Memoir of Alexander Viets Griswold, bishop of the Prot. Epis. church in the Eastern diocese

Chapter I. Page The Bishop's Ancestry, Parentage, And Birth, . . .11

C HAPTER II.

THE BISHOP'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, 16

Chapter III. From The Bishop's Marriage To His Ordination As Presby- Ter, .29

CHAPTER IY.

FROM THE BISHOP'S ORDINATION TO THE CLOSE OF HIS MINISTRY

IN CONNECTICUT, 41

CHAPTER Y.

FROM THE BISHOP'S SETTLEMENT IN BRISTOL TO HIS CONSECRA- TION, .... 62

CHAPTER YI.

ACCOUNT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EASTERN DIOCESE, AND

OF THE ELECTION AND CONSECRATION OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, 83

VI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.

PAGE EARLY EVENTS IN THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, , .98

5E EASTERN DIOCESE, AND I THE LIFE OF ITS BISHOP, AS CONNECTED THEREWITH. — FIRST

CHAPTER IX.

EXTRACTS, ETC., FROM PRIVATE JOURNALS, AND FROM PRIVATE LETTERS, DURING THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, .201

CHAPTER X.

PAROCHIAL LIFE OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, AFTER THE TEAR 1812, . 218

CHAPTER XI.

DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, . 224

Preface

•—-

More than eleven years have passed away since the revered subject of these memoirs was taken to his reward. Doubtless his translation was hailed with joy by many redeemed souls who, during his long life of much and holy ministration of the gospel of Christ, had by him been brought to the knowledge of the Savionr, and had anticipated their teacher in their entrance into rest. Since that time many more of the seals of his ministry below have fallen asleep in Jesus, and become his <; crown of rejoicing."' Many others, doubtless, who differed from and opposed him while on earth, now see eye to eye, and in sweetest fellowship walk with him in the green pastures of a Saviour's love. A dim reflection of this is to be seen in the Church below. "While he lived, even his meek and holy character could not shield him from aspersion. But now that he is removed from that arena where he was so valiant for the truth, and made his divine commission manifest by "speaking*' it "in love," the bitterness of party strife has died away, and all are ready to unite in applying to liim the testimony of the Holy Spirit in reference to Barnabas, "lie was a good man, and full of the Ghost and of faith." And as the results of his work become apparent, and a better appreciation is gained of the difficulties with which he had to struggle, and of the wisdom, and patience, ar ness, and perseverance by which he overcame them, there is like Unanimity in the conviction that "a great man has fallen in Israel." Indeed, so much is this the case — so much has it become the habit

Vlll PREFACE.

with men of all opinions and parties to speak in praise of Bishop Griswold, that there is great danger of our losing sight, in the glory of his name, of the principles with which, during life-time, that name was associated, and for which its owner was willing to endure reproach and persecution. If there be, as, indeed, there ever must be, a connection between principles and character, views of truth and works of duty — if it be true that the latter are an index of the value of the former, and that "by their fruits we may know," not onl^ individuals, but the systems which they illustrate, then it becomes important for us to know the system which moulded the character and governed the work of him "whose praise is in all the churches/' Without this, the lessons of experience are lost, and biography ceases to be a vehicle of instruction. When we speak in admiration of Bishop Griswold's eminent religious character, let us be sure that we understand that evangelical view of the plan of salvation which produced that charaeter in him, and may, with God's blessing, produce it in us likewise. When we praise God for the great success of his pastoral labors, let us ascertain and imitate the means by which success was secured, and forget not those, meetings for prayer and exhortation for which he was so severely assailed, which he so successfully vindicated, and which, through the goodness of God, were visited with true revivals of religion, the like of which have perhaps never been seen in our Church. When we contemplate the results of his long exercise of the Apostolic office in a region so thoroughly and vehemently anti-Episcopal, and see, grown out of what was once under his care, five dioceses, each with its Bishop, and with an aggregate of 161 clergy and 11,378 communicants, let us call up to mind also his personal meekness and official moderation, his abhorrence of every thing that savored of Episcopal assumption and his thorough respect and observance of the rights of both his clergy and laity. His work is but the monument of what he was. And he was, spiritually, what those views of the Gospel and the Church which, under guidance of the Spirit of God, he had gathered out of the Holy Scriptures, had made him. The melancholy events which have taken place in the Protestant Episcopal Church since his decease make it all

