Bishops, Bourbons, and Big Mules: A History of the Episcopal Church in Alabama

3. “This worldliness that is rushing upon us like a flood”: Secession and Civil War

3 “This worldliness that is rushing upon us like a flood” secession and civil War nicholashamnercobbswasstronglyopposedtosecession.onehistorianasserts that cobbs was “the one man of character and influence who in all alabama had opposed secession in any way, at any time, or for any reason.” it is difficult not to believe that his fear of the consequences of secession was behind cobbs’s denunciation of “worldliness” in his jeremiad at the 1859 diocesan convention: The spiritual prospects of the diocese are not flattering:—there is much coldness; there is much worldliness; there is a great deal of worldly conformity . The contributions to charitable objects have fallen very far below the standard of the gospel; there has been placed upon the altar of fashion a great deal that should have been appropriated to the service of the lord. as a consequence, the blessing of the lord has not descended upon our congregations ; confirmations have been few; the additions to the communion have been few, and we are in great danger of falling into the state of the laodiceans. . . . There is great and urgent need of self-denial,—for the great evil of the day is worldliness:—is worldly conformity. When a whole country is submerged by a wide wasting inundation, it is too late to talk of dykes and levees. cobbs echoed the Book of revelation, comparing alabama episcopalians to the first-century laodiceans (“because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, 42 / chapter 3 i will spue thee out of my mouth”). The committee on the state of the church concurred with the bishop. They charged “in many instances the Ball-rooms and the Theatre, divide with the church the affections of her children” and urged the diocese not to adopt “the drinking usages of society, its immodest amusements, its extravagance of apparel, its avaricious greed, its self-indulgent ease, they emperil [sic] the cause of christ.” about a month after the 1859 convention cobbs wrote to henry c. lay complaining in similar words of “this worldliness that is rushing in upon us like a flood.” “What is to be done to stay or even to turn it aside?” cobbs asked. he continued, saying that he was “almost out of heart” and was “tempted to put on a long cassock of cotton [illegible] died [sic] black, tied around with a thick rope & to go forth with a long staff mounted with a cross, proclaiming day by day—in the churches—& by the way side— . . . in this way the people might be startled for a moment & perchance some might be induced to turn away from the fiddler . . . & to remember that they had souls to care for.” The report of george cushman, rector of st. luke’s, cahaba, in the 1861 journal, also echoed cobb’s concerns: “The only encouraging circumstance of the year has been the large attendance upon the daily lenten service. The parish has been an [sic] loser in numbers and in pecuniary strength. . . . The spiritual weal of the parish was never at so low an ebb, and, lord revive Thy work, is the prayer of the faithful.”1 even if cobbs had actually donned his vestments, taken his episcopal staff, and denounced secession in every courthouse square in alabama, it is overwhelmingly likely that alabama would have seceded anyway. only a few members of cobbs’s flock agreed with their chief pastor’s opposition to secession. But even at st. John’s, Montgomery, where Jefferson davis and much of the confederate leadership worshiped, there were differences of opinion. charles t. pollard, senior warden of st. John’s during the civil War, noted that “but for the Bishop’s wise and serene influence, st John’s would probably have been divided.” st. John’s was not only the church of unionist congressman henry W. hilliard, it was also the church of archsecessionist William lowndes yancey.2 alabama secedes and Bishop cobbs dies intheearlyhoursofnovember7,1860,whenalabamianslearnedthatnewyork’s electoral votes had made abraham lincoln the president-elect, episcopal layman William hodgson recorded that the people of Montgomery assembled at estelle hall to hear two more episcopalians: n. h. r. dawson of st. paul’s, selma, and William l. yancey. according to hodgson, dawson’s address was “earnest and thrilling,” but it was yancey whose rhetoric really roused the crowd. in yancey’s opinion, lincoln and the republican party were the real “disunionists,” and he urgedhislistenersto“defendthesoilofastatewhichmaybethreatenedbymerce- secession and civil War / 43 nary bayonets...