INTRODUCTION. 
35 
received a charter in 1825. It has three professors and eleven students, and a 
collection of 4,000 volumes. The Lutherans, in 1815, established the Hartwick 
Theological Seminary, at Hartwick in Otsego county. It had two professors, 
some ten or twelve students, and a library of 1,000 volumes. The Theological 
Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, was instituted 
in the city of New-York in 1817. It was removed to New-Haven in 1820, but 
restored to New-York in 1821, and was then incorporated. It has now five pro¬ 
fessors, seventy-four students, and about 7,260 volumes in its libraries. It has 
given to the church one hundred and eighty-six ministers. The Presbyterian 
Theological Seminary, at Auburn, was founded in 1821. It has four professors, 
sixty-nine students, and libraries containing 5,000 volumes, and has sent forth into 
the vineyard of Christ three hundred and forty-four laborers. The presbyterian 
“ New-York Theological Seminary,” in the city of New-York, was established 
in 1836, and has four professors, ninety students, and libraries containing 12,000 
volumes. The* Baptist Association have founded an academical institution at 
Hamilton; the Methodists a similar one at Lima; and the Catholics a like insti¬ 
tution at Rose-Hill; with a laudable purpose respectively of elevating the stan¬ 
dard of education among their clergy. 
Although the various divisions of the church have generally observed forbear¬ 
ance towards each other, and a good degree of harmony has prevailed among 
their own communions, there has been enough of controversy to test the learning 
and skill of the clergy in polemic divinity. The first instance of this kind 
occurred in the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, and is known in its annals 
as the “ coetus and conferentic controversy.” The inconveniences of dependence 
upon the classis of Amsterdam, before mentioned, induced certain ministers, in 
1737, to propose the plan of a coetus or assembly of ministers and elders, which 
should have merely powers of advice and admonition. This plan which was 
adopted and approved by the church in Holland, called forth the exertions of the 
reverend Theodore J. Freelinghuysen. The arrangement proved inefficient, 
and, in 1754, the church was distracted by two parties, the one called the coetus 
