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.ÿþthe opening decade of the nineteenth century, Meade witnessed its plight;Episcopalians were disheartened, demoralized, numbed.On every hand oldparish churches and chapels had fallen into ruins, were abandoned, or weretaken over by Methodist or Baptist congregations, or even turned to less thansacred use.Clergy ranks were meager.A few parsons, defying the odds, laboredzealously and sacrificially, but others dispirited, apathetic, resigned barelywent through the motions.Attendance at worship was spotty.Among the wellborn, skepticism was in vogue.Among ordinary folk, revivalists held sway.Henry Adams would later observe:   The Virginia gentry stood by and sawtheir churches closed, the roofs rot, the aisles and pews become a refuge forsheep and foxes, the tombstones of their ancestry built into strange walls orturnedintoflaggingtobewornbythefeet of slaves.BishopMadison foundhis diocese left so nearly bare of clergy and communicants that after a fewfeeble efforts to revive interest he abandoned the struggle.  26The war, Meade argued, was partly responsible.Where armies had en-camped, churches were expropriated, buildings were damaged, levied tobaccoconfiscated, churchyards torn up.Money and supplies that might have goneto the maintenance or restoration of church properties were diverted else-where.Confiscation, inflation, and taxation all played their part.The costs ofthe war human as well as material continued to be felt long after York-town.Some parsons a minority deserted their parishes or were forced outas Loyalists.Relatively few in number, their actions had a disproportionatelydeleterious effect on the church.Moreover, normal attrition of the clergyranks through death, retirement, or relocation had in these abnormal circum-stances similarly devastating consequences as congregations were unable torecruit replacements.27The war, then, had a direct impact but was not a sufficient or even pri-mary cause.28 For the sources of the church s difficulties, Meade looked back tothe colonial church and its alleged spiritual flabbiness and moral impotence.Surface appearances to the contrary, the church could not save itself because,Laodicean-like, it was neither hot nor cold but lukewarm.Responsibility forthis sorry state of affairs rested ultimately with its parsons.Their lack of zeal,their undemanding latitudinarian sermonizing, their perfunctory and some-times dilatory handling of their duties, their pursuit of profit and pleasure,and, in a few instances, their gross misconduct, left the Anglican establishmentfatally impaired to defend itself.Meade believed that   the clergy had broughtthis ruin upon themselves.Guilt-stricken, they were afraid and ashamed.300 epilogue [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]