THE MINISTERS' ENLIGHTENMENT:

A STUDY OF THE COEXISTENCE AND CONVERGENCE OF

PURITAN VALUES AND ENLIGHTENMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS,

1740-1760

By

Zachary James Haberler

B.A., University of Colorado, Denver, 2004

A thesis submitted to the

University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center

in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

History

2007

© by Zachary James Haberler

All rights reserved.

This thesis for the Master of Arts

degree by

Zachary James Haberler

has been approved by

Carl Pietsch

Pamela Laird

Date

Haberler, Zachary James (M. A., History)

The Ministers' Enlightenment: A Study of the Coexistence and Convergence of Puritan Values and Enlightenment in Massachusetts, 1740-1760

Thesis directed by Professor Myra Rich

ABSTRACT

How the strict and Godly Puritan religion coexisted with secular thought in 18th century Massachusetts is the central problem this paper addresses. To make sense of this unexpected collision requires an examination of two facets of life in Massachusetts: the colony's ministers and the colony's system for educating them. An evaluation of these two facets reveals significant interplay between Puritanism and Enlightenment thought in 18th century Massachusetts. Furthermore, this interplay indicates that the Enlightenment had a role in Massachusetts beyond and quite different from simply supplying the influx of political thought which infiltrated all of the American colonies and contributed to the colonists' revolutionary movement for independence. Indeed, Puritan values and the Enlightenment not only coexisted but often converged, creating a minister's Enlightenment in 18th century Massachusetts.

This abstract accurately represents the content of the candidate's thesis. I recommend its publication.

DEDICATION

I dedicate this thesis to my loving wife, Julie, whose unwavering strength, support, and understanding continually renewed my energy and determination to pursue my sometimes lofty educational goals.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Special thanks to my advisor, Myra Ric~ who frequently renewed my passion for Colonial American history over the last five years and whose insights and direction were instrumental during the thesis process. I also wish to thank professors Carl Pietsch and Marjorie Levine-Clark. Both provided priceless mentoring without which I would be half the researcher and writer I am today. Finally, I thank Jim Wals~ whose intimate connection to hmnanity shines through his every action and sparked my own desire to connect to people through history when I took his Irish in America class as an undergraduate.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... !

2. THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN AMERICA ....................................................................................... 4

3. EDUCATION OF MINISTERS IN 18rn CENTURY MASSACHUSETTS ..................................................................... 15

4. THE MINISTER'S ENLIGHTENMENT: ENLIGHTENED DISCOURSE DURING THE GREAT AWAKENING ..................... 26

5. THE MINISTER'S ENLIGHTENMENT: RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY ........................................................... 42

6. CONCLUSION ......................................................................... 51

BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................... 58

vii

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

It was a dull and rainy day when John Adams set out to take the Harvard

entrance exams in Boston from his hometown of Braintree.1 While the poor

health of his tutor Mr. Marsh forced Adams to travel alone, his shoulders carried

the interests of his family and Braintree upon them.2 Like many other fathers

raised in the Puritan culture ofNew England, John Adams' father wanted his son

to enter the ministry.3 Yet, Adams never received a church to call his own and

went on to become a powerful intellectual and political leader of 18th century

Massachusetts. John Adams' transformation from ministry student to political

leader illuminates an interesting collision of Puritanism and Enlightenment

ideology.

How the strict and Godly Puritan religion coexisted with secular thought

in 18th century Massachusetts is the central problem this paper addresses. To

make sense of this unexpected collision requires an examination of two facets of

1 L. H. Butterfield, The Adams Papers: Diary and Autobiography of John Adams. Volume 3: Diary 1782-1804, Autobiography through 1776 (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 258-259.

2 Ibid.

3 David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 2001), page 33.

life in Massachusetts: the colony's ministers and the colony's system for

educating them. An evaluation of these two facets reveals significant interplay

between Puritanism and Enlightenment thought in 18th century Massachusetts.

Furthermore, this interplay indicates that the Enlightenment had a role in

Massachusetts beyond and quite different from simply supplying the influx of

political thought which infiltrated all of the American colonies and contributed to

the colonists' revolutionary movement for independence. Indeed, Puritan values

and the Enlightenment not only coexisted but often converged, creating a

minister's Enlightenment in 18th century Massachusetts.

Historians have done ample research on the political thought of the latter

half of the 18th century.4 Some material may appear from those later years, but it

will serve only as peripheral evidence or as an epilogue. Instead, this paper will

focus on the central years ofthe 18th century, roughly 1740-1760. During these

years, many ministers in Massachusetts engaged in public discussions criticizing

the world around them, and because the world around them was dominated by

Puritans, religion played a significant role in their discourse. Thus, it is through

the ministry that the Enlightenment found its way into the religious dialogue of

the Great Awakening, and continued to affect the intellectual life of the colony

4 See the work of Gordon Wood and Bernard Bailyn's Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967).

2

afterwards.

To best examine the intertwining of Puritanism and Enlightenment

thought, I organized this paper into three sections. First, there will be a brief

historiographical discussion regarding the Enlightenment in America. It is

important to derive a definition of the Enlightenment to use for the purposes of

this paper, and it is pertinent to show where this research stands amongst other

histories. Second, there will be a section addressing education in Massachusetts

which will examine what role the schools had on the convergence of Puritanism

and the Enlightenment. The third and fourth sections will explain how ministers

in Massachusetts exhibited Enlightenment ideas through sermons; the third will

discuss the Great Awakening and the fourth will deal with its aftermath. The

paper will close with some remarks connecting the central years of the 18th

century to the end of the century, and tracing some continuities to the times of the

American Revolution.

3

CHAPTER2.

THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN AMERICA

Defining the Enlightenment is a problematic task and, naturally, not all

historians agree on all parameters of any given definition. However, there is a

consensus that the Enlightenment revered classical thought and culture,

challenged contemporary forms and ideas regarding authority (government), and

sought to increase understanding of the natural world. The Enlightenment stance

on religion, however, raises disagreements amongst historians.

Some recent historians define the Enlightenment, at least in part, as anti-

religious. In his introduction to The Portable Enlightenment Reader, Isaac

Kramnick portrays the Enlightenment and religion as forces at war:

Central to the Enlightenment agenda was the assault on religious superstition and its replacement by a rational religion in which God became no more than the supreme intelligence or craftsman who had set the machine that was the world to run according to its own natural and scientifically predictable laws.5

Kramnick does use the phrase 'rational religion,' but it is quite clear from his

definition of the God that resulted (a deist definition of God) that he would not see

as possible the interplay between Puritanism and the Enlightenment seen in 18th

5 Isaac Kramnick, The Portable Enlightenment Reader (New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1995), xii.

4

century Massachusetts. Kramnick's portrayal is supported by historian Margaret

Jacob, who argues that the Enlightenment helped contribute to the decline of

religion's role in society.6 Although this definition of the Enlightenment is true to

the experiences of some European countries during the 18th century; it dismisses

the experiences of others.

The anti-religious sentiment expressed by Kramnick and Jacobs indicates

the tendency of historians to over-generalize or overly confine the Enlightenment

in order to define it. In The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, The Rise of

Modern Paganism (1967), Historian Peter Gay acknowledges the difficulty of

defining the Enlightenment. 7 His answer to the problem of synthesizing the wide

range of 18th century thought is to more broadly characterize the Enlightenment as

a cultural climate summed up by two words "criticism and power."8 Gay's

broader definition not only justifies the experiences of more European countries

during the 18th century than the definitions put forth by Kramnick and Jacobs, it

also incorporates into the definition the varying socio-cultural contexts ofEurope

during the 18th century.

6 Margaret C. Jacob, The Enlightenment: a Brief History with Documents (New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2001), 18-19.

7 Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, The Rise of Modern Paganism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), x.

8 Ibid., xi.

5

Due to the critical culture of the Enlightenment, Gay inevitably includes

the existence and persistence of philosophical discourse amongst the philosophes

as part of his definition as well. Unfortunately, Gay's definition still addresses the

Enlightenment as a single movement, although he grants it broader parameters.

More recently, J. G. A. Pocock argues that historians are moving toward a view of

the Enlightenment as "a family of discourses arising about the same time in a

number of European cultures."9 If Gay's broad definition, which emphasizes the

presence of critical discourses concerned with power, was an important step

towards including the American experience of Enlightenment, Pocock's definition

is a more important second step.

