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4. The usage for elderly men was common. For examples. see Pynchon, William, The Diary of William Pynchon of Salem, edited by Oliver, Fitch E. (Boston, 1890), 15, 38Google Scholar; Yeakel, Reuben, History of the Evangelical Association (Cleveland, 1902), I, 204–207Google Scholar; and Raybold, G. A., Annals of Methodism (Philadelphia, 1847), 53–54.Google Scholar

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6. The parishioners of aged Stephen Bachiler, seventeenth-century New Hampshire pastor, apparently addressed him as “Father.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose fiction generally builds on fact, uses the title for an older Puritan minister in The Scarlet Letter. Early in the eighteenth century Cotton Mather significantly notes that church councils should deal with erring pastors “with such Special Terms of Respect (and Repetition of Address) as the relation of a Father may call for.” For the title applied to Bachiler, see Ross, J. A.. Historical Sketch of the Conaregational Church in Hampton. New Hampshire (Haverhill, Mass., 1901), 2–5Google Scholar. For Hawthorne's “Father Wilson.” see The Scarlet Letter, Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Columbus, O., 1962), I, 150–151Google Scholar, cf. 65. Mather's assertion is found in his Ratio Disciplinae Eratrum Nov-Anglorum (Boston. 1726), 164.Google Scholar

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10. For the title applied to Wilson, who succeeded Father Joseph Snow, see Vose, , Commemorative Discourses, 62–63Google Scholar; and Wilson, , Paddy Wilson's Meeting-House, 97, 108Google Scholar, and passim. For Fisk, , see Wrentham Jubilee on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Ordination of the Rev. Elisha Fisk (Boston, 1850), 4, 37Google Scholar, and passim; and Ide, Jacob, A Discourse Preached in Medway, Massachusetts … on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Ordination and Settlement of Jacob Ide, D.D. (Boston, 1864), 52.Google Scholar

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14. For examples of the use for German Reformed ministers, see Harbaugh, Henry and Heisler, D. Y., The Fathers of the German Reformed Church in Europe and America (Reading and Lancaster, Pa., 1857–1888), IV, 15–40Google Scholar; VI, 216–224. The volumes by Heisler call most Reformed pastors who lived to an old age “Father”; those by Harbaugh do not. For Baptist examples, see Fowler, Orin, History of Fall River (Fall River, Mass., 1862), 78–79Google Scholar; and Benedict, David, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World (New York, 1848), 636Google Scholar. Another Baptist pastor was Father Gardiner Thurston of Newport, R. I., whose views on temperance influenced the young William Ellery Channing. See Channing, W. H., ed., Memoirs of William Ellery Channing (Boston, 1874), I, 33–34Google Scholar; and Cathcart, William, ed., The Baptist Encyclopedia (Philadelphia, 1881), 1152Google Scholar. For one example of the use in the Christian Connection, see Shaw, L. J., Memoir of Elder Elijah Shaw (Boston, 1852)Google Scholar, passim.

15. The title was common for early Disciples ministers. See, for example, Campbell, Alexander, “Notes on a Tour to the North-East,” Millenial Harbinger, VII (07, 1836), 333Google Scholar; Tyler, B. B., ed., Addresses of Henry Russell Pritchard (Cincinnati, 1898); 1898Google Scholar.; Cauble, Commodore W., The Disciples of Christ in Indiana (Indianapolis, 1930), 87, 129, 146, 168Google Scholar; and Hayden, A. S., Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio (Cincinnati, 1875), 245–259Google Scholar. For an example of a Disciples minister who refused to be addressed as “Father” see Burnett, J. F., Rev. B. W. Stone: Did He Join the Disciples of Christ? (Dayton, O., 1922), 26.Google Scholar

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30. Quoted in McTyeire, Holland N., A History of Methodism (Nashville, 1884), 528.Google Scholar

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35. Hart baptized Botsford in 1767, assisted in his ordination in 1772, and commonly referred to him as “my son Botsford.” There is no indication that Hart was otherwise called “Father” in the Charleston church. See Mallary, Charles D., Memoirs of Elder Edmund Botsford (Charleston, S. C., 1832), 28–38Google Scholar; Tupper, H. A., ed., Two Centuries of the First Baptist Church of South Carolina (Baltimore, 1889), 27–32, 102ff., esp. 107–108Google Scholar; and Owens, Loulie L., “Oliver Hart, 1723–1795, a Brief Biography,” Baptist History and Heritage, I (07 1966), 33.Google Scholar

