Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T05:38:56.537Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Parochial Libraries in the Colonial Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2009

John Fletcher Hurst
Affiliation:
Washington, D. C..

Extract

The Protestant colonists who first came to this continent possessed strong literary tastes. The Dutch were at first controlled largely by the purely commercial spirit, but in a short time a literary tendency developed itself decidedly among them, which was strengthened by a close communication with such literary centres in Holland as Leyden and other seats of learning. No portion of our colonists placed stronger emphasis on the requirements for a learned clergy than the Dutch. The Swedes, for the short time that they held a secure footing on the banks of the Delaware, gave most valuable literary treatment to their colonial home. Luther's Catechism was translated into the Virginian-Indian language, printed in Stockholm in 1696, and sent out under the patronage of King Carl XL, to do missionary work among the savages. Svedberg wrote “America Illuminata,” for the purpose of acquainting his countrymen in Sweden with the New World. Campanius and Acrelius wrote large and full descriptive works, which, for minute treatment, were not surpassed by any writers in the entire colonial period.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Church History 1890

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 38 note 1 Tyler, , “History of American Literature,” vol. i., pp. 89, 90.Google Scholar

page 41 note 1 Dalcho, , “Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina,” p. 78.Google Scholar

page 41 note 2 Perry, , “History of the American Episcopal Church,” vol. i., pp. 196ff.Google Scholar

page 42 note 1 Anderson, , “History of the Colonial Church,” vol. ii., pp. 409ff.Google Scholar

page 42 note 2 Overton, , “Life in the English Church, 1660–1774,” pp. 220ff.Google Scholar

page 42 note 3 “Life and Doings of Dr. Bray,” p. 17.Google Scholar

page 43 note 1 Griffith, , “Sketches of the Early History of Maryland,” p. 36.Google Scholar

page 43 note 2 Bray, , “Apostolical Charity.” London, 1699.Google Scholar

page 43 note 3 Gambrall, , “Church Life in Colonial Maryland,” pp. 55ff.Google Scholar

page 44 note 1 Bray, , “Several Circular Letters to the Clergy of Maryland, Subsequent to their Late Visitation,” London, 1701.Google Scholar

page 45 note 1 “Church Life in Colonial Maryland,” pp. 104111.Google Scholar

page 50 note 1 Gambrall, , “Church Life in Colonial Maryland,” pp. 91, 92.Google Scholar

page 50 note 2 “Libraries in the United States of America,” p. 36.Google Scholar