All right.
Was he a Christian?
Okay.
If you were to visit Yale's Silliman Memorial Library,
entering through the main entrance and proceeding a few paces,
up to your left, just beneath the clerestory,
there is a sculpted stone panel.
Here it is, rendering a scene that has become the icon for the founding of Yale.
The panel depicts ten Connecticut ministers surrounding a wooden table
upon which they are ceremonially placing books they have brought,
most of them sizable folio volumes.
They are solemn in their action,
and yet their faces are alight with satisfaction
as they view this tangible evidence of their common determination.
As they step forward, in turn, and lay their offerings upon the table,
each pronounces,
I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony.
We will return shortly to this historic scene,
which transpired in the Branford Parsonage of Reverend Russell sometime around 1700 or 1701.
The vacillation on the actual year that this happened was so irritating for the stonemason,
because they made him correct the date.
See there, AD 1701?
They made him correct it three times.
And Yale was unsteady on this date,
and on the 150th anniversary,
they actually celebrated in 1850.
Still unsure, but now we're pretty settled that this happened in 1701.
Oops, wrong one, sorry, not yet.
But for the true beginning,
we must go back a little further,
back to the foundation of New Haven itself,
and the dream and determination of its first minister, John Davenport.
We recall last week, if you were there,
the animating motive behind the great migration which brought the Puritans to these shores
was that they, quote, might enjoy the liberty not of some ordinances of God,
but of all and all in purity.
This is John Cotton,
and his language is echoed by John Davenport, the founder of New Haven,
all his ordinances purely according to his own mind,
God's own mind in all things.
But this commitment that they reflect in all of their affairs,
the mind of God, had a clear correlate.
How could they be faithful to all the mind of God
without knowing the word of God?
This was very important to them.
If they lacked a thorough and deep acquaintance with the scriptures,
zeal was not enough.
It must be, to quote the apostle,
zeal according to knowledge.
Thus, the Puritan vision of godly church and society
was bound up with the utter necessity of godly learning.
Each community of the faithful must have ministers
capable of expounding God's ordinances aright.
And so, it was expected to have facility in the original languages,
Hebrew and Greek of the Old Testaments and the New Testaments,
and further to be acquainted with the expositions of the church fathers,
the scholastic philosophers, the reformed theologians, requiring also Latin.
This Puritan vision of society, they often compared to a stool,
a three-legged stool.
Two legs of the church and the state were not enough to make the stool stable.
I mean, try sitting on a two-legged stool.
It doesn't work very well.
They needed to have a third leg,
and that for them was the academy,
or else things would collapse.
Well, by the time Davenport and his fellow pilgrims arrived in Boston,
first before they came to New Haven,
their brother in there had already moved to form a college.
1638, sorry, 1636, my fault.
1636, there is the old Harvard College.
A little bit later, that's about the earliest woodcut that we have,
but it was similar to that.
As Cotton Mather writes,
after God had carried us safely to New England,
and we had builded our houses,
provided necessaries for our livelihood,
reared convenient places for God's worship,
and settled the civil government,
one of the next things we longed for and looked after
was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity.
Dreading, strong word,
dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches
when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.
Failing such a provision,
the churches of New England would be,
quote,
less than a business of one age,
and soon come to nothing.
Without a nursery for such men among ourselves,
darkness must have soon covered the land,
and a gross darkness the people.
So you see how important education was to them.
Davenport gave his support in these fledgling days of Harvard.
Indeed, was himself one of the overseers of the infant college.
But he and his clan soon pressed on to New Haven
to plant their own colony,
where was quickly established a free school
for the better training up,
this is a quote,
better training up of youth in this town,
that through God's blessing,
they may be fitted for public service hereafter,
either in church or in common will.
It was headed by the far-famed Ezekiel Cheever.
He was the contemporary of John Harvard
and also from Emanuel College in Cambridge,
and author of that much-celebrated Latin textbook
that was used across the colonies,
humorously titled Latin Accidents.
Not in the, like, crashing and terrible grammatical accidents
that probably many of his students made,
but not a great name for a Latin textbook
or a book on grammar, I suppose.
Latin Accidents, nonetheless.