For the purposes of this paper, the Enlightenment is defined as a

combination of Gay and Pocock's definitions. The Enlightenment experience of

18th century Massachusetts did exhibit a significant amount of critical, public

discourse concerned with power. However, Enlightenment in colonial

Massachusetts differed distinctly from Europe and does not properly fit into Gay's

massive, singular movement. Pocock's definition, then, is very important for the

Massachusetts Enlightenment because it enables the freedom to properly analyze

the colony's experience. Before continuing to that analysis, however, it is

9 J. G. A. Pocock, "Enthusiasm: The Anti-SelfofEnlightenment," in Lawrence E. Klein and Anthony La Vopa, ed., Enthusiasm and Enlightenment in Europe, /650-1850 (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library Press, 1998).

6

important to discuss what has been written about the Enlightenment in America.

In 1955, Louis Hartz published The Liberal Tradition in America: An

interpretation of American Political Thought since the Revolution, Hartz argued

that John Locke's philosophies had a large influence on American history from

the revolution to the 20th century. Although the Enlightenment was only of

peripheral interest to Hartz, he does argue that the American Enlightenment was

different because America did not need to rebel against a heritage of feudalism as

Europe did. 10

Beyond Hartz, however, studies ofthe Enlightenment in the American

colonies were scarce until the late 1960's when Bernard Bailyn published

Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967) and Gordon Wood

published The Creation ofThe American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969). 11 Both

have become classics of American history, adding immeasurably to what

historians know and understand regarding the American Revolution. Specifically,

they illustrate the influence of ideas, specifically Classical and Enlightenment

ideas, about republicanism on the political beliefs of the colonists. Still, there was

more to be done, as Wood mused in a bibliographic note in Creation of The

American Republic, 1776-1787: "It is amazing that so little has been written about

10 Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America: An interpretation of American Political Thought since the Revolution (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1955), 4 and 39-41.

11 Wood and Bailyn, vi-vii.

7

the American Enlightenment. " 12

After Wood and Bailyn, historians made significant strides in researching

the role of the Enlightenment in the colonies. In 1975, Ernest Cassara published

The Enlightenment in America, the first attempt at a synthesis of the American

Enlightenment. 13 Cassara emphasizes the roles of John Locke, Thomas Paine,

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in his argument that American thinkers made

significant intellectual contributions and that the American Enlightenment was

worthy of a study all its own. 14 Significantly, Cassara also argues that the

development of Unitarian and Universalist religions in the colonies represented a

compromise between traditional religions and deism.u In 1976, Henry F. May

published a book also entitled The Enlightenment in America, a second attempt at

synthesizing the American Enlightenment. May's work does an adequate job of

assessing the role of several different aspects of the Enlightenment in America

and is a good introduction for a student of the period. 16

12 Wood, 623. Wood notes the work of Gilbert Chinard as ''the best we have" and also notes Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation: The Rise of Modern Paganism (New York, 1966).

13 Ernest Cassara, The Enlightenment in America (Boston: G. K. Hall and Co., 1975).

14 Ibid., 22.

IS Ibid., 141.

16 Henry F. May, The Enlightenment in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976). May, as Kramnick and Jacobs did in their definitions of the European Enlightenment, divided various European and American Philosophes into four distinct groups: the Moderate

8

In the late 1970s, a couple of historians began to make an argument that

severely limited the conception of an American Enlightenment. In 1976, Donald

H. Meyer argued that the American Enlightenment never truly caught fire because

the Articles of Confoderation and the Constitution of the United States quickly

institutionalized Enlightenment ideas. In Europe, according to Meyer, a large part

of the Enlightenment's appeal was that it gave the educated elite a way to evaluate

their government and cry out for change. In America, where there was no

disparity between Enlightenment ideas and government, the movement was

stripped of its intellectual power. 17 A similar argument was made by Henry Steele

Commager in The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America

Realized the Enlightenment ( 1977). 18 Although there is a ring of truth to these

interpretations, they are based on definitions of the Enlightenment that are solely

concerned with political thought. It is a grievous error to limit America's

Enlightenment experience solely to the colonial experiments with republicanism

that resulted in the Articles of Confederation and The Constitution of the United

States.

Enlightenment, the Skeptical Enlightenment, the Revolutionary Enlightenment, and the Didactic Enlightenment.

17 Donald H. Meyer, The Democratic Enlightenment (New York: G.P. Putnam's and Sons, 1976).

18 Henry Steele Comrnager, The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment (New York: Doubleday, 1977).

9

In 1988, Peter Hoffer published a collection of essays on the American

Enlightenment, which further developed the roles that colonial leaders like

Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson, and James Madison had in spreading the

Enlightenment to the colonies while also introducing material on the spread of

science in the colonies. 19 Modem writing, like Carl Richard's The Founders and

the Classics: Greece, Rome, and The American Enlightenment (1994), builds

upon earlier knowledge ofwho 18th century Americans read and were influenced

by and emphasizes the role of Greek and Roman thought.

Most Recently, Gertrude Himmelfarb offered an interpretation of the

American Enlightenment as especially focused on varying aspects ofliberty.20

She argues that the Americans were more practical than, say, the French, a view

reminiscent of Meyer and Commager, and that their practicality prevented

America's Enlightenment from losing itself in utopian and abstract discourses.21

There is a strong body ofhistory, then, about the ideas that influenced 18th

century colonial leaders and what 18th century colonial leaders thought

themselves. While this literature should not go unnoticed, it is important to note

19 Peter Charles Hoffer, editor, Early American History: An American Enlightenment (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988).

20 Gertrude Himmelfarb, The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 19, 191.

21 Ibid., 19

10

that all of these histories utilized definitions of the Enlightenment that are similar

to the definitions put forth by European historians Kramnick and Jacob. That is,

they limited the definition of the Enlightenment to political thought and the

secular world. In doing so, these historians left an opportunity for more research

about the American Enlightenment and religion.

The best attempt to incorporate the religious life of the colonies into the

political history of the 18th century is Alan Heimert's magnificent Religion and

the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution.22 Heimert

portrays the discussions about religion and leadership that occurred in response to

the religious revivals of the Great Awakening as political debate and

maneuvering. He argues that the immediate effect of the revivals was a

"tempering of the fierce, social, economic, and political antagonisms that had

racked the colonies since the beginning of the century."23 Heimert goes on to

illustrate how religious revival made America's leadership aware that a revolution

could easily occur if the masses became excited enough. For Heimert, the

American Revolution was merely an episode in what was a long intellectual and

passionate rift, inspired by the Great Awakening, transformed to nationalism or

22 Alan Heimert, Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966).

23 Ibid., 9.

11

patriotism at the end ofthe 18th century.24

Heimert touches on the interplay between mtionalism and religion during

and after the Great Awakening. However his study's focus on the influence of

religion on the capability of the colonies to revolt overpowers it. Heimert does

not properly explain the interplay between reason and religion, or more

specifically between reason and Puritanism. Nor does his study offer a solid

understanding of the Enlightenment in his discussion about the interplay.

Therefore, while Heimert's study is great in its own regard, the portions of his

argument that touch on the subject of this paper need more explanation.

Heimert's research is an ever-important basis of knowledge for the purposes of

this study, but the gap in historiography of the American Enlightenment remains.

In 2001, Nina Reid-Maroney published Philadelphia's Enlightenment,

1740-1800. While her work focused exclusively on life in Philadelphia, it still

discussed the interaction of religion and Enlightenment. Specifically, she argues

"the coinciding of A wakening and Enlightenment brought a considemble overlap

of personalities. Religious leaders were well-connected to the scientific

community, and those with scientific interests in turn wielded power in the

colonial churches."25 Clearly, Reid-Maroney's work represents the first attempt

24 Ibid., I, 94, 354-355.

25 Nina Reid-Maroney, Philadelphia's Enlightenment, 1740-1800 (Westport, Connecticut:

12

to understand how a specific colonial community incorporated the religious and

secular intellectual movements in 18th century colonial America. However, her

study differs drastically from this one in that she focuses specifically on science,

and because the religious culture in Philadelphia was undoubtedly different from

the one that existed in 18th century Massachusetts.

It is into this niche, where this study of 18th century Massachusetts fits.

This paper represents the first true attempt to understand how Puritanism and the

Enlightenment coexisted in 18th century Massachusetts, a coexistence either

ignored or by-passed by other historians, and which fostered a unique intellectual

experience for the citizens of Massachusetts.

The definition of Enlightenment best suited to study 18th century

Massachusetts is not a definition forged in steel. It is not immovable or

unbreakable like the definitions offered by Kramnick and Jacobs. Enlightenment

in 18th century Massachusetts is more appropriately discussed and analyzed using

a hybrid of the definitions derived by Gay and Pocock. Gay's definition is

important because it is broad and emphasizes the role of critical discourse.

Greenwood Press, 200 l ), 17.

