Bishop of the Church whose lamented death occurred July 17, 1836, the Church was draped in mourning and the Vestry adopted a series of resolutions reciting their sincere sorrow and sense of loss, their gratitude that his useful life had been so long spared, and their heartfelt sympathy with his bereaved family.

CHAPTER VI

THE MILNOR PERIOD

(1836-1845)

THE Rector of St. George's was deeply interested in the cause of theological education and readily secured the cordial co-operation of the congregation in its behalf. As early as 1822 an Education Society was founded in the parish" to assist pious young men in obtaining a classical education and attending on the instruction of the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, with a view to Holy Orders in the said Church or either of these objects." The General Theological Seminary had been established by the General Convention in 1817, under the leadership of the Bishop and delegates from South Carolina, to be located in the City of New York. But despite all the efforts of the friends of the movement little interest was awakened in its behalf among the leading churchmen of New York; and "even Bishop Hobart treated it with comparative indifference," apparently from his "fear of committing a power so vital to the Church as the control of the education of its candidates to a body so fluctuating and irresponsible as the General Convention, at least in its House of Delegates." No sufficient funds for its support were forthcoming, and the General Convention in May, 1820, determined to remove it to New Haven, where, it was said, "the professors and students could have access to public libraries, enjoy the benefits resulting from literary society, and live comfortably at a moderate expense.

Thereupon Bishop Hobart at once appealed to his diocese to establish a theological seminary in New York, which was opened in May, 1821. But meanwhile by the death of Mr. Jacob Sherred, a vestryman of Trinity parish and who had been the architect of the second St. George's building in Beekman Street, a legacy of sixty thousand dollars was found to be available for "a seminary to be located in New York." The question at once arose which institution was entitled to the legacy. To determine the matter a special

session of the General Convention was called to meet in October of the same year, the happy outcome of which was the removal of the General Seminary back to New York, its consolidation with the diocesan school, the securing of the Sherred legacy as part of its endowment, the adoption of a new constitution for it by this General Convention of 1821, and the reopening of the institution, February 13, 1822, in the rooms of the Trinity Church School with two professors and twenty-three students. The laying of the corner-stone of the new building took place July 28, 1825, on the present site of the seminary on Ninth Avenue between Twentieth and Twentyfirst streets, sixty lots in Chelsea having been munificently given by Dr. Clement C. Moore. The Rector of St. George's was one of the first trustees and zealously labored for its interests throughout his life.

In response to an appeal for funds for the Seminary members of the congregation of St. George's met at the church in December, 1824 and contributed so liberally that at the annual meeting of the Seminary trustees in the ensuing July seventeen hundred dollars was acknowledged as donated by St. George's Church besides "Doctor Milnor's second instalment of one hundred dollars." The Rector of St. George's was appointed at the diocesan convention, October, 1828, a member of the Theological Education Committee whose duty was," in conjunction with the Bishop, to devise, and as far as practicable to carry into effect, measures for procuring means for educating young men for the ministry."

The project of endowing a scholarship in the Seminary to be known as "the Scholarship of St. George's Church in the City of New York" was brought before the "Association of St. George's Church for the Promotion of Christianity" by the Rector in January, 1835, and by it approved, and the Rector was requested to bring the matter before the congregation, which he did in the ensuing month. Two thousand dollars was promptly raised and paid in to the treasurer of the Church and by him remitted to the treasurer of the Seminary for the endowment of a perpetual scholarship, the right of nomination to which should vest in the Rector of St. George's. A list of the incumbents of this scholarship will be found in the appendix.

A further evidence of the interest of St. George's in the Seminary was its response to a request of the trustees that an annual collection toward defraying the current expenses of the institution for the next five years be taken up in St. George's Church, which request was granted by the Vestry and its first contribution of $83.24 was

followed by another in the ensuing year of $116.16. The Rector was further authorized to obtain at the expense of the Church suitable furniture and books to be placed in the room allotted to the person appointed to the St. George's Scholarship. A carpet was added later. Benjamin W. Stone was the first beneficiary nominated by the Rector. A pew in the Church was assigned by the Vestry, at the suggestion of the Rector, in 1840, for the use of such students in the Seminary as might care to occupy it.

