1789] ^'^■^'- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 289 



manner the Psalms should be used. Other parts of the Prayer 

 Book were taken in hand in the House of Bishops — we can hardly 

 say were placed in charge of committees, since the House con- 

 sisted of but two persons, one of whom, Bishop Seabury, presided, 

 and the other, Bishop White, constituted the body, where motions 

 were made, seconded and carried; he being the "be-all" and 

 "end-all" of everything outside of the Bishop presiding.* Bishop 

 Provoost kept himself away from the Convention. He had been 

 "indisposed" — indisposed, perhaps, to come to it — at the original 

 Convention. He became more and more "indisposed" with the 

 prospects of "Dr. Cebra's" presidency and powers, and almost 

 threatened a secession, which, however, he never executed prior 

 to 1 80 1, when he sought to resign his Episcopate, a resignation 

 which was not deemed admissible nor accepted.! 



The Bishops in their " House" renewed, if I remember, the ser- 

 vice for the Public Baptism of Infants; made alterations in the 

 English form of the solemnization of Matrimony, in the Order for 

 the Visitation of the Sick, in the Order for the Communion of the 

 Sick, in the form for the Visitation of Prisoners, in the Order for 

 the Burial of the Dead, alterations in the Catechism and in the 



* While the Convention sat in Christ Church, the "House of Bishops" sat in its 

 " Vestry Room," a small place on the north of the pulpit, and about seven feet wide by 

 twelve long. The "House" was a very small one, no doubt, but still large enough 

 for the two persons who composed it, and their Secretary, the Rev. Mr. Clarkson. 



•}■ The feeling between Bishop Seabury and Bishop Provoost threatened at one time 

 serious results. Bishop Provoost did not even call upon his Right Reverend Brother 

 while the latter was in New York. He openly denied the validity of- the Bishop of 

 Connecticut's Episcopal orders, and in private letters wrote of him as " Bishop Cebra," 

 an inexcusable impropriety if meant for an indignity, though lessened by the fact that 

 there was a family on Long Island where Bishop Seabury had once been that thus 

 wrote their name. The fact was that Bishop Seabury had been an avowed Tory — a 

 Chaplain, during the war, in a British regiment, and after the war a recipient of half- 

 pay. Bishop Provoost had been a strong Whig from the beginning, and is said, on the 

 occasion of a sudden attack by the British, to have himself taken up arms. Dr. Smith, 

 seeing the dangerous consequences which such a state of relations between two Bish- 

 ops — from whatever cause arising — threatened to the infant Church, sought at the 

 earliest date to bring the two gentlemen into harmonious intercourse. He spoke on 

 the subject to Bishop White, who responded to all his anxieties and wishes. Other 

 common friends were brought into council, and Dr. Smith suggested that Bishop Sea- 

 bury should make a visit to Bishop Provoost, the latter agreeing to be at home to re- 

 ceive it. Bishop Seabury agreed to make the visit. Bishop Provoost received the 

 visit cordially, and asked Bishop Seabury to dine with him on the same day, inviting 

 Bishop White, Dr. Smith and others to meet him. The invitation was accepted, and 

 from that time relations of harmony were restored. His efforts to bring about this happy 

 reconciliation Dr. Smith considered among the good acts of his life.. 



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