13

Indeed, the sermons of 18th century Puritan ministers in Massachusetts illustrate

such a concern.

Yet, to argue that the Massachusetts Enlightenment fits perfectly with

Gay's definition is misleading. Gay views the Enlightenment as a singular,

massive movement by thinkers fully conscious of themselves as a movement and

of their roles within that movement. Enlightenment in Massachusetts differs

significantly as there was no manifesto for Enlightenment, and the lack of real

ideological organization or cohesion enabled the intellectuals of Massachusetts to

essentially create their own Enlightenment. In this regard, Pocock's definition is a

nice fit as it enables the Massachusetts Enlightenment to exist along side the

Enlightenments of Europe without forcing it into one massive intellectual

movement. The Massachusetts Enlightenment connected itself to the Europeans

by their admiration of European Enlightenment thinkers, but it was also unique in

the way that Enlightenment ideas were absorbed into Massachusetts Puritan

culture. The presence of a Minister's Enlightenment in Massachusetts is evidence

of this unique absorption, as the latter sections will illustrate.

14

CHAPTER3.

EDUCATION OF MINISTERS IN 18TH CENTIJRY MASSACHUSETTS

In 18th century Massachusetts there was only one path young men could

take to become a minister and that path went through Harvard College. Founded

in 1636, Harvard was the only college in the colony for 150 years.26 In 1701,

ministers in Connecticut founded Yale as a local alternative to Harvard, but

another college did not appear in Massachusetts until1793, when Williams

College was founded. 27 Historian Samuel Eliot Morison argues that Harvard was

initially intended to replenish the supply of ministers to insure the future of

Puritanism in the colony.28 Indeed, many parents of talented young boys hoped

that their children might end up behind pulpits as adults. For example, the parents

of both John and Samuel Adams pushed their studious children towards

Harvard. 29 Some families, such as the Hancocks, were so strongly religious that

26 Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935), 154-155.

27 See http://www.pragmatism.org/americanlamerican colleges.htm.

28 Samuel Eliot Morison, The Intellectual Life of Colonial New England (Ithaca: Great Seal Book, 1956), 31.

29 David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 2001), 33; John C. Miller, Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1936), 4;

15

ministry was almost bequethed from father to son.30 However influenced or

supported by his parents, a young boy could not simply arrive at Harvard a blank

slate, ready for religious tutelage.

Harvard's founding was also part of a wider movement, spearheaded by

John Winthrop, to improve the education of young Puritans across the colony.

Winthrop felt that it was the Puritans' duty to protect their children from Satan,

and that intellectual ignorance provided an opportunity for Satan to attack their

children.31 In 1642, the founders of the colony created a law which required the

government to teach children so they could ''understand the principles of religion

and the capitallawes of the country, and to impose fmes upon all those who refuse

to render such accompt to them when required.'032 As part of that law, every town

with a population over 500 people needed to have two grammar schools and two

writing schools. 33

The most prominent of the grammar schools was Boston Latin Grammar

Benjamin Irving, Samuel Adams: Son of Liberty, Father of Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc, 2002).

3° Fowler, Chapter I.

31 Remarks of John Winthrop as quoted in Henry F. Jenks, Catalogue of the Boston Public Latin School, Established in 1635, With an Historical Sketch (Boston: Published by the Boston Latin School Association, 1886).

32 Text ofthe 1642 charter as published in Pauline Holmes, A Tercentenary History ofThe Boston Public Latin School, 1635-1935 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935), pages 5-6.

33 Ibid., 10-13.

16

School. Of the ministers discussed in the following sections, Benjamin Colman

and Charles Chauncy both attended Boston Latin. Other prominent ministers who

attended the school include Cotton Mather, Joseph Sewall, William Cooper,

Andrew Eliot, Samuel Langdon, and Samuel Cooper. The school also instructed

many future politicians and scientistslike Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Hutchinson,

Samuel Adams, James Bowdoin, Robert Treat Paine, John Hancock, and

Nathaniel Gorhem.34

Founded in 1635, before Harvard and before the educational charter,

Boston Latin's location made it the grammar school for many influential political

leaders of the colony and a very fruitful preparatory institution for Harvard. Some

other grammar schools, like the grammar school in Roxbury, did not experience

the success that Boston Latin enjoyed, and struggled to maintain the necessary

funding.35

Boston Latin Grammar School operated in a Puritan setting, and it seems

logical for some form of Biblical or moral instruction to take place through the

course of an ordinary day. Interestingly, the nature of Boston Latin was nearly the

exact opposite. The curriculum of Boston Latin focused on developing Latin and

Greek language skills. For example, during the flrst three years dedicated

34 Ibid., 135-160.

35 C.K. Dillaway, A History of the Grammar School, or "The Free Schoole of 1645 in Roxburie." (Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee and Company, 1860), 29.

17

themselves to understanding and memorizing basic Latin grammar rules, and

rudimentary Latin works like Aesop's Fables. In the fourth, fifth and sixth years,

students continued to study Aesop's Fables, before working their way through

Ovid, Erasmus, and some Cicero. By the end of that period, students began to

study Greek. The remaining year (early Boston Latin programs were seven years

long) exposed students to Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, Horace, !socrates, and "Justin

for the Latin and Greek Testament.m6 In a seven-year program at a Puritan

school, the Bible or any inkling of religious doctrine did not appear until the very

end.

Boston Latin emphasized learning grammar while reading these Classical

works. For example, Boston Latin School used William Lily's Latin Grammar,

Paul's Accidence, and Cheever's Latin Grammar through out the education of its

students. 37 Thus, the goal of learning classical languages superimposed upon

other lessons. Yet, it seems unlikely that students could undergo such a classical

education without it affecting them, even if language development was the

ultimate goal. Boston Latin's unique combination of classical themes and

language development would be highly influential to the founders as they aged

and encountered new ideas and experiences.

36 Letter from Nathaniel Williams to Nehemiah Hobart regarding the curriculum of the Boston Latin Grammar School, 1712. Found on www.constituion.org/primary sources/gramrnar.html.

37 Holmes, pages 308, 310, and 316.

18

Boston Latin was unique in other ways as well. Perhaps most interesting,

the school was a "free schoole," which meant that it was a "democratic, public

institution not restricted to any class of children. "38 The egalitarian nature of the

school enabled boys from families with lower incomes to receive a quality

education. Unfortunately, it was of little consequence because the ultimate goal

of Boston Latin was to gain admittance to Harvard. If parents could not afford to

send their children to Harvard, they most likely educated their children differently

or placed them in vocational apprenticeships.

Harvard provides an interesting contrast to Boston Latin. Students at

Harvard experienced more spiritual rituals in College than they ever did at Boston

Latin. Prayer started the day at 5:00am, and then again at 5:00PM before dinner,

and for many again before the night was over.39 Furthermore, the school strictly

enforced that "All scholars ... behave themselves blamelessly, leading sober,

righteous, and godly lives. "40 Of course, the ability to control a large group of

teenage boys is easier said than done. Perhaps the increase in ritual and strictness

were a response to the increased frivolity and tom-foolery of the students.

38 Holmes, 19. Interestingly, there were supposed to be other schools like Boston Latin. One· other attempt was the Roxbury school, however, that school had a much harder time getting off the ground and therefore did not become very prominent. For more, consult C.K. Dillaway, A History of the Grammar School, or "The Free Schoole of 1645 in Roxburie." (Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee and Company, 1860).

39 Fowler, page 28-29.

40 Pierce, History of Harvard, page 169 ... as cited in McCullough, page 36.

19

Harvard strictly enforced their moral and scholarly code. College officials once

caught Samuel Adams drinking rum with his friends. In response the school

"rusticated and degraded" his friends, and fined Adams five shillings.41 John

Adams felt the strict discipline in the form of a fine for being away from school

for a period longer than the allotted vacation time. 42

While the behavior of the founders while they attended Harvard hints at

moral decline, it is clear that the college itself maintained its code of ethics and

punished students according to their misbehavior. The number of ministers that

continued to graduate from the college solidified the religious nature of the

school. John Adams' diary indicates on several occasions that he still intended to

be a minister after graduation. He spent many hours while he was waiting to get a

job as a minister improving his knowledge of divine literature, listening to

ministers, dining with ministers, and studying how other ministers used language

in their sermons. 43

A perusal of the Harvard library catalogues for the 18th century also

provides evidence of the religious intentions of the school, although in the latter

half of the century enlightenment thinkers and other less religious works wormed

41 Miller, page 5.

42 McCullough, page 36, and Buttertield.

43 See Butterfield. Volume I: Diary 1755-1770, entries for February 29, 1756; March 21, 1756; April28, 1756;July21, 1756,Ju1y23, 1756forexamp1es.