New Haveners at the time were supporting Harvard
with contributions of corn,
but they desired to do more than simply supply a college in Massachusetts.
They wanted to possess one in New Haven.
And this especially was Davenport's desire,
and he began collecting books in the hopes of realizing this dream.
So soon, he writes,
as our ability shall reach thereunto.
Well, that was the rub.
For in the strange providence of God,
outward circumstances multiplied
to repeatedly scuttle the realization of a college.
Many of the settlers in New Haven were merchants,
some of them of no small means,
and would have likely become benefactors
of this hoped-for college.
But a terrible series of financial losses
virtually impoverished the colonies,
so full of commercial hopes.
The most devastating of these
was the Great Ship.
In the hopes of...
And you can, if you go to the New Haven Historical Society,
and you go up to the stairwell,
they have an enormous painting,
and this is one of them.
This is where we got this from,
as they insist on me sharing their New Haven Museum.
A little advert for them.
So, in the hopes of making good
their many losses,
the whole colony went together
to hire a great ship,
which they filled with all that they had,
in the hopes that these goods
might fetch a handsome price in England.
It was to risk all they had
in one pitch and toss.
In January 1646,
the great ship was loaded to the gunwales
and set out.
Davenport, the minister,
prayed in classic Puritan fashion,
yet expressed their steely-eyed
submission to the hand of God.
Lord, if it be thy pleasure
to bury these,
our family and friends,
in the bottom of the sea,
they are thine.
Save them.
Well, the ship was never seen again
or heard of at all.
Usually there's some flotsam or jetsam
somewhere on the sea near Bermuda,
and you figure it sunk.
Nothing.
No sign of it at all.
Well, when months rolled into a year,
the New Haveners feared the worst,
that the ship had been lost at sea.
But they prayed
and asked God to reveal to them
what had been the fate
of the ship and their loved ones.
And God answered their prayers
in a remarkable way.
We have much historical documentation
for this.
On one June day,
one hour before sunset,
New Haveners watched
to their astonishment
the great ship,
whose loss they had so long mourned,
come sailing toward them
upon a cloud in the air.
It was perfectly distinct
and visible
and came so close
that one on the shore
could have almost tossed
a stone on board,
they say.
Then suddenly,
in their sight,
the top masts
were torn apart
in a seeming gale,
the rigging tangled,
the ship lurched,
capsized before their eyes,
and sank,
disappearing into the cloud.
They watched with awe,
then heard the comforting words
of Pastor Davenport,
that God had graciously sent
the phantom ship
to show them
how their friends
had been lost at sea.
Well,
with the loss
of so many precious loved ones
came the loss
of all their hopes
for any commercial success.
The disaster
nearly put an end
to the colony itself.
There was serious talk
about moving to Ireland
or Jamaica,
but they stayed
and sought to gain
a living from the soil.
In these straightened
circumstances,
Davenport's dream
of erecting a college
would have to remain
unrealized in his soul,
a phantom
like the great ship
lost at sea.
He would never see
a college erected
in his lifetime,
though he kept
the books in readiness
for a future day,
augmenting their number
over the years.
The dream never died,
it merely lay dormant.
And happily,
the fallen torch
that slipped
from the great patriarch
of the colony
was taken up
by a noble company
in the next generation.
The forward most
in this college endeavor
had ties with
John Davenport,
and those ties
were actually
more than ideological.
In 1685,
a young minister,
James Pierpont,
here he is,
came to New Haven
under consideration
for the pulpit
there of New Haven,
Davenport's church.
Preparing to give
his trial sermon,
he boarded
with the widow
of the patriarch's
son,
John Davenport,
Jr.
Abigail Davenport
was his name.
Well, despite his
absorption with
a critical sermon
he had to preach
the next morning,
incidentally,
it went well for him
and the congregation
didn't confirm his calling
and he became
their pastor.
Two things
caught the young
Pierpont's attention
during his stay
with the widow
Davenport, Jr.
The first
was a very fine
collection of books
and the story
of John Davenport,
Sr.,
longing to see
a college established.
The second
was the widow
Davenport's
young daughter
also named Abigail.
The prosopography
gets confusing
because they tended
to name their
children after
themselves,
so there are
plenty of Abigails
and Johns.
