Emerson and Rome

Abstract

New England, in the opening years of the nineteenth century, was religious--very religious and very Protestant. I do not mean by this that the prevailing religious tendencies were necessarily anti-Catholic, but rather, that they were decidedly un-Catholic. For two hundred years dogmatic Calvinism had governed the beliefs of New Englanders. True, the name had been changed since the time of Jonathan Edwards to Congregationalism, but the Puritan influences were still there; and, indeed, the devout of the day were anxiously striving to keep them there, and to purge the church of such innovations as seemed to encroach upon the old doctrines. But the new liberalism could not be kept out. Unobtrusively but surely, it worked its way into the minds and hearts of the people. The Romanticism that was sweeping Europe was finding its counterpart in America. The cold and stern teachings of Calvinism were giving place to the gentle and benevolent doctrines of Unitarianism. Youthful ministers were beginning to teach salvation by character instead of by the predilection of God. According to the new religion God was a beneficent Being Who held man responsible for his own salvation. In the meantime, another religious force was making itself felt. This new force was Roman Catholicism. Until the eighteen-thirties, there had existed in America a feeling of opposition between Catholicism and democracy. As industrialism grew in New England, Canadian-French and Irish immigrants found work in the factories. The resulting opposition was two-fold, toward the immigrant labor and toward the Catholic religion professed by most of the laborers. The priests who came to care for the increasing Catholic'population were frequently incapable of understanding the American way of life, and thus added to the feeling against the Church. Much of the opposition, too, was due to ignorance, especially to the failure to understand Catholic allegiance to the Pope. Meanwhile, Anglican ministers in America began to realize that the English church was collapsing. They decided that the only thing for them to do was to start an independent church, but the English bishops refused to ordain American bishops. Finally, however, they relented and Bishop Hobart and others were ordained. With Hobart's establishment of a seminary in New York, the Protestant Episcopal Church had its beginning in the New World. Hobart then became interested in tracing the history of the church back to its Apostolic origin. He became, therefore, a High Church Episcopalian. Many of his followers, especially among the older families really traced the church's existence to the Apostles, found the Truth, and became converts to Catholicism. Thus was the fear that Catholicism offered a threat to democracy broken down. With the increase in the number of converts, thinkers of the day became more and more conscious of Catholicism as a dominant force in the lives of many of the people. Closely associated with the great minds of the period, a philosopher in search of truth, Ralph Waldo Emerson early became aware of the power of the Catholic Church. When he was but twenty-one years of age he recognized the worth of Catholic theology, although he found it impossible of acceptance. This awareness of Catholicism was not a passing whim with him, for as the years passed, he mentioned it time and again. Sometimes he notes the conversion of a friend, as in a letter to his brother, dated January 9, 1827, "I saw George Reed the other day who was first scholar in the class before mine, and who is recently become a flaming Roman Catholic." Again he frequently associated the Church and art and commends the Church for always putting the arts to good use in her services. Had there been no earlier interest the conversion of Orestes Brownson alone would certainly have brought him face to face with the power of Catholicism. Emerson's life-time covered a period of development for the Church in America, and while he did not delve deeply enough into her doctrines to merit the gift of Faith, he never lost interest in her. Of Calvinistic ancestry, Ralph Waldo Emerson descended from seven generations of 'painful preachers.' The first of these was the Reverend Peter Bulkeley, who perhaps, was the one from whom Emerson inherited his non-conformist traits. Reverend Bulkeley, himself the son of a minister, had, in 1634, been reported to Archbishop Laud, the primate, for his objections to what he considered a too rigid adherence to ceremonial. He was promptly silenced. Rather than acquiesce to observances contrary to his ideas, the belligerent minister crossed the Atlantic and sought religious tolerance in a new land. In 1636, he founded the village of Concord, Massachusetts, where he lived until his death. It was his granddaughter, Elizabeth Bulkeley, who married into the Emerson family when she became the wife of the Reverend Joseph Emerson. The