20

their way into the library. The 1723 Catalogue indicates that the Harvard College

Library contained predominately-religious histories and treatises with some

classical texts as well. For example, St. Thomas Aquinas appears in the catalogue

several times, with Summa Theo/ogica and other works.44 St. Augustine also

appears several times with City of God, Ope rum Omnium, and Book 12 from his

autobiography. 4s

More modem religious voices like Calvin and Luther also appeared in the

Library.46 In places, entire pages of the catalogue were taken up by the Mather

family (specifically Cotton and Increase). 47 However, the great bulk of religious

material consisted of hundreds of commentaries on various books of the Bible,

various translations of the Bible, and a handful of papal histories.

Despite the overwhelming size ofthe Christian side of the library, non-

religious titles do appear in the 1723-1735 Harvard Library. Sir Walter Raleigh's

History of the World was available by 1723, as were a few works by Nicollo

44 W .H. Bond and Hugh Amory, editors, The Printed Catalogues of the Harvard College Library, 1723-1790. The Publications ofthe Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume LXVII (Boston: The Colonial Society ofMassachusetts, 1996), Al with "Expositio in Evangel. Joannis" (Paris, 1957), A2 with Summa Theologica ( Venet., 1593 ), A65 and A67.

4s Bond and Amory, AI for Operum Omnium, A2, A65 for Book 12 of Confessions, and Al03 for CityofGod.

46 Bond and Amory, for Luther: A20 and A50; for Calvin: AS, AIO, A40, A72, A104.

47 Bond and Amory, A87 is a good example.

21

Machiavelli, such as Florentine History. 48 Sir Francis Bacon appeared several

times in the early catalogue, for his History of the Reign of King Henry VIII,

Natural History, Nine Books for the Advancement of Learning, and others.49 Sir

Isaac Newton's Opticks appears in the 1723 catalogue, and by 1735 Newton's

Chronology and Observations on Daniel and the Apocalypse appears. so

Puffendorf's Divine Feudal Law and De Jure Nature and Gentium, as well as

more Hugo Grotius than one could possibly handle. 51 The most important

appearance in the holdings was a 3 volume set of John Locke's works, which

appeared by 1735.52 Even Shakespeare and Thucydides (in 1735) made

appearances. 53 Thus, Harvard's library slowly diversified its holdings, gaining

Enlightened men like John Locke, Isaac Newton, Grotius, and Puffendorf, while

also building up its history and literature sections.

The 1773 Catalogue indicates that Harvard continued the same pattern as

the century aged. David Hume's History of the World, Francis Hutcheson's

48 Bond and Amory, for Raleigh, A28; for Machiavelli, A23, and A86 for Disputat. de Republica.

49 Bond and Amory, A6 for Henry VIII and Natural History.

50 Bond and Amory, A 54 for Opticks and All4 for Chronology and Observations on Daniel and the Apocalypse.

51 Bond and Amory, for Puffendorf: A57 for De Jure Nature and Gentium, and A90 for Divine Feudal Law; for Grotius: A79-A80, All4, and Al21.

52 Bond and Amory, 106.

53 Bond and Amory, for Shakespeare, in Six Volumes, A95; for Thucydides, AII5.

22

Moral Philosophy and various writings by Joseph Addison appeared for the first

time in this version of the Catalogue. S4 In addition, Cesare Becarria, Montesquieu

and the radical writings of John Trenchard and Tom Gordon all entered the

Harvard Library in 1773. ss Finally, some letters written by Voltaire, some

Emerich de Vattal, and John Turnbull's Moral Philosophy made their entrance

into Harvard's holdings at this time as well.56 Thus, the Enlightenment slowly

worked its way into the Christian stronghold that was the Harvard Library at the

beginning of the 18th century. The availability of Locke as early as 173 5 is

crucially important because his thought heavily influenced many of

Massachusetts' ministers. However, that other Enlightenment thinkers like

Voltaire, de Vattal, Grotius and Puffendorfwere available to all by 1735 is rather

important as well because they arrived in the midst of the Great Awakening.

The atmosphere at Harvard drastically differed from that of Boston Latin.

While it was more rigid in social and moral structure, it lacked the equality and

objective nature of Boston Latin. Both schools began as systematic attempts by

Winthrop and his peers to promote religion and decrease ignorance in their

culture, but it is still curious that Puritanism did not hold a stronger grasp on

S4 Bond and Amory, for Addison, B5; for Hume and Hutcheson, B IS.

ss Bond and Amory, for Becarria, B7; for Montesquieu, Bl8; and for Trenchard and Gordon's Cato's Letters, B9.

56 Bond and Amory, for all ofthem see B25.

23

Boston Latin. Nonetheless, the religious nature of the daily rituals at Harvard and

its religiously oriented library were undoubtedly powerful influences on the

developing ministers. However, Harvard also began to change, not only in the

behavior of its students but also in what sorts of thought it made available for

study.57 Even if Harvard did not directly Enlighten its students, it did so indirectly

by either providing the books for willing students to fmd, or by merely teaching a

classical education that enabled any student of Harvard to properly think and

discuss Enlightened works when they encountered them later.

Outside of their institutional educations, there were two main sources of

Enlightenment thought for ministers. As the section on ministry will illustrate,

many ministers gained exposure to Enlightenment discourse from listening and

reading the sermons of other ministers already influenced by the Enlightenment.

The other main source is the subject of Bernard Bailyn' s classic, the Ideological

Origins of the American Revolution . 58 Bailyn masterfully illustrates that there

was a vast array of political and ideological pamphlets in print in 18th century

America. Any literate, socially aware member of society had access to the these

57 For example, see Frederich E. Brasch, "The Newtonian Epoch in the American Colonies, 1630-1783," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 49 (1939), 314-322 contained in Hoffer. Brasch discusses the role of Harvard in being one of the earliest institutions to advance Newtonian thought.

58 Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967).

24

pamphlets. Heimert argues that religion had a larger impact since there were more

accounts of sermons that touched on the intellectual and political matters in the

colonies than non-religious sources. 59 Whether one is more persuaded by Bailyn

or Heimert is not as important as the culmination of both historians' research.

Bailyn and Heimert easily prove that there were many social sources of

Enlightenment discourse in the colonies. In Massachusetts, the school system

founded by Puritans to replenish the ministry and protect the Puritan community

from secular knowledge and authority developed into another source of the

Enlightenment by the 18th century.

59 Heimert, 450.

25

CHAPTER 4. THE MINISTER'S ENLIGHTENMENT:

ENLIGHTENED DISCOURSE DURING THE GREAT AWAKENING

The place of the minister in 18th century Massachusetts must be

understood in the context of the colony's history. Puritanism dominated the

founding and development of Massachusetts dating back to the migration of

thousands of Puritans who followed John Winthrop to the New World and settled

in the Massachusetts Bay area in the 1630s. 60 By 1650, "Massachusetts had one

minister for every 415 persons, compared with one per 3,239 persons in Virginia."

Such saturation of ministers within the population was due to laws requiring each

town to "sustain a church, supported by taxes levied on all the householders,

whether members or not.'>61 This legislation contributed significantly to the strong

status of a minister in the Puritan community.

However, when King James II took the throne to replace his recently

deceased older brother in 1685, the fate of Massachusetts took a drastic turn. The

new king continued what his brother started, taking more of an interest in the

American Colonies in hopes of deriving more revenue from them. The resulting

60 Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (New York: Penguin Group Inc., 2001), 165-166.

61 Ibid., 179.

26

efforts to renew the charter of Massachusetts met with strong resistance, but it was

only a matter of time before the throne won a court decision revoking it in 1684.

Quickly thereafter, James reorganized all of the New English colonies, New York,

and New Jersey into "a super colony," the Dominion ofNew England.62 The

Puritan's firm grasp on autonomy in Massachusetts would have to wait.

Fortunately, the wait was not too long. By 1688, King James had many

English Protestants worried because of his overwhelming favoritism toward

Catholics. In an effort to promote the Protestant cause in England and to promote

his own military position as the military leader of the Netherlands, William of

Orange invaded England in November. Many English officials defected to his

side, and James fled to France in fear. In the resulting void of monarchical power,

Parliament gave the throne to William and his wife Mary.63 In totality, this

became known as the Glorious Revolution, and its effects rippled across the ocean

to the American colonies in 1689. The colonies within the Dominion experienced

a glorious revolution oftheir own, and in the early 1690s they received new

charters from England. 64 Although the new charter renewed the republican

government of Massachusetts, it received significant criticism from the Puritans

62 Ibid., 276.

63 Ibid., 278.

64 Ibid., 279-284.

27

because it "mandated toleration for all Protestants and opened the vote to all

property-holders, rather than restricting it to full members of the Puritan

churches. "65 Regardless, as the colony moved into the 18th century ministers

continued to be valued religious, political and cultural leaders.

