A HISTORY OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY***

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Note: The digital material used for the preparation of this file, including images of the original pages, are available through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. See http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bacon_lw/history.html

Transcriber's notes:

Greek words in this text have been transliterated and placed between +marks+.

Words in italics are surrounded with underscores.

A list of corrections made is at the end of the text.

The American Church History Series

Consisting of a Series of Denominational Histories Published Under the Auspices of the American Society of Church History

General Editors

REV. PHILIP SCHAFF, D. D., LL. D. RT. REV. H. C. POTTER, D. D., LL. D. REV GEO. P. FISHER, D. D., LL. D. BISHOP JOHN F. HURST, D. D., LL. D. REV. E. J. WOLF, D. D. HENRY C. VEDDER, M. A. REV. SAMUEL M. JACKSON, D. D., LL. D.

Volume XIII

American Church History

A HISTORY OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY

by

LEONARD WOOLSEY BACON

New York The Christian Literature Co. MDCCCXCVII Copyright, 1897, by The Christian Literature Co.

CONTENTS.

PAGE CHAP. I.--PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION FOR THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 1-5

Purpose of the long concealment of America, 1. A medieval church in America, 2. Revival of the Catholic Church, 3, especially in Spain, 4, 5.

CHAP. II.--SPANISH CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA 6-15

Vastness and swiftness of the Spanish conquests, 6. Conversion by the sword, 7. Rapid success and sudden downfall of missions in Florida, 9. The like story in New Mexico, 12, and in California, 14.

CHAP. III.--FRENCH CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA 16-29

Magnificence of the French scheme of western empire, 16. Superior dignity of the French missions, 19. Swift expansion of them, 20. Collision with the English colonies, and triumph of France, 21. Sudden and complete failure of the French church, 23. Causes of failure: (1) Dependence on royal patronage, 24. (2) Implication in Indian feuds, 25. (3) Instability of Jesuit efforts, 26. (4) Scantiness of French population, 27. Political aspect of French missions, 28. Recent French Catholic immigration, 29.

CHAP. IV.--ANTECEDENTS OF PERMANENT CHRISTIAN COLONIZATION 30-37

Controversies and parties in Europe, 31, and especially in England, 32. Disintegration of Christendom, 34. New experiment of church life, 35. Persecutions promote emigration, 36, 37.

CHAP. V.--PURITAN BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA 38-53

The Rev. Robert Hunt, chaplain to the Virginia colony, 38. Base quality of the emigration, 39. Assiduity in religious duties, 41. Rev. Richard Buck, chaplain, 42. Strict Puritan régime of Sir T. Dale and Rev. A. Whitaker, 43. Brightening prospects extinguished by massacre, 48. Dissolution of the Puritan "Virginia Company" by the king, 48. Puritan ministers silenced by the royal governor, Berkeley, 49. The governor's chaplain, Harrison, is converted to Puritan principles, 49. Visit of the Rev. Patrick Copland, 50. Degradation of church and clergy, 51. Commissary Blair attempts reform, 52. Huguenots and Scotch-Irish, 53.

CHAP. VI.--MARYLAND AND THE CAROLINAS 54-67

George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, 54; secures grant of Maryland, 55. The second Lord Baltimore organizes a colony on the basis of religious liberty, 56. Success of the two Jesuit priests, 57. Baltimore restrains the Jesuits, 58, and encourages the Puritans, 59. Attempt at an Anglican establishment, 61. Commissary Bray, 61. Tardy settlement of the Carolinas, 62. A mixed population, 63. Success of Quakerism, 65. American origin of English missionary societies, 66.

CHAP. VII.--DUTCH CALVINISTS AND SWEDISH LUTHERANS 68-81

Faint traces of religious life in the Dutch settlements, 69. Pastors Michaelius, Bogardus, and Megapolensis, 70. Religious liberty, diversity, and bigotry, 72. The Quakers persecuted, 73. Low vitality of the Dutch colony, 75. Swedish colony on the Delaware, 76; subjugated by the Dutch, 77. The Dutch evicted by England, 78. The Dutch church languishes, 79. Attempts to establish Anglicanism, 79. The S. P. G., 80.

CHAP. VIII.--THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND 82-108

Puritan and Separatist, 82. The Separatists of Scrooby, 83. Mutual animosity of the two parties, 84. Spirit of John Robinson, 85. The "social compact" of the Pilgrims,