Friday, March 15, 2024

It is the 15th of March 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Every four years around this time of year, you will hear or read that curious name “Quinnipiac” for the famous poll based out of the university of the same name in Hamden, Connecticut. This comes from the Quinnipiac natives who gave the name to one of the original colonies, which was later renamed New Haven. New Haven would be one of the earlier and more peculiar colonies before it was eventually assumed into the larger Connecticut colony. And what made it so peculiar was the man largely responsible for its founding: John Davenport, who was born in Coventry, England, in 1597 and died in Boston on this, the 15th of March in 1670. Let’s meet this Puritan-of-Puritans and see what distinctive thought he brought with him to the new world.  

Davenport was educated at Oxford and established himself as a thoroughgoing Puritan just as the party of William Laud- the anti-Puritan Laudians would be ascending. This would be the impetus for many of the earliest colonists to flee to the Netherlands and, eventually, the New World, where they landed in Plymouth in 1620 and Massachusetts Bay in 1630. The latter colony was supported by a board of directors that would include Davenport and his boyhood friend and wealthy merchant Theophilus Eaton. In 1633, with the ascension of Laud to the role of Archbishop of Canterbury, John, and Theophilus saw the writing on the wall and fled to Holland, where he served as a pastor until a quarrel led to his leaving for the Massachusetts Bay Colony he had once helped oversee from England. The quarrel over who can be baptized would rear its head soon again.  

Davenport, Eaton, and their followers would leave the Mass Bay Colony not over any disagreement but because Eaton was a businessman, was substantially more wealthy than the earlier colonists, and knew that he would need a harbor of his own to manage his own shipping and trading affairs. They ended up amongst the Quinnipiac on the coast that they would eventually christen “New Haven”- likely inspired by the 107th psalm in their New Geneva Bible, which read: “When they are quieted, they are glad, and he bringeth them unto the haven, where they would be.”

[It should be noted that they were welcomed by the Quinnipiac, who did not see English colonists as a threat but rather as possible allies against their real fear: other indigenous tribes.]

New Haven’s political structure came second to its church structure- in fact, the early government met in Davenport’s church, only full members were allowed to vote, and they modeled themselves after the so-called Cotton Code of John Cotton, which set the Bible as the Constitution. The church and state would be technically separate- the first Magistrate, Theophilus Eaton, was not permitted to make decisions for the church as that was under the purview of the church leaders.  

But things would come to a head over the stipulation that only full members could vote, which was tied up in the controversy over Davenport’s stipulations about Baptism that plagued him in Holland. The question wasn’t about infant or adult baptism- infant baptism was the regular practice in the early colonies. The question was whether or not both parents of the infant were full members. That is, both baptized and “converted” members. The “converted” meant that the Christian had experienced the inward grace of salvation at a particular time and could give a public proclamation of the experience. Davenport required both parents to be “converted” in that sense before he baptized the infant. It was controversial, and it seems that Davenport was beginning to wear on his congregation and colony. When New Haven decided to join the Connecticut colony, Davenport opposed the union and took a call to a church in Boston that was undergoing a similar controversy over baptism. This was in 1668, and while his position was affirmed, it led to a schism and the creation of the Third Church of Boston (yes, not the second, because that church formed from an earlier schism… ladies and gentlemen: Protestantism!) 

Davenport served at the First Church for two years until his death on this day in 1670. A beacon to the old side Puritans who would quote him and his sermons into the coming century, and the founder of New Haven, Davenport surely deserves the sobriquet of “Founding Puritan Father.” 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and the book of Hebrews. Let’s stay with the Geneva Bible of 1599 because I have that one open:

14 Seeing then that we have a great high Priest, which is entered into heaven, even Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

15 For we have not an high Priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all things tempted in like sort, yet without sin.

16 Let us therefore go boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 15th of March 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who wonders what happened to the good old Puritan names Theophilus, Barebone, Kill-Sin, and Free Gift- (all real names). He is Christopher Gillespie. 

The show is written and read by a man who kids you not; we have Puritans named Humiliation, No-Merit, Helpless, and If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned (who went by Nicholas instead). I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.