The third new degree program established by the College

Pending the settlement of the Packard estate, no concrete action was taken until the early summer of 1869, except to establish the Packard Professorship and offer it to the Rev. T. J. Sawyer. Sawyer waited well over a year before he made up his mind. After having declined the presidency of Tufts twice, he this time accepted the theological post, with what for that day was the rather substantial salary of $2,500. Even then, he assumed the task with great hesitation. As he pointed out to Miner, he had served the denomination over forty years and had thought himself done with public responsibilities. But his devotion to Universalism was stronger than his concern for "temporal affairs," as he expressed it.

Sawyer promptly cautioned the denomination that the Packard bequest, however large it might be, was not to be interpreted as relieving Universalists of their obligation to support the new theological school. All that Packard had intended was to lay a foundation on which such a school could be built. It was up to the denomination to build the superstructure. Sawyer enumerated three immediate needs of the school. First on the list was an adequate library. The College library was respectable, "considering the circumstances under which it was gathered," but there were many deficiencies in the collection on theology, where the results of "the best scholarship of the day" ought to be available. Further, the great preponderance of theological students were, "if rich in faith, still poor as relates to this world's goods." Financial assistance to such students was indispensable. Finally, the shortage of ministers, no matter how trained, was chronic and becoming more critical as Universalism expanded.

Plans were outlined for opening the divinity school at the beginning of the academic year 1869-70, and the Rev. Charles H. Leonard of Chelsea was selected as the second faculty member. Leonard, grandfather of Leonard Carmichael, seventh president of Tufts, was highly regarded in the denomination. Elmer H. Capen, although thirty-one at the time, offered Leonard's name with some trepidation because Capen was "one of the younger members of the Denomination" and his suggestion might have been regarded as "impertinent or presumptuous." How much influence Capen had cannot be known for a certainty, but it is true that Leonard was elected Goddard Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology just a few weeks after Capen wrote his letter. Leonard had studied for the ministry under Sawyer at Clinton, New York, and when he came to Tufts had held his Chelsea pastorate for twenty-three years and achieved an exceptional reputation for his Sunday School work.

Before the divinity school was two years old. Sawyer requested additional staff, for by the end of the 1870-71 academic year the enrollment had increased to twelve, and twenty-one students had applied for admission the following year. Sawyer pointed out that

The school's offerings were expanded after 1875 with the addition of Rev. George T. Knight to its faculty. Knight, the second Tufts alumnus to serve on the divinity school staff, taught Rhetoric, Biblical History, Church History, and Greek. In the next year Moses True Brown, who taught Oratory in the regular curriculum, began to offer a similar course for the divinity school students.

Under the unofficial headship of Sawyer (he was given the title of dean in 1882) the school was fortunate in being able to supplement its classroom offerings by drawing upon a rich variety of ministerial talent off the campus. Each year lectures were given by leading clergymen who shared their ideas, learning, and experience with the students. The College was able to obtain the services of the majority at almost no cost except for travel. In accord with the liberal philosophy of the entire College, the divinity school not infrequently went outside its traditional Universalist ranks and brought in men from other denominations and faiths. For part of 1879-80 a Jewish scholar, Bernard Maimon, served as Instructor (without pay) of Hebrew Language and Literature. Students were also encouraged to take advantage of the "important instrumentalities of culture in the Boston area, including attendance at services conducted by the most noted Divines of New England."

The first curriculum established in the divinity school represented an attempt to provide theological training for students with a wide variety of backgrounds. The two requirements to be met by all students were that they furnish testimonials of Christian character and that they "believe in the Christian Religion, and have a sincere purpose to devote their lives to the Christian ministry." The

A three-year course of study for holders of the Bachelor's degree was provided, leading to the Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) degree. Such candidates were admitted to the divinity school without examination. Those who were unable, in the judgment of the faculty, to pursue the full course were "examined in those branches of learning which are usually taught in the best High Schools and Academies" and were placed in classes appropriate to their degree of attainment. They received a certificate instead of a diploma upon completion of three years of work. A fourth year of study under faculty direction was provided for such students, who could then become candidates for the B.D. In 1871-72 the "Junior" (first) class of six students elected to stay four years and did extra work in Greek, Logic, Rhetoric, and Natural Theology. By 1879-80 the elective subjects available to all students in the school totaled thirteen; the Syriac language and Egyptian hieroglyphics were among the offerings. In 1871 a "partial course" was authorized for those desiring to attend less than four years.