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53. For examples of the title applied to the three founders, see, among others, Cossitt, , Life of Ewing, 283, 293–295Google Scholar, and passim; Bird, Milton, The Life of Rev. Alexander Chapman (Nashville, 1872), 230Google Scholar; and Lowry, David, Life and Labors of the Late Rev. Robert Donnell (Alton, Ill., 1867), 126Google Scholar. For examples of the title applied to the first generation of Cumberland ministers, see Bird, , Life of Chapman, 12, 74, 139Google Scholar, and passim; Beard, , Brief Biographical Sketches, Second Series, 79–82Google Scholar; and Lowry, , Life of Donnell, 301, 304, 318.Google Scholar

54. See, for example, Burnett, , Rev. B. W. Stone, 29Google Scholar; and West, William G., Barton Warren Stone (Nashville, 1954), 182Google Scholar. Campbell, Alexander refers to “Father Stone” in Millenial Harbinger, V (03, 1841), 119, 121Google Scholar. See also Christian, John T., A History of the Baptists of the United States (Nashville, 1926), 426Google Scholar; and Rogers, James R., The Cane Ridge Meeting House (Cincinnati, 1910), 187, cf. 168.Google Scholar

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67. Chase, Abner, Recollections of the Past (New York, 1848), 95–96.Google Scholar

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70. See Journal and Letters of Asbury, III, 167, 469, 500, 515Google Scholar, and passim. Two of the British “Fathers” were clearly Wesley and Coke; see the closings of Asbury's letters to them in Ibid., III, 34, 93.

71. John B. McFerrin, quoted in Redford, , Methodism in Kentucky, I, 138.Google Scholar

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80. See, for example, Jacobs, H. E. and Haas, J. A. W., eds., The Lutheran Cyclopedia (New York, 1899), 222Google Scholar; Bachmann, E. Theodore, They Called Him Father (Philadelphia, 1942) 27, 31, 38Google Scholar, and passim; and Focht, D. H., Churches Between the Mountains. (Baltimore, 1862), 49–54, 342–362Google Scholar, and passim.

81. Ayres, Anne, The Life and Work of William Augustus Muhlenberg (New York, 1880), 2–3.Google Scholar

82. Virtually all histories of early American Roman Catholicism include examples of the use. See, for example, Bayley, J. R., A Brief Sketch of the Early History of the Catholic Church on the Island of New York (New York, 1870), 88, 94, 96–99Google Scholar, and passim; Pillar, James J., The Catholic Church in Mississippi (New Orleans, 1964), 83, 202Google Scholar; and Sharp, John K., History of the Diocese of Brooklyn, 1853–1953 (New York, 1954, I, 38, 44, 47, 63, 148, 150Google Scholar. Irish priests were often assigned to American parishes where, contrary to Irish custom, they were addressed as “Mister.” Though the distinction is generally ignored by the laity, “Mister” remains the official title for American Roman Catholic deacons.

83. Attwater, Donald, ed., A Catholic Dictionary (New York, 1949), second edition, revised, 190Google Scholar; Addis, William E., Arnold, Thomas et al. , eds., A Catholic Dictionary (London, 1957), sixteenth edition, 343–344Google Scholar; Cross, F. L., ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (London, 1958), 495.Google Scholar

84. Challoner, Richard, Memoirs of Missionary Priests (Edinburgh, 1878 [1741], I, 272.Google Scholar

85. Bishop John Connolly, quoted in Bayley, , Brief Sketch, 88Google Scholar. See also John Carroll's similar usage in 1784 for a parish priest, quoted in Ellis, John Tracy, Catholics in Colonial America (Baltimore, 1965), 436.Google Scholar

86. Attwater, , Catholic Dictionary, 190Google Scholar; Addis, and Arnold, , Catholic Dictionary, 344Google Scholar; Cross, , Oxford Dictionary of Christian Church, 495Google Scholar. In England the title was imposed upon the secular clergy by Henry Cardinal Manning as part of his program to raise them to the level of the established religious orders. See Purcell, Edmund S., Life of Cardinal Manning (London, 1896), II, 762.Google Scholar

87. See, for example, Read, Newbury F., ed., The Story of St. Mary's (New York, 1931), 18, 25, 105Google Scholar, and passim; and Catir, Norman J. Jr, Saint Stephen's Church in Providence (Providence, R. I., 1964, 92, 107Google Scholar, and passim. Few Episcopalian clergy seem to have been addressed by the title prior to the last decades of the nineteenth century.

88. See, for example, Calling Priests Father, Holy Cross Tract Nr. 6 (West Park, N. Y., 1956)Google Scholar. So emotion-laden was the subject of titles that one Episcopalian magazine, The Episcopal Churchnews, sent priests a questionnaire asking how they wished to be titled if their names appeared in the magazine.