Well, it was love,
but in the young
minister's case
love was very
patient
as Abigail
was only 12
years old
at the time.
James would
wait six more
years before
they were married,
but married
they finally
were,
making James
Pierpont
the husband
of John
Davenport's
granddaughter.
Okay, so it was
kind of a family
affair here.
Alas, sad to
relate, for all
the time they had
waited to be wed,
their wedded
life was very
short.
A few months,
merely a few
months after their
wedding, she died
of consumption,
apparently brought
on from her
attending a
mid-winter
church service
wearing her
bridal gown.
That was the
unvarying custom
of the day.
When you went
to a new
location, you
were required by
law to wear
your wedding gown,
and oftentimes if
you had had a
summer wedding,
your wedding gown
was a little bit,
you know, sparse
or parsimonious,
and you could
catch cold,
and I found
record of several
women for whom
this was their
fate.
They actually died
of cold wearing
a seasonally
mismatched wedding
gown.
So ladies, let
that be a warning
to you if you
find a temptation
to wear your
summer gown in
wintry weather.
It has taken
away many.
Now, Davenport's
grandson-in-law,
James Pierpont,
undertook to
revive the dream.
He purchased
the languishing
library, which
was technically
owned by the
town of New
Haven, and
set in motion
a new beginning.
At Pierpont's
side, in this
rekindled
endeavor, was
another local
minister, Abraham
Pearson, Jr.
Abraham Pearson,
Jr.
His father was
also named
Abraham Pearson.
Abraham Pearson,
who would
shortly become
the first
president,
well then called
rector of the
college.
was more
than
Pearson's
Pierpont's
comrade-in-arms
for realizing
this vision.
He was also
his uncle,
for he was
brother to
the mother of
Pierpont's
deceased bride,
Abigail.
Don't worry
about it.
It's best to
look at a chart
at this point.
All this to
say, the
founding of
Yale was
largely a
family affair.
there.
There we go.
So, when the
ministers gathered
that memorable
day at that
home of
Samuel Russell,
Reverend Russell,
on the far
side of the
old Branford
Green,
to deposit
their gift of
books sometime
in 1700,
or maybe even
earlier,
it was not
something new
that they were
doing,
simply something
renewed.
President
Clapp, in
his Annals of
the History of
Yale College,
records the
incident.
Meeting at
Branford, he
writes, each
member referring
to the ten
ministers that
he had just
listed, which
he kind of
oddly designates
as the
undertakers,
because they
undertook this
thing, so the
ten undertakers
that got Yale
established,
brought a
number,
Clapp continues
to write,
brought a
number of
books and
presented them,
laying them
on the
table, and
said these
words, or
to this
effect, I
give these
books for
the founding
of a
college in
this colony.
Reverend
Russell of
Branford was
appointed to
be the
keeper of
the library,
which then
consisted of
about 40
volumes in
folio.
The
Branford
Crest,
those of
you that
know Branford
College,
this is the
Branford
College
Crest,
Crest.
This
points
toward the
books that
were the
bequest of
these ten
ministers, so
the ten
books refer
to that
founding
incident.
That's where
that crest
comes from.
It has been
charged by a
few skeptics
that this
founding event
was contrived
in the romantic
imagination of
President Clapp,
whose alone
is the
testimony, an
occasional
reference you
can find in
modern volumes
to the
legend of
the 40
folios.
The
subversive
question is
asked,
what collection
of aged
ministers could
have toted to
Branford on
horseback 40
enormous folio
volumes?
So like folio,
very, very
large.
After all, a
folio would
scarcely fit into
the saddlebag of
a minister and
might weigh as
much as a hefty
dumbbell.
So they think
that the whole
story implausible.
But Clapp does
not tell us that
the ministers
brought all the
40 folios,
simply that the
collected library
by that time
consisted of
about 40
folios.
And we can be
quite confident
that these
ministers did
indeed covenant
to donate books
from their own
scanty libraries.
We have a
letter preserved
from one of
their number,
James Noyes
of October
28, 1701.
He apologizes
that due to
his advanced
age, quote,
my will is
more than my
strength, and
that the trip
for him is a
journey over
two rivers.