descendants of this union of the two families were scholars and thinkers, men remarkable for their stanchness, their imperious and determined natures, and their decisive and resolute manhood….Such then, was the heritage of the man who was later to be known as the 'Concord Sage.' He was born in Boston, on May 25, 1803, the fourth child and third son of the Reverend William and Ruth (Haskins) Emerson. It was rather a cheerless world in which the young Emerson began his life. The narrow dogmatism of the Calvinists was not the sort of religion to promise a gay and happy existence. They were too orthodox in their beliefs, too stern in their discipline to admit of anything bordering upon a lighthearted enjoyment of the pleasures of this earth. Although the Emersons had by now adopted the new Unitarian religion, they still ordered their lives quite in accordance with the old principles of conduct. Circumstances in their household soon cast an even more somber and gloomy shadow over the future for the Reverend William Emerson died in May, 1811. Mrs. Emerson was therefore left with the task of supporting six children, the eldest a boy of six years, and the youngest a little girl of a few months. This proved to be somewhat of a problem. It would have been more economical to live in the country, but the boys had to be educated for, as their aunt, Miss Mary Moody Emerson, put it, her nephews were 'born to be educated.' Consequently, any thought of a removal from the city was out of the question. Socially, the Emersons should have been mingling with the most aristocratic families of Boston. Abject poverty made this impossible. At times the children were without food, and on such occasions, their aunt Mary would regale them with stories of Spartan endurance. Sparse diet for growing boys! But there was not only the hardship of hunger. During this period Ralph and his brother Edward had but one coat between them, so that they had to take turns going out in the cold winter weather. This was the cause of many unkind jeers and taunts on the part of the neighborhood boys. Might not the aloofness so characteristic of Emerson in his later years have been, at least in part, the result of a withdrawal from companionship consequent upon such unhappy incidents of childhood? Certainly, there are few evidences of his having engaged in the pursuits common among young boys. Rufus Dawes, a schoolmate of his at the Latin school describes him as “…a spiritual looking boy in blue nankeen … whose image more than any other's is still deeply stamped upon my mind as I saw him and loved him, I know not why, and thought him so angelic and remarkable.” … On March II, 1829, Mr. Emerson was ordained as a Unitarian minister, the colleague of the Reverend Henry Ware of the Second Church in Boston. Not long afterward, Mr. Ware made a trip to Europe for his health, leaving Emerson in charge of the Church. When Mr. Ware returned to the United States, he decided to resign from his pastorate and to accept the chair of Divinity at Cambridge. Emerson was left as the sole incumbent of the Second Church. In the meantime, the new minister had been married to Miss Ellen Tucker. There now began a period of almost unbelievable happiness and Miss Mary Moody Emerson's hopes soared. Emerson's parishioners seemed to enjoy his preaching and were apparently well satisfied. But he himself was not content. He soon found that his beliefs and theirs no longer coincided, and in the summer of 1832 he resigned. Emerson's health had been impaired for some time and his condition having been aggravated by the death of his wife in February, 1831, he now suffered a complete breakdown. A sea voyage was recommended but he did not see fit to make it immediately. It was not until December, 1832, that he made his first European trip. He returned to the United States in October, 1833, a changed man. He had left America broken in health and spirit; he came home charged with new vigor and new faith. Two years later, on September 14, 1835, he married Miss Lydia Jackson, and took up his permanent residence in Concord. For the first four years after his return, each Sunday found him preaching, by special invitation, in one or the other of the churches in the vicinity about Concord. By 1847, however, he had ceased preaching altogether, and little by little he finally discontinued attendance at church. But his interest in philosophical themes never wavered. Emerson's first literary work, Nature, was published in 1836. In this essay he gives expression to all the doctrines and beliefs that later became synonymous with his name. The Dublin Review for March, 1849, says of it, "His Nature is … the most graceful and accomplished statement and defense of the doctrines of Pantheism that has appeared: but it is no more. It is destitute of right aspirations and conclusive argument.” Small praise for what is, perhaps, his most important work. ...