George Roe Van De Water Manuscripts Accession (original) (raw)

The Cathedra Thompson and the Primacy of the Bishop of St. Columb

This article examines the life of The Right Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson, second Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi. A distinguished controversial theologian and author, he came to Mississippi from Wisconsin to Jackson through churches in Chicago, New York City, and New Orleans. This extensive biography on his life and family discusses the recovery of the Bishop's chair, his Masonic career, and several notable events such as the Great Chicago Fire, the 1876 Presidential election, the murder of prohibitionist newspaper editor Roderick Gambrell in Jackson and Jefferson Davis' funeral.

William Thomas’s Notebook: A Window on Seventeenth-Century Religion and Politics

William Thomas entered Brasenose College, Oxford, as an undergraduate in 1609 and, while there, possessed at least one small notebook in which he recorded sermons from hearing. After ordination in 1617, and as a committed Puritan, Thomas was twice ejected from his living at Ubley in Somerset, first in 1634, then in 1662 after the Restoration. In the period of the Civil War, he used the notebook to record excerpts from printed religious and political tracts. Now in private hands in New Zealand, this notebook adds to our understanding of the culture of sermon-notation, and to the life of Thomas himself, known otherwise through his published works and Somerset ecclesiastical records.

The American Civil War and its Effect on Religiosity in North Carolina

The American Civil War (1861-1865) caused many societal effects in North Carolina that are sometimes overlooked. In the absence of extensive scholarship on the war’s overall effects on religiosity in North Carolina, this study attempts to show that the Civil War did have a demonstrable influence on religious practice in the state. In the early nineteenth century, religiosity was steadily growing in the North Carolina. The demands of the war effort drew on North Carolinian manpower, leaving congregations depleted and without ministers. The war also affected North Carolina churchgoers by causing shortages of supplies, interdicting travel through hostile occupation, and bringing the destruction of church locations. However, the pre-war trend of overall growth continued throughout the war despite fluctuations and temporary decline in membership and attendance. Additionally, the war brought emancipation for African American, causing new African-American churches to be founded. The Civil War affected every church in North Carolina in some way, but it did not stop religiosity from continuing to grow in North Carolina.