Any discussion of religion or the ministry in the 18th century must answer

the bundle of questions proposed by the religious revival movement in the 1730s

and 1740s known as the Great Awakening. Commonly viewed by historians as a

response to moral decay, social disorder, or as Heimert viewed it, as a very

important piece on the road to revolution, the Great Awakening was also the

setting of a very robust Enlightenment discourse. Other historians have read and

analyzed the same sermons as those discussed here but have never considered

their place within the context of an American Enlightenment. The discourse

formed by these sermons goes beyond merely absorbing reason into the Puritan

religion. These sermons illustrate that power and criticism, the two concepts of

Gay's definition of the Enlightenment, concerned many ministers in

Massachusetts, both within the arguments of the Great Awakening and in sermons

unrelated to it. Furthermore, the use of the enlightened discourse points toward

the negative connotation given to the concept of"enthusiasm," which corresponds

to similar connotations that existed during the Enlightenment in several European

65 Ibid., 283.

28

countries. The Enlightenment experienced by the ministers of Massachusetts,

then, was uniquely involved with the specifically American Great Awakening, at

the same time exhibiting similar traits to the Enlightenments of Europe.

As far back as 1700, and perhaps even earlier, Puritan ministers like

Cotton Mather discussed reason within their own Puritan context. 66 Mather set the

tone for the discourse of the 1740s by arguing that God's grace was far more

important than intellectual accomplishments.67 Perry Miller argues that the early

18th century Pietist movement, to which Mather was an early contributor, was "not

a rejection of the mind but a conscious endeavor to give to reason a larger part

than hitherto it had played in the life of the spirit ... " in the hope that the end

product would be a greater appreciation for the piety of the gospel.68 Although

Miller's interpretation indicates a slight tension between reason and piety, John

Morgan is quick to point out that Miller misrepresents the more emotional and

enthusiastic aspects of Puritanism leading up to the 18th century in order to make

his point about the existence of an "American Mind."

In his Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes Towards Reason, Learning, and

66 Perry Miller, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962), 417.

67 Ibid., 418.

68 Ibid., 418.

29

Education, 1560-1640, Morgan argues that the tension between Puritanism and

secular reason was much greater. According to Morgan, 17th century Puritans felt

that reason was only valid if applied to secular issues. 69 Perhaps more telling,

Morgan states that "In an era of growing emphasis on the glory of the ancients, of

expanding school facilities, and of the publication of cheap print, Puritans found

that humane learning, too, threatened man's obedience to God within the terms of

the covenent. "70 There are two problems here for historians. The first is whether

enough changed in the last half of the 18th century to justify Miller's

interpretation. The second is whether ministers actually believed that reason was

inherently secular.

Whether Miller's belief in the persistence of intellectualism in Puritanism

or Morgan's strict interpretation of the dichotomy between Godly and secular, it is

clear that a tension between reason and piety or faith was a defining conflict for

the Puritans. To historians like Heimert, the presence of reason at all indicates the

influence of Enlightenment thought on the ministers of Massachusetts. It is

misleading to embrace his position completely, however, because it waters down

the more complex understanding of how the Great Awakening and the

Enlightenment intertwined. Individual Puritans accepted varying degrees of

69 John Morgan, Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes towards Reason, Learning, and Education, 1560-1640 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 55.

70 Ibid., 61.

30

secular thought into their minds without believing that they necessarily needed to

weaken their Christianity to do so.

The Great Awakening began in 1740 when a series of rabble-rousing,

revivalist-minded preachers like Gilbert Tennent and James Davenport began

touring across the colonies criticizing the power traditionally given to ministers

and belittling intellectual ministers. In regards to the power structure of Puritan

churches, Tennent was specifically critical of the similarity of ministers to

politicians because they were traditionally appointed to serve over a church and

supported by laws.71 Tennent's sermon entitled "The Dangers of an Unconverted

Ministry," argued against the role of the intellect in favor of warm piety.72 In

1741, fellow revivalist James Davenport toured New England, burning books and

speaking out against intellectualism. 73 Reception of these sorts of sermons and

book burnings within Puritan Massachusetts was defensive and resulted in various

forms of public criticism.

In July of 1742, anonymous letters began to appear in The Boston Evening

Post belittling the revivalists. A letter from July 5 lashed out against Davenport,

claiming, "Though were you to see him in his most violent agitations, you would

71 Douglas Sloan, The Great Awakening and American Education (New York: Columbia University, 1973), 16-17.

72 Heimert, 30 and 160-161.

73 Sloan, 29.

31

be apt to think, that he was a madman just broke from his chains. "74 A similar

letter from July 30 raged against Tennent and his attacks on the local ministry,

stating that "His gestures in preaching are theatrical, his voice tumultuous, his

whole speech and behavior discovering the freaks of madness, and wilds of

enthusiasm."75 Tennent and Davenport, deeply resented by the Puritan

community, nonetheless represent a group challenging the order and structure of

traditional Puritan society. They were not only interested in revival, but

increasing equality in all religious communities.

It is important to pause for a moment and consider the European

Enlightenment. Peter Gay argues that much of the anti-religious sentiment in

Europe during the 18th century derived from the traditional legacies of the over-

powering state of religion during the Middle Ages. 76 Gay argues that the

Enlightenment's revolt over what happened to the role of classical culture during

the Middle Ages was not necessarily a revolt against religion, even if the

Enlightenment in some countries contained anti-religious sentiments.77 Gay

points toward Germany as one example of an Enlightenment that had difficulties

74 "Anonymous letter," 5 July, 1742, from Sloan, 73-74.

75 "Anonymous letter," 30 July 1742, from Sloan.

76 Gay, 208.

77 2 Gay, 57.

32

abandoning religion. Indeed, newer scholarship by J. G. A. Pocock illustrates that

the Enlightenment in England existed "in clerical and conservative forms, the

product ofthe Church of England's program to reconcile itself with the governing

classes. "78 Therefore, Enlightenment in 18th century Massachusetts has an

appropriate place within the context of the Enlightenment as a whole.

Tennent and Davenport's concern with challenging the power and

dominance of the ministry in Puritan Massachusetts is little different from a

political Enlightenment argument that a republic is the best form of government.

Both are concerned with decreasing the role of an individual over the masses and

increasing the liberty of all people, whether it be religious liberty or political.

Such public critical discourse clearly places Davenport and Tennent within Gay's

definition of the Enlightenment as concerned with power and promoting criticism,

but historians do not like to view them as such. As the anonymous letters printed

in the Boston newspaper illustrate, many observers came to view Tennent and

Davenport as ruthless "madmen" and licentious enthusiasts. While such a

characterization seemingly makes revivalists like Tennent and Davenport enemies

of reason and the Enlightenment, recent work on the Enlightenment in Europe

indicates that their presence in the discourse that began with the Great A wakening

was crucial.

78 Pocock, "Enthusiasm: The Anti-self of Enlightenment," in Klein and La Vopa, 11.

33

In 1998, historians Lawrence E. Klein and Anthony La Vopa edited a

series of essays entitled Enthusiasm and Enlightenment in Europe, 1650-1850.79

The essays collectively illustrate that enthusiasm was viewed as antithetical to the

Enlightenment and that people were called "enthusiasts" or "enthusiastic" to

discredit them and effectively silence their argument. Yet, Klein and La Vopa

also argue that the existence of enthusiasm was necessary for the Enlightenment;

that the Enlightenment depended on the concept of enthusiasm to create an

extreme against which their arguments for reason would be stronger.80 The letters

to the Boston Newspaper illustrate how thinkers from Massachusetts used

enthusiasm to discredit Tennant and Davenport, and the response to them by

Puritan ministers represents a strong and unique American Enlightenment, one

that relied on the enthusiastic presence of religious revivalists.

The response to Tennant and Davenport's enthusiasm was a discourse that

questioned not only the power of the ministry but the characteristics they should

possess. The discourse began in a church in Braintree on September 7, 1943.

Local minister John Hancock, the father of the John Hancock who signed the

Declaration of Independence, gave a sermon entitled, "The Danger of an

79 See Klein and La Vopa.

8° Klein and La Vopa, 5.

34

Unqualified Ministry."81 The title clearly indicates that it was a direct response to

Tennent's sermon given two years prior, and in it, Hancock defended the intellects

of many Puritan ministers. He argued that "without knowledge the soul cannot be

good," and he questioned how Christianity could survive without knowledgeable

defenders of it. Hancock characterized intellectual men as worthy, and spitefully

argued that unworthy men (men unaffected by reason) "betray the cause of

Christ." Most poignant, however, was Hancock's blaming Tennent for ''the Seeds

of all that Discord, Intrusion, Confusion, Separation, Hatred, Variance,

Emulations, Wrath, Strife, Seditions, Heresies, etc ... " that corrupted the minds of

church laity through out New England. 82

The central question of this discourse was whether intellectual matters

were more important than emotional in the realm of religion. From a Puritan

perspective, this was all too reminiscent of the tensions exhibited in Morgan's

study of 17th century Puritanism. Indeed, there was a Puritan tradition of valuing

the visible saints or those who had experienced an emotional conversion

experience. However, there was also a tradition dating back to John Winthrop

that promoted an understanding of secular intellectualism in addition to religious

81 Some biographical material on John Hancock the preacher and this sermon can be found in the biography of his son, William M. Fowler, The Baron of Beacon Hill: A Biography of John Hancock (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980), page 8-9.

82 John Hancock, "The Danger of an Unqualified Ministry," from Sloan, 104-115.

35

intellectualism. Winthrop worried that intellectual ignorance could potentially

endanger Puritan culture, and supported the development of Puritan education to

not only increase understanding of Puritan doctrines but to increase understanding

of secular knowledge as well.83 Hancock's argument that Christianity needed the

defense of a secularly educated clergy is a remnant of Winthrop's position, which

illustrates the tradition that Tennant and Davenport sought to change.

The debate over the dominance of the mind or the heart polarized when

Jonathan Edwards and Charles Chauncy began to preach in response to each

other. Heimert masterfully illustrates how Edwards became the undeniable leader

of the revivalists and Chauncy became the defender of the rationalists.

Interestingly, John Locke significantly influenced both men. Edwards strongly

embraced Locke's emphasis on empiricism in the educational process.84 Edwards'

belief that humans learned the best through experience, a belief influenced by

Locke, formed the core of Edwards' defense of the revivalist movement. Only

through religious, spiritual experiences could men truly understand God. Heimert

argues that Edwards felt that using human learning in a religious setting was

83 Remarks of John Winthrop as quoted in Henry F. Jenks, Catalogue of the Boston Public Latin School, Established in 1635, With an Historical Sketch (Boston: Published by the Boston Latin School Association, 1886).

84 Sloan, 37.

36

improper.85 In his sermon, "The Religious Affections," Edwards explains his

belief about spiritual knowledge: "Holy affections are not heat without light, but

evermore arise from the information of the understanding, some spiritual

instruction that the mind receives, some light of actual knowledge."86

His language, indicating a scientific understanding of heat and light, might

seem peculiar coming from a minister. However, research by many historians

indicates that Edwards was not only interested in science but that he was even an

authority on science. In his introduction to Jonathan Edwards and The

Enlightenment, John Opie argues that Edwards "was the most acute American

analyst of the achievements of the Enlightenment, far surpassing the

perceptiveness of Franklin, Mayhew, Paine, and even Jefferson, in science,

psychology, and philosophy."87 Theodore Hornberger provides a definition of

what science meant to Edwards: "The discov~ry of the proportion of God's

acting."88 Perry Miller, in his biography of Edwards, goes further to say that

Edwards was ''the last great American, perhaps the last European, for whom there

85 Heimert, 165.

86 Jonathan Edwards, "The Religious Affections," from Sloan, 251-263.

87 John Opie, ed., Jonathan Edwards and the Enlightenment (Lexington, Mass: D.C. Heath and Company, 1969), v.

88 Theodore hom Berger, "Edwards a Disciple of Newton," in Opie, ed. Jonathan Edwards and the Enlightenment, 55.

37

could be no warfare between religion and science ... He was incapable of accepting

Christianity and physics on separate premises."89 Clearly, Edwards indicates that

science and religion could interact without resulting in deism, in similar ways to

what Reid-Maroney found in Philadelphia's Enlightenment.

Edwards was not the only minister influenced by Locke. Heimert also

argues that Locke had a significant influence on Chauncy and his followers.90 In

his sermon, "An Enlightened Mind," Chauncy continued Hancock's argument in

favor of reason. Perhaps more importantly, however, he continued to use the

concept of enthusiasm to discredit the revivalists. He cautioned against

libertinism and argued that an enlightened man kept ''the passions within their

proper bounds.91 Further, Chauncy argued that Christians could not claim to be

influenced by the spirit of God and not understand Christian traditions.92 Such a

remark was a counter argument against Tennent and Edwards' position that

unconverted ministers were unworthy of preaching. By stating that no person

could claim to be influenced by God and not ,understand Godly traditions,

Chauncy was suggesting that only a person who had attained a certain level of

89 Peny Miller, Jonathan Edwards (Amherst: The University ofMassachusetts Press, 1949), 72.

90 Heimert, 17, 45, and 177.

91 Charles Chauncy, "An Enlightened Mind," from Sloan, 240-250.

92 Ibid., 247.

38

intellectual understanding of Christianity's past could truly appreciate his or her

spiritual experiences.

It is not necessary to continue to trace the thought of Chauncy or Edwards,

as Heimert's work already represents an exhaustive account of their intellectual

battle. Edwards and his followers continually challenged the role of the

intellectual in the ministry and in doing so continually exhibited the concern with

power and vocal criticism that characterized the Enlightenment. To further

cement this point, it is important to note that Edwards also argued that liberal

ministers (ministers like Chauncy) used their own learned status to magnify

themselves and keep knowledge of God from the laity.93 Edwards' criticism of

intellectual ministers is amplified by the research of Darren Staloff. In his The

Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan

Massachusetts, Staloff argues that Puritan ministers of the 17th century created a

coalition which united Puritanism in Massachusetts doctrinally and essentially

gave themselves an elite status as the intellectual and spiritual link between God

and their congregations. 94

Staloff's argument is convincing and it provides the social context needed

to understand how the Great Awakening functioned as a unique setting for the

93 Heimert, 166. 94 Darren Staloff, The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

39

Enlightenment. Since Massachusetts was too distant from the Middle Ages to

have any social angst to inspire them to revolt intellectually against long lasting

traditions, the existence of Enlightenment in the colony depended upon different

factors. The dominance of the Puritan ministry in Massachusetts may not have

been as long lasting as the Catholic Church's hold on France or Italy, but it was

nonetheless a powerful social and intellectual structure. The revivalist movement

of the 1740s heavily criticized that structure through intellectual discourse, and

therefore it deserves credit as part of an American Enlightenment.

The extent of the revivalists' role in the American Enlightenment is,

naturally, limited because of their use of emotional and spiritual experiences to

counter the role of reason in the human experience. However, as Klein and La

Vopa' s collection of essays illustrates, the presence of extreme emotionalism or

enthusiasm was a necessary foil for the success of Enlightenment thought in

Europe. The same is true of the Enlightenment in Massachusetts. The presence

of the religious revivals provided a springboard for discussions about

Enlightenment thought.

Heimert argues that the discourse over the role of emotion versus intellect

in the ministry and the mind gradually shifted to a discourse about patriotism,

political activism, and revolutions. Although the specific Enlightenment

discourse of the 1740s eventually dissipated, it still left an institutional legacy.

40

The discourse resulted in a disputes regarding education. Students at Harvard and

Yale began to challenge their professors for being unconverted, resulting in

expulsions and movements to develop revivalist educational institutions.95

However, the attempts to develop such revivalist education were short-lived in

New England.96 The revivalist education movement did overflow into a

neighboring colony in the form of The College ofNew Jersey, later known as

Princeton.97 It is interesting that the revivalist response to Harvard became just as

intellectual and secular as Harvard. Although it did not have quite as much of an

emphasis on the classical languages as Harvard did, it more than made up for it by

emphasizing science and math. 98 The founding of Princeton can be seen as the

revivalist response to the intellectual smearing performed by Chauncy and his

followers during the Great A wakening debates. They were more interested in

maintaining a certain level of respect amongst their intellectual peers than they

were in maintaining an anti-intellectual front. Thus, the role of reason and

intellect scored a minor victory before the focus of the ministry shifted to the other

matters that Heimert describes.

95 Sloan. 128, 135.

96 Ibid., 24-25.

97 Ibid., 26.

98 Ralph Ketcham, James Madison: A Biography (Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1990), 23. One might also argue that since it had a role in producing James Madison that it could not have been that focused on revivalism.

41

CHAPTER 5. THE MINISTER'S ENLIGHTENMENT:

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY

The ministry also took part in Enlightenment discourse outside of the

Great Awakening. While Heimert argues that the ministry's interest gradually

turned to political issues after the Great Awakening, it is important to note that

some ministers were preaching about political topics much earlier. Historian T.