Doctor Milnor was constant in his attendance at the meetings of the trustees and mingled freely with the students. In a letter of July 1, 1833, he writes to the Rev. John S. Stone:

My acquaintance with most of the graduates and with many of the students, inspires me with a very pleasing hope of an increasing tendency, in that important institution of our Church, towards moderate Church views and evangelical doctrines.

You will see, by The Recorder of last week, the delightful promise of the collegiate institution at Bristol, Pennsylvania: I verily believe no attempt in the Church, by those of our views, has ever been made, from which more good will result, provided the energies of the pious are promptly put forth in its establishment and support. Let us pray earnestly for our dear brother C- and his associates, and for the complete success of this hallowed work.

Upon the expressions of this letter Doctor Stone thus comments in his Memoir of Doctor Milnor:

This letter, placed in the light of subsequent events, shows that Doctor Milnor was disappointed in two of his most pleasing anticipations: his hope, that the tendency of our General Seminary would be increasingly towards moderate Church views and evangelical doctrines; and his hope, that Bristol College would live to fulfil its first delightful promise,' of good to the cause of Scriptural truth and godliness. The star of Bristol College has long since fallen from our ecclesiastical firmament, into the darkness of utter extinction; while that of our General Seminary is suffering an occultation, which threatens to be gloomier than the darkness even of extinction itself. There is blessed light within it yet; but baleful shadows have fallen between it and our eyes, portending trouble and darkness,' and the dimness of anguish,' to those who look for the breaking forth of the true brightness.

In a letter under date of April 6, 1837, Doctor Milnor gives some justifying reason for his retention of the office of trustee in the Seminary, while so utterly out of accord with the principles of Tractarianism which were beginning to make their appearance there:

It is true, that from the beginning, I have acted as a trustee of the General Theological Seminary: aided, however, by other brethren, I am persuaded I have been able to exercise, not a controlling, but a restraining influence on many of its proceedings. By intercourse with the students, which would have been far less influential had I stood in the attitude either of opposition or of indifference to that institution, I have been able

to give much individual encouragement to their adoption of moderate Church principles and evangelical doctrines, and to the cultivation of habits of personal piety; and experience in this, as well as in some other departments, has convinced me, that so far as we can, without a compromise of principle, it is best to act with our brethren of the other school. The effect has been, thus far, I believe, beneficial.

The Oxford Tracts were republished in New York in 1839. Their principles had made great headway in England, and until the appearance of Tract No. 90, which closed the series, there had been many of the clergy and laity on both sides of the Atlantic who welcomed the distinctive teaching of the Tracts, whose avowed object was the practical revival of doctrines which, although held by the great divines of our Church, at present have become obsolete with the majority of her members and are withdrawn from public view even by the more learned and orthodox few who still adhere to them." But with the issue of Tract No. 90 Bishop Perry says in his History:

The whole ecclesiastical atmosphere was at fever-heat; bishops and clergy, pastors and people, were marshaled against each other in hostile array; the newspapers were filled with the angry controversy and scarce a week elapsed without one or more bitter recriminating pamphlets being issued from the press.

A graduate of the General Theological Seminary, Arthur Carey, a young man of unblemished character and marked ability who had adopted the Tractarian opinions, was ordained by Bishop Onderdonk in July, 1843, despite the public protest of the Rev. Doctors Hugh Smith and Henry Anthon. The agitation became intense throughout the Church. The perversion to Rome of Newman and many others in England, together with that of Bishop Ives of North Carolina and divers of our priests and laymen, was pointed out as the legitimate result of the Tractarian teachings. Among the opponents of the Oxford Movement none was more staunch than the Rector of St. George's, and as he had given careful study to the whole series of Tracts he was an intelligent opposer of what he regarded as a dangerous system" and "novelties which disturb our peace." The congregation of St. George's were thoroughly in accord with their Rector.

The interest of St. George's and its Rector in the cause of theo. logical education was further signally evidenced by their connection with the founding of the college and seminary at Gambier, Ohio. Bishop Philander Chase of that diocese, profoundly impressed