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99-505: Linonia was founded on September 12, 1753, as Yale College 's second literary and debating society, after Crotonia , founded in 1738. By the late eighteenth century, all incoming freshmen became members either of Linonia or its rival society, Brothers in Unity , which was founded in 1768. Other debating societies arose throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, notably Calliope in 1819, but were relatively short-lived. By

198-512: A gathered church of believers (i.e., only those who were thought to be among the elect and could give an account of a conversion experience were admitted as members). Every congregation was founded upon a church covenant , a written agreement signed by all members in which they agreed to uphold congregational principles, to be guided by sola scriptura in their decision making, and to submit to church discipline. The right of each congregation to elect its own officers and manage its own affairs

297-661: A synod of ministers and lay representatives to meet in Cambridge to craft such a statement. The Cambridge Platform was completed by the synod in 1648 and commended by the General Court as an accurate description of Congregational practice after the churches were given time to study the document, provide feedback, and finally, ratify it. While the Platform was legally nonbinding and intended only to be descriptive, it soon became regarded by ministers and laypeople alike as

396-653: A General Convention for that state in 1796. The University of Vermont and Middlebury College were founded by Congregationalists. Congregational churches had been present in eastern New York prior to the Revolution, but expansion into the central and western parts of that state took place in the 1790s as emigration increased from Massachusetts and Connecticut. As New Englanders settled in the Old Northwest , they brought Congregationalism with them. The First Congregational Church of Marietta, Ohio , gathered in 1796,

495-617: A cappella in the United States. The earliest choral group, the Beethoven Society, dates to 1812 and emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as the Yale Glee Club . Although glee clubs around the country had spawned small collegiate ensembles since that time, the all-senior, all-male Whiffenpoofs , formed in 1909, are often considered to be the oldest collegiate a cappella society in the United States. Formalizing

594-569: A continuity of the theological tradition upheld by the Puritans . Their genesis was through the work of Congregationalist divines Robert Browne , Henry Barrowe , and John Greenwood . Congregational churches have had an important impact on the religious, political, and cultural history of the United States. Congregational practices concerning church governance influenced the early development of democratic institutions in New England. Many of

693-493: A dining hall, library, and student facilities ranging from printing presses to darkrooms. Each is led by a Head of College, a faculty member who serves as its chief administrator, and a Dean, who oversees student academic affairs. University faculty and distinguished affiliates are associated with the colleges as fellows. Unlike their English forerunners, the colleges do not administer academic degree programs or courses of study, but they do sponsor academic seminars that fall outside

792-748: A modification of the Westminster Confession of Faith , was adopted as a Congregationalist confessional statement in Massachusetts in 1680 and Connecticut in 1708. In 1684, Massachusetts' colonial charter was revoked. It was merged with the other Bible Commonwealths along with New York and New Jersey into the Dominion of New England . Edmund Andros , an Anglican , was appointed royal governor and demanded that Anglicans be allowed to worship freely in Boston. The Dominion collapsed after

891-476: A student of Yale President Timothy Dwight in 1809, and black abolitionist James W. C. Pennington , who was allowed to audit theology courses in 1837. Moses Simons , a descendant of a slave-holding South Carolinian family, has been suggested to be the first Jew to graduate from Yale. Though his maternal ancestry is disputed, he may have also been the first person of African-American descent to graduate from any American college. In 1854, Yung Wing graduated from

990-540: A style pioneered by black barbershop groups in New Haven, their repertoire was amplified by the founding of similar groups across the country. Coeducation in 1969 made possible all-women's groups and mixed groups. In all, there are now at least eighteen undergraduate a cappella groups in Yale College, ranging from a Slavic chorus to Christian a cappella. Student publications at Yale date back as far as 1806, but

1089-501: A supply of educated ministers, Harvard University was founded in 1636. In the aftermath of the Antinomian Controversy (1636–1638), ministers realized the need for greater communication between churches and standardization of preaching. As a consequence, nonbinding ministerial conferences to discuss theological questions and address conflicts became more frequent in the following years. A more substantial innovation

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1188-423: A week. Some of the oldest society buildings are enclosed and windowless; members refer to them as "tombs." Their activities have varied over time and across societies, but most societies meet for dinners, discussion, drinking, and long-form disclosure of members' life history. Despite a long history of social exclusion—of Jews and women in particular—many of these societies have prioritized membership diversity in

