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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2011
The necessity of moral and religious training in the education of children and the significance of education in matters of religion have in our day become the subject of much discussion. It may be profitable, therefore, to examine a unique institution of early New England by which religion was linked to education, and religious education was given a high place in the life of the churches. It is remarkable that this institution seems never to have received the attention of a single book, pamphlet, or magazine article.
1 The polity also called for the office of deaconess, which never existed in America, although there are several instances of it in Puritan England.
2 The teacher taught the church-members, while the schoolmaster taught the children of the town. The former dealt exclusively with religion, the latter was concerned with religion only as religion was then linked to education.
3 If a theological professor were the regular minister of a church, conducted a lecture (or mid-week religious service), and were responsible for the religious principles of his congregation, we should have the counterpart of the teacher. Something like this is sometimes found to-day among the Quakers. In a few instances, a schoolmaster acted as substitute for a pastor or teacher, or even was called to a permanent office. Increase Mather was president of Harvard College while teacher of the Second Church of Boston, but the laws of the colony forbade a minister to be a schoolmaster. Daniel Neal, History of New England, vol. ii, appendix iv.
4 These generalizations are based on the recorded efforts of the various independent churches to carry out the ideals of their leaders amid the fluctuating conditions of a new settlement.
5 The afternoon service was less formal, and the order more variable. Lechford, Thomas, Plain Dealing, p. 47Google Scholar, and Robert Keayne, manuscript of Boston sermons of Cotton, with three by Wilson and one by Cobbett (described, somewhat erroneously, in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2d series, vol. iv, pp. 313–316, and vol. v, p. 435), indicate no difference in the order of the afternoon service.
6 Note Wilson's remarks of January 13, 1642: “What ever I had otherwise provided to speake to you, yet because the time is about spent, so I shud possibly keepe you no longer. Yet soe I will speke but a word or 2 to presse the whel on you, what you have soe profitably heard all ready.” See also Mather, Cotton, Magnalia, vol. i, pp. 311–312, 435Google Scholar.
7 Often omitted if there was no teacher. Dexter, H. M., Congregationalism in Literature, p. 452Google Scholar, note 147; Dedham church records; Lechford, Thomas, Plain Dealing, pp. 47, 52Google Scholar; Mather, Cotton, Ratio Disciplinae, pp. 63–68.Google Scholar
8 In England only the pastor could administer these rites. Mayo, , of the Second Church of Boston, says (church records, vol. iii, p. 3):Google Scholar “Ordinances being here dispensed by ye Pastor & Teacher in our several vicissitudes.”
9 See trials in Keayne, manuscript; Connecticut Historical Society Collections, vol. ii, pp. 75–77Google Scholar.
10 See Keayne, manuscript (excellent); New Haven church records, vol. i, pp. 1 ff.Google Scholar; Connecticut Historical Society Collections, vol. i, pp. 22–51; Lechford, Thomas, Plain Dealing, pp. 30 f.Google Scholar
11 As at the First Church of Boston on May 20, 1640, when a certain request for a letter was answered by “our teacher and consented to by the church,” it being against all Scripture precedent. Keayne manuscript for date. There are many instances in which the teacher and ruling elder sign the correspondence of their church. Both the pastor and teacher kept the church records.
12 The earlier theory had been that a minister ought not to be “burthened with the execution of civil affairs, as the celebration of marriage, burying the dead, &c.” Points of Difference, art. 6. See Boston town records from 1687 for the marriages by Samuel Willard and by Increase and Cotton Mather.
13 Mather, Cotton, Magnalia, vol. i, p. 550.Google Scholar
14 These expository sermons on entire books of the Bible often extended over several months and even years. See Keayne manuscript, and Richard Mather's Lectures upon Second Peter.
15 The actual work was usually done by the pastor or ruling elder.
16 The preceding characterizations are from the following sources: John Hull, Diary for June 24, 1649 (Thomas Shepard); Winthrop, John, History of New England, vol. i, p. 376Google Scholar (313) (Tomson of Braintree); Mather, Cotton, Magnalia, vol. i, p. 430Google Scholar (Samuel Newman), and vol. ii, p. 61 (Samuel Danforth); Emerson, William, First Church in Boston, p. 1Google Scholar (Wilson); and Roxbury church records, p. 206.
