Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-01-18
virginia Clergy in the OIden Fine,

The clergymen of Virginia were in position
so false and demoralizimg that as a body they
could not but become indolent and dissolute
The law gave them slXeeen thousand pounds of
tobacco per annunl, which might be worth two
hundred pounds year, if the quality were hieb,
and the incumbent lucky and Sklful in selling
1t; or 1t might be worth sixty pounds wear if
the quality were low and the crop super
abundant. They were further allowed by law
four hundred pounds of tobacco, or forty shiI}
ings, for preaching Il funeral sermon; two hun.
dred pounds of TOBACCO for marriage Dv license.
fifty for a marriage by banns; and fee for
baptism, which custom appears to have fixed
at guinea for the rich, and five shillings for
Others. TO these revenues was added n aIebe
sufficient for good farm, which q liberal YES
try, we are told, were sometimes kind enough
to stock with one or two families Of slaves
The clergy, appointed without much regard 10
their fitness, were subjected TO little suner-
vision. The parishes were of great extent
| stretching sometimes as much as thirty miles
along a river, and yet so thinly inhabited that
| they could scarcely furnish a congregation: and
such was the scarcity of candidates, that com
mlssary hesitated to suspend a clergyman, even
Tor notorious vice, because the parish might re.
main vacant for two or three years.
Thus circumstanced, each clergyman behaved
| according to his disposition. A few Of them,
men of learning and virtue, did their duty, and
eked out their slender and changing incomes nv
taking pupils; and it was tn sc few who saved
CIVILIZATION III the cOIOny. UtnerS, men of rude
energy and executive force, pushed the cultIya-
ton of their globes, bought more slaves. raised
more tobacco, speculated sometimes in both.
grew rich, reduced their parish duty TO the
minimum, and performed that minimum with
haste and formality. But the greater number
lived as idle haDgerS-On OF the wedltnler houses
assisting their elIowidIers, the planters, to KIN
time and run through their estates, not always
dISsoiute, but eaSy-Toing, Selt-indulgent good
natured men of the world. Ii was not very IN
common for the clergyman of a parish TO be
president of its jockey club and personally Ms.
slst in the details of the race-course, such as
weighing the men and timing the horses. 1t was
common for clergymen to ride after the hounds
in fox hunting, and they were as apt TO nail the
trophy of the days chase to their stable door as
any other men. The names of clergymen irurtd
among the patrons ofballs, and they were rather
noted for their skill at cards. All of which was
JuStas proper for clergymen as for planters, and
moreinccessaTy. But in those DAYS the bottle
was the yitlatlng accompaniment of every inno-
cent delight. The race must end in a dinner
and the dinner must end under the table, The
days hunt must be followed by nights debauch,
The christening of a child must be the pretext
for davis revel. This single element of mis-.
chief converted all iestal days, all honest mirth.
all Joyous recreation into injury, shame and
| ruin. Nothing can make any Roadway against
the potency OF wine, for it suspends the opera.
ton OF that within us which enables us TO re-
sist, and finally destroys it, 1t vitates the tex
lure Oh Inc brain Itself, the seat OF life, and the
citadel of all the superior forces. And the wine
which flowed so freely OF the planters tables
was Madeira, strongest OF wines, so enriched by
time and two long voyages, that the uncorkin9
OF one bottle filled large house with fragrance.
The tales we read of the clergy of old virginia
stagger belief, though it is clergymen who re-
port them. The reverend rector Of Wcomico,
we read, not approving the bread placed upon
the communion table, cried out from the altar.
in the midst of the service, to one of his church
wardens: George, this bread is not ft for
dog" We read OF another, who was invited
alter church TO dinner at a planters house,
where he drank so much that he had TO be tied
N his gig, and servant sent to lead his horse
home. One jolly parson comes down to us
reeling up and down the porch of a tavern
bawling 10 the passers by to come and drink
with him. Another lives in the memory of his
country because he fought duel within sigbt
of the church in which he had formerly ofici-
ated. Another is remembered as the ioyial
hunter who died cheering on the hounds TO the
chase. One is spoken Of as pocketng annually
hundred dollars, the revenue of n legacy FOR
preaching toHr sermons year against atheism
gambling, racing and swearing, though himself
q notorious swearer, racer and gambler An
other is the hero of a story that one dav parson
and vestry differed in opinion, ouarreled and
came TO blows. The parson, a giant in strength,
put them to flight Not content with his vie,
tory, he renewed the battle on Sunday morn.
ing in church, when from the vantage ground of
the pulpit he hurled at them this text from Ne
hcma1: And | contended with them and
cursed them, and smote certain of them and
plucked off their hair which had the keen
sting of literal truth.-From the Atlantic Month
ty for February.