The Comaall ion of 1785, already twice ad journed, met again at Wilmington, Del., October 10, 1786, and consented to restore the Apostles' Creed in its integrity, introduced the Nicene Creed hit o optional use, hut declined even to insert the Al hanasian Creed. Other changes of legislation, not very essential, commended by the English bishops, had either been already accom plished or were now conceded. It was found that three bishops had already been elected by their respective diocesan conventions—Dr. Samuel Pro voost of New York, Dr. William White of Penn sylvania, and Dr. David Griffith of Virginia. Their testimonials were signed by the Convention, and two of them, Drs. White and t'rovoost, were consecrated in the Chapel of Lambeth Palace, on February 4, 1787.
The General Convention of 1789 met in Phila delphia, to ratify the Constitution, establish the Prayer Book, and enact necessary canons. It was of the utmost importance that there should be unity of the Episcopal Church throughout the length and breadth of the land. The times were more favorable than before for this con summation. The national spirit bad been at tuned to unity by the ratification of the Con stitution and the election and inauguration of Washington three months earlier. The ecclesi astical spirit had been so far modified since 1785 by correspondence and consideration, that the Convention at once formally affirmed the validity of Bishop Seabury's consecration and enacted ten canons which showed increased and marked re spect for the episcopal office. They adopted the Constitution with such alterations as allowed representation of a church by clerical members only, and provided for a separate House of Bish ops when there should be three of that order.
On August 8th the Convention took a recess, during which Bishop Seabury and the New Eng land churches concluded, in view of its action, to join it; and when it reassembled, on September 30th, it represented the whole Church in all its orders. A Prayer Book n-as adopted, not the 'Proposed Book,' which had cost so much labor, but a simple adjustment of the English Prayer Book to American conditions, with certain verbal omissions and rubrical emendations, which, how ever, left it essentially the same book. ( See PRAYER Boor, COMMON.) The Communion Office, in accordance with the wishes of Bishop Seabury, was perfected by closer adherence to the Scottish, and therefore to the primitive, liturgy. The Convention adjourned October 16th, leaving the Protestant Episcopal Church fully organized.
For twenty years its energy seemed to have been exhausted by its organization. It was un popular, as being identified with the English Church. It was not alert in action. Its worship was regarded as formal, its discipline as lax. The 20 clergymen and 16 laymen of the Convention of 1789 were increased by only five clerical and four lay representatives in 1811; and only once in those 22 years were there as many as five bishops at any General Convention.
From the latter date, however, the Church took a vigorous start, whose impulse has been felt ever since. It n-as due chiefly to three men, Bishops Hobart of New York, Griswold of New England, and Channing Moore of Virginia, who reconstructed the Church in their dio ceses, both in number and in character. The leaven spread more widely still. In 1817 seine of the Western States were organized into dioceses, and in 1820 the Church is reported as organized, though not supplied with bishops, in all the original States. The pioneer bishop of the West was Philander Chase. consecrated in 1819. Two dioceses, Ohio and Illinois, of which he was suc cessively bishop, and two colleges. Kenyon and Jubilee, founded by him, are his monuments. John Stark 11avenscroft, consecrated Bishop of North carolina in 1823, did a similar work in the wilder regions of the South, and in seven years changed a, diomsc of four churches into one of twenty-t hree.
the time of Bishop 'White's death in 1836, two great changes had Ifegon to be apparent, which wore to characterize the next period. One was the crystallization of party 'spirit, which was. destined to give rise to heated controver sies. On the one side stood the old Evangeli• cal party, represented by such distinguished men as Bishop; Burgess, Eastburn, Chase, Lee, Alonzo Potter, M'Ilvaine. Bedell, and Stevens; by Richard Newton and Alexander H. Vinton and Francis L. Hawks; by Dr. Sparrow of the Vir ginia Seminary, its most learned theologian, and Stephen 11. Tyng, for years its recognized leader. The opposite school, to whose growth a great impetus was given by the oxford movement across the sea (though the earlier bishops, Seabury and Hobart and Ravenscroft, are to be classed with it), emphasized the objective, the institutional side of religion—a tendency especially natural in a country where the Church was left to vindi cate and sustain itself without aid or counte nance from the State. While for a long time, by a sort of tacit compact, the foreign mis sionary work was left to the Evangelicals, the home field was cultivated rather by the High Churchmen. The General Theological Seminary (founded in New York in 1817, and molded by Bishop Hobart's influence) inclined its pupils to the views of the latter. Otey and Kemper in the West acted on their principles: Breck and Adams founded their associate mission at Nasho tah on them. Bishop George Washington Doane of New Jersey, than whom no one in his day was more instrumental in shaping the history of the Church, was the most commanding repre sentative of this school, as Bishop Whittingham of Maryland was its most learned counselor.