17 The first phrase is used to describe many men. The others are: Life of Richard Mather (anonymous, but undoubtedly by Increase Mather), p. 32; Tyler, M. C., American Literature, vol. ii, p. 168Google Scholar, and Hill, H. A., Old South Church, vol. i, p. 339Google Scholar; Sibley, J. L., Harvard Graduates, vol. i, p. 27Google Scholar (the description of John Cotton by Woodbridge); Cotton, John, Plymouth, in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 1st series, vol. iv, p. 118Google Scholar (Reyner); Johnson, Edward, Wonder Working Providence, p. 21Google Scholar (Higginson) and p. 59 (Cotton); Ellis, A. B., First Church in Boston, p. 327Google Scholar, note, and fly-leaf of First Church records (Cotton).
18 See Johnson, Edward, Wonder Working Providence, pp. 21 f.Google Scholar for Skelton, and Higginson, ; Roxbury church records, p. 206Google Scholar, First Church in Boston records, and Keayne manuscript for Cotton and Wilson; Mather, Cotton, Magnalia, vol. i, p. 252Google Scholar, and John Cotton (in Walker, G. L., First Church, Hartford, pp. 428, 443)Google Scholar for Hooker and Stone; and Benjamin Column's funeral sermons upon the two Mathers. Henry Ware (Second Church, Boston, p. 17) thus distinguishes Cotton Mather from his father: “As a preacher he differed much from his father; having less strength and more rhapsody, less dignity and more declamation.”
19 See Good News from New England, 1648, for a list of salaries. And Second Church, Boston, records for salaries of ministers. A New England salary was based upon need (size of family, age of minister, etc.) and not upon ability.
20 See Dury's letter (in Samuel Mather's Apology, appendix, part i, number 3); Charlestown church records, p. 12; Lechford, Thomas, Plain Dealing, pp. 89 ff.Google Scholar; Winthrop, John, History of New England, vol. i p. 217 (182)Google Scholar; Cudworth's letter (in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. xiv, pp. 101 ff.); Robert Keayne, notes on a council at Weymouth (in Stiles Collection).
21 Boston-Watertown was probably a colony church, with Wilson as teacher and Phillips as pastor, because (1) neither possessed more than one minister; (2) Winthrop invariably calls Phillips pastor and Wilson teacher; (3) the colony raised the salaries of both; and (4) both preached at Charlestown for the first two years, at least part of the time (Clap, Roger, Memoirs, p. 22).Google Scholar However, it may be said that polity was still indefinite.
22 Bracy preceded Norton for one year. Felt, J. B., Ipswich, pp. 218, 222Google Scholar.
23 If Burr was not the pastor in 1640, he was about to be called and was serving in that capacity. Winthrop, John, History of New England, vol. ii, pp. 26–27 (22)Google Scholar; Johnson, Edward, Wonder Working Providence, p. 74Google Scholar; Dedham church records, p. 12; Dorchester church records, p. 250 [255]. Mather also had assistants from 1636–1649. Dorchester church records, pp. 7 [9], 8 [10]; 250th Anniversary Proceedings at First Church, Dorchester, p. 104; and Adams, C. F., Quincy, p. 15.Google Scholar Plymouth was in search of a pastor to help its teacher from 1636 to 1644. William Bradford, History of the Plimoth Plantation, published by the State of Massachusetts, 1898, pp. 456 f.; Cotton, John, Plymouth, p. 118Google Scholar; for Salem, see Felt, J. B., Annals of Salem, vol. ii, p. 626Google Scholar, and New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. xxxvi, pp. 38 f.; vol. xxxix, p. 374; Winthrop, John, History of New England, vol. ii, pp. 27, 31Google Scholar; Eliot's list; Stiles's list; Good News from New England, 1648.
24 Salem apparently regarded Peters as its pastor, although he was in England. Roxbury, abandoning all hope of the return of Welde, had elected a colleague for Eliot in 1650.
25 Cambridge (with Harvard College to supply the function of teacher), Hampton (rather uncertain), and the Indian churches (with both officers) are omitted. Similarly, nothing is said of churches with a single minister whom they called a teacher.
26 The First Church records invariably call Allen teacher. The search of the Third Church was rewarded by the call of Willard in 1676.
