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Chapter 3 "The Reservoir of National Charity": The Role of the Missionary Society "Unio Fidelium" While the Anglo-Dutch collaboration envisioned by Jessey's Ofthe Conversion of Five Thozlsand was unusual when it was published in 16j0, the inclusion of a Dutch readership in The Conqzlestsand Triumphs of Grace marked a nascent internationalism of the late seventeenth century expressed through references to evangelical endeavor. Over the next three decades Increase and then Cotton Mather published letters to and from Dutch, Danish, and Prussian ministers. Anglican proponents of mission also developed correspondences throughout the continent and attempted international collaborations. A handful of well-positioned individuals-Anthony Boehm, the chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Anne's consort Prince George of Denmark, August Hermann Franke, a professor of divinity in the city of Halle, Westphalia, and Daniel Ernest Jablonsky, senior bishop of the Church of the United Brethren and court-chaplain to the king of Prussiaengineered many of these communication^.^ Rivalry sometimes undercut collaboration, as when the United Ministers of Boston who signed a preface to Experience Mayhew's Indian Converts claimed that the Dutch mission in the East Indies was not as pious as their own "more vital" work.? Competition was especially present between Anglican and Dissenting groups, except for rare moments when they united through their opposition to Catholicism. Even when there was intense rivalry between missionaries of different denominations, however, their members tended publicly to espouse the ideal of "Unio Fidelium," or "the Union of the Faithful," as Cotton Mather titled a description of German and Danish work in Malabar.' While reflecting political changes such as the succession of the elector of Hanover to Britain's throne, and some early eighteenth-century attempts Role of the Missionary Society 85 to create an international union of Protestants, this shift also was propelled by the establishment throughout northern Europe of voluntary societies devoted to the promotion of philanthropic goals4Cotton Mather heralded this development by proclaiming, "May sufficient numbers of great, wise, rich, learned, and godly men in the three kingdoms, procure well-composed societies, by whose united counsels, the noble design of evangelizing the world may be more effectually carried on."' This was an era of what David Owen terms "associated philanthropy," in which "groups of Englishmen arranged to pool their efforts in voluntary societies dedicated to . . . accomplishing special charitable aims."".W.B. Bullock has traced the emergence of these groups to the rise of pietism and to Reformation theories of "ecclesiolae ecclesia," or little churches within a church.; The moralistic inclinations of William I11 and Mary's reign led to the growth in England of religious societies,which offered support for individual spiritual development, and Societies for the Reformation of Manners, which sought to eradicate immoral offenses through public pressure and legal prosecut i o n ~ . ~ Although part of a broader emergence of clubs and secret societies, these religious groups dissociated themselves from secular ones, especially those reputed to be environments for the voicing of radical beliefsyRelated to what Margaret Jacob has described as the emergence of "a new private society with which mercantile and literate elites could identify," such groups flourished in a public sphere characterized by civil discourse and developing religious toleration even as they reacted against heterodox views that developed in that sphere.1° This chapter explores the ways in which eighteenth-century British missionary organizations, especially the Church of England's Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and the Presbyterian Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, crafted a discourse of associated philanthropy. While distinct because of their ties to the established churches of England and Scotland, as well as their male-only membership , these organizations described themselves in ways that would become central to later philanthropic and missionary societies.ll American Indians were helpful to this discourse, for although their conversion was not the only goal of either group, the figure of the pitied heathen shaped the texts' claims of affective ties between their members and their readers. Both the SPG and the SSPCK presented themselves as groups whose dedication to the eradication of heathenism, immorality, and atheism both asked for and instilled cooperation. This focus on unity in the name of a philanthropic goal helped validate the Church of England and the Church of Scotland as they confronted political and doctrinal problems around the turn of the eighteenth century. Defining their male, educated, and moneyed membership through shared compassion and morality, these societies contributed to the development of an...

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