This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

42THE EPISCOPALIANSANGLICAN PATRIOTSAs the foregoing discussion suggests, there was a very close connection betweenmembership in the Church of England and loyalist sympathies amongAmericans living in the northern colonies when the War for Independence began.This trend was almost exactly reversed, however, in the southern colonies, especiallyin Virginia, where many of the principal leaders of the Revolution wereAnglicans.In Virginia in the early 1770s, the Church of England was still firmly establishedby law and lay vestries continued to exercise control over the affairs oftheir parishes. George Washington, for instance, was a vestryman, a pewholder,and a regular (albeit decidedly rationalistic) Anglican churchgoer. In spite of hisinstitutional ties to the Church of England, however, Washington saw no conflictbetween his religious faith and his commitment to the revolutionary cause. As alayperson, of course, he did not have to swear a religious oath to support andpray regularly for George III—a fact that helps explains why a far higher proportionof Anglican laity in the South became patriots in comparison to the clergy.Nevertheless, most of the clergy in Virginia either wholeheartedly supported theRevolution or assumed a neutral position during the war, while only about onein five remained loyal to Great Britain. 31 Unlike their high church colleagues inthe North, who emphasized the theological and liturgical distinctiveness of Anglicanism,the clergy of Virginia tended to be as deistic in their religious sentimentsas the local gentry on whom their salaries were dependent. Thus, whenprominent church members such as Washington, Patrick Henry, and others ledtheir colony into revolt, the Anglican clergy were generally willing to bless theirefforts. 32A popular (though perhaps apocryphal) story recounts the dramatic decisionof the Anglican clergyman John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg of Woodstock, Virginia,to join the Continental army. Serving at an Anglican parish in the colony’sbackcountry, Muhlenberg not only took the lead in organizing the Committee ofSafety in his county but also accepted appointment as the colonel of the localmilitia. One Sunday morning in early 1776, after preaching a rousing sermon onEcclesiastes 3:1 (“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purposeunder the heaven,” KJV), Muhlenberg threw off his vestments and revealed themilitia uniform he was wearing underneath. Then, summoning the men of hiscongregation to join him in the fight against the British, he marched down theaisle and out of the church. So strong was his commitment to the patriot causethat he later became a brigadier general and commanded troops at several majorbattles during the war. 33 In defense of his military activities, Muhlenberg declared,“I am a clergyman, it is true, but I am a member of society as well . . . , and myliberty is as dear to me as to any man.” 34Needless to say, not all Anglican clergy in the South took as active a role inthe war as Muhlenberg, but the majority in North Carolina, South Carolina, andGeorgia still were patriots—the strongest support coming from South Carolina,