PREFACE. ix

the more necessary to keep these things in remembrance. The seeds of Tractarian error, which, wafted from Oxford, had already, to his great distress, begun to germinate in the Episcopal Church in England and this country, have since then developed into an abundant harvest, and the gathering of its fruits into the garners of Popery has largely begun. His watchful and discriminating mind foresaw and predicted this result from the very first, and the latest years of his life abounded with efforts to bring the Church to a clearer understanding and deeper appreciation of the principles of the Reformation. If these eleven years of development have taught any thing, they have taught that the safety of our Church and her usefulness in the great work of man's salvation depend upon her firm maintenance of those evangelical principles and practices of which Bishop Griswold was so clear and consistent an expounder. Nothing could bring the system of evangelical religion more vividly before the mind, invest it with greater charms, and, at the same time, repel the aspersion so perseveringly made by Tractarian writers, that it is inconsistent with any hearty zeal for the distinctive features of the Episcopal Church, than the life and character of one who so clearly understood it, so zealously maintained it, was so bright an example of its power in the production of holiness, and at the same time so intelligent and firm an advocate of the discipline and ritual of that Church whose highest office he so long honorably and wisely administered. To enable him, being dead, yet to speak, and to do justice to his memory by more widely diffusing that impression of his worth which ifl cherished by those who personally knew him, or have read his Memoir as originally published, are the motives which led to the preparing and publishing of this abridgment. All has been left out that could be without injustice to him, and yet enough has been retained to show that the Episcopal Church, like the Patriarchal, has "entertained angels unawares." Pains have been taken to render the omissions as little as possible apparent in abruptness of transition, and the very fewinstances in which it has been necessary to do more than modify the construction of a sentence, or throw in a connecting word, are indicated by brackets. In conclusion, the writer would only invoke

X PREFACE.

the reader to join with him in fervent prayer that we may both be enabled to follow the revered subject of this memoir as he followed Christ, and that God would raise up many like-minded <; to feed the Church of God, over which the Holy Ghost may make them overs e

D. A. T.

Philadelphia, August 31, 1854.

MEMOIR OF BISHOP GPJSWOLD.

To keep alive after death the memory and influence of a saaiily the most beneficent office of the biographer. Nor is this office always found in the work of transmitting to [ : sterity the character and actions of even a good man. It is only when, to the qualities which mark the good is added somewhat of the attributes which stitute the great man also, s his dwelling among

se dead who are vet alive, that biosranhv has before it its richest field, and finds within its reach treasures with which it may most largely bless mankind.

That the subject of the following memoir was preeminently a _ I man. vast multitudes of the dead, and perhaps vaster multitudes of the living, have long and well known. That he was also in important respects a truly : man. great not _ — . but also inde-

i it. mil 1 of the living,

have already felt, and many more, it is believed, of :: who survive him will feel, if the attempt now mad transmit his memory to posterity should succeed in d simple just Its subject.

To the members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in these United States, the life of Bishop Griswold can hardly prove otherwise than a matter of peculiar interest. Born many years anterior to the date of our ecclesiastical origin, at a time when, under our colonial existence, the elements of our present organization and growth lay but in their embryo forms, his life measures the whole course of our Church History, and runs back beyond the opening of that History into those days of simple manners and habits, of pure faith and practice, out of which, as from a fresh and copious fountain, have flowed the now swelling streams both of our national and of our ecclesiastical being. Originating in such an age as that which has been named, and living through such a period as that which has succeeded, Bishop Griswold for near half a century filled, in its various grades, the ministry of our Church, for more than thirty years held Episcopal supervision over one of the largest of its integral portions, and in all the stations which he occupied acted his part with singular wisdom and fidelity, and has left behind him an enduring monument both of rare abilities and of uncommon excellence.

This, however, is not the place for his eulogy. Let that be found chiefly in a simple record of what he was and of what he did.

Something of this record we have, as -written by himself, and the insight thus furnished into his own character and history will greatly facilitate the labors of him who has undertaken to make the record fuller and more complete. His auto-biography reaches from the period of his birth to that of his consecration, and had not his modesty led him into fir too great brevity, it should be here given entire, as the best possible history of that portion of his life. Brief as it is, however, it will enrich and give its chief value to the somewhat fuller narrative of that portion which will be attempted. I know not that I can better introduce the whole story of his life than in the words with which this precious fragment opens. They are characteristic of the man, and will put into our hands a light which we shall do well to carry with us, as we trace his opening way from infancy to age. He says :