He could not
present himself,
but he would
present his
books.
I do desire
and empower
my brother to
give out my
books at his
house my full
proportion.
for, quote,
in nothing I
would be behind
hand in so
public a good.
So we know
from letters that
this actually did
happen.
It's not a myth.
It's not a
legend.
Clearly, there was
the presentation of
books.
And further, it did
take place in
Brantford in the
parlor of Parson
Russell, who was
given care and keep
of the library.
In fact, we have
two independent
accounts of how
one of the books
was damaged, and
that through a
rather odd
occurrence.
It seems that a
pane of the glass
in Russell's
parlor window was
defectively
convex, and on a
particularly bright
day, concentrated
the sun's rays
directly upon one
of the bequeathed
folios, burning a
hole through the
cover and into
the first few
pages.
And this sad
loss was
remembered and
passed down by
the Russell
descendants in
Brantford, and
the damage was
noted by those
who received the
books from
Russell's care when
the college got
started.
So the gift of
books at the
act of founding is
quite true.
Quite true.
But it is also
quite telling.
What did these
donated books
represent?
Well, they
certainly represented
a personal
sacrifice.
They were not
cast-off volumes
or duplicates.
Rather, they were
the marrow of
often very
slender
ministerial libraries.
Books were
prized possessions,
and they had
likely been passed
down from earlier
generations.
So one historian
refers to these
books as dusty
theological folios.
But as Bainton
writes, they were
not dusty, and
their owners would
rather have parted
with ten cords of
cut wood in a New
England winter.
These were prize,
prize volumes to
them.
And they gave their
treasure because
that's where their
hearts were, as
Christ would say.
But these books
also represented an
endowment of faith.
These were not
works of literature
or science.
They were almost
without exception
works of theology
and from the
reformed tradition
of the continental
Protestantism.
They were works
of Beza,
Bullinger,
Busser,
Calvin.
This was the
heritage of faith
that they had
received and
sought to pass
on and pass
on without
adulteration.
Thus, in that
memorable phrase
of Bainton, Yale
was conservative
before she was
born.
They sought to
preserve and
propagate the
faith of their
fathers.
And by 1700,
the need for this
was thought to be
acute, for it was
in danger of
lapsing in the
perception of
many a conservative
Connecticuter,
sorry.
New Englanders
at this time
were beginning
to name their
children Ichabod
after 1 Samuel
4.21.
And she named
the child
Ichabod,
saying,
the glory is
departed from
Israel.
Harvard,
that intended
school of the
prophets,
this is your
hiss line,
there you go,
okay.
Harvard,
that intended
school of the
prophets,
was becoming
theologically
wobbly,
and it was
feared too
elastic in its
doctrines,
what they called
latitudinarianism,
taking too much
latitude with the
faith once delivered
to the saints.
The degenerate
graduates of
Harvard that
were being
turned out
were the sad
tokens of
paradise lost.
There we go.
Here's an
increased
Mather who had
a front row
seat right up
at Harvard
and is watching
all these
kids graduate.
He writes
the book
Ichabod,
or a
discourse
showing what
cause there
is to fear
that the
glory of the
Lord is
departing from
New England,
and on and
on.
So,
such sad
realities
made the
matter timely,
even urgent.
The driving
motives of the
founders were
made explicit in
their meeting
in Saybrook,
November 11,
1701,
where they
declared,
quote,
it was the
glorious public
design of our
now blessed
fathers in their
removal from
Europe into
these parts of
America,
both to plant
and under the
divine blessing
to propagate
in this
arid wilderness
the blessed
reformed
Protestant religion
in purity of
its order and
worship.
And we,
their unworthy
posterity,
lamenting our
past neglects
of this grand
errand,
and sensible of
our equal
obligation to
prosecute some
end,
the same end,
sorry,
prosecute the
same end,
we do now
undertake to
erect, form,
and regulate a
collegiate school.
So, there you
have it.
Oh, oops,
sorry, no,
this is not,
I'm sorry,
where's the,
oh, I'll go
backwards.
So, this is the
Yale charter
here, from
which I just
read.
