Ives, Levi Sillman, Dd, Lld

Ives, Levi Sillman, D.D., LL.D.

a theologian of some note, more especially on account of his defection from the Protestant Episcopal Church to Romanism, was born in Meriden, Conn., Sept. 16, 1797. His parents removed to New York State while he was quite young, and he was prepared for college at Lewisville Academy. At the outbreak of the war in 1812, he served his country for one year, and in 1816 finally entered upon his collegiate course at Hamilton College, pursuing, at the same time, studies preparatory for the work of the ministry. He had been reared in the Presbyterian Church, but in 1819, when impaired health obliged him to quit the college, he joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, and continued his theological education at N. Y. City under bishop Hobart, at whose hands he received deacon's orders in 1822, and whose son-in-law he became in 1825. His first parish was Batavia, N. Y.; but he remained there only a few months, as he received a call in 1823 from Trinity Church, Philadelphia, which he at once accepted, bishop White ordaining him to the priesthood. In 1827 he was called to Christ Church, Lancaster, Pa., and the year following became assistant rector of Christ Church, N.Y. City. This connection he severed six months later, to assume the rectorship of St. Luke's Church, N. Y. In 1831 he was honored with the bishopric of North Carolina, where he became very popular, and for a time wielded great influence; but in 1848 he began to advocate doctrines inadmissible by any Protestant believer of the Christian doctrines, and distrust and alienation on the part of his diocese led him to renounce publicly his mistaken course. But so inclined had he become to the Roman Catholic view of the apostolical succession, and the need of an "infallible" interpreter of the Scriptures, that he soon avowed his former opinions, and in 1852, while in Europe, publicly submitted to the authority of Rome. Of course, this caused his deposition from the bishopric of N. Carolina. In defense of his course, he published The Trials of a Mind in its Progress to Catholicism (Boston, 1854, 8vo), in which he sets forth the Roman Catholic view of the divine right of episcopacy. Finding that the Protestant Epis. Church does not possess a regular apostolical succession (p. 146- 157), he felt obliged to accept the Church of Rome as the true Church. This course was very naturally pursued by bishop Ives, who, while yet in the Episcopal Church, had always inclined to High-Churchism. "Sitting upon the pinnacle of High-Churchism, the head easily turns, or becomes so dizzy as to fall down into the abyss of Popery." Ives fell, like Doane, and Wheaton, and Iarkoe, by carrying out the High-Church principles to their legitimate results. After his change he was employed as professor of rhetoric in St. Joseph's Theological Seminary, and as lecturer on rhetoric and English literature in the convents of the Sacred Heart and the Sisters of Charity. Ex-bishop Ives evidently was a man of good parts and noble intentions, for during the last years of his life we find him incessantly at work in the establishment of an institution at Manhattanville for the protection of destitute children: here nearly 2000 children are now provided for. He died Oct. 13,1867. Ives published also a volume of sermons On the Apostles' Doctrine and Fellowship, and another On Obedience of Faith (1849, 18mo). See New Englander, Aug. 1855, art. 4; Princeton Review, 17, 491 (on his sermons); Appleton, American Cyclop. annual of 1867, 411 sq.; Allibone, Dictionary of Authors, i, 945. (J. H.W.)