4; When one so great and so wise as Solomon, on reviewing the scenes of his past life, has pronounced upon them, 'vanity of vanities,' what can there be worth recording among the things which occupy the hours of ordinary men ? When one writes memoirs of himself, it is natural to suppose that he is actuated by vanity, contemptible as the trifles which he relates. Pliny judges those to be happy who do things worthy to be written, or write things worthy to be read. To neither of these merits does the present writer make any claim. And yet, knowledge of mankind is useful ; and not only the wisdom of the wise, but also the errors of the simple, may do good from the record in which they lie. In the life of almost every man, however low or humble his state, however obscure or private his station, are things which, could they be known, would be useful, and, were they well told, would be entertaining to the living. And when one has little to say of himself, which is not rather to his shame than to his praise, vain-glory is less likely to be his motive, and although in the lives of most men there are few things generally interesting, yet there are few, if there be any, so obscure, that their biography would be uninteresting to every survivor. The child must bo gratified in having on record the chief incidents of a parent's life. Friends, too, and acquaintance, must be pleased witli a memorial of transactions, in which themselves or their progenitors have been concerned. Such notices are of use, and should be encouraged for the sake of preserving a knowledge of family connections and genealogies. And who knows of what use they may be in the annals or even history of any country?

" It may, indeed, be profitable to write some account of one's own life, even if it serve no other purpose than to remind or convince us of our unworthiness, and of how little profit to ourselves and to the world that life has been. There are probably few who would not be humbled by an impartial review of what they have been, of what they have done, and of what they have left undone. In truth, however, the 'longing after immortality,' the desire to be remembered after death, so natural to us all, should be cherished, were it but for the effect it has in stimulating us to do what is worthy to be remembered and to be followed. It is said to have been the practice of the ancient Egyptians, when one died, to institute a solemn trial of his character, and to pronounce upon it such sentence as in his life he had merited. To such a trial in public estimation is every character subject, and the looking forward to it is, to every well-ordered mind, a strong incentive to good and worthy actions.

" Some written account of a clergyman's life should be preserved, that the history of the Church may not be lost."

One short paragraph comprises all that the Bishop has told us of his ancestry :

" I was born," he says, "April 22d, 1766, in Simsbury, county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, and was named Alexander Viets, after my mother's grandfather, who was a physician from Germany. My parents on both sides were respectable, and considered wealthy in a town where few, if any, were possessed of larger estates. My father, Elisha Griswold, was from the Windsor branch of a numerous family, the descendants of Matthew Griswold, who came from England in the year 1630. My mother, Eunice, was the daughter of John and Lois Viets."

His mother's brother, the Rev. Roger Viets, was a clergyman of the Church of England, and had charge of the Parish church of Simsbury, until the close of the revolutionary war. To him was Bishop Griswold more indebted than to any other person, his mother perhaps excepted, for his early religious impressions, and his early literary culture. Of his mother the Bishop writes thus :

" My case so far resembled that of Timothy, that my mother's name was Eunice, and my grandmother's Lois, and that from both of them I received much early religious instruction. By their teaching, \ from a child I have known the Holy Scriptures, which were able (had I rightly used the knowledge) to make me wise unto salvation.' To the care of my mother, especially, instilling into my tender mind sentiments of piety, with the knowledge of Christ and the duty of prayer, I was much indebted. Through life I have sinned much, and in every thing have come short of what should have been my improvement from such advantages ; yet, through the Lord's merciful goodness, the fear of God, the love of his name and a faith in Christ have never been wholly lost."

A noble record, this, to be added to the many which have been already made, of the value of a mother's early influence over the religious character of her children.

CHAPTER II.

THE BISHOP'S CHILDHOOD AKD YOUTH.

From early infancy he was remarkable for quick intelligence, an amiable disposition, and a ready apprehension of religious truth. Schools were not then, as now, to be found in the neighborhood of every Connecticut man's door. But his mother, a woman of remarkable intelligence, abundantly supplied their place, and was herself the early and the efficient tutoress of her own children. One of her granddaughters remarks :

" I have often heard her say, that Alexander could read fluently at three years of age, which at that time was very remarkable, as few children then learned to read before seven or eight.

"At a very early age he distinguished himself above the other children, by his love and clear comprehension of the Holy Scriptures. His mother was in the habit of instructing her children every Sunday evening in the Church C chism, in which exercise he was remarkable for the readiness of his replies, when questioned as to the meaning of any of its parts.

" His mother, whom, in ])erson : he strongly resembled, was a woman of uncommon energy, dignity, and decision of character. Though a fond mother and grandmother, she was vet a strict disciplinarian. Well do I remember the deep awe and veneration which filled our minds whenever she entered the room where we were. All noisy play instantly ceased, and we listened in most respectful silence to every word that fell from her lips ; while any word or even look of disapprobation which we chanced to receive sank deep into our hearts, and was remembered for years ; for well knew we that it was not given without cause.

