Church Management Quotes
Bishop Ames had been appointed by the war department to take charge of all the Christian churches in the Southern states as they were defeated. The reason is that most Southern clerics were advocates of the rebellion. However many Northern churches, especially those in border states also contained ministers who were not only preaching treason but also aiding the Southern cause. The President thought that the War Department’s order gave Ames authority over all churches where the minister aided the rebellion. So he wrote to Ames limiting the authority. After the President was assured that Ames authority would only extend to Southern churches that had been in the rebellion, Lincoln allowed Ames to appoint ministers and control churches. This is the only time in American history that the Federal government actually controlled churches directly.
Gregory the Great. “Emoluments” included the income from all lands and other church property, gifts and tithes, and income of any sort. This formula characterized the division of resources for the better part of Christian history. By today’s standard, the proportion for these Bishops (there were those who chose poverty) and his household seems astoundingly high—his income and sustenance was the equal of all the priests in the bishopric. It illustrates the affluence of the bishops who were major forces in their territories. One of the rationales for such an affluent bishop (the assets were not all personal but he had control of them) was that he should be at least the equal of any in the area including kings and nobles for he was to have as much influence as they. It is difficult today to look at modern bishops and realize how their role, power, relative wealth, and influence has changed. Bishops had their own armies, judiciary, accountants, attorneys and were a government unto themselves.
Some border state clerics were sympathetic with the South during the civil war. The pastor of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church of St. Louis, Samuel B. McPheeters, was arrested by the army in December 1862 for expressing views sympathetic to the rebellion from the pulpit. Curtis released the pastor, but prohibited him from preaching in his own church. It took Lincoln many months to find this out and Lincoln then instructed Curtis not to continue the ban.