1287-639: Is commemorated in the Linonia and Brothers Reading Room at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library . The reading room contains the Linonia and Brothers (L&B) collection, a travel collection, a collection devoted to medieval history, and a selection of new books recently added to Sterling's collections. The library is undergoing renovation to be completed in 2023. The Linonian Society, Brothers in Unity, and Calliope are commemorated with courtyards in Branford College . Yale College Yale College

1386-470: Is drawn from students in the senior undergraduate class, Yale Law School , Yale Graduate School , and Yale School of Management . Linonia is the only Yale secret society known to tap students beyond the undergraduates. Each delegate is selected by unanimous vote among Linonia alumni and delegates. Linonia participates in Yale's tap night during the second week of April. Unlike many secret societies whose focus

1485-415: Is the members' biographies, Linonia meetings often involve debate on intellectual and political topics. In 1871, Linonia and Brothers donated their literary collections to the university's new central library, then shut down. Both societies had kept substantial collections of works not deemed suitable by the Yale faculty, which did not teach English literature until the late nineteenth century. The donation

1584-662: Is the oldest Congregational church in the region. In 1798, the Connecticut General Association created the Connecticut Missionary Society to provide for the religious needs of the new settlements. Between 1798 and 1818, the society sent 148 ministers to the frontier settlements of northern New England, Pennsylvania, and the Old Northwest. Initially, the society recruited settled pastors to undertake four-month tours in

1683-517: Is the undergraduate college of Yale University . Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, when its schools were confederated and the institution was renamed Yale University. It is ranked as one of the top colleges in the United States. Originally established to train Congregationalist ministers,

1782-902: The American Education Society in 1815 (which provided financial aid for seminary students), the American Bible Society in 1816, the American Colonization Society in 1817, and the American Temperance Society in 1826. Some of these were joint projects with Presbyterians. Following the example of the churches in Connecticut and Vermont, Congregationalists in other parts of the Northeast formed statewide associations. The Massachusetts General Association

1881-801: The Colony of Connecticut . Originally situated in Abraham Pierson's home in Killingworth, Connecticut , the college moved to Old Saybrook, Connecticut in 1703, when Nathaniel Lynde, the first treasurer of Yale, donated land and a building. The college moved again to New Haven in 1718, and was renamed for Elihu Yale , an early benefactor, merchant, and philanthropist. Founded as a school to train ministers, original curriculum included only coursework in theology and sacred languages . Although early faculty, including Jonathan Edwards and Elisha Williams , maintained strict Congregational orthodoxy, by

1980-838: The Conservative Congregational Christian Conference . The Congregational tradition was brought to America in the 1620s and 1630s by the Puritans —a Calvinistic group within the Church of England that desired to purify it of any remaining teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church . As part of their reforms, Puritans desired to replace the Church of England's episcopal polity (rule by bishops ) with another form of church government. Some English Puritans favored presbyterian polity (rule by assemblies of presbyters ), as

2079-603: The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89, and a new charter was granted in 1691. However, the power of the Congregational churches remained diminished. The governor continued to be appointed by the Crown , and voting rights were now based on wealth rather than church membership. In the 18th century, Congregational ministers began forming clerical associations for fellowship and consultation. The first association

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2178-869: The Patriots and American independence. This was largely because ministers chose to stand with their congregations who felt the British government was becoming tyrannical. Ministers were also motivated by fear that the British would appoint Anglican bishops for the American colonies. This had been proposed as a practical measure; American bishops could ordain Anglican priests in the colonies without requiring candidates for ordination to travel to England. Congregationalists, however, remembered how their Puritan ancestors were oppressed by bishops in England and had no desire to see

2277-740: The Reformed tradition that have a congregational form of church government and trace their origins mainly to Puritan settlers of colonial New England . Congregational churches in other parts of the world are often related to these in the United States due to American missionary activities. These principles are enshrined in the Cambridge Platform (1648) and the Savoy Declaration (1658), Congregationalist confessions of faith . The Congregationalist Churches are

2376-609: The "Black Regiment" or "Black-Robed Regiment" by the British. By 1776, there were 668 Congregational churches—21 percent of all churches in America. Congregationalism had been a tradition largely confined to New England, but Congregationalists would migrate westward as the new United States expanded. Vermont was the first of these new territories to be opened up. The first church was established in 1762, but there were 74 Congregational churches in Vermont by 1800. Those churches organized