" Next to the religious education of her children, she considered early habits of persevering industry as of the greatest importance. All her children were accordingly kept constantly employed at an age when most children are considered too young to be capable of any employment. As early as five, they assisted in various little labors of the farm, and when not otherwise employed were occupied in knitting." "It was interesting to me," she remarks, "to learn that the habits of unwearied and persevering industry which so distinguished my uncle throughout his whole after life, had so early though so humble an origin." His mother rightly estimated the importance to their future years of early forming her children to habits of industry. The boy who knit " bone-lace " at live years of age, because his mother taught him that it was a duty to be always doing something useful in moments which must otherwise run to waste, or perhaps be fdled with mischief, was a worthy predecessor to the Bishop who afterwards, with unmatched industry, bore, for more than thirty years, " the care of all the churches " scattered over a diocese wide enough for a kingdom.

What little, in his auto-biography, the Bishop says of this early period of his life, is contained in the following paragraphs :

"I recollect nothing in my childhood and youth more remarkable than the rapidity with which I learned the lessons given me. When about four or five years old, I remember being often required to read before strangers, who, at that day, viewed my forwardness as a great wonderment. In about three days after the Greek grammar was first put into my hands, I had, without any other teaching, written in Greek characters the first chapter in John's Gospel, interlined with a literal and verbal translation into Latin. The facility with which I obtained a knowledge of the Greek language much surprised my teacher.

"They who are now young cannot easily imagine how scanty were then the facilities for obtaining knowledge compared with the advantages of the present age. And yet there was then, perhaps, as great a proportion of learned men as there is now. The labor of overcoming difficulties stimulates, and indeed strengthens, the mind. Literature and reading are far more general now than then, especially Avith children and females, who, by the wonderful inventions of labor-saving machinery, are in a great degree relieved from mere manual labor. But the readhig of the present age is comparatively of a lighter sort ; and if more extensive, is also more superficial. My want of means and opportunities for a more enlarged acquisition of knowledge has, through life, been a source of regret ; though this perhaps arises from pride or self-will ; for I have had much reason for believing that an overruling Providence has controlled the events of my life. In a remarkable manner has an unseen hand frustrated my own plans, designs, and favorite pursuits, leading me by a way which I had not foreseen, to a course of life, less, it may be, to my honor in this world, yet more to my usefulness ; and more, as I humbly hope, to the securing of 'glory, honor, and immortality' in a world far better than this. My love of general literature in early life was, I fear, a fault, as it diverted nay attention from things more necessary and more profitable. When a child, I preferred a book to any sports, or play ; and after laboring hard through the day, study was more agreeable than sleep through the greater part of the night. Had my circumstances been such as to indulge this propensity, I might, it is not unlikely, have obtained some celebrity ; but my life would probably have been still less useful to the world than it has been. For, how many learned men are there whose learning is of little use except that of self-gratification? Indeed, in many cases, the learning of men renders them less useful to society than others whose attainments are yet far more limited. Hours umiumbered are devoted to reading for mere pleasure which might be occupied in labors far more useful to mankind."

Perhaps not once in an age, if ever, are we presented with an instance of earlier and more indomitable love of learning than that which was exhibited in the childish subject of these pages. This love seemed an inborn passion, which no difficulties could restrain — a connatural flame which no waters of adverse circumstances could quench. In after life he was remarkable for his habit of silence, even at times when he might have been expected to engage in conversation. The secret of this seems to have been, and such is the impression of the eldest survivors of the family with whom I have had the pleasure of conversation, that his early passion for books, fanned by his mother's influence both in her occasional teachings and in her daily conversation, led him into the habit of spending those moments in reading which his companions consumed in the noisy frolics of their sports. He was, even in childhood, too entirely absorbed in the inward workings of his own mind, and in feeding his insatiable appetite for knowledge, ever to acquire the art of playing with words at small talk. The master passion of his childhood, as of his riper years, made him a devotee to books, and his devotion to books made him taciturn. It was as natural for him when not at work to have a book in his hand as it was for other boys to break away from their work to their play. The very difficulties which he had to encounter in gratifying his fondness for reading, doubtless helped to confirm through life this early habit of silence while others were engaged in conversation. This habit did not proceed, as we shall hereafter see, from any inability to muster words wherewith to furnish ready-made and handsome clothing for his thoughts. In short, my inquiries amidst the scenes of his childish days have satisfied me that, while he was a bright and beautiful boy of exceedingly quick parts, of sweetly amiable temper, and of merely cultivated habits of taciturnity, he could then, as well as in subsequent life, whenever he chose to do so, talk like a book, and let his words flow like " the running brook ;" and was early remarkable for the power of saying pithy and striking, and even sharp and witty things.