H. Breen's The Character of the Good Ruler: Puritan Political Ideas in New

England: 1630-1730 describes a Puritan interest in politics dating back into the

17m century.99 The early interest in political affairs enabled Puritans to receive

18m century Enlightenment ideas more readily than they would have otherwise.

For the purposes of this study, analysis will begin in 1730. On August 13 ofthat

year, minister Benjamin Colman preached a sermon entitled "Government The

Pillar of the Earth. " 100 The sermon hardly contained as much political content as

many that would follow it, but it did promote the importance of secular

government, stating, "The order and happiness of this lower world, the peace and

99 T. H. Breen, The Character of the Good Ruler: Puritan Political Ideas in New England: 1630-17 30 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970).

100 Benjamin Colman, "Government The Pillar of the Earth," from Ellis Sandoz, ed., Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805, Volume I (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1998), 13-28.

42

weal of it, depend on the civil government which God has ordained in it."101

Colman believed in something akin to the divine right of kings. Perhaps one

could describe it as ''the divine right of magistrates." Colman believed that ''the

government and rulers of the earth are its pillars in respect of strength to uphold

and support the virtue, order and peace of it. " 102 This passage marked the

beginning of a brief section of the sermon which laid out the proper characteristics

of government officials. Colman continued by stating that "Magistrates uphold

and adorn the world ... by employing their superior wisdom and knowledge, skill

and prudence, discretion and judgment for the publick good."103 Colman finished

his brief section on the merits of leadership by arguing that the virtue and success

of any people greatly depended on "pious, righteous and faithful government

which they are under." Only a fear of God preserved the proper behavior ofboth

government leaders and the masses. 104

Colman's sermon contained a blend of traditional Puritan regard for the

effects of a proper god fearing community, but it also marks an appropriate

beginning of a widespread discourse over the character and behavior of

101 Ibid., 13.

102 Ibid., 14.

103 Ibid., 15.

104 Ibid., 19 and 22.

43

politicians. Colman's call for wise, knowledgeable, prudent, and discrete rulers

with a concern for the public good is all too similar to the 18th century discourse

about Republican virtue laid out by historians like Gordon Wood. Other Puritan

minister's throughout the 1740s and 1750s continued to preach about the

importance of virtuous character in government officials.

On December 3, 1740, Joseph Sewall delivered a sermon entitled

"Ninevah's Repentence and Deliverence."105 Although it contained many

characteristics of a traditional Puritan fasting day sermon (I.e. calling for mass

repentance in order to secure God's protection of them), Sewall's sermon also

briefly addressed the problem of corrupt and immoral political rule. He warned

that "sin in the body politick, is like some foul and deadly disease in the natural

body which turns the beauty of it into corruption, and weakens all its powers."106

Sewall's solution was more religious than Colman's but still contained a concern

for the public good: "Then abide with God by taking his word for your rule, by

making his glory your highest end, and by seeking the public-weal in all things."107

Again, the importance of the public good to Sewall had that familiar, virtuous, and

selfless ring of republican virtue to it that so many of the Enlightenment endorsed.

105 Joseph Sewell, "Ninevah's Repentence and Deliverence," in Sandoz, 29-49.

106 Ibid., 43.

107 Ibid., 49.

44

The theme of virtuous political leaders also appeared in an election sermon

by Charles ChaWlcy entitled, "Civil Magistrates Must be Just, Ruling in the Fear

of God" on May 27, 1747.108 ChaWlcy's sermon reads more like a political treatise

with a small sermon thrown on the end to justify it to his audience. In fact, the

ftrst half of the sermon has very little religious content at all, as the following

passage is a good example of the tone of the sermon. The passage begins after a

brief introduction of why political leaders are a necessity:

But it is for the general good of mankind; to keep confusion and disorder out of the world; to guard men's lives; to secure their rights; to defend their properties and liberties; to make their way to justice easy, and yet injuriously treated; and, in a word. to maintain peace and good order, and in general to promote the public welfare, in all instances, so far as they are able. 109

The passage is repetitive, stating the importance of protecting the rights of citizens

and promoting the collective good in a number of ways.

ChaWlcy read a brief Bible passage before moving on to content that was

more political. The passage was from II Samuel Chapter 23, verse 9: "The God of

Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, He that ruleth over men must be just,

ruling in the fear of God." While ChaWlcy's biblical support for his sermon

contained the same concern with justice and the fear of God that other ministers

108 Charles Chauncy, "Civil Magistrates Must be Just, Ruling in the Fear of God," in Sandoz, 137-170.

109 Ibid., 145.

45

preached, Chauncy's explanation of it was almost entirely secular. In explaining

the proper characteristics of a political leader, Chauncy argued that a leader must

be "being possess'd of an inward, steady, uniform principle of justice, setting

them, in a good measure, above the influence of private interest, or right, in their

various stations, from the King in supreme, to the lowest in authority under

hirn."110 Above all, Chauncy felt politicians needed to be unbiased and above self

interest as he repeatedly returned to those topics through out the sermon.'''

Chauncy also stipulated that a just leader needed to know his role, not overstep his

own authority and respect the checks and balances within the government to limit

his power. 112 The use of checks and balances is a clear influence of the

Enlightenment, and Chauncy's use of it makes him one of the more significant

players in this aspect of the American Enlightenment.

Chauncy, in light of his position on the Great Awakening discourse, also

warned against placing men in political power who did not believe in the power of

reason. He went so far as to state that placing such men in power could lead to

war: "Or if, after all, war should arise, by means of the pride, or avarice, or self-

110 Ibid., 146.

111 Ibid., 148 and 155.

112 Ibid., 146.

46

will and tyranny of unreasonable men ... " 113 Chauncy reiterated that point again

by stating that "Nor is every pious good man fit to be entrusted with civil

power."114 Thus, not only did Chauncy believe that ministers needed to be

influenced by reason; he believed that all leaders needed to endorse the power of

reason. In fact, to Chauncy choosing men who feared God to be leaders was the

functional equivalent of choosing men of Republican virtue. tts In terms of virtue,

the Puritan and Enlightenment ideologies found a common language and a

common principle, further enabling them to coexist as the 18th century moved

forward.

The concern with the character of political leaders continued into the

1760s with the sermon "The Presence of God with his People," given on May 28,

1760 by Samuel Dunbar. Although the sermon is mostly concerned with keeping

faith in God during times of political and military upheaval, Dunbar still utilized

the same discussion regarding proper leadership. To Dunbar, it was imperative to

select men with God's chosen character, "men of sense and substance; such as

fear God; men of virtue and piety; men of truth, hating covetousness; men of

113 Ibid., 163.

114 Ibid., 166.

115 Ibid., 170.

47

fidelity, generosity and a public spirit."116 Dunbar even used the same Bible verse

as the Biblical doctrine in his sermon as Chauncy used in 17 4 7. 117 However, as

more political interaction occurred between England and the colonies, more

Puritan sermons turned away from the abstract conversations of what political

leaders should be like to sermons directly addressing what was happening. 118 And

as Heimert illustrates, the sermons shifted to a focus on nationalism, patriotism,

and in some cases on revolution. 119

The ministers of 18th century Puritan Massachusetts represent an important

core group of thinkers in the American Enlightenment. In the context of the Great

Awakening of the 1740s, they were simultaneously part of the traditional social,

power structure being criticized, and part of the intellectual discourse that

resulted. The revivalist ministers like Tennent and Edwards have never received

enough credit for their role in starting and maintaining the discourse that resulted

in widespread questioning of what a ministers character should be. The rationalist

ministers like Chauncy forced them, ultimately, to submit at least partially to the

116 Samuel Dunbar, "The Presence of God with his People," in Sandoz 207-230.

117 Ibid., 225.

118 The sermons in Sandoz become more and more focused on actual events and on freedom and revolution in the latter half of the 18th century.

119 See the latter half of Heimert's book.

48

power of reason in the form of creating a college similar to Harvard and Yale,

which embraced just as much secular thought as the others did. Perhaps that is the

reason they are generally ignored. Or perhaps it is simply that most historians

looking at 18th century America only see the religion or the politics, but not both.

Regardless, the Great A wakening started a critical discourse concerned with

existing social and political institutions. As part of that discourse, concern for the

character and behavior of the leaders running those institutions became crucially

important.