2475-427: The "secrecy" of these senior societies is dubious; their existence is widely known and membership rolls for most are published yearly. Ten present-day societies— Skull and Bones , Scroll and Key , Book and Snake , Wolf's Head , Elihu , Berzelius , St. Elmo , Manuscript , Shabtai , and Mace and Chain —have private buildings near campus; many other societies have a fixed on-campus meeting space where they meet twice

2574-545: The Awakening, with Old Lights opposing it and New Lights supporting it. A notable example of revival radicalism was James Davenport , a Congregational minister who preached to large crowds throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut. Davenport denounced ministers who opposed him as being "unconverted" and "leading their people blindfold to hell." In March 1743, he held a book burning of the works of Increase Mather, William Beveridge , John Flavel , and others. Concerns over

2673-583: The Bible, attended church, and raised their children as Christians. Nevertheless, they were barred from receiving the Lord's Supper, voting, or holding office in the church. In the 1660s, the Half-Way Covenant was proposed, which would allow the grandchildren of church members to be baptized as long as their parents accepted their congregation's covenant and lived Christian lives. Some churches maintained

2772-571: The Council of the Heads of College, composed of the Heads of College of the fourteen colleges. The most distinctive feature of Yale College undergraduate life is the residential college system. The system was established in 1933, through a gift by Yale graduate Edward S. Harkness , who admired the college systems at Oxford University and Cambridge University . Each college consists of dormitory buildings surrounding an enclosed courtyard, and features

2871-596: The Edwardsean school of thought, became known, sought to answer Arminian objections to Calvinism and to provide a theological basis for the revivalism that had been unleashed by the Great Awakening. The New Divinity would remain the dominant theological orientation within the Congregational churches into the 19th century. During the American Revolution , most Congregational ministers sided with

2970-539: The Great Awakening, for example, was " Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God ", delivered by Edwards at Enfield, Connecticut , in July 1741. Many in the congregation were affected by Edwards's sermon, with minister Stephen Williams reporting "amazing shrieks and cries" caused by the heightened religious excitement. By 1742, the revival had entered a more radical and disruptive phase. Lay people became more active participants in

3069-868: The Massachusetts Bay Colony was First Church in Salem , established in 1629. By 1640, 18 churches had been organized in Massachusetts. In addition, Puritans established the Connecticut Colony in 1636 and New Haven Colony in 1637. Eventually, there were 33 Congregational churches in New England. According to historian James F. Cooper Jr., Congregationalism helped imbue the political culture of Massachusetts with several important concepts: "adherence to fundamental or 'higher' laws, strict limitations upon all human authority, free consent, local self-government, and, especially, extensive lay participation." However, congregational polity also meant

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3168-821: The Massachusetts General Association to support the creation of a foreign missionary society. The Connecticut General Association was invited to participate as well and hosted the first meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions . Through the American Board, Congregational churches supported missionaries in India, Ceylon, South Africa, Turkey, and the Hawaiian Islands. The American Board also established missions among Native American tribes, including

3267-477: The Massachusetts ministerial associations met in Boston in September 1705. They proposed a plan with two major features. The first was that associations examine and license ministerial candidates, investigate charges of ministerial misconduct, and annually elect delegates to a colony-wide general association. The second feature was the creation of "standing councils" of ministers and lay representatives to supervise

3366-598: The Moderates preached on practical topics and emphasized preparing for conversion through the use of the means of grace (preaching, catechizing , prayer) and pastoral care . Ezra Stiles was a notable Old Calvinist. In the two decades after the First Great Awakening, the tone of Congregational thought was set by New Light theologian Jonathan Edwards and his followers, the most notable being Joseph Bellamy and Samuel Hopkins . The New Divinity , as

3465-526: The State of Religion in New England , which attacked the enthusiasm and extravagant behaviors of revival meetings. Other Congregationalists met at Boston in 1743 under the leadership of Benjamin Colman of Brattle Street Church and Thomas Prince of Old South Church . They issued a resolution supporting the revival as the work of God and downplaying the impact of "irregularities" that had occurred. Nevertheless,

3564-695: The United States. In the 20th century, the Congregational tradition in America fragmented into three different denominations . The largest of these is the United Church of Christ , which resulted from a 1957 merger with the Evangelical and Reformed Church . Congregationalists who chose not to join the United Church of Christ founded two alternative denominations: the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches and

3663-521: The Yale Corporation to oversee the affairs of each college. Residential college deans, who are supervised by the Dean of Yale College, are in charge of undergraduate academic oversight. Each residential college is governed by its Head of College, Dean, and Fellows, and has a college council of students with limited jurisdiction over student affairs. Issues affecting multiple colleges are governed by

3762-555: The Younger , William Brattle (pastor of First Parish in Cambridge ), Thomas Brattle , and Ebenezer Pemberton (pastor of Old South Church ) proposed a number of changes in Congregational practice. These changes included abandoning the consideration of conversion narratives in granting church membership and allowing all baptized members of a community (whether full members or not) to vote in elections for ministers. They also supported

3861-505: The absence of any centralized church authority. The result was that at times the first generation of Congregationalists struggled to agree on common beliefs and practices. To help achieve unity, Puritan clergy would often meet in conferences to discuss issues arising within the churches and to offer advice. Congregationalists also looked to the ministers of the First Church in Boston to set examples for other churches to follow. One of

3960-406: The atmosphere toward revival had changed by 1744 when Whitefield returned to New England. The faculties of Harvard and Yale issued statements critical of his methods, and ministerial associations throughout the region spoke against allowing him to preach in their churches. While most New Lights stayed within the established Congregational churches, there were still those in New England who embraced

4059-492: The baptism of all children presented by any Christian sponsor and the liturgical use of the Lord's Prayer . These changes were strongly opposed by Increase Mather , president of Harvard. The result was that Thomas Brattle and his associates built a new church in Boston in 1698. They invited Benjamin Colman, then in England, to become the pastor. Coleman was ordained by Presbyterians in England before leaving for America because it

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4158-416: The century's end. Participation and leadership in these groups was an important social signifier and a route to induction into prestigious senior societies. Thus extracurricular participation became central to student life and social advancement, an ethos that became a template for collegiate life across the United States. By 1870, Yale was the largest undergraduate institution in the country. The growth of

4257-535: The churches within a geographical area and to act as counterparts to the ministerial associations. The decisions of these councils were to be "final and decisive" but could be referred to a neighboring standing council for further review. If a church refused to adhere to a council's ruling, the neighboring churches would withdraw communion from the offending church. In Massachusetts, the proposals encountered much opposition as they were viewed as being inconsistent with congregational polity. The creation of standing councils

4356-442: The college and became the first student from China to graduate from an American university, and in 1857, Richard Henry Green became the first African-American man to receive a degree from the college. Until the rediscovery of Green's ethnic descent in 2014, physicist Edward Bouchet , who stayed at Yale to become the first African-American PhD recipient, was believed to also be the first African-American graduate of Yale College. In

4455-514: The college began teaching humanities and natural sciences by the late 18th century. At the same time, students began organizing extracurricular organizations: first literary societies , and later publications, sports teams, and singing groups. By the middle of the 19th century, it was the largest college in the United States. In 1847, it was joined by another undergraduate school at Yale, the Sheffield Scientific School , which

4554-584: The college has focused on international recruitment, quadrupling the fraction of international students admitted between 1993 and 2013. Yale College is a constituent school of Yale University and contains a dependent system of residential colleges . Its executive officer is the Dean of Yale College, who is appointed to a five-year term by the Yale Corporation . The dean oversees undergraduate academic curriculum, extracurricular activities, and student discipline, but does not have direct control over

4653-521: The college worked to exclude non-Christian men, especially Jews, as well as non-white men. By the mid-1960s, these processes were becoming more meritocratic, allowing for the recruitment of a racially, economically, and geographically diverse student body. This meritocratic transition encouraged the university to establish the first need-blind admissions policy in the United States. After several decades of debate about coeducation , Yale College admitted its first class of women in 1969. In recent years,

4752-523: The division over the Half-Way Covenant was part of a larger loss of confidence experienced by Puritans in the latter half of the 17th century. In the 1660s and 1670s, Puritans began noting signs of moral decline in New England, and ministers began preaching jeremiads calling people to account for their sins. The most popular jeremiad, Michael Wigglesworth 's " The Day of Doom ", became the first bestseller in America. The Savoy Declaration ,

4851-554: The earliest still in print, the Yale Literary Magazine , was founded in 1836 and is believed to be the oldest surviving literary review in the United States. Undergraduate publications like the Yale Banner , a yearbook, and The Yale Record , a humor magazine, followed suit, often around the same time similar publications were established at Harvard and Princeton. The Yale Daily News , established in 1878,