This, then,
was the design
of Yale in
its inception,
to be a
means of,
quote,
planting and
propagating the
blessed Protestant
reformed religion.
This did not
mean that they
would exclusively
train ministers,
though that would
be a principal
part, for the
effective planting
and propagating
of the faith,
would also
require those
equipped for
service in the
civil sphere.
As the
charter puts
it, you
could, if
you could, if
that were a
little more
clearer, you
could read it,
as the
charter puts
it,
1701, a
collegiate
school wherein
youth may be
instructed in the
arts and
sciences, who
through the
blessing of the
almighty God,
may be fitted
for public
employment, both
in church and
in civil state.
So remember
the three-legged
stool.
The college
leg, the
academy, was
the feeder for
both the other
legs of the
church and the
state.
And then you
would get
stability in
society.
Having the
mind of
Christ was
absolutely
critical, not
simply in the
church, but in
all of society.
Whether you
were going to
be a lawyer, or
a doctor, or an
engineer, or a
farmer, our
vocation can
and must
express kingdom
truth and
kingdom values.
This is part of
the vision that
we need to
keep reviving.
And there
was another
aspect of the
vision of the
four fathers
that the
founding members
recognized and
embraced in
their founding,
for as they
carefully noticed,
our blessed
fathers sought
to plant and
propagate the
blessed Protestant
reform religion,
quote, not only
to their
posterity, but
also to the
barbarous
natives.
Their language,
not current
language.
They were not
mistaken in
this, and well
might they have
remembered, for
Abraham Pearson,
so the
founding, the
first rector and
one of the
founders, his
father, Abraham
Pearson, senior,
okay, had
served as a
missionary to
the local
natives, the
first missionary
sent out from
New Haven
Colony, and
I think I,
yeah, here it
is, and this
is, so Abraham
Pearson, senior,
this was one of
the first tracks,
indeed, he
learned their
language and
published for
them, this was
the first work,
some helps for
the Indians,
showing them how
to know the
true God and
the true Christian
religion, 1658.
1858.
So, this, thus,
it was part of
the original
design of Yale,
not simply to
secure the
Christian faith
among the
settlers, but
also to extend
it among the
Indians.
So, we have a
missionary design
right at the
founding of Yale
College, and
over the course
of this class,
we shall observe
how Yale has
fulfilled those
hopes of her
founders to be a
missionary sending
ground.
Incidentally, this
was also the
case for
Harvard.
Oops, here we
go, okay, yes.
Indeed, her
charter,
Harvard's
charter,
specifically
mentions the
college being
of service to
the natives, and
a dorm was
provided expressly
for their use,
simply for Native
Americans at
Harvard.
Indeed, many a
Puritan father
saw the
missionary design
of God in
transplanting them
from Old
England to New
England, as
John Eliot.
So, this is
actually the
crest of
Massachusetts Bay
Colony, 1630.
And notice, they
have the Indian
there, the Native
American, and out
of his mouth is
coming the words,
come over and
help us.
Those are the
words you
recall of
Paul's vision
of the
Macedonian that
prompted his
missionary work
to Europe.
So, this was
very much at
the center of
their efforts.
As John
Eliot wrote,
one end of
God sending so
many saints to
New England was
the conversion of
these Indians.
And he,
incidentally, gave
his whole life to
reaching them.
He was one of
the first Puritan
full-time
missionaries to
the Indians.
It's interesting,
if you were to
interview, which
he did, interview
the Indians, the
commonplace Native
American speculation
as to why all of
these English
people kept showing
up on their
coastline was that
they must have
lacked sufficient
firewood where
they came from.
You see that in
the accounts.
You need firewood,
you can go to
some lengths to
get extra
firewood if you
need it,
apparently.
Well, Abraham
Pearson was
selected by his
fellow ministers to
become the first
rector.
At this earliest
beginning, Yale
was not in
New Haven.
Neither was it
yet called Yale.
The first
instruction took
place in Abraham
Pearson's Killingworth
parsonage.
So, there's
actually the
statue that if
you're on the
Yale campus that
you see of
Abraham Pearson
has its twin at
the Killingworth
green.
Very, very same
one because that's
where he had his
first parsonage.
His congregation
loved him.