89. The Rev. MrMeans, , in Fiftieth Anniversary of the Ordination of Rev. Richard S. Storrs, 83.Google Scholar

90. See, for example, Luther, Martin, The Large Catechism, trans. by Fischer, Robert H. (Philadelphia, 1959))Google Scholar, Fourth Commandment, paras. 158–164, 31; Calvin, John, Cornsnentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Marie, and Luke, trans. by Pringle, William (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1949), III, 80Google Scholar; and Wesley, John, Explanatory Notes Upon The New Testament (Nashville, n.d.), sixteenth edition, 75.Google Scholar

91. The Rev. Joseph P. Atkinson, quoted in Eddy, , Universalism in Gloucester, 98.Google Scholar

92. For examples of such interpretations, see Phillips, J. A., Roman Catholicism Analyzed (New York, 1915), 58–59Google Scholar; and Davidson, Francis, Stibbs, Alan, Kevan, Ernest, eds., The New Bible Commentary (London, 1953), 799Google Scholar; cf. Broadus's, John cautionary words on literalistic interpretations in his Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Philadelphia, 1886), 467.Google Scholar

93. From 1636 to 1775, Harvard conferred only four honorary S.T.D.'s on clergymen. Two of the four recipients were Mathers, and another (Samuel Locke) was president of Harvard at the time of the award. From 1701 to 1776, Yale conferred only one D.D. Together, the nine colonial colleges chartered before 1776 apparently conferred a total of only 15 D.D.'s and S.T.D.'s prior to 1776. Even when the honorary doctorates conferred on early American ministers by English and Scottish universities are added to this total, the number remains small. As late as the 1820's, Presbyterian Father David Rice of Kentucky refused a proferred D.D. from the College of New Jersey on the grounds that he had not attained the professional standing which it presupposed. For data on honorary doctorates conferred on colonial American clergy, see Eells, Walter C., Degrees in Higher Education (Washington, D. C., 1963), 54–55Google Scholar; Epler, Stephen E., Honorary Degrees: A Survey of Their Use and Abuse (Washington, D. C., 1943), 7–8Google Scholar. For Rice's refusal, see Bishop, Robert H., An Outline of the History of the Church in the State of Kentucky … (Lexington, Ky., 1824), 97–98.Google Scholar

94. The increase began after the American Revolution. From 1776 to 1800, American colleges conferred at least 118 D.D.'s and S.T.D.'s on clergymen. With the increase of denominational colleges in the nineteenth century, the total mounted rapidly. In 1875 alone, 138 honorary D.D.'s were conferred. See Eells, , Degrees, 59, 63Google Scholar. For the open soliciting of the degree, see Epler, , Honorary Degrees, 23–31, 41, 53–54.Google Scholar

95. Eells, , Father Eells, 296.Google Scholar

96. Personal knowledge of the writer.

97. Schwarz, , Presbyterian Church in Nebraska, 34, 38, 139–140.Google Scholar

98. For examples, see Minutes of the New England Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1889 (Boston, 1889), 103–104, 105–106Google Scholar; Minutes of the New England Conference, 1890 (Boston, 1890), 121–122Google Scholar; Minutes of the New England Conference, 1901 (Boston, 1901), 94–95Google Scholar; Minutes of the New York Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1878 (New York, 1878), 41–42Google Scholar; Minutes of the New York Conference, 1890 (New York, 1890), 92–93, 96–97, esp. 97Google Scholar; Minutes of the New York Conference, 1894 (New York, 1894), 89–90Google Scholar; Minutes of the New York Conference, 1895 (New York, 1895), 93–94Google Scholar; Minutes of the New York Conference, 1896 (New York, 1896), 109–112, 113–114, 123–124.Google Scholar

99. See, for example, the obituary of Father William Pentecost in the New England Conference Minutes for 1907, 121–122. At the time of his death in 1907, Pentecost was eighty-eight; his memorialist, James Mudge, had also passed his eightieth year.

100 . Although early American Methodism seems to have had not trouble reconciling Matthew 23:9 with its practice of calling ministers “Father,” it encountered problems with the title “Reverend” and with Matthew 23:10 and “Mister.” See Journal and Letters of Asbury, II, 164Google Scholar. Ironically, “Reverend” seems to be a fifteenth-century innovation for clergy. In the King James Version, it is used but once (Psalms 111:9), and there applied to God. See Cross, , Oxford Dictionary of Christian Church, 1162.Google Scholar