repairing to church, and then to hold out
the idea of exemption, by a compliance with the provisions of such a law
as the statute of 1 William and Mary, adopted by a mere general
reference, when not one person in a thousand could possibly know its
contents." It was an age when the state of religion was low in England,
and of those ministers sent over to Virginia not a few were incompetent,
some openly profligate; and religion slumbered in the languor of moral
lectures, the maxims of Socrates and Seneca, and the stereotyped routine
of accustomed forms. Altercations between minister and people were not
unfrequent; the parson was a favorite butt for aristocratic ridicule.
Sometimes a pastor more exemplary than the rest was removed from
mercenary motives, or on account of a faithful discharge of his duties.
More frequently the unfit were retained by popular indifference. The
clergy, in effect, did not enjoy that permanent independency of the
people which properly belongs to a hierarchy. The vestry, a
self-perpetuated body of twelve gentlemen, thought themselves "the
parson's master," and the clergy in vain deplored the precarious tenure
of their livings. The commissary's powers were few, limited, and
disputed; he was but the shadow of a bishop; he could not ordain nor
confirm; he could not depose a minister. Yet the people, jealous of
prelatical tyranny, watched his feeble movements with a vigilant and
suspicious eye. The church in Virginia was destitute of an effective
discipline.[374:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[372:A] It appears from his will, dated in 1708, that he also owned a
house and lot in the new town in Princess Anne County, on the eastern
branch of Elizabeth River, and a house and lot in the new town on
Wormley's Creek, called Urbanna. Whether he used these houses for
merchandise, or for public worship, is not known. It appears from
Commissary Blair's report on the state of the church in Virginia, that
the congregation on Elizabeth River existed before the year 1700. From
the fact of Mr. Makemie's directing, in his will, that his
dwelling-house and lot on that river should be sold, it has been
inferred that he had resided there before he moved to the opposite shore
of the Chesapeake, and that the church in question was gathered by him;
if so, it must have been formed before 1690; for in that year he was
residing on the Eastern Shore. Others have supposed that the
congregation on Elizabeth River was composed of a small