The plan was
always to bring
the college to
New Haven, but
his congregation
loved him so
well and his
ministry among
them that they
conspired to keep
him from moving
to New Haven from
Killingworth.
And they
concocted a plan
that no one,
they covenanted
that no one
would buy his
house or farm.
So, he
couldn't sell his
house or farm to
anyone there.
They didn't have
bridge loans or
what have you.
So, he was
stuck and hence
they got the
college to start
in Killingworth for
many, many years
until 1718.
So, that's where
Yale began, although
not yet called Yale
as his congregation
would not release
him.
So, the students
all came to him
and in consequence,
his dear wife's
kitchen became the
refectory.
She would make the
meals as well as
the extra rooms.
People often would
board among others
in the town.
They had no
designated college
building at the
time.
Thankfully, the
classes were
small.
Four-fifths of
all the students
who graduated
under Pearson
became ministers
and went on to
shine his
distinguished lights
in the churches
of New England.
And I suppose a
lot of them
decided they might
as well go into
the ministry given
the fact that the
curriculum was
basically a
preparation for
that vocation
anyhow.
So, whether you
were a candidate
for the ministry
or not, the
courses were
all the same
for you,
including heavy
doses of
Greek, New
Testament, Hebrew,
Old Testament, and
the Westminster
Catechism in
Latin, along with
William Ames'
Mero of Theology,
and this sort of
thing.
So, hey, you
might as well.
You were trained.
It was not until
1718 that the
college permanently
settled in New
Haven.
So, lots of
ministers, lots of
people became
ministers.
Cotton Mather said,
there's nothing
cheap in New
England except for
milk and ministers.
Plenty of both of
those things, I guess.
Well, in 1718, the
college then was
permanently settled
in New Haven and
also came to take
the new name of
Yale College, both
on account of a
sizable bequest of
one Connecticut-born
but world-traveled
trader, one Elihu
Yale.
There he is.
The opulence is
evident in the
attire there.
He made a fine
fortune in the
East India Company.
Apparently, the way
you make a fortune
in gems is what he
did in India, is he
had this preternatural
knack of when people
would show him all
of these gems in the
rough, he would be
able to make some
very accurate estimate
as to what they were
going to be worth
when cut and sold,
so could put in
really good,
bids and know his
margin of profit.
Apparently, this
amazing skill he
had, so he made a
huge, huge fortune
doing this.
Well, it was
Cotton Mather who
prompted the
benefaction.
Cotton Mather wrote
to Elihu Yale,
certainly, if what
is forming at
New Haven might
wear the name of
Yale College, it
would be better than
a name of sons and
daughters, and your
munificence might
easily obtain for you
such a commemoration
and perpetuation of
your valuable name, as
would indeed be much
better than even an
Egyptian pyramid, or so
he wrote.
Always, I guess, these are
the sorts of things that
you do and say when
you're trying to squeeze
out a bequest.
Well, if Elihu was
considering an Egyptian
pyramid, he ended up
preferring to go with
the Endowa College
route for perpetuating
his name, though there
was one rather sizable
hesitation that he did
have.
Elihu Yale was an
Anglican, and yet the
Connecticut College was
decidedly not.
Remember, the first
settlers here had been
under the persecuting
whip, or I should say
brand, you would
actually brand them, of
the Anglicans that were
in power in England, so
they disliked Anglicans.
So if you came to New
Haven Colony in the first
generations, you had a
special tax on you just
for being an Anglican, the
Anglican tax, because we
don't really like you
here.
So such were those
days.
So there was this
problem, but this
scruple was overcome by
the cunning observation
of the agent that Yale
sent over to talk to
Elihu Yale.
His name was Jeremiah
Dummer, and he told
Elihu, if the discipline
of the Church of
England be most
agreeable to Scripture
and primitive practice,
there's no better way to
make men sensible of it
than by giving them good
learning.
And I would say, if
Anglicanism is the way
that's clearly
scriptural and supported
by church history, hey,
endow an institution that
studies the Scripture in
church history.
You'll do nothing but
make Anglicans on your
assumption.
So Elihu was convinced,
and he handed over
sacks and sacks of gems
and money.
And Elihu's munificence
was swiftly turned into
a handsome new building
named Yale College.
