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CHAPTER X.

THE VIRGINIA SEMINARY.

HE Seminary was only thirteen years old when I came, and it is now in its eightieth year. Of the nearly one thousand alumni, I have known all but about forty. Of the one hundred and eighty alumni before 1843 only one is still alive, the Rev. John M. Todd, who now lives in Maryland, after a long and active life, well known in conventions.

When I came to the Seminary it was embosomed deep in lofty woods, which stretched nearly all the way from Alexandria, with paths and roads through them. It was no wonder that, twenty years after, Phillips Brooks lost his way in coming out to the Seminary, for the road seemed to end at no place.

The origin of the Theological Seminary of Virginia is a matter of deep interest. While we can trace out its first beginnings, and name with honor those whose efforts gave it "a local habitation and a name," yet in a peculiar sense it is the child of God. His spirit worked in the minds of good men in Virginia and Maryland, inspiring them with love for the souls perishing for the bread of life, and with zeal for the sending forth of true ministers of the Word.

This Seminary is in idea and in actual attempt the oldest in our Church. We cannot say of it that, like Jonah's gourd, it came up in a night. Several years elapsed before its idea took a definite form. Those who were earnest in reviving the Church in Virginia saw clearly that the great need was a supply of welltrained ministers. Our Diocese deserves the credit of being the first in this country to take steps to provide for the education of its candidates for Orders.

One of the grandest monuments to the revival of the Church in Virginia was the founding of this Seminary.

In 1812 Rev. William H. Wilmer came as rector to St. Paul's, Alexandria, from Kent county, Maryland, where his ancestors had settled after leaving England in 1650. He had proposed while in Maryland the founding of a theological school, but it was not favored. Coming to Virginia, he found in Rev. William Meade, ordained in 1811, one of like zeal and devotion.

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In 1813, two years before the General Seminary was established, Dr. John Augustine Smith, President of William and Mary College, proposed to the Convention of the Diocese, as he had already done in 1814 to Bishop Moore, who was removing from New York to Virginia, that the support of a theological chair be provided in that institution, where there was already a valuable library, formed by Drs. Blair and Bray.

Rev. Messrs. Wilmer and Meade were on the committee on the State of the Church in the Virginia Diocesan Convention of 1815 and they reported a resolution, which was adopted, "that the Bishop and Standing Committee be authorized to adopt measures for the promotion of an object of such magnitude, and which may, under the blessing of God, be productive of the most beneficial consequences.” Dr. Hawks says: "This incident contributed, in the hands of Providence, to produce, a few years afterwards, the Theological School at Alexandria." In 1818 the Education Society was formed by clergymen and laymen assembled in Washington, of which Dr. Wilmer was President until he left Alexandria, and for which he issued stirring appeals. Of it Dr. Hawks said in 1836: "It has never failed to afford assistance to every properly qualified applicant, and has aided more than one-tenth of all the clergy in this country." It still continues this good work.

The founding of a Diocesan Seminary was much opposed at first. One of the bishops wrote Bishop Moore that such a plan would mar the unity and peace of our Church, and urged him to patronize the General Seminary, then at New Haven. The legacy of Mr. Kohme to a seminary in New York brought out a pamphlet from Bishop Hobart in favor of diocesan seminaries, and this form of opposition ceased. The General Seminary was transferred to New York on terms which secured its chief control by that Diocese.

In 1820 Dr. Wilmer, in his report from the Committee on the State of the Church, recommended the appointment of a Clerical Professor at William and Mary College, and Rev. Reuel Keith was chosen.

In 1821 Dr. Wilmer, from the same committee, recommended the establishment of a theological school in Williamsburg, and that a board of trustees be appointed to select one or more professors, and to raise funds for that object, and to correspond with

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the Standing Committees of Maryland and North Carolina to ascertain if they are disposed to co-operate with us." In 1822 Dr. Wilmer reports that ten thousand dollars had been raised. It is expressly stated that this action is from no opposition to the General Seminary founded by the General Convention, but because peculiar circumstances made a seminary in the South necessary. That same year the Convention of Maryland resolved to establish a theological seminary, the trustees of which elected Dr. Wilmer president, but the strong hand of Bishop Kemp crushed it. The school did not succeed at Williamsburg, having only one student; so it was removed after a year to Alexandria, where it met the wishes of the Maryland brethren, and received the funds intended for their proposed "school of the prophets." Dr. Wilmer had always felt the need of such a school, and it had been ever his chief thought. He had, with the Vestry's permission, built a schoolroom in St. Paul's church-yard, and John Thomas Wheat, a student of divinity under him, taught school there, and that little schoolhouse may be said to be the birthplace of the present Seminary, and Dr. Wilmer and Bishop Meade deserve to be called the founders of the Virginia Seminary. The early records of the Seminary in Dr. Wilmer's handwriting show how great was his love and his service for its foundation.