4950-434: The early 20th century, the student body was predominantly "old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians"—a group later called WASPs . By the 1970s, it was much more diverse. Enrollment at Yale only became competitive in the early 20th century, requiring the college to set up an admissions process. As late as the 1950s, tests and demographic questionnaires for admission to

5049-435: The earthquake of October 29, 1727. In 1735, Jonathan Edwards led his First Church congregation of Northampton, Massachusetts , through a religious revival. His Narrative of Surprising Conversions , describing the conversion experiences that occurred in the revival, was widely read throughout New England and raised hopes among Congregationalists of a general revival of religion. These hopes were seemingly fulfilled with

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5148-613: The end of the Civil War , the social dominance of Linonia and Brothers began to decline. Both folded in the 1870s. The debating society system ultimately evolved into the Yale Union and later in 1934, the Yale Political Union . Linonia was reconstituted multiple times throughout the 20th century, with its current form taking the shape of Yale's other undergraduate secret societies . Each year's delegation of twenty

5247-505: The end of the 18th century, Congregationalists were divided between liberal, Old Calvinist, and New Divinity factions. Under the influence of Enlightenment thought, liberals rejected the Calvinism of their Puritan heritage, particularly the doctrines of total depravity , unconditional election, and double predestination . These taught that sinners were deserving of damnation while helpless to achieve salvation. Liberals believed this

5346-486: The expansiveness of the undergraduate curriculum were waged throughout the early 19th century, with statements like the Yale Report of 1828 re-asserting Yale's conservative theological heritage and faculty. Later in the century, William Graham Sumner , the first professor of sociology in the United States, introduced studies in the social sciences. These expanding fields of study were integrated with graduate schools of

5445-410: The first secret society at the university, Skull and Bones . Skull and Bones "tapped" select juniors for membership as seniors, a ritual later adopted by all undergraduate senior societies. Since then, senior societies have proliferated at Yale, with recent estimates of 41 existing societies and senior class membership ranging from ten to fifty percent of each class. Although once carefully guarded,

5544-701: The ideology of its leaders, the society's literature heavily favored the writings of Jonathan Edwards and the New Divinity. Its most widely circulated publication was the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine , which provided coverage of revivals and missions around the world and which was read as far south as Georgia. In 1799, the Massachusetts Missionary Society was established under the leadership of Nathanael Emmons . Like its Connecticut counterpart, it

5643-485: The last several decades. The semi-secrecy and influential membership of Yale's older senior societies has attracted wide interest and scrutiny, particularly when both 2004 U.S. presidential candidates were members of Skull and Bones. Congregationalism in the United States Christianity • Protestantism Congregationalism in the United States consists of Protestant churches in

5742-472: The limitation of voting rights to full church members threatened to appeal to the English Parliament , raising fears that the English government might intervene to change the churches' restrictive membership policies. It was also thought necessary to combat the threat of Presbyterianism at home. Conflict erupted in the churches at Newbury and Hingham when their pastors began introducing presbyterian governance. The Massachusetts General Court called for

5841-400: The local pastor; violation of the law would result in the loss of a minister's state-provided salary. In 1743, the annual Massachusetts Ministerial Convention condemned "the disorderly tumults and indecent behaviors" that occurred in many revival meetings. Charles Chauncy of Boston's First Church became the leader of the revival's opponents with the publication of his Seasonable Thoughts on

5940-488: The middle of the 17th century, most churches did not have lay elders, and deacons assisted the minister in leading the church. Congregations also elected messengers to represent them in synods (church councils) for the purpose of offering non-binding advisory opinions. The Puritans created a society in which Congregationalism was the state church , its ministers were supported by taxpayers, and only full church members could vote in elections. To ensure that Massachusetts had

6039-417: The most prominent of these ministers was John Cotton , considered by historians to be the "father of New England Congregationalism", who through his preaching, helped to standardize Congregational practices. Because of these efforts, agreement on baptism , church discipline , and the election of church officers were largely achieved by 1635. The colonists developed a system in which each community organized

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6138-416: The nation's oldest educational institutions, such as Harvard University , Bowdoin College and Yale University , were founded to train Congregational clergy. Congregational churches and ministers influenced the First and Second Great Awakenings and were early promoters of the missionary movement of the 19th century. The Congregational tradition has shaped both mainline and evangelical Protestantism in

