Griffith,  "on  the  subject  of  a  general  meeting
of  the  Episcopal  clergy  at  New  York,  were  all
received,  but  not  in  time  to  be  laid  before  the
Convention,  which  sat  only  three  days. The
Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia  is  so  fettered  by
laws,  that  the  clergy  could  do  no  more  than
petition  for  a  repeal  of  those  laws  —  for  liberty
to  introduce  ordination  and  government,  and
to  revise  and  alter  the  liturgy. The  session
is  passed  over  without  our  being  able  to
accomplish  this. The  few  clergymen  at  Rich-
mond to  whom  your  letter  was  shown,  ap-
prove of  the  plans  and  proceedings  of  the
Pennsylvania  Convention,  and  also  of  the
General  Meeting  at  New  York,  but  no  dele-


y 8  The  General  Ecclesiastical

gates  have  been  appointed  to  attend. In  the
present  state  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  this
State,  the  clergy  could  not  with  propriety,
and  indeed  without  great  danger  to  the
Church,  empower  any  person  to  agree  to  the
least  alteration  whatever."

On  the  8th  of  September,  1784,  the  clergy
of  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode
Island,  under  the  moderatorship  of  the  vener-
able John  Greaves  of  Rhode  Island,  met  at
Boston  and  adopted,  with  some  verbal
changes,  the  Fundamental  Principles  of  the
Pennsylvania  Convention  of  the  preceding
May. Evidently  fearful  that  the  assertion  of
absolute  ecclesiastical  independence  contained
in  these  "Principles"  might  be  interpreted  so
as  to  prevent  or  delay  an  application  to  the
mother  Church  for  the  consecration  of  Bish-
ops, the  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island
clergy  added  the  following  words  to  the  first
Fundamental  Principle:  "But  it  is  the  opin-
ion of  this  Convention,  that  this  independence
be  not  construed  or  taken  in  so  rigorous  a
sense  as  to  exclude  the  Churches  in  America,
separately  or  collectively,   from  applying  for


Constitution  of  the  American  Church. 