So technically, Yale
College was the name of
the first building, not
the whole college, not
until about 30 years
later did actual Yale
College refer to the
whole college rather than
the little building.
But for Jeremiah's
dumber services of kind
of angling this bequest,
they originally wanted to
name the college after
him.
But then as they kind of
rolled that around in
their hearing, dumber
college didn't have as
robust a sound to it.
So he graciously declined
and said, name it after
Elihu Yale.
Did he go on to be
governor of Massachusetts?
Elihu Yale?
Dumber.
I think probably he did.
Yes, yes.
He was the one, at least
in his family.
That's right.
Yes, alas.
We try to hide these
facts from other states,
but such is the
egregious truth.
Yes.
So hence, then,
Yalies are known as the
sons of Eli.
Those of you who are
biblically literate,
though, know what the
Bible says about sons of
Eli, which is a great
thrill to me as a
Princeton man.
And the sons of Eli
were wicked in the sight
of the Lord.
But moving back to
historical matters,
1745 was also the year
that President Clapp,
and technically that was
the year that 1745 is
when the name Yale
College actually was
transferred to the
college itself and not
simply the building.
And 1745 was also the
year President Clapp drew
up a new charter and a
list of college rules,
which were an explication
of the founders' original,
the original rules that
they had had.
Clapp had a gift for
spelling things out that
no one might wonder,
as student or otherwise,
what Yale College was
about and how the aim was
to be attained.
So, the Yale College rules
state, every student,
quote, every student shall
consider the main end of his
duty to wit, to know God in
Jesus Christ and answerably
to lead a godly, sober life.
Interesting.
Times have changed.
As each incoming student would
read again from the quill of
Clapp above the list of books
that they were to digest.
So, this would have been the
first paragraph that every
college student would see
right above the list of books
that they were going to be
examined in, and it was this.
Above all, have an eye to
the great end of your studies,
which is to obtain the
clearest conception of divine
things, to lead you to a
saving knowledge of God in his
son, Jesus Christ.
Isn't that extraordinary?
So, here we have an academic
institution that clearly
identifies as its aim, not an
academic, not an educational
aim, but a spiritual aim.
Our chief aim as this
institution, Yale College, is
that every student that comes in
here experiences regeneration.
That's our chief aim.
Isn't that extraordinary?
I'll read it one more time.
Above all, have an eye to the
great end of all of your
studies, which is to obtain the
clearest conceptions of divine
things, and to lead you to a
saving knowledge of God in his
son, Jesus Christ.
In fact, the original, if you go
back, a lot of it's written in
huge caps and bolded, just to make
sure you're not going to miss it.
No.
And that was the president of Yale
in September?
This is, that was 1745.
Yeah.
But he was just making explicit the
things that were earlier.
And this is clap.
Yeah.
And what daily regimen would
conduce to this?
Well, as another college rule
stated, quote, every student shall
exercise himself in reading the
holy scriptures by himself every
day that the word of Christ may
dwell in him richly and that he
may be filled with the knowledge
of the will of God in all wisdom
and spiritual understanding.
So this was the holy errand of
these beginnings, these the
beginnings of Yale.
And what became of this godly
foundation in subsequent
generations will be the topic of
some of our following lectures this
week.
Well, let me stop there because I
don't always do a good job about
allowing time for questions.
Yes.
I just, you know, as a Hopkins grad,
Hopkins was founded in 1660.
1660.
Yeah.
So was that considered like a feeder
to educate the young folks so they'd be
prepared?
Yes.
For when the university would
eventually, when a university would
eventually be founded?
Yes.
That's right.
So their children would be literate and
already have a head up in Latin and
That's exactly right.
So they had, if you read through it,
there's instantly a desire to set up
what they would call a Latin school that
at least would teach the boys Latin and
then rudiments of these, the basic
trivium.
And this would be, Hopkins school, 1660
was one of those.
Now at the time, they had hoped that they
would have a college right there locally.
But then what would happen is the new
Haveners that would go to Hopkins would
then go to Harvard.
Yeah.
And that's, that happened for a long
time.
Yeah.
So, yes, you're right.
But isn't that extraordinary?
