Religion and Authority: Problems of the Anglican Establishment in Virginia in the Era of the Great Awakening and the Parsons' Cause

Abstract

cc HIS Government has hitherto enjoied the singular Happiness, that all the Subjects here agree in Uniformity of Worship, J... according to the Doctrine of the Church of England, which is here by Law established: And we have among us no Conventicles, or Meetings.' George Webb, writing in 1736, was understandably complacent. Not only was he able to pass swiftly over the troublesome area of English laws governing diversity in religion, but also he could take pride in the single, simple system of community and authority which prevailed in the old Virginia whose laws he was reducing to rule of thumb. It would be misleading to refer to the colonial Virginia pattern as a union of church and state, but it is important to emphasize that legal and social authority coincided closely with, and were, at the local level, intimately related to, the Church. Vestrymen were officeholders with civil functions, and civil magistrates, such as the justices and the burgesses, were usually vestrymen. The community and the congregation were one; church attendance was still compulsory, and grand jury