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CHAPTER X.

4. D. 1811. Æt. 36.

Controversies before and after his Election-Rev. Cave JonesCharacter-Solemn Appeal'-Result-Claim of Bishop Provoost-How settled-Decision of the Convention-Separation of Mr. Jones from Trinity Church-His latter Years.

It is painful to open the scene of Bishop Hobart's apostolic labours with a picture foreign to their holy and peaceful spirit, yet so it is. His election had not been unanimous; nor could such agreement well be anticipated; for, however prominent his claims on the score of talent, zeal, and useful labours, yet on that of age, experience, and as many thought, of prudence, there were others who stood before him: he was besides but an assistant minister, and not the oldest of those assistants, in the parish of Trinity Church. Many, too, mistaking in him the energy of duty for the promptings of a selfish ambition, predicted danger to the Church from the too rapid elevation of such a spirit.

Under the best of circumstances, the path to greatness is said not to be smooth; but with him it was through an ordeal as of fire; amid the war and strife of tongues had he to reach that station which all subsequently acknowledged he both merited and adorned.

He was now in the thirty-sixth year of his age, and prepared to enter with all the vigour of that early but ripe manhood, upon his arduous and responsible duties. But he found himself stopped, as it were, at the threshold; thwarted by an opposition in which doctrinal opinions and personal hostility were mingled up with vague and wide

spread doubts as to the validity both of the principle and manner of his consecration".

But it was personal jealousy which brought to a head these vague doubts and suspicions, and awakened against him a fierce hostility which wounded deeply not only his peace but that of the Church at large. Far be it from the present writer willingly to rake up the ashes of personal controversy, or wantonly to invade that peace which death has sanctified; but not only is its notice essential to the narrative of Bishop Hobart's life as a matter of fact, but, as well observed by another, such notice may not be 'without its bitter and wholesome uses to those, who, on light and trivial grounds, may hereafter be disposed to disturb the peace of the Church'.' But to understand this, it is necessary to look back to the circumstances which preceded his election.

Connected with Dr. Hobart, as his junior assistant in the parish of Trinity Church was the Rev. Cave Jones, his associate, therefore, and daily companion in duty, but in all traits of character essentially opposite. To take the contrasted picture from one who knew both well, though personal feeling may somewhat overcharge it, 'The one was cold, formal, and stately in his manners; the other all freedom, cordiality, and warmth. The one was sensitive, suspicious, and reserved; the other communicative, frank, and confiding. The one nurtured resentment, kept a record of hasty sallies of feeling and unguarded sayings, and magnified infirmities into glaring faults; the other never received an offence without seeking at once to have it explained, in order that it might be over and forgotten, and never gave it without making a prompt and ample atonement".'

a This refers to the incidental omission by the consecrating bishop of words argued by his opponents to be essential, 'in the name of the FATHER, of the Son, and of the HOLY GHOST.' (See White's Memoirs, p. 287.)

Berrian's Narrative, p. 128. c Berrian's Narrative, p. 130.

With such an associate, (though we would fain hope the picture darker than the original,) that there should have been but little sympathy is not to be wondered at, nor that offence should sometimes have been given, when not meant, to one thus ready to take it. But with most men, and under ordinary circumstances, these are matters which are forgotten or forgiven. That they were not so in the present case, certainly augurs something wrong in the mind that retained a remembrance of them. It was, doubtless, an envious mind. Mr. Hobart's elevation presented itself to him as the triumph of a rival, and under the influence of such feelings, he shaped his course. While the election was still pending, he put forth what he termed his 'Solemn Appeal to the Church,' recapitulating at large, what a better mind would have buried in oblivion, those petty contentions which no man, perhaps, can always avoid, but which, certainly, few men are less likely than Mr. Hobart to have provoked. These grievances, detailed and accumulated, perhaps distorted, but certainly exaggerated, very often, too, wholly imaginary, were here studiously set forth by a jealous pen, brought before the tribunal of the public, and urged upon 'Churchmen' as conclusive argument against Mr. Hobart's fitness for the high office of Bishop. It was an ordeal, certainly, which nothing could have stood save 'pure gold.' But Christian sincerity is that pure gold, however alloyed it may be by human infirmity. His character came forth, therefore, unstained; the blow aimed against him fell harmless, or rather, the weapon cast by the hand of jealousy fell back, with retributive justice, on the head of him who hurled it; becoming, even as it were, a millstone about his neck. He never rose under the recoil.

But the evil was not all neutralized. Though the publication failed to defeat Mr. Hobart's election, it yet cast a firebrand into the Church which was not soon extinguished.

How far too, it broke in upon the internal peace of the one thus maligned, those who knew his keen sensibility,

can best judge. Such wounds, however, while he felt deeply, he showed not openly: their influence was to be seen only in the redoubled energy with which he devoted himself to whatever course of duty had exposed him to them. Such is ever the nature of strong minds—that which with weak ones abates ardour, with them only excites it; danger and reproach and persecution are but stimulants, and bring forth not fear but confidence.

To this personal and bitter opposition the peculiar circumstances of the Diocese, as already recorded, gave for a time an unfortunate though temporary credit; the dubious rights of the retired Diocesan, Bishop Provoost, being called up to sanction disobedience to the authority of the new assistant; altar was thus raised against altar, and for a time, division, if not schism, seemed to be impending over the Diocese.

This ill-judged claim on the part of Bishop Provoost was made public through a letter addressed by him to the Convention of the following year, (October 1812;) in which, after stating the grounds on which he argued his act of resignation, made ten years before, to be invalid, he goes on to add ;—

'I think it my duty to inform you, that though it has not pleased GOD to bless me with health that will enable me to discharge all the duties of a diocesan, and for that reason I cannot now attend the Convention, yet I am ready to act in deference to the resolution above mentioned, and to concur in any regulations which expediency may dictate to the Church; without which concurrence, I am, after the resolution of the House of Bishops, bound to consider every Episcopal act as unauthorized.'

To this communication was attached his signature, as 'Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New-York, and Diocesan of the same.'

The record of such an act of weakness on the part of one who should be wise as well as good, is, to a Church

Of the House of Bishops.

man, painful, but it affords perhaps a needful lesson; first, to the higher councils of our Church, that they guard, in future, against all such anomalies in legislation; and, secondly, to our Bishops, individually, teaching them to labour and to die in the duties of their high vocation, lest, haply, they add another instance to the one here recorded, of the feebleness of age being abused to the purposes of personal ambition, intrigue, or schism.

The answer, on the part of the Covention, is contained in the following preamble and resolutions, a copy of which was forwarded to all the Bishops of the Church. As settling an important principle in our Church polity, and bearing so intimately on the official rights of Bishop Hobart, they are herewith subjoined.

:

'Whereas by the Constitution of this Church the right of electing the Bishop thereof is vested in, and appertains to the Convention of this State and whereas the jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church as the Diocesan thereof may be resigned, although the spiritual character or order of the Bishop is indelible; and such resignation, when the same is accepted by the Convention, creates a vacancy in the office of Diocesan Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this State: and whereas the Right Rev. Samuel Provoost, D.D., being then the Diocesan Bishop of the said Church in this State, did, on the third day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one, resign his Episcopal jurisdiction of this Diocese to the Convention of the said Church in this State; and the said Convention did on the next day accept the said resignation, and on the following day proceeded to the choice, by ballot, of a person to succeed the said Diocesan Bishop; and thereupon the Rev. Benjamin Moore, D.D., was unanimously chosen by the Clergy and Laity, and received from them, as Bishop elect of this Church, the testimonial required by the Canon of the General Convention: And whereas the said Benjamin Moore was, on the eleventh day of the said month of September rightly and canonically consecrated into the office of Bishop of the said Church, and from that time hath exercised the powers and jurisdiction of Diocesan Bishop in this State: And whereas this Convention hath been

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