That's preparatory.
Hopkins, even older than Yale, 1660
as opposed to 1701.
And again, it was just a matter of
expense.
It just, they couldn't quite make the
cut of getting enough to get a college.
But they could get what they call
grammar schools or typically Latin
schools, they would call it.
Yeah.
When you see universities leave their
first love, like the gospel and Christ,
is it, what's the first thing that's
attacked within the institution?
Is it the authority of scripture or the
inerrancy of scripture?
Yeah.
So, yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a
great question.
And it's extremely complicated.
So briefly.
Okay.
And there's a great book to read on this.
It's a big book.
It's by Marsden, George Marsden, called
The Soul of the American University.
It's not just about Yale, but it's mostly
about Yale.
And it kind of tells the story of going
from established, establishment faith,
Christian faith, to established disbelief.
And it traces that out.
But here's the issue.
A lot of times it's easy to think, oh, there
must have been some sort of nasty conspiracy
of, of atheists that somehow got in and
secularized this place in some dark, smoky
back room.
But actually, no.
No, what it was, was many godly people trying
to figure out what do we do with what is now a
diversity that we never had to deal with.
Because when Yale was founded, the colony of
New Haven, and even broadly in New England, was
largely religiously homogenous.
It would be hard to come across anyone who was
not your co-religionist.
You know, you weren't a believer.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
You would assert these things in public.
You would know that you were not regenerate.
But you said, oh, this is the truth.
Everybody was a Christian.
Exactly.
Oh, yeah.
This is true if only God would awaken me to
love it.
You know, so that's how people would describe
it.
And so as long as there was really the society
was religiously homogenous, you could still
have a college that was for everybody.
And nobody was going to.
Sometimes you'd have problems with what Anglicans
would say, we don't want to use what we learn
our catechism.
We don't want to use the Westminster catechism.
We want to use our own catechism.
So accommodations would be made a little bit.
But you're really only going inches in each
direction.
You know, when you're letting Anglicans use
another catechism or go by the 39 articles and
this sort of thing, there's really almost no
doctrinal difference at all.
But then you begin to get some more.
And any diversity that New England gets, you
force everybody to go to Rhode Island.
Because that's where those nasty Baptist words
were more tolerant.
You don't want that.
They called that the sewer of New England.
That's where the Baptists were with Roger Williams and those.
And that's where you have the first synagogue.
The first synagogue in America is in Providence, Rhode Island.
You know, because there was religious toleration there.
Not elsewhere.
But when society became more and more diverse.
Now, at first, with immigration, because there's lots of immigration coming in.
Now, at first, most of the immigration was from Northern Europe and Western Europe.
That is mostly safely Protestant.
But then, over the years, it began to shift.
It would begin to shift toward the south.
And you'd get some Roman Catholics coming in.
And it would even shift toward the east, Eastern Europe.
And you'd get more Jews coming in.
The potato famine in Ireland would bring a lot of Irish Catholics in.
So, already by the Civil War, it's becoming a lot more diverse.
And you remember Yale's motto, for God, for country, and for Yale.
You can almost tell the story of this in terms of what happens as long as...
Okay, yep.
As long as...
Thank you.
As long as for God and for country is always in harmony.
But what happens if for God and for country is intention?
Because not everybody in the country is for God, in your understanding.
Then they had to decide, do we make Yale a college just for our little group, or is this going to be a college for the nation?
And they decided to go for the nation.
So, they would step back on religious requirements and religious tests and that, so it would be open to the nations.
Now, some of that was very disturbing for certain of the alumni and the conservatives.
But the fact of the shift was concealed largely because you get a liberal Christianity that would use a lot of the terminology, but they would mean something very different.
So, it would sound orthodox, but it wouldn't be.
It's like one Yale professor said, how could you accuse me of denying the divinity of Christ?
I deny the divinity of no man, least of all of Christ.
I mean a mental something.
So, it was just, you know, language would, you know, conceal these things.
So, we need to run.
I think they keep flashing me because I'm an offender.
But thank you, team.
We will see you, Lord willing, next week where I think we'll take up the first great awakening at Yale and New Haven.
We'll let you hit that because I'm not sure what to hit.
Thank you.