6237-524: The new settlements. When this approach proved unworkable, the society shed its opposition to itinerant ministry and began ordaining young men to serve as full-time evangelists. These operated similarly to the Methodist circuit riders , "moving from town to town, preaching revival sermons, catechizing youth, administering the sacraments, and distributing religious literature." The society distributed tracts , hymnals, sermon collections, and theological treatises for use in religious worship and education. Reflecting

6336-455: The normal departmental structure of the university, and the Heads of College host lectures and teas for the colleges that attract high-profile visitors. Harkness' gift built and endowed eight colleges, completed from 1932 to 1934. Additional colleges were opened in 1935 ( Timothy Dwight College ), 1940 ( Silliman College ), 1962 ( Morse College and Ezra Stiles College ), and 2017 ( Pauli Murray College and Benjamin Franklin College ), bringing

6435-474: The opposite end of the theological spectrum were the Old Calvinists, who continued to adhere to Reformed covenant theology and the doctrines contained in the Westminster Standards . The Old Calvinists included both Old Lights, New Lights, and Moderate Calvinists within their ranks. Moderate Calvinists avoided preaching on the doctrines of election and reprobation in response to attacks on Calvinism from Enlightenment philosophers. To make Calvinism less offensive,

6534-440: The opposition of Mather and other conservatives, however, the church gained recognition, and in time it became indistinguishable from other Congregational churches. By the 1730s, Colman was the leading evangelical pastor in Boston. Ultimately, the formation of Brattle Street Church spurred Congregationalists to modify their polity and strengthen the role of associations in order to promote greater uniformity. Representatives from

6633-430: The original standard into the 1700s. Other churches went beyond the Half-Way Covenant, opening baptism to all infants whether or not their parents or grandparents had been baptized. Other churches, citing the belief that baptism and the Lord's Supper were "converting ordinances" capable of helping the unconverted achieve salvation, allowed the unconverted to receive the Lord's Supper as well. The decline of conversions and

6732-461: The oversight of university's departments. Two additional colleges were built by 1940, two more ( Ezra Stiles College and Morse College ) opened in 1962, and two more ( Pauli Murray College and Benjamin Franklin College ) in 2017. For most of its history, study at Yale was almost exclusively restricted to white Protestant men, often the children of alumni. Documented exceptions to this paradigm include Hawaiian native Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia , who became

6831-667: The present-day number to fourteen. The first ten colleges were designed in Collegiate Gothic and Georgian Revival styles; the two colleges built in the 1960s are Modernist reinventions of the college plan. In 2007, Yale announced the construction of two additional Collegiate Gothic residential colleges near Science Hill , which opened in 2017. Residential colleges are named for important figures or places in university history or notable alumni; they are deliberately not named for benefactors. Yale College has been called "the epicenter of college singing," both for its long history of singing groups and its centrality in establishing collegiate

6930-604: The purview of academic departments , divisions of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences which offer undergraduate and graduate curricula. In addition, the faculties of three Yale professional schools , the School of Art , School of Architecture and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies , also offer undergraduate programs. Residential colleges, which are funded and controlled by the university, have separate administration and limited self-governance. The Heads of College (before 2016 called Masters ), usually tenured faculty members, are appointed to renewable, five-year terms by

7029-462: The radical wing of the Awakening–with its trances, visions and shouting. When radical revivalists could not control their local churches, they separated from the state churches and formed new congregations. These Separate or Strict Congregationalists were often poor. They rejected the necessity of an educated ministry, ministerial associations (which had tried to control the revival), and the Half-Way Covenant. Prone to schisms and forced to pay taxes for

7128-538: The religious constitution of Massachusetts, guaranteeing the rights of church officers and members. Missionary efforts among the Native Americans began in the 1640s. John Eliot started missionary work among the natives in 1646 and later published the Eliot Indian Bible , a Massachusett language translation. The Mayhew family began their work among the natives of Martha's Vineyard around

7227-725: The residential colleges. The position is currently held by Pericles Lewis , professor of comparative literature . All of the college's faculty are members of the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences and are thereby jointly affiliated with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences . Tenured members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences constitute the Board of Permanent Officers, who govern the school's curriculum and programs. Most undergraduate courses and majors are offered under

