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Protestant Parishes in the Old World and the New: The Cases of Geneva and Boston

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Robert M. Kingdon
Robert M. Kingdon
Affiliation:
director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities and professor of history inthe University of Wisconsin—Madison
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Extract

There can be little doubt that for centuries the most important single unit of the Christian church has been the parish. It is surely the most fundamental of the structures upon which the institutional church has been built. Only by studying closely the parish and what goes on within it can we gain a real appreciation of what religion has meant and continues to mean to the average Christian at the grass roots level. It is somewhat surprising, given the general spread of interest in social history among contemporary historians, that there has not been more study of the parish. One can understand the superior appeal of historical theology to the historian who concentrates on ideas, given the range and sophistication of the systems of thought created over the centuries by theologians, but we should not forget that these systems could not even be comprehended by the great majority of Christians. One can similarly understand the superior appeal of ecclesiastical politics to the historian who concentrates on events, given the high drama in which ecclesiastical leaders have often been engaged, but we should not assume that these events necessarily even came to the attention of average Christians. But for the historian of society who is interested in the religious experience of the average man, the parish must be a starting point.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , September 1979 , pp. 290 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1979

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References

This paper was prepared to be read at the meeting of the International Commission for the Comparative Study of Ecclesiastical History in San Francisco on August 25, 1975, as part of the International Congress of the Historical Sciences. I am indebted to Richard J. Ferraro for assistance in its original preparation, particularly in gathering material for the section on developments in Boston, and would also like to acknowledge the bibliographical suggestions of my colleague David S. Lovejoy.

1. We should all be grateful to the Parish Studies Group of the International Commission for the Comparative Study of Ecclesiastical History for its reminder of this basic truth and its stimulating initiative in developing this field of study. I am grateful to Professor Jerzy Kloczowski of the Catholic University of Lublin for introducing me to the work of this group. Brief reports on its activities can be found in the annual chronicle of the work of relevant international organizations in the Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 66 (1971), 1: 1040–1045;Google Scholar 68 (1973), 1: 925–927; 69 (1974), 1: 543–545; 70 (1975), 1: 671–672, 829.

2. Oxford English Dictionary, corrected re-issue of 1933, s.v. “parish.” Reproduced from Naef, Henri, Les orzgines de la Réforme à Genève, Vol. 1 (Geneva and Paris: Jullien and Droz, 1936), p. 8.Google Scholar

3. Binz, Louis, Vie reltgieuse et rêforme ecclêsiastique dans le diocèse de Genève pendant le grand schisme et la crise conciliaire (1378–1450), vol. 1, vol. 46Google Scholar of “Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Genève,” (Geneva, 1973).Google Scholar

4. For a description of parishes on the eve of the Reformation, including a map, see Naef, Henri, Les origines de la Réforme à Genève 2 vols. (Geneva and Paris, 1936), 1: 8–10.Google Scholar For a description of the churches after the Reformation was well-established, see Monter, E. William, Calvin's Geneva (New York, 1967),Google Scholar especially the quotation on p. 1 and the map on p. 116. On the razing of the suburban churches of St. Victor and St. Léger, see Roset, Michel, Les chroniques de Genève, ed. Fazy, Henri (Geneva, 1894), p. 196.Google Scholar

5. There are several editions of these ordinances. One of the best is in Bergier, Jean-François, ed., Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève au temps de Calvin (Geneva, 1964–), 1: 1–13;Google Scholar see p. 5 for this clause.

6. Ibid., p. 5. “Pour envoyer les enfans au cathechisme et pour recepvoir les sacrements, que en tant qu'il se pourra faire on observe les limites des parroisses.”

7. Baum, Guilielmus, Cunitz, Eduardus, and Reuss, Eduardus, eds., Ioannis Calvini Opera quae supersunt cmnia, vol. 10/1 (Brunswick, 1871;Google Scholar reprinted 1964), col. 99.

8. Heyer, Henri, L'Eglise de Genève, 1535–1909 (Geneva, 1909), p. 283.Google Scholar

9. Labarthe, Olivier and Lescaze, Bernard, eds., Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, vol. 4, 1575–1582 (Geneva, 1974), p. 161, n. 24.Google Scholar

10. Ibid., pp. 261–270, but misdated there as 1578. The correct date was established by a related register entry of July 1, 1584, published in Oliver Labarthe and Micheline Tripet, eds., Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, vol. 5, 1583–1588 (Geneva, 1976), p. 34,Google Scholar with the earlier dating error pointed out in n. 39.

