Catholicism

What we want to notice is that there were denominations; there were a variety of religious groups, which would settle in the New World. We want to talk, first of all, about the Catholicism. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church had tremendous influence in Europe, and so, as the Europeans came to the New World, many of them brought the Catholic religion with them. Early on in the settlement of the New World, shortly after Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, King Ferdinand sent Catholic missionaries to this New World. They came in through the southern part of the Americas, and they established missions along the way. They came into what is now the United States, in fact, into our areas and on up through the West Coast, once again establishing these missions all along the way. Their purpose was not so much settlement as it was to convert the Native American population that they came in contact with.

Well then, also, to the north the French would come into the area that is now Canada. They would bring with them the Roman Catholic religion, as well.

And so, it would be that early on there would be an influence of the Catholic Church here in America. I ran across some interesting statistics. This is interesting only from the standpoint of tracing and seeing the very rapid growth of the Catholic Church and the numbers to which it swelled. These numbers are accurate as far as I know. In 1789, Catholicism could claim somewhere between 19,000 and 24,000. In 1807, they had 150,000. In 1820, they had 244,000. That’s a period of only, what? 13 years [1807 to 1820]? And they almost doubled in size? In 1850, the number was 1,726,000. So, in the next 30 years [1820 to 1850], they increased by a little over seven times [244,000 x 7 = 1,708,000]. And by the year 1870, there were 10,626,000! Now, again, the reason that I mention that is simply, that that is rather phenomenal growth! And it is attributed to two primary reasons.

One of the reasons was the immigration of Catholics from Europe. Remember that initially from the early part of the 16^th Century on into the early part of the 17^th Century the Catholic missionaries—the Jesuits, the Franciscans, and others—were coming in not to settle, not to colonize, but to convert. Well, some of those conversions were successful, but Catholics weren’t coming from Europe in large numbers at that time. But then, as America started to grow, and in the 17^th Century and beyond, as the immigration into America began to take place in large numbers, those individuals coming at that time were coming into the eastern part of America. They were coming not to evangelize, not to convert the native population; they were coming to settle. And so, we see that there is a change, then, in this approach. Again, these later Catholic arrivals weren’t coming because they were Catholics; they were coming because they wanted to come to the New World. But, a large number of those coming in those days were Catholics. Thus, we see this phenomenal growth so that by the 1870’s they could claim more than ten million! That’s a lot!

Well, the other reason that this growth is attributed to is a high birth rate. Catholic families in those days—and, I guess, even in our day to some degree—have rather large families.

There were a couple of other things that were part of the, well, sort of the personality of Catholicism in America that would take place that would also enhance the growth; that is, parochial schools that they would establish, beginning in the early days and, of course, continuing even to our day. This would help to sort of insulate that community and keep the population from, as one writer put it, “leakage”; that is, this would help to keep people from coming out of Catholicism for something else. And so, we see, then, that there was a very, very large population of Catholics here in America.

European Protestantism

Now, we look at Protestantism in America, which, in those early days, was really a reflection of European Protestantism. Once again, for the most part, people who were coming to America—coming here to settle, coming here for religious freedom—were transporting and transplanting their religion that they had in Europe, primarily England, especially in those early days. And so, just to be reminded of what some of these denominations were and where they came from and how they were established, we would notice, for example, that when the Jamestown Settlement was established in 1607, it was the Church of England that would become their official religion. (This area is now, of course, Virginia.) That would remain so until 1776. And, of course, what took place in 1776? It was the American Revolution. Once the American Revolution took place, then ties with the Church of England would be severed, but the Church of England in America would simply be renamed, in effect, the Protestant Episcopal Church. It would be established in 1789. This is a similar transition to what took place in England when England severed ties with the Catholic Church, and they primarily took the Catholic Church and renamed it the Church of England. They had the same liturgy, the same hierarchy, the same religious practices, and so on. Well, the same thing, in effect, took place here in America in 1789 when the Church of England did, more or less, a name change. They continued with the same spiritual traditions, the same liturgy, the same practices, and so on. So, we see, then, the establishing of the Episcopal Church here in America.

Congregationalism was established in England by John Robinson in 1609. The Pilgrim Fathers would be an extension of Congregationalism, which was one of the Separatists groups that was established. When they landed in 1620, they set up colonies in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in Connecticut, and other places, and they would establish Congregationalism by law as the accepted religion of those colonies.

Lutherans migrated first from Holland. That was in about 1623 to 1624. They settled in New Amsterdam, which would later be renamed New York.

The Baptist Church was established here in America in 1639 by one named Roger Williams in the city of Providence, Rhode Island. Of course, the Baptist Church would grow to be one of the largest denominations here in America. There would be a number of changes and divisions which would take place in the Baptist Church. The major one took place in 1845, and it was over the issue of slavery. The Baptist church would divide into the Northern and Southern Baptists.

The Presbyterian Churches hold their American origin due to the efforts of one named Alexander Whitaker, who settled in Virginia in 1611. And in 1640 the first Presbyterian Church was started there.

The Quakers, or Friends, came to America in 1656. They first settled in Massachusetts, in Virginia and in New York. These individuals were considered to be very “radical,” very “far out.” One of the things that we talked about in our last lesson was the fact that many of these ones who had come here to the New World seeking freedom in religions, seeking tolerance for their beliefs, and so on, were themselves very intolerant. And so it would be that these Quakers, or Friends, because of what was viewed to be the radical nature of their beliefs, were not warmly received in most places. So, one named William Penn would establish sort of a haven for them in 1681 in an area that would later become known as Pennsylvania.

The Methodist Church is also today one of the largest protestant bodies in America. They first came to America, not as a distinct Methodist group, but as sort of independent followers of Wesley, and as members of the established Church of England. It would be through the efforts of two men, primarily, Thomas Cope and Francis Asbury, who would establish what would later become and be called the Methodist Episcopal Church here in America. Of course, they would later drop the “Episcopal” from their name, and they would settle in and become and be known as the Methodist denomination.

We see, then, that these are the principal, the primary, groups that were exported from Europe—imported, in a sense, to the New World, to this young nation. We can see that there indeed was a wide variety of religious groups. All of them, to this point that we have seen, had their origins in Europe, either on the Continent or in the British Isles.