7326-638: The revival led the Connecticut General Assembly to call a synod in 1741, which was the last Congregational synod convened under state authority. This "General Consociation" consisted of both lay and clerical representatives from all of the consociations in the colony. It ruled that itinerant ministers should preach in no parish except with the permission of the local pastor. In May 1742, the General Assembly passed legislation requiring ministers to receive permission to preach from

7425-400: The same system in America. Ministers preached patriotic sermons on Sundays and during militia musters. Jonathan Mayhew, for example, preached an early revolutionary sermon on The Danger of Unlimited Submission . Many went to war as chaplains , and some actually bore arms in times of extreme danger. Because of their overwhelming support for independence, Congregational ministers were called

7524-533: The same time as Eliot. These missionary efforts suffered serious setbacks as a result of King Philip's War . By 1696, New England had over 130 white churches and 30 Native American towns with Native American preachers. In the years after the Antinomian Controversy, Congregationalists struggled with the problem of decreasing conversions among second-generation settlers. These unconverted adults had been baptized as infants, and most of them studied

7623-408: The school's system of residential colleges , established in 1932, and modeled after the constituent colleges of English universities . Undergraduates live in these colleges after their freshman year, when most live on the school's Old Campus . The Collegiate School was founded in 1701 by a charter drawn by ten Congregationalist ministers led by James Pierpont and approved by the General Court of

7722-401: The services by crying out, exhorting, or having visions . Uneducated men and women began to preach without formal training, and some itinerant preachers were active in parishes without the approval of the local pastor. Enthusiasts even claimed that many of the clergies were unconverted themselves and thus unqualified to be ministers. Congregationalists split into Old Lights and New Lights over

7821-476: The start of the Great Awakening , which was initiated by the preaching of George Whitefield , an Anglican priest who had preached revivalistic sermons to large audiences in England. He arrived in Boston in September 1740, preaching first at Brattle Street Church, and then visited other parts of New England. Though he was only in New England for a few weeks, the revival spread to every part of the region in

7920-561: The state churches, Separate Congregationalists did not survive long. The more traditional ones returned to the established Congregational churches, while the most radical embraced adult baptism and became Baptists . Shubal Stearns , a Separate Congregationalist missionary to the South , became the founding father of the Separate Baptists . The Great Awakening further aggravated theological divisions that had already existed. By

8019-412: The student body prompted major growth in the college's physical campus, the greatest expansion of which occurred in 1933, when a gift of Edward S. Harkness created and endowed eight residential colleges . Modeled after the college system of Oxford and Cambridge Universities , the colleges were intended to be the social and residential centers of undergraduate life while leaving academic programs under

8118-506: The time as "low and unemotional." To spiritually awaken their congregations and rescue the original Puritan mission of creating a godly society, Congregational ministers promoted revivalism , the attempt to bring spiritual renewal to an entire community. The first two decades of the 18th century saw local revivals occur that resulted in large numbers of converts. These revivals sometimes resulted from natural disasters that were interpreted as divine judgment. For example, revival followed after

8217-490: The time of the American Revolution subsequent rectors, especially Ezra Stiles , relaxed the curriculum to include humanities and limited natural science education. Scientific courses introduced by chemist Benjamin Silliman in 1801, made the college an early hub of scientific education, a curriculum which was grafted into Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1847. As in many of Yale's sister institutions, debates about

8316-531: The two years following his brief tour. Whitefield was followed by the itinerant preacher and Presbyterian minister Gilbert Tennent and dozens of other itinerants. Initially, the Awakening's strongest supporters came from Congregational ministers, who had already been working to foster revivals in their parishes . Itinerants and local pastors worked together to produce and nourish revivals, and often local pastors would cooperate together to lead revivals in neighboring parishes. The most famous sermon preached during

8415-436: The university and amalgamated into a course of liberal arts education , which presaged the advent of divisional majors in the twentieth century. The relaxation of curriculum came with expansion of the extracurriculum. Student literary societies emerged as early as 1750, singing groups and student publications in the early 1800s, fraternities and secret societies in the mid-nineteenth century, and intercollegiate athletics by

8514-480: Was a cleansing purgatory , not an eternal punishment. Many liberals rejected the doctrine of the Trinity in favor of an Arian Christology that preserved the unity of God. For this reason, their opponents disparagingly called them Unitarians , even though they called themselves liberal Christians or Arminians. Alongside Chauncy, Jonathan Mayhew of Boston's West Church was another prominent liberal minister. At

