Henry Dana, A Biography, two vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1891)Google Scholar. Gale, Robert F., Richard Henry Dana Jr. (New York: Twayne Publishers, [c. 1969]).Google Scholar
21. The full presentment and the exception by the defense are reprinted in the Banner of the Cross, Dec. 7, 1850.
22. For example: “Because the said presentment does not recite that information of his offense had been first given in writing to the Standing Committee, by a member of this Church.”
23. Banner of the Cross, Dec. 7, 1850.
24. Brief summaries are in the Boston Daily Evening Transcript, Dec. 2, 1850; the Banner of the Cross, Dec. 7, 1850; and in the Southern Churchman, Jan. 9, 1851.
25. Minutes of the Standing Committee, Jan. 13, Feb. 3, and March 3, 1851. Typescript copy, SSJE File.
26. One correspondent, signing himself “C.L.”, said that an “eminent jurist” had been enlisted in the drafting—a man known for writing in a newspaper published by “two Congregationalist, two Unitarian, and two Baptist Clergymen! … So much for the theological views of the lawyer selected … to draft a present[ment] for heresy against a Presbyter!! ” Letter to editor, Churchman, May 3, 1851. The second presentment omitted references to ritualist practices at the Church of the Advent.
27. A letter from Prescott's father indicates that he had decided to apply for an unspecified chaplaincy. E. A. Prescott to R.S. Baldwin, Feb. 10, 1851. R.S. Baldwin Papers, Yale University Library.
28. The correspondence was published in the Churchman, June 28, 1851. That the youthful Prescott considered St. Botolph's as an Anglo-Catholic refuge is suggested by his letter to an unnamed clerical correspondent: St. Botolph's is “the beginning of that great plan which you know has been the subject of dreams by day, and visions by night.…I think Christ calls you to take part in this the greatest attempt to establish His true Kingdom. Come my brother and we will labor together as Christ would have His priests, and will dare to do great things. A few months will decide for us personally whether Mass[achusetts] will have the Catholic system. … ” Prescott to unnamed correspondent, April 14, 1851, SSJE File. St. Botolph's, however, nowhere appears in the Journal, Diocese of Mass., for 1851, and Prescott is listed merely as “residing in Boston,” p. 125. Perhaps the name of the congregation was an intentional joke, for St. Botolph's was also the name of the congregation in England served by Boston's Puritan father, the Reverend John Cotton.
29. Prescott to Eastburn, April 28, 1851, reprinted in the Churchman, June 28, 1851.
30. Eastburn to Prescott, May 1, 1851, ibid.
31. One correspondent later remarked that one of these younger clergy was a “stipendiary to the amount of $200 per annum of that missionary fund of which the Bishop has greatly the control”, Churchman, July 19, 1851.
32. Prescott to Eastburn, May 19, 1851, reprinted in the Churchman, June 28, 1851.
33. Eastburn to Prescott, May 22, 1851, ibid.
34. Churchman, April 26, 1851.
35. “C.L.” to the Churchman, April 26, 1851.
36. “C.L.” to the Churchman, May 3, 1851.
37. Churchman, June 28, 1851.
38. Churchman, April 26, 1851.
39. Browne was hired for a fee “not exceeding One Hundred Dollars.” Typescript of the June ninth meeting of the Standing Committee, SSJE File.
40. The presentment is reprinted in full in the Churchman, July 12, 1851, and in the Trial of the Rev. O. S. Prescott, a Presbyter of the Diocese of Massachusetts, on Charges of Heresy, &c. (Cambridge, Mass.: Metcalf and Co., 1851), pp. 5–12.Google Scholar This pamphlet was issued by Prescott and Dana following the trial, and contained a summary of the first trial, the March-May correspondence between Eastburn and Prescott, and a transcript of the July trial.
41. Churchman, July 26, 1851.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Lucid, , The Journal of Richard Henry Dana, p. 436.Google Scholar
45. Churchman, July 26, 1851.
46. Trial of the Rev. O. S. Prescott, p. 50.
47. Banner of the Cross, July 26, 1851.
48. Churchman, Aug. 16, 1851.
49. True Catholic, 9 (Sept., 1851), 234–240. The Churchman, Sept. 13, 1851, reprinted the entire article, and the Banner of the Cross, Sept. 13, 1851, reprinted extracts. The following month, the True Catholic observed: “Each party seems to have contented itself with an endeavor to shew its opponent in the wrong, neglecting the higher view of putting them in the wrong, by keeping itself in the Right.” True Catholic, 9 (10., 1851), 280–286Google Scholar. This article was reprinted in the Churchman, Oct. 18, 1851.
