Dealings with the Dead, Volume 2 (of 2)Sargent, Lucius M. (Lucius Manlius)
History
Dealings with the Dead, Volume 2 (of 2)
Sargent, Lucius M. (Lucius Manlius)
Death; Funeral rites and ceremonies; Funeral rites and ceremonies -- United States
The old Huguenots styled themselves "THE REFORMERS," and embraced the
doctrines of Calvin, in full. Oppression commonly teaches even intolerant
men the value of toleration. Our Puritan fathers, it is true, who fled
from Episcopal, as the Huguenots from Roman Catholic tyranny, profited
very little, by the lesson they had learned; and turned upon the Catholics
and Quakers, in the spirit of preposterous cruelty. The government of
Massachusetts, according to Hazard, received a profitable lesson of
moderation, from that of Rhode Island.
The Huguenots soon began to abate somewhat of that exorbitant severity and
punctiliousness, in their religion, which, in no slight degree, had
brought upon them that persecution, which was gathering, and impending
over them, in 1684, a twelvemonth before the revocation of the edict of
Nantes; compelling many of them, thus early, to fly from their homes, into
other lands. The teachings of James Saurin, the great Huguenot preacher of
the refugees, at the Hague, in 1705, and in subsequent years, were of a
milder type. He was "_a moderate Calvinist_." Such, also, were Daillé and
Le Mercier, the ministers of the French Church, in Boston.
Peter Faneuil, undoubtedly, worshipped in this church, during a certain
period. We have seen the liberal arrangement of his uncle, in 1734, for
the support of its minister, and the testator's provision for its poor.
Even then, he evidently anticipated, that it might cease to be; and shaped
his testamentary provisions accordingly. Natural causes were in operation;
I have referred to them--intermarriage, with our English people--merging
the language of the few, in that of the many--juxtaposition--all tending
to diminish the necessity for maintaining a separate church.
There was no dissolution of the society, at first, by any formal vote. The
attendance became irregular and scanty--the members went elsewhere--Le
Mercier, "a worthy character," says the Rev. Dr. Holmes, ceased to
officiate, and the church broke up. For years, there were no services,
within the little temple; and, in 1748, it was sold, as I have stated, to
the members of another denomination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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