The concern over power led to sermons questioning the character of

political leaders. Charles Chauncy represents an ever-important link between the

criticism of ministers and the criticism of political leaders. His criticism is

uniform through out the 1740s, emphasizing reason, virtue and justice in both

ministers and political leaders. It is also Chauncy who illustrates that virtue gave

Puritanism and Enlightenment thought a common ground, a way to coexist for the

rest of the 18th century. Heimert argues that the Great Awakening caused an

intellectual rift and sparked the activism of the masses that would last until the

American Revolution. I offer a minor revision of that position. The Great

A wakening was a powerful moment in 18th century America, specifically in

Massachusetts, but I challenge the notion that it produced an intellectual rift that

made the revolution possible. In light of this study combining the Enlightenment

49

and Puritanism, the Great Awakening sparked the existence of a culture of

criticism and concern for power that spread from religion to politics, and which,

once combined with the activism of the masses, enabled men to unite in

opposition to England.

50

CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION

A proper understanding of the intellectual life of 18th century

Massachusetts necessitates better definitions of Enlightenment than those offered

by many historians. The definition best suited for Massachusetts is Peter Gay's

definition of the Enlightenment as the presence of intellectual discourses

concerned with power and as a widespread culture of criticism. The presence of

Puritan religious values and socio-religious power structures provided a unique

setting for these Enlightenment discourses, which were dominated by Puritan

ministers in the middle ofthe century. The prevalence of political sermons and

the program of classical education that ministers in Massachusetts graduated from

illustrate the intriguingly cosmopolitan collision of Puritanism and secular

Enlightenment thought in the colony.

It is important for historians to continue to view the 18th century through a

lens that forces them to understand more about the American colonies than one

type of history allows. Too often historians research and understand too narrowly,

resulting in religious histories that do not address non-religious events, contexts or

political histories that ignore religion. With the exception of Alan Heimert,

histories of America in the 18th century struggle to incorporate understandings of

51

the secular and intellectual political world with the pious and emotional religious

world. This study tried to illustrate that it is possible and crucially important to

understand how the often-segregated religious and secular ideas of the 18th

century coexisted, even converged, and created a powerful intellectual force. A

force so powerful that it captivated all aspects of colonial society. Schools like

Boston Latin and Harvard, and the prevalence of political pamphlets in the 18th

century prove that the body of literate and educated citizens had ample exposure

to radical ideas. To complement the exposure to radical ideas students received

through their education, the frequency of sermons containing Enlightenment

subjects effectively delivered those radical ideas to less educated and literate

members of colonial Massachusetts. The convergence of those two enlightened

forces provided a unity of sorts heading into the American Revolution.

It is important to note that Puritanism and Enlightenment ideas were able

to coexist and intertwine for some time without necessarily resorting to deism.

John Adams and his family offer a good example. In the 1770s and 1780s, John

Adams represented the American colonies in Europe on several occasions and to

several countries, even bringing his son John Quincy Adams along with him. The

correspondence amongst the Adams family, an obviously cosmopolitan and

Enlightened family, illustrates that many aspects of Puritanism continued to have

a strong role in their beliefs.

52

On many different occasions, the family wrote phrases that illustrate a

belief in a providential God, a God that was graceful and controlled events in the

world. A letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams from December 3, 1778,

details plans for a return trip and John's apprehension about the sea voyage home:

"And Happy indeed shall I be if by the favour of Heaven I can escape the danger

of the seas and of enemies, and return to the Charming Office of Precepter to my

children."120 Adams expressed a similar sentiment again in a letter to Abigail

from November 15, 1779, where he wrote, "God Grant me and my little family a

happy passage and you and your little household, health, and comfort in our

absence.'m1 Young John Quincy Adams mimicked his father in a letter to Abigail

as well, saying, "I am (by the Grace of God) once more safely arrived at

Balboa."122 Obviously, the phrases quoted here are not extreme professions of an

extremely emotional faith, but neither are they the beliefs of deists. Kramnick, in

his definition of Enlightenment quoted at the beginning of this paper, argued that

the Enlightenment's assault on religion resulted in a rational religion where "God

became no more than the supreme intelligence or craftsman who had set the

120 John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 December 1778, Butterfield, ed. The Adams Family Papers: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 3, April 1778-September 1780 (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1973), 128-130.

121 John Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 November 1119,/bid., 235.

122 John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 January 1780, Ibid., 260.

53

machine that was the world to run according to its own natural and scientifically

predictable laws." Here the Adams illustrate that there was a middle ground.

Both John Adams and his son still believed in a God that had power to affect

events, that was graceful and active. Yet, they were also not enthusiastic

evangelicals.

A brief look at a letter by Abigail Adams provides an effective summation

of the convergence of Puritan beliefs and Enlightenment ideas. On March 20,

1780, Abigail wrote to her son in response to the Adams men's safe arrival. She

urged her son not to underestimate the role of God in their safety:

You have seen how inadequate the aid of Man would have been, if the winds and the seas had not been under the particular government of that Being who stretches out the Heavens as a span, who holdeth the ocean in the hollow of his hand, and rideth upon the wings of the wind. 123

Here, like her husband and son, Abigail expresses a belief in a providential God.

Abigail continued, making a very Puritan argument about the purpose of life and

an obligation to act:

It is not to rove from clime to clime, to gratify an Idle curiosity, but every new Mercy you receive is a New Debt upon you, a new obligation to a diligent discharge of the various relations in which you stand connected; in the first place to your Great Preserver, in the next to Society in General, in particular to your Country, to your parents and to yourself. 124

123 Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 March 1780, Ibid., 310-311.

124 Ibid.

54

This passage expresses a concern with idleness and a religious obligation to

parents and work that characterized Puritanism in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Furthermore, according to Abigail, ''the only sure and permanent foundation of

virtue is Religion."125 Here again, in 1780, the central importance ofvirtue as a

link between Puritan values and Enlightenment values is evident.

Interestingly, Abigail follows those Puritanical passages by warning

against allowing his emotions, religious or otherwise, to control him, writing that

"This passion unrestrained by reason cooperating with power has produced the

subversion of cities, the desolation of countries, the Massacre of Nations, and

filled the world with injustice and oppression."126 Abigail's concern with

developing her son's use of reason to control his religious passions is a strong

indicator of how great an impact the ministerial Enlightenment in 18th century

Massachusetts had on those who observed it. Clearly, the concern with

enthusiasm expressed in the ministers' discourse surrounding the Great

Awakening did not simply subside with the onset of the American Revolution. It

is equally clear that citizens of Massachusetts could be influenced by both their

Puritan religion and Enlightenment ideals without resorting to deism.

125 Ibid.

126 Ibid.

Reading through the writings of John, Abigail, and John Quincy Adams

55

does raise an important question about the use of religious language. Does use of

the word God indicate true religious belief? The answer, of course, is that it does

not necessarily indicate belief in any certain terms. For John and John Quincy,

their use of religious phrases may have just been socially acceptable ways to

express emotions or may just be indications that some religious belief is there.

However, Abigail Adams offers much more. Her writing indicates a deeper

religious belief and more insight into how Puritanism and Enlightenment ideals

could coexist. Perhaps Abigail was more pious than her husband and son, or

perhaps it was more acceptable for a woman to express the depth of her religious

convictions than it was for a man to do so. Regardless, the importance of her

writings here is to illuminate how Puritan piety and Enlightened rationalism

coexisted.

As Alan Heimert explains in Religion and The American Mind, the latter

half of the 18th century saw increasing numbers of ministers apprehensive about

the behavior of enthusiastic masses. Specifically concerned were men like

Charles Chauncy who felt reason should govern the passions. 127 Heimert does not

credit the Enlightenment as the source of that concern, but this paper illustrates

that the discourses that resulted in concern with and use of enthusiasm to discredit

the revivalists were a direct influence of the Enlightenment.

127 Heimert, 418.

56

More research is still needed to attain a thorough understanding of the

coexistence and convergence of religious and Enlightenment thought in the

American colonies. Studies of all the colonies need to be done to arrive at a more

complex and sophisticated understanding of 18th century intellectual life. Too

many narrowly focused histories of 18th century America already exist. Historians

need to attempt to unify historical explanations in search of more sophisticated

relationships between ideas, events, people, religions, and forms of authority.

Historians need to embrace the criticism handed down from the

Enlightenment and never stop asking questions about our past. Specifically,

research on the 18th century in American history should never cease. It was one

of the most influential centuries in our history. It represents a new classical period

for all humankind to study. It was full of ambitious ideas, dynamic individuals,

fundamental structural changes, and a desire to improve in whatever ways

possible. The 18th century can still teach and should still teach us. In an age of

war, it is imperative that we revisit our classical heritage and remember what we

stand for. I hope I never reach an age when the lessons of such a valuable century

of history are forgotten. I hope I never see a country that stops trying to

remember.

57

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