The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-09
A PAPER BY JUDGE BALDWIN.
Read Before the Connecticut Historical
 Society.

Read Before the Connecticut Historical | Society.
 Judge Simeon E. Baldwin read pa-
 per before the Connecticut Historical
 society at Hartford Tuesday evening on 'The American Jurisdiction of the
 Bishop of London in Our Colonial Era" |"
 Judge Baldwin spoke of the different
 sources from which he obtained the 1 information upon which his paper was
 based, some of which he got from orig inal documents in England He then
 proceeded to discuss how the Bishop of | London acquired jurisdiction over the
 Episcopal church in this country down to the Revolution. As early as 1906 the bishop sent over with his license a cler-
 gyman to Virginia, and this practice
 was continued by his successors in of flee down to pr. King. The latter was
 member of the council of thirteen.
 resident in London, who were appoint ed by the crown to regulate and nave
 general direction over the colonies. Be-
 fore the Revolution this council was
 metamorphosed into an American coun- cil of jurisdiction. Bishop King was
 very active in starting colleges and in
 schemes for the education of the In
 dians of Virginia. Dr. William Judson
 was his successor, who afterwards be-
 came Archbishop of Canterbury. In
 April, 1884, a patent was granted mak-
 ing the Archbishop of Canterbury and
 York with ten other clergymen or suf-
 fragan bishops, high court or council with power to regulate all affairs Of the
 colonies with the approval of the
 crown England had then no colonies
 but America. A new patent in l636 ex- cited great alarm in New England. Twelve of the council or even five of them possessed the power to regulate all affairs of the colonies, including tine levying of tythes for the support Of the ministry. They had also power to es- tablish judges, magistrates and digni- taries, civil and criminal, and also to appoint for ecclesiastical processes. An appeal from the action of the council could be made to the king in the case of the removal of governor.
 Judge Baldwin discussed the appoint ment and authority of suffragan bsh ops who were appointed in England and the full extent of the patent, and said that as far as Virginia was con- cerned the Bishop of London was ac- cepted as authority for the appoint | ment of the clergymen, etc., as the | patent provided. One of the regula- | tons of the council was that no teach | CT could be sent from England to teach | school without license. The charter | to William Penn for Pennsylvania, l granted by King James IT.. gave au- | thority to the Bishop of London, then | pr. Henry Compton, to exercise Ill | jurisdiction in the colony. Then came | the appointment of commissaries to the l colonies who acted under the authority l If the Bishop of London. Down to the Revolution the Bishop of London was as having large powers over the colonies. Last fall the Arehdeacon | 1f London when in this country said hat the Church of England was the mother of the church in this country. | In Virginia the royal power was long exercised in church matters. In 1885 Or. James Blair was sent over by the Bishop of London, and in 1883 the Col ege of William hnd Mary was estab- ished. Blair was successful in depos- ng two or three governors who had giv n offense to the clerical power and he induced the general assembly to pass aw that the Book of Common Prayer hould be read in every church. This net with much opposition, as all de- nominations had to respect the law. In 701 Dr. Drake, the successor of pr. Blair, obtained the charter for the or -anization of the society for the prop gation of the gospel in foreign parts The great revivalist of the eighteenth George Whitfield, was deposed t Charleston for not using the Book Of Common Prayer. At one time the Blsh- D of London was considered as a rector f the church in this country and re- s such
 Down to 1776 the colony of MasGachu- ; etts was regarded as within the jur- ( ;diction of the Bishop of London. Tothing came of the appointment of { for Connecticut. In 175S 'ouble arose over the proposed appoint lent of an English bishop for this coun- f y and historians have traced that as I ne of the causes which led to the Rev l ution. Shortly after the Revolution IT, Seabury went to London and was Bishop of Connecticut, the rst Episcopal bishop in this country ldge BaldWin's paper was replete with facts and statistics and cov- ed fully the history of the Church of ngland in this country down to Revo- ltionary times.