27 Nicholet was supplying as teacher and was desired permanently.
28 John Eliot, Jr., was supply pastor from 1674 to 1688. Roxbury church records, pp. 132, 142.
29 Both Rowley and Charlestown were having supplies for the assistance of their single minister, Charlestown calling Browne in 1678 and Rowley calling Payson in 1682. Richardson at Newbury (1673–1696) was called a teacher. Coffin, Joshua, Newbury, pp. 68, 69, 73, 158Google Scholar, etc.; note also the epitaph on his tombstone.
30 Eliot died in 1690, leaving Walter as the single minister, the “teaching pastor,” as the venerable Eliot ordained him, in 1688.
31 And in these churches the distinction between the two had practically disappeared.
32 The church records and Allen himself invariably call him teacher.
33 See titles of his books in H. A. Hill, Old South Church, in bibliography appended to vol. ii; Samuel Sewall, Journal, for date.
34 See Upham, C. W., Salem, p. 485Google Scholar; Osgood, C. S. and Batchelder, H. M., Salem, pp. 82 ff.Google Scholar; White, D. A., New England Congregationalism, as illustrated by Records of the First Church in Salem, pp. 293 fGoogle Scholar.
35 See church records, p. 12; Budington, W. I., First Church, Charlestown, pp. 44, 65, 79, 83Google Scholar; Roxbury church records, p. 198.
36 See Felt, J. B., Ipswich, pp. 233 f.Google Scholar
37 See note 29 above.
38 Payson was sole minister of the church from 1696 to 1729, when he was given an assistant.
39 See Whitney, George, Early History of Quincy, pp. 32 ff.Google Scholar; Whitney, F. A., First Church of Quincy, p. 40Google Scholar; Wilson, D. M., Commemorative Services of the Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Braintree, pp. 33–37Google Scholar; Good News from New England, 1648.
40 Robbins, Chandler, Second Church, Boston, p. 170.Google Scholar The church desired to conform to the custom of the time and have two ministers.
41 Teacher Flint was not ordained at once, because of his defence of Wheelwright and refusal to erase his signature from a petition.
42 Eliot was ordained within five months of Welde.
43 This is the Dorchester-Windsor church.
44 The church wished to call Sherman as teacher, and he supplied in that capacity, but declined a call.
45 There were two ministers from 1636 to 1639, probably known by the current terms. Connecticut Ecclesiastical Contributions, p. 506.
46 The Old South had tried to secure a teacher for seven years.
47 The authorities of the colony objected to the call of ruling elder Powell as teacher in 1655, because he was “illiterate, as to his academicall education” (church records, vol. iii, p. 3, and Ware, Henry, Second Church, Boston, p. 6)Google Scholar.
48 See New Haven Colony records, pp. 253–255, for an amusing trial over the question of th e Scriptural authority for pastor and teacher.
49 See John Cotton on Canticles, and Peter Thacher on Canticles (in Hill, H. A., Old South Church, vol. i, p. 180Google Scholar, note; Cambridge Platform, 6:5; Cotton, John, Way of the Churches in New England, pp. 13, 14, 44, 54Google Scholar, Questions and Answers on Church Government and Church Covenant (probably by Richard Mather), pp. 22–26, Treatise, pp. 3 f.; Hooker, Thomas, Survey of Church Discipline, vol. ii, chap. 1, sect. 19–20Google Scholar; Mather, Richard, Model of Church Government, p. 23Google Scholar; Welde, Thomas, Brief Narration, p. 3Google Scholar; Partridge, Ralph, On Church Government, p. 23Google Scholar; Stone, Samuel, Whole Body of Divinity, p. 325Google Scholar; etc.
50 Plymouth and Salem are typical cases.
51 The history of every church presents instances of this.
52 Due to insufficient salaries, incompatibility of temperament, lack of co-operation of ministers, and theological and political differences.
53 Lynn, Taunton, and the Connecticut churches are typical cases.
54 This is a much overrated consideration. Behind most of the instances cited m proof of it there were other causes, such as theological differences, bickerings in church and state, vagueness of ideas, and unsettled conditions. This position is elaborately defended in a book by the present writer soon to appear.
55 See Cambridge Platform, 6: 6; Colonial laws of Massachusetts for 1644 and 1647; Colonial laws of Plymouth for 1643 and 1671; Colonial laws of Connecticut for 1656 and 1660; Blake, H. T., New Haven Green, p. 184Google Scholar.
56 These conclusions are based on a careful comparison of the Puritan ideas with the writings of the Reformation period.
57 See Winthrop, John, History of New England, vol. i, p. 97 (81).Google Scholar