50. A printed letter, signed by Dana, dated Sept. 25, 1851, was addressed to Eastburn, reading in part: “He [Prescott] may appeal to the lay tribunals, but this he is unwilling to do, unless it is pretty clear that the Church authorities can afford him no relief.” Prescott MSS, General Theological Seminary Library, New York City.
51. Reprinted in the Churchman, March 13, 1852.
52. The account of the trial is from the Churchman, March 13, 1852.
53. Dana recorded in his journal of this move: “Such outrages of law and common sense almost take away one's power of reply”, Lucid, Journal of Richard Henry Dana, p. 480.
54. Churchman, March 20, 1852.
55. “I spoke nearly six hours, and I have [every] reason to believe, with unusual success. … Nearly every man shed tears, in the room”, Lucid, , Journal of Richard Henry Dana, p. 481.Google Scholar
56. The full argument appeared in the Churchman, April 3, 1852.
57. Churchman, March 20, 1852. Like Dana, Brown was proud of his closing argument, and included it in his collected papers. See Browne, George Morgan, Essays and Addresses (Boston: T. R. Marvin and Son, 1886), pp. 59–86.Google Scholar
58. Lucid, , Journal of Richard Henry Dana, p. 481Google Scholar. The court could have imposed a legal sentence by recommending the suspension of Prescott, with the signing of the document as a precondition for restoration to the ministry.
59. Ibid.
60. Churchman, March 20, 1852, though the paper incorrectly dated the letter as Feb. 8, 1852.
61. Prescott to Eastburn, Easter Even, 1852, reprinted in the Churchman, April 24, 1852. A correspondent to the Churchman wrote: “probably no spectacles so sad have been witnessed in Massachusetts since Cotton Mather's persecution of the witches for the honor of God.…” The editor added, “This [the sentence] is an outrage on Church law and christian feeling, for which we trust the day of retribution will soon arrive.” (Both quotes, Churchman, April 3, 1852). Dana wrote, “The B. is a shallow man. A man of little brain, little heart, but conceited, dogmatical, self willed and self indulgent. No reliance can be placed on his honor or generosity.”, Lucid, Journal of Richard Henry Dana, p. 483.
62. True Catholic, 9 (April, 1852), 563.
63. From “Vindex” to the Churchman, May 1, 1852.
64. Editorial from the Christian Witness, reprinted in the Protestant Churchman, March 20, 1852. For other comments, see Churchman, Aug. 14, 1852, and the True Catholic, 10, (Aug., 1852), 146–154.
65. The committee received notification in Dec. of 1851 that Prescott was suspected of violating the suspension. The Committee voted in Jan. of 1852 to present him on such charges. Minutes of the Standing Committee, Dec. 23, 1851, and Jan. 5, 1852, typescript copy in the SSJE File.
66. Banner of the Cross, June 5, 1852. See also, the Churchman, June 26, 1852.
67. Lucid, Journal of Richard Henry Dana, pp. 490–491.
68. The memorial is printed in the American Church Monthly, Dec., 1921, under the title, “A Forgotten Memorial,” by Duncan Convers. In fairness to Eastburn, it should be noted that Prescott's amendment would have forced Eastburn to imply that what was heretical in Massachusetts was not heretical elsewhere, geographically relativizing the meaning of the word.
69. Journal, General Convention, 1853.
70. Bishop Grafton later wrote that Whittingham took the initiative in inviting Prescott to Maryland. “He said what a Bishop could do a Bishop could undo, and he released Father Prescott from any obligation to obey the decision of the Court in his diocese”, Grafton, , A Journey Godward, pp. 77–78.Google Scholar
71. Letter dimissory from Eastburn to Whittingham, dated Nov. 2, 1853. Whittingham Papers, Maryland Diocesan Archives, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Md.
72. As copied into a letter from Whittingham to Prescott, Dec. 16, 1853, SSJE File.
73. The Rev. Oliver Prescott is the only figure found at practically every significant juncture of the rise of ritualism in the nineteenth-century Episcopal Church. He had been associated with Bishop Ives, then with the Church of the Advent. While in Boston, Prescott probably prepared Charles Grafton (later Bishop of Fond du Lac) for confirmation. In England in the 1860s, Prescott and Grafton became the first two Americans professed in the Society of St. John the Evangelist (Cowley Fathers). During his rectorship at St. Clement's Church, Philadelphia, Prescott was again involved in a difficult ritualist dispute with Bishop W. B. Stevens and the Diocese of Pennsylvania. The first house for the new Order of the Holy Cross was provided by one of Prescott's former parishioners in Westminster, Md. (See Scudder, Vida D., Father Huntington, Founder of the Order of the Holy Cross, [New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1940].Google Scholar) The history of the rise of ritualism in the American Episcopal Church, therefore, can practically be told by tracing Prescott's career. He remained in the active ministry until 1900 and died Nov. 17, 1903.