11. Heyer, , L'Eglise, p. 363.Google Scholar See also pp. 363–364, 366–367.

12. For a good recent introduction to these developments, see Hall, David D., The Faithful Shepherd: A History of the New England Ministry in the Seventeenth Century (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1972).Google Scholar For background on the earliest Boston community, see Rutman, Darrett B., Winthrop's Boston: Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630–1649 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1965), especially chap. 5, pp. 98–134,Google Scholar “Toward a New Jerusalem,” on First Church in Boston.

13. See, for example, Walker, Williston, The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (Boston, 1960; reprint of 1893 ed.), pp. 90–91,Google Scholar a 1618 statement of the Plymouth Brethren while still in Leiden: “Touching y' Ecclesiasticall ministrie, namely of pastores for teaching, elders for ruling, & deacons for distributing y' churches contribution … we do wholy and in all points agree with y' French reformed churches, according to their publick confession of faith.”

14. Le Mercier, Andrew, The Church History of Geneva … (Boston, 1732) pp. 1, 206–207.Google Scholar I consulted a microfilm of the Newberry Library copy.

15. Wells, Guy Fred, Parish Education in Colonial Virginia (New York, 1923),Google Scholar chap. 1. Cf. Seiler, William H., “The Anglican Parish in Virginia,” in Seventeenth-Century America: Essays in Colonial History, ed. Smith, James Morton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1959), pp. 119–142,Google Scholar for analysis of some changes in internal parish organization made necessary by the colonial situation.

16. Any transplant, of course, poses some problems. One of the more difficult in this case was the fact that there were variations in the English model and sometimes citizens of a Massachusetts town came from several different types of English parishes. For an extended case study of this problem, see Powell, Sumner Chilton, Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town (Middletown, Conn., 1963).Google Scholar For a stimulating but schematic overview of the parish in England during the early seventeenth century, see Hill, Christopher, Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England (London, 1969), a reprint, chap. 12, pp. 407–428,Google Scholar “The Secularization of the Parish.”

17. Cotton, John, John Cotton on the Churches of New England, ed. Ziff, Larzer (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), p. 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cf. the slightly expanded version of the same argument in Cotton, J[ohn], The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England … (London, 1645), pp. 109–110.Google Scholar

18. Walker, , Creed and Platforms, p. 206.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., pp. 232–233.

20. A useful general introduction can be found in Clark, Joseph S., Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, from 1620 to 1858 (Boston, 1858).Google Scholar On the foundation of Boston First Church, see p. 8; on the foundation of Second Church, pp. 34–35. See also Robbins, Chandler, A History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston; to which is added, a history of the New Brick Church (Boston, 1852), pp. 5–7.Google Scholar

21. Wood, Nathan E., The History of the First Baptist Church of Boston, 1665–1899 (Philadelphia, 1899);Google ScholarHallowell, Richard P., The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts (Boston, 1887).Google Scholar

22. Hill, Hamilton Andrews, History of the Old South Church (Third Church), Boston, 1669–1884, vol. 1 (Boston and New York, 1890),Google Scholar chaps. 1 and 2. For locating the precise sites of church buildings, I have used a map prepared by John Bonner, “The Town of Boston in New England,” first printed in 1722, reprinted in 1835, in Boston.

23. Hill, , Old South Church, p. 312.Google Scholar See also Motte, Ellis Loring et al. , eds., Records of the Church in Brattle Square, Boston … 1699–1872 (Boston, 1902),Google Scholar especially pp. vii-viii. At least half of its founding members came from Old South. Compare the membership lists in Reproduction of a map of Boston drawn by Captain John Bonner, first published in 1722. Motte, p. 95, with those in [Hamilton Andrews Hill and George Frederick Bigelow?], An Historical Catalogue of the Old South Church (Third Church), Boston, 1669–1882 (Boston, 1883), pp. 5–18 and 114.Google Scholar

24. Robbins, , History of Second Church, pp. 170–181.Google Scholar See also [Eliot, Ephraim], Historical Notices of the New North Religious Society in the Town of Boston … (Boston, 1822), pp. 9–16.Google Scholar

25. Foote, Henry Wilder, Annals of King's Chapel (Boston, 1882), chaps. 2 and 3.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., pp. 321–325, and chap. 12. See also Burroughs, Henry, A Historical Account of Christ Church, Boston (Boston, 1874)Google Scholar and Trinity Church in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, 1733–1933 (Boston, 1933).Google Scholar

27. Gannett, Ezra S., A Memorial of the Federal-Street Meeting-House (Boston, 1860).Google Scholar

28. Greenleaf, Jonathan, A History of the Churches of all Denominations in the City of New York from the First Settlement to the year 1846 (New York, 1846);Google ScholarDisosway, Gabriel P., The Earliest Churches of New York and its Vicinity (New York, 1865).Google Scholar

29. Joyce, Lester Douglas, Church and Clergy in the American Revolution: A Study in Group Behavior (New York, 1966).Google Scholar