The period during which he continued under his mother's more special training extended to the close of his tenth year, covering thus the most important ten years, so far as the formation of character is concerned, in the life of every man. During even this period, however, he enjoyed something of the advantages of his uncle's care.

" There was," says the auto-biography, " one circumstance of my life which I would ever think and speak of with thankfulness to God. About the time of my birth, the Rev. Roger Viets, my mother's brother, returned from England in Priest's orders, and took charge of the parish in which I lived. For several years, he was an inmate in my father's family, and for most of the time, till my twentieth year, I lived with him. He was an excellent scholar, with a rare talent for communicating knowledge to others. From my childhood," he had a strong partiality for rue, and was at great pains to instruct me in everything which he supposed might be useful to me through life, especially in classical knowledge. Even when laboring in the field, (for in those clays country clergymen thought it no disgrace or departure from duty to labor, as did St. Paul, for their own temporal support.) when laboring in the field together, as we did for hundreds of days, he would still continue his instructions."' And, as the Bishop has often told his worthy companion, who now survives him in her widowhood, many are the Latin lessons which he has studied by taking his book from his pocket and poring over its contents while u riding horse w for his ploughman uncle.

I have remarked that till he was ten years old he remained under his mother's care. Afterwards, at his uncle's special request, he was allowed to reside with him, and prosecute his studies under his more immediate eye.

Mr. Viets, as a fine scholar, had indulged his taste in collecting one of the largest and best-selected libraries then known in those parts. He was also keeper of the parish library, a collection of considerable value, which seems to have been made when the parish was first organized, and endowed by the zeal and liberality of Mr. Crozier, and the gentlemen of Boston and Newport. Of both these libraries young Alexander had the unrestricted use so long as his uncle remained in the States ; and among their rich contents gratified his love of reading whenever he had a moment's leisure from either labor or the studies of the school.

What the earliest tastes of young Griswold were, so far as his love of books sought favorite indulgence, may be - from the following, which I take, in substance, from the account of his niece :

c; Works of imagination seem to have been his favorite reading at that age. He was extremely fond of plays, particularly those of Shakspeare. The acting of pla; then an occasional chosen amusement with the children of the neighborhood; and at the early age of seven Alexander performed the part of page in ' Fair Rosamond,' to the great admiration of all the spectators. When older, he still retained a fondness for these juvenile exhibitions; and at the age of fifteen acted the part of Zanga, in Dr. Young's Revenge. His performance was so striking as to call forth bursts of applause from his audience, which consisted of the greater part of the inhabitants of Simsbury. Many years since that time, I have heard the aged people of the neighborhood speak of that performance as surpassing any thing of the kind which they had ever witnessed ; especially in c the death-scene,' as they called it. * No actor in the American company,' (the name of a dramatic corps at that time performing in Hartford,) said they, ; could compare with him. 5 "

This, to such as have known Bishop Griswold only as a Bishop, will be a new and doubtless an unexpected aspect of his early character, tastes, and capabilities. That the boy, who afterward grew up into the peculiarly grave, chastened, and holy man of God, should have had such an early fondness for the drama, and have been able to electrify even a country audience by the force of his acting, has been even to the present writer a matter of surprise ; although I have long been aware of the deep love of poetry, and of the deep and true power of sentiment which lay concealed, even till old age, among the rudiments of his rich nature, and which were kept hidden there by the restraints of high and holy principle.

Nevertheless, we shall err if we suppose that the trait in his character now in view was ever allowed to exert much influence over the main course of his pursuits, or to interfere injuriously with the serious and religious purposes and convictions of his early days. For it is of this very period of his life, between seven and fifteen, that he speaks in the following interesting paragraphs of the auto-biography :

" I have had, from a child, a belief and trust in God's overruling providence, which orders every thing for the best, and makes ' all things work together for good to them that love him.' Of this belief and trust I am far from boasting : for in truth and with shame I acknowledge that I have in many things erred and strayed from his righteous ways ; yea, a thousand times have I wondered that blessings unnumbered should be continued to a creature so ungrateful and so unworthy. It was through his blessing that I was enabled to gain knowledge, in almost any branch which I pursued, with more than ordinary rapidity ; and while I (vainly per haps) felt a confidence that when, as for some years I expected, I should become a student at Yale College, none would go before me, it was He who designed for me what I now believe to be better things."