8613-424: Was a relative latecomer but became the flagship campus daily, and continues to publish during every weekday of the undergraduate academic term. These publications have been joined by many 20th-century debuts, including The Yale Herald and The New Journal . In 1832, a rift over Phi Beta Kappa inductions between the college's two debating societies, Linonia and Brothers in Unity , caused seniors to establish

8712-400: Was absorbed into the college in 1956. These merged curricula became the basis of the modern-day liberal arts curriculum, which requires students to take courses in a broad range of subjects, including foreign language, composition, sciences, and quantitative reasoning, in addition to electing a departmental major in their sophomore year. The most distinctive feature of undergraduate life is

8811-460: Was approved by the General Assembly, and associations and consociations were formed in every county. The General Association of Connecticut was formed as a colony-wide organization of ministers and met for the first time in May 1709. The Saybrook Platform was legally recognized until 1784 and continued to govern the majority of Connecticut churches until the middle of the 19th century. Yale University

8910-464: Was assumed that the conservative churches of Boston would have opposed his ordination in New England. After arriving in November 1699, his manner of ordination was controversial given that it had not been done by the congregation he was to serve, as was Congregational practice. Brattle Street Church was organized on December 12, 1699, but without the support of the other churches in the colony. Despite

9009-615: Was dominated by Edwardseans and published its own periodical, the Massachusetts Missionary Magazine . The New Hampshire Missionary Society was organized in 1801, and the Vermont General Convention organized its own missionary society in 1807. Besides those dedicated to missions, Congregationalists created voluntary societies for encouraging education, Bible reading, and moral reform. Some of these became national organizations, such as

9108-407: Was established by the Congregational clergy of Connecticut in 1701. By 1740, there were 423 Congregational churches in colonial America—33.7 percent of all churches. Nevertheless, at the start of the 18th century, many believed that New England had become a morally degenerate society more focused on worldly gain than religious piety. Church historian Williston Walker described New England piety of

9207-766: Was founded in 1803 by the Old Calvinists and Edwardseans of that state. In 1808, the churches in Rhode Island organized the Evangelical Consociation of Rhode Island. The New Hampshire General Association was established in 1809. The General Conference of Maine was founded sometime in the 1820s, and the New York General Association was formed in 1834. In 1810, a group of students at Andover Theological Seminary , led by Samuel John Mills and Adoniram Judson , convinced

9306-625: Was never acted on, but Massachusetts associations did adopt a system of ministerial licensure. While largely rejected in Massachusetts, the proposals of 1705 received a more favorable reception in Connecticut. In September 1708, a synod met at the request of the Connecticut General Assembly to write a new platform of church government. The Saybrook Platform called for the creation of standing councils called consociations in every county and tasked associations with providing ministerial consultation and licensure. The platform

9405-494: Was the Cambridge Association , formed in 1690 for ministers in and around Boston. It met in Cambridge on the grounds of Harvard. Its purpose was to "debate any matter referring to ourselves" and "to hear and consider any cases that shall be proposed unto us, from churches or private persons". By 1692, two other associations had been formed, and the number had increased to five by 1705. In the 1690s, John Leverett

9504-550: Was the implementation of the "third way of communion", a method of isolating a dissident or heretical church from neighboring churches. Members of an offending church would be unable to worship or receive the Lord's Supper in other churches. In the 1640s, Congregationalists were under pressure to craft a formal statement of congregational church government. This was partly motivated by the need to reassure English Puritans (who favored presbyterian polity) about congregational government. In 1645, residents of Massachusetts who resented

9603-414: Was unfair and adopted an Arminian theology that gave individuals a role in their own salvation. Liberal Arminians did not teach that good works could earn salvation, but they did teach that a person who strove for regeneration by virtuous living and the performance of good works could expect to receive eternal life. Liberals such as Charles Chauncy embraced universal salvation and believed that hell

9702-423: Was upheld. The major offices were elder (or presbyter) and deacon . Teaching elders or ministers were responsible for preaching and administering the sacraments . In some churches, prominent laymen would be elected for life as ruling elders to govern the church alongside teaching elders (lay elders could preach but not administer sacraments). In the beginning, deacons largely handled financial matters. By

9801-543: Was utilized by the Church of Scotland , but those who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony organized their churches according to congregational polity (rule by members of the local church). The first Congregational church organized in America was First Parish Church in Plymouth , which was established in 1620 by Separatist Puritans known as Pilgrims . The first Congregational church organized in

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