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Pigott, the Church of England in Connecticut made a most encouraging and important gain, when, in 1722, Timothy Cutler, Rector of Yale College, and six of his associates proclaimed their dissatisfaction with Congregationalism, or, as they termed it, "the Presbyterianism" of the Connecticut established church.
G. W. Clapham; he was connected with it for some years; then had a "difficulty" with certain parties deacons amongst the rest, of course; and afterwards left the place, uttering, in a quiet Shaksperian tone, as he departed, "Now mark how I will undo myself:" He threw to the winds his Congregationalism, and a few months ago joined, in due clerical order, the Church of England.
Let us in a few sentences review the whole story thus far of colonial Congregationalism. With the exception of the churches of Plymouth and Watertown, the colonists had come to America without any definite religious organization. True, they had in their minds the example of the Reformed churches on the Continent, and much of theory, and many convictions as to what ought to be the rule of churches.
The type, as we have seen, was Congregationalism, and the Congregational church became the established church in each of the four colonies. This theory of Church and State was the cause at bottom of all the early theological dissensions which disturbed the peace and threatened the colony of Massachusetts.
This system, and those who imitate its hierarchal and centralizing organization, also give power to those hierarchal principles and systems against which Congregationalism has ever protested as corrupting and enslaving the church.
For, though Congregationalism and a National Establishment of Religion may seem radically a contradiction in terms, yet in fact the case had not been quite so in America. There may be a State Church without public endowments, or rather there may be endowments and privileges that are not pecuniary.
VII. Economic, social, and intellectual characteristics are well described in Channing, II, chaps, XV-XVII; Greene, chaps, XVI-XVIII; Andrews, The Colonial Period, chaps, III, IV. The best account of religious changes in the eighteenth century is in Walker, History of Congregationalism in America. See also, Fiske, New France and New England, chap.
At the rate this latter was taking place it seems probable that had he lived to write another novel on a theme similar to this, his hero would have been compelled to abandon his belief in Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, Methodism, or some other ism before he would be found worthy of being joined in the marriage relation to his Episcopalian bride.
"Congregationalist" appeared in 1692, and "Congregationalism," not until 1716. J. Murray, A New English Dict. on Hist. Principles. About 1564, the other branch of the reform party was nicknamed "Puritan." G. L. Walker, History of the First Church in Hartford, p. 6. He was a Cambridge man, filling the positions of Professor of Divinity, Master of Trinity, and Chancellor of the University.
Wise, in his efforts to revive the independence of the single churches, had exploded the Barrowism which New England usage had introduced into original Congregationalism, and the rebound had carried the churches as far beyond the Cambridge Platform towards original Brownism as the Presbyterian movement had carried their polity away from the Cambridge instrument.
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