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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES 3 3433 08236335 3 HENRY CODMAN POTTER m mm GEORGE HODGES Wmmm ? v 3Mr .'.Vp ••r. ;:••'- ^.A/Aroi Has ^^^^SSSsSmm^m Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/henrycodmanpotteOOhodg HENRY CODMAN POTTER •v9 o - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO Henry Codman Potter 1903 HENRY CODMAN POTTER SEVENTH BISHOP OF NEW YORK BY GEORGE HODGES DEAN OF THE EPISCOPAL THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS . > • Ntfo ff otfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1915 All right* reurvtd K RY !S5I89A ASTOB, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS H 1937 L Copyright, 1915, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1915. » • >*ortD00B JptfBS J. 8. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. THE WARRIOR-PRIEST He was our warrior-priest beneath whose gown The mailed armor took full many a dent When, at the front, all gallantly he went, the beloved town In civic fight, to save ; Then did the proud, outrageous foe go down, To shame and wide disaster swiftly sent, Struck by his steel to flight — in wonderment To see that calm brow wear the battle frown. For he was courteous as a knight of eld, soul of friendliness And he the very ; of in him lost never its The spirit youth power ; smile could bless So sweet his soul, his passing ; But this one passion all his long life held : To serve his Master to the last, lingering hour. KICHARD WATSON GILDER. Centubt Club December 12, 1908. PREFACE Richard Watson Gilder, of the Century Magazine, wrote to Bishop Potter in 1902 in the hope of persuading him to be his own biographer. " " You know," he said, what Samuel Johnson says about biography — that every man should write his own life. Have you not already begun jotting down your reminiscences ? I hope you have, or, if not, I hope you will begin. Of course, such things should be written as if not for publication. The question of how much should be printed, and when, would come in afterwards. You would probably think, in writing, that it would be only after your translation to the board of heavenly bishops. As a matter of fact, you might find that many chapters would be very good reading during your own lifetime. I am writing both as an editor and as a rep- resentative of our publishers in stirring you up about this." This pleasant invitation Bishop Potter declined. At the same time, quite unconsciously, he was preparing, year by year, a considerable store of autobiographical material. Two things we desire to know about a man : what he did, and what he thought. The canons of the Episcopal Church require of every bishop that he shall make a regu- lar and careful record of these two series of personal facts. He must keep, and annually print, an official journal re- cording all his visitations, his sermons and addresses, his religious services, with dates and places. Thus the biog- rapher of Bishop Potter is able to find out just where the bishop was and in what sort of episcopal act he was en- gaged on the ninth day of December, 1901, or on the twelfth day of April, 1884. Also a bishop must annually vii Vlll PREFACE address his diocesan convention. Such an address will naturally contain his comments upon the progress of events during the past year, both in his own diocese and in the church at large, together with a discussion of his plans and policies. It will inform the reader as to the state of his mind in such and such a year, in the midst of the problems of that time. These addresses are annually printed, and bound up with the minutes of the diocesan convention. I have made use of these materials. And since the addresses are not easily accessible to the general reader I have quoted from them freely, finding in them a revela- tion of Bishop Potter's interests and purposes, and of his attitude toward the changing contemporary situation. They were preceded by the yearbooks which he published while he was at Grace Church, each of which he prefaced with an address to the parish; he told them what had been done during the year, and what he desired of them in the year to come. And they were accompanied by the dozen volumes which Potter wrote two accounts Bishop ; of foreign travel, the others mostly sermons and lectures. Reticent as he was in conversation, even with his inti- mates, he had, like some other reticent men, a freedom of self-disclosure in public speech. There he spoke, as he rarely spoke in private. Into these utterances entered his faith, his devotion, his affection, his aspiration. It is possible, therefore, that one who follows him closely along the way of these frank statements may know him better than some of his close friends, certainly better than any of his ordinary acquaintances. I am in debt to the family of Bishop Potter, who have greatly assisted me to fulfil their wish that I should write his life and to some of them named ; many correspondents, in these but chief is due to the pages ; my gratitude help of the Rev. Dr. George F. Nelson, and still more to the memory of the Rev. Laurence Henry Schwab. Canon Schwab was to have written this book. He had prepared PREFACE IX himself to undertake it by assembling, sifting and arrang- for the work ing many materials. He was qualified by of his excellent literary gifts, and by an understanding the fruit of affection he knew him Bishop Potter, strong ; well. He was about to begin to write when a fatal illness stopped him. His painstaking labors have made my task easy. I have had occasion to remember him with thank- ful appreciation a thousand times during the making of this book. In calling Dr. Potter the seventh bishop of New York, I have relied upon an examination of the matter which was made, at the request of Bishop Greer, by the Rev. Dr. Seabury of the General Theological Seminary. The order is confused by the suspension of Bishop Onderdonk. During that period of discipline the diocese was governed by two provisional bishops : first, by Dr. Wainwright, who served for about a year, and died in the lifetime of the Dr. Horatio who suspended bishop ; second, by Potter, long outlived him. As a matter of actual diocesan adminis- tration, the bishops of New York were Provoost, Moore, Hobart, Onderdonk, Wainwright, Horatio Potter; Henry Codinan Potter was the seventh. As these words are written, the Chapel of St. James, in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, is being prepared as a memorial of him who made the Cathedral possible and actual. On the tomb, which is surmounted by a recum- " bent statue of the Bishop, are inscribed the words I saw the holy city coming down from God, out of heaven." It is the vision toward whose realization he directed the energy of his life. GEOEGE HODGES. St. Barnabas' Day, 1915. CONTENTS CHAPTIB PAGE I. Ancestry: Boyhood. 1834-1845 1 II. Preparation for the Ministry. 1845-1857 19 III. In a Country Parish. 1857-1859 34 IV. A War-Time Rectorship.

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