This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

16THE EPISCOPALIANSII, Anglican leaders were able to gain much greater control over ecclesiasticalaffairs in Virginia. Charles took measures to curtail the authority of the colonialgovernment, including the powers exercised by the lay vestries. And in tandemwith his secular policies, Charles granted greater authority to the bishop of Londonfor the supervision of the church and clergy in Virginia.Although the bishop of London had long held nominal jurisdiction over Anglicanchurches in the New World, most of the men who occupied that postbetween 1630 and 1675 had viewed the mission in America more as a nuisancethan as an opportunity. However, with Charles’s appointment of Henry Comptonto the see in 1675, the bishop of London began to take an active interest in thespiritual well-being of English settlers overseas. Compton sought to improve boththe quantity and the quality of clergy in Virginia. He not only tried to recruit asuitable candidate for each vacant parish position but also restrained colonialgovernors from inducting clergy until he had first confirmed their moral characterand orthodox theological views. In addition, he gained the right to appoint a“commissary” as his personal representative overseeing church affairs in eachEnglish colony. The ability of the bishop of London to assign commissaries helpedcement his relationship with the colonial churches and was to have a profoundeffect on the evolution of American Anglicanism over the next one hundredyears. 2In 1689, Compton appointed James Blair of Virginia to serve as the first Anglicancommissary in America. Blair had come to Virginia four years before, andhe had served in three different parishes in the colony. He immediately broughtorder to the affairs of the church by instituting a convocation system, by enforcinglaws on morality, and by attempting to have the value of tobacco (with whichclergy were paid) standardized. He also helped increase the number of clergy inVirginia from 22 in 1696 to 40 in 1707. Blair’s most important achievement,however, was the founding of the College of William and Mary in 1693. Havingpersuaded the House of Burgesses of the need to have a school for the trainingof new clergy, he obtained in England both a charter and the funding for theproject. Although Harvard College, which was founded in 1636, had the distinctionof being the first institution of higher learning in America, William and Marywas the second; as such it was the first college established by Anglicans in thecolonies.Blair’s success in Virginia convinced Compton of the usefulness of the commissarysystem, and in 1695 he appointed Thomas Bray to the position in Maryland,where the organization of church life had initially been even more desultorythan in Virginia. 3 In the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and withthe accession of the Protestant rulers William and Mary to the English throne,however, the Maryland legislative assembly passed three acts establishing theChurch of England as the colony’s official state church. The assembly also organized30 parishes with vestries to collect taxes and to manage religious andsocial affairs throughout the colony. Although Bray actually spent only threemonths in Maryland, his efforts there were similar to those of Blair in Virginia: