The Historical Relations of Christ Church, Philadelphia PDF Download

Author: Charles J. Stille
Publisher: Forgotten Books
ISBN: 9780656010271
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description
Excerpt from The Historical Relations of Christ Church, Philadelphia: With the Province of Pennsylvania, an Address Delivered at the Two Hundredth, Anniversary of Christ Church, November 19, 1895 There is a popular opinion that the Provincial Regime in Pennsylvania was marked not only by religious tolera tion, but by absolute religious freedom; that there was, during this provincial era, a kind of idyllic tranquility and harmony here, resulting from non-interference with the religious rights and opinions of those who did not agree With the ruling party. Those who hold such opinions for get that although William Penn, our founder, was the most enlightened political philosopher of his time, and one of the earliest advocates, since the days of the Emperor Con stantine, of absolute religious freedom, none of his succes sors in office held the same opinions as he. There was not a Quaker among them. They and their Deputy Governors during the whole Provincial Regime were strong adherents of the English Church, as by law established, and in an important sense special patrons of Christ Church. Their notion of other people's religious rights did not extend beyond the protection vouchsafed to Dissenters by the English Toleration Act (so called) of 1689. They held that the Quakers had no special power in this Province to enlarge the indulgence granted by that Act. The history therefore, of the comparatively small body of Episcopalians here, or of the members of Christ Church (for I use in this paper the terms as equivalent), is a history of strife for objects which we may now think trivial, but which both parties, two hundred years ago, looked upon as fundamental. It is, of course, not pleasant to recall the history of more than seventy years of religious discords but I trust that we are now far enough away from the battle - field to describe its scenes with impartiality and truth. If I am forced to rake up the ashes of our fathers, I trust that it will not be necessary to disturb them further than to throw light upon the scenes in which they were such conspicuous actors. By the great law adopted by the freemen at Upland in December, 1682, it was provided that no person now or hereafter living in the Province, who shall confess one Almighty God to be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the world, and professeth himself or herself obliged in con science to live peaceably and justly under civil government, shall in any wise be molested or prejudiced for his or her conscientious persuasion and practices nor shall be obliged at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place or ministry, contrary to his mind, but shall fully and freely enjoy his or her liberty in that respect without any interruption or molestation. This provision, it will be observed, establishes religious toleration, not liberty. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.