The branch of the Anglican Church which was established in the colony of Virginia differed in many important respects from the original body. The basic doctrines were, of course, the same, but there was wide divergence in organization, in government, even in the form of worship. This was the result of unique economic, political, and social conditions which the Church encountered in Virginia. The ecclesiastical establishment began, from the very hour of its foundation, a separate and peculiar development. It became, inevitably had to become, the child of Virginia. It had to shape and mould itself, so far as possible, into something suited to the requirements and life of the colony.

Unfortunately this development was by no means wholesome. The Anglican Church did not, like the English representative institutions, flourish on the soil of Virginia. The plantation life of the colonists and their democratic tendencies caused its growth to be halting and unhealthful. By the end of the seventeenth century it was apparent to all that its condition was such that unless vigorous efforts were made to effect a thorough reform, decay and ruin were inevitable. Its government was divided and weak, the character of its clergy was poor, many parishes were vacant, the liturgy was neglected, the religious wants of the people were imperfectly met.

The Church in Virginia was unfavorably affected by the sparseness of the population. It made necessary the establishing of parishes of very great size, so great, in fact, that no one man could minister to them properly. The evil was most pronounced

during the seventeenth century, when the country was not fully settled. The plantations followed the banks of the great rivers and did not extend for more than a mile or two into the back country. This made it necessary for the parishes to be very narrow and of extreme length. As time passed and the population increased, the parishes were altered in size and in shape, but they remained always of great extent. In 1724, St. Paul's parish, in Hanover County, was no less than sixty miles long. Bristol and Hungers covered each forty miles, Westminster and Westover thirty. Where the parishes were smaller the difficulty of providing a support for able pastors often made it necessary to place two or more cures under the care of one clergyman.

This state of affairs led, as a matter of course, to serious neglect of religion. Regular attendance at worship was impossible. It required deep devotion and constancy of purpose for people to make their way ten or fifteen miles to church through the forests of Virginia. The evil was mitigated to some extent by the establishment in remote districts of chapels of ease. These, however, were very poorly served. Usually worship was conducted only by lay readers, for the pastor could seldom visit them more than one Sunday in the month. Often even chapels were lacking, and the clergymen found it necessary to ride out to their scattered flocks to preach in private houses. The great distance made it very difficult for the ministers to win and retain the friendship and love of their flocks, for they could not be frequent visitors at homes that were perhaps ten or fifteen miles from the parsonage. They could not even attend their sick. Some of the Virginia parsons struggled manfully against the weight of unfortunate conditions. It must have been a familiar sight to see them upon their mud-splashed horses, making their way along the narrow paths of the forests to bring the Gospel to the homes of their scattered parishioners. But the fight was a hard one, and many of the clergy were neither earnest enough nor brave enough to make it.

Thoughtful men were early keenly aware of the danger which threatened the Church from this source. In letters and pamphlets the opinion was frequently expressed that religion could never flourish so long as the colonists retained their system of

isolated plantations.

"In remote and scattered settlements,”

wrote a certain Francis Makenzie, "we can never enjoy. Privileges and Opportunities [of religious worship], for by reason of bad weather, or other accidents Ministers are prevented, and people are hindered to attend. . . . It is a melancholy Consideration how many . . . continue grossly ignorant of many necessary facts of the Christian Religion." "Their seating themselves in that Wildernesse," declared another writer, "hath caused them hitherto to rob God in a great measure of that publick Worship and Service which . . . . he requires to be constantly paid to him. . . . This Sacriledge I judge to be the prime Cause of their long languishing, improsperous condition, for it puts them under the Curse of God."

The sparseness of the population injured the clergyman in still another way: it made it very difficult for the people to provide him with an adequate salary. No matter how large his parish, it usually embraced but a small congregation. In Virginia there was nothing comparable to the great endowments which had existed for centuries in England, and which had done so much to make the Church independent and powerful. The colonial clergy were paid almost entirely from funds raised by taxation. In the first half of the seventeenth century the salaries of the ministers varied greatly. It was the practice to assess each titheable* in the colony for church dues, but the money thus raised was not distributed equally. Each clergyman received all the funds raised in his parish and no more. His annual stipend might be £80, it might be less than £30. For some years the tax was placed at ten pounds of tobacco and a bushel of corn for each titheable.

This system worked great hardships upon the clergy in the less populous counties, and in 1662 the practice of the colony was changed. An act was passed attempting to make all the salaries uniform. It mattered not whether a minister served a large parish or a small one, he was to receive a stated salary, fixed by the Assembly. Unfortunately this brought about great inequality in the distribution of church dues. In the thinly set

* The titheable were all persons subject to the head, or poll, tax.