Among the laymen who helped to establish this Seminary stand high the names of Dr. and General Henderson (of the U. S. Marines) in whose house the meeting was held which fixed on Alexandria; Francis Scott Key, a famous and noble man, and after its organization, Mr. John Nelson, of Virginia, who collected by his efforts a large sum of money.

Rev. Dr. Wilmer was rector of St. John's Church, Washington, as well of St. Paul's, Alexandria, at the same time, but found it too much with all his other duties. His office as rector was no sinecure.

In 1824 Bishop Meade reports to the Diocesan Convention from the Board of Trustees that the Seminary has been started, as I have stated above, with two professors, and that the whole course of studies has been entirely conformed to the Canons of the Church, and as prescribed by the House of Bishops. He states that the removal from Williamsburg to Alexandria was necessary, as the former place was too remote and inaccessible.

The session of 1824 opened with twenty-one students. The

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course of study was good. The four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were critically studied in Greek, and eighteen chapters of Genesis and thirty Psalms in Hebrew by the Junior Class, besides the usual English studies. The Senior Class studied all the Epistles, and twenty chapters of Isaiah in Hebrew, with Systematic Divinity and Church History, &c. Each member of this class, as now, had in his turn to prepare a thesis, a sermon, and to read the service. On these occasions the students were permitted to offer their criticisms and remarks on the performances, which must have made things lively and interesting, and the next week each of the professors criticised them.

In the class of 1824 was the Rev. Caleb J. Good, with whom I was associated at Bristol College as colleague, and with whom I was very intimate, for he was my dearest friend there. He was afterwards professor at Trinity College, Connecticut. He was a man of earnest piety, and faithful in every sphere-as preacher, as teacher, and as friend. He was for some time in Caroline county, Virginia.

In the spring of 1825 the Rev. Mr. Norris, rector of Christ Church, Alexandria, was chosen Professor of Pastoral Theology. In August Mr. Norris was seized with fever and died-a man of gentle, persuasive manners and deep piety, a tender and faithful pastor and preacher. He and our beloved Dr. Suter have been the only rectors of Christ Church who have died in office. In the case of both of them the bell of old Christ Church rang for service just before death came. Mr. Norris, recognizing its familiar tones, said to his attendants, "Go to church, go to church," and soon afterwards went himself to the Church of the First-born in heaven. His son, William Herbert, was a graduate in 1842, and married a daughter of Judge Rawle, of Philadelphia.

Thus early in its history it was shown that there was need and demand for the Theological School of Virginia. By its situation in the South, and its accommodation to the habits and manners of that section, it attracted without injury to the General Seminary a support and attendance which otherwise would have been lost to the Church. Many of its students would have attended no seminary, and would doubtless have never entered the ministry, as Bishop Meade said. We notice now, in the names of the clergy of Virginia, the fact that nearly all of them are natives of the State, "to the manner born," and certainly there are nowhere more devoted and useful clergymen than they are.

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REV. WILLIAM F. Lee.

Of the class of 1825, I knew very well the Revs. John T. Brooke, D. D., John B. Clemson, D. D., John P. McGuire, and John T. Wheat, D. D., of whom I must speak later on.

Rev. William F. Lee of that class died May 19, 1837, shortly after my coming and I attended his burial in Alexandria.

Bishop Meade, speaking of him said: "The hopes and efforts of the few remaining friends and members of the Church in Goochland were aroused in the year 1826 by the missionary labors of the Rev. William F. Lee. As to body, Mr. Lee being little more than thin air, or a light feather, as he galloped over these counties, his horse felt not his rider on his back; but the people felt the weight and power of a strong mind and will, and the pressure of a heart and soul devoted to the love of God and man. He laid the foundation anew of the churches in Goochland, Powhatan, Amelia, and Chesterfield, and lived to see them all supplied by ministers. His physical power being incompetent to these itinerant labors, he took charge of the Church of St. John's, in Richmond, and afterwards of that in the Valley. His health failing, even for this, he devoted himself to the press, and was the first editor of the Southern Churchman, establishing it in Richmond. He continued to edit the same, until his part of the work was performed, when, lying on his sick bed, his proof-sheets corrected, his selections made, and editorials written, while propped up with bolster and pillows, thus to the last spending and being spent in the Master's service. During his stay in Richmond, he was as a right hand to Bishop Moore, who not only loved him, for his amiable and zealous piety, but respected him for his good judgment, which he often consulted."

William L. Marshall was ordained by Bishop Moore at the same time as Lee in 1825, and married Anne Kinloch, a sister of Robert E. Lee. A curious thing happened in St. James Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, where my son was afterwards rector. A vacancy occurring, two ministers were invited to come and preach, Rev. Messrs. Marshall and Drane. They both happened to fix on the same Sunday, and there being only one service, they agreed to preach at that. After Mr. Marshall descended from the pulpit, Mr. Drane went up and preached. There was a difference of opinion as to their merits. Many preferred Mr. Drane, but Mr. Marshall was chosen rector; some said on account of his family and connections. He did not stay long, went to