Students who entered the regular three-year program ("Junior," "Middle," and "Senior" years respectively) received a comprehensive training for their chosen calling. First-year students were instructed in the Hebrew language; Biblical archeology and geography; the Gospels (including Greek exegesis, using the books of Matthew and Mark in the New Testament); Hebrew history and law; and Evidences of Christianity. "Middle Year" students reviewed the literature and interpretations of the Old Testament; continued Greek exegesis (Luke and John); studied ecclesiastical history, systematic theology, and the history of doctrines; and were

All theological students were required to attend daily devotional services and weekly prayer meetings, and to listen to each other's efforts at delivering sermons. One privilege set the divinity school students apart from their "collegiate" brethren: they paid no tuition or room rent, although the usual charges were made for board. It was universally assumed, as Sawyer had emphasized, that candidates for the ministry would be of modest circumstances, if not penniless. To assist needy students the Board of Trustees of the Universalist General Convention provided full scholarships (originally $160) in the form of loans payable to the students in three installments. The recipients of such aid (their names were never divulged) were to repay in five annual installments, without interest, after graduation. If they failed to enter the divinity school after being given aid, withdrew before completing the course, or decided not to enter the Universalist ministry after receiving aid, such recipients were expected to repay whatever amount had been lent them. At the end of each year the divinity school was required to make a report on each scholarship holder "as to piety, talents, diligence, scholarship, prudence, health, and general influence." Mere evidence of need was soon found to be inadequate as a basis for providing scholarship-loans, and in 1871 candidates for financial assistance were required to pass creditably an examination in Rhetoric, Mental and Moral Science, and English prose composition. A religious test was also added: each candidate had to affirm his acceptance of the Winchester Confession of Faith.

When the divinity school opened, its classroom facilities consisted of a small room on the second floor of the College Edifice.

The creation of the divinity school met with immediate favor with the denomination. It seemed to be "admirably suited to the purpose," and clergymen who did not enjoy the advantage of systematic theological training were realizing how much they had missed. There was no longer any excuse for "young men rushing into the ministry, half prepared." One writer optimistically stated that the new divinity school marked "a new era" in the history of the Universalist Church, particularly in allowing those with no formal preparation for the ministry at all to avail themselves of the services of the school.

The liberal policy of opening the divinity school to practically all comers caused academic complications from the outset. Before the school was five years old a four-year curriculum was provided which attempted to combine a liberal arts foundation with ministerial training. Prospective students were strongly urged, however, to take "a full Collegiate course of study" before they enrolled in the school. As the catalogue statement put the matter, "the call is for men of liberal culture, and it has been found that Academic discipline is a great value as a preparation for professional studies." The faculty did not yet (in 1873-74) think it desirable to make an A.B. degree a prerequisite, largely because of the financial burdens it would impose on the students, but they did offer what they considered the equivalent of a collegiate course as the next best thing. In actuality, the new four-year program did not differ basically from the existing three-year sequence or from the optional additional fourth year offered in 1871-72, except for increased emphasis on

When the financial situation of the College became precarious in the late 1870's and continued so into the 1880's, the divinity school was as vulnerable as the "academical" departments. No action was taken at the time, but the Executive Committee of the Trustees recommended in 1877 that the school's new four-year program be cut back to three and suggested that standards of admission also be raised. Between 1877-78 and 1883-84, divinity school enrollment suffered a slow but steady decline, which was an additional source of concern to the Trustees. In the former year there were twenty-five students; in the latter, only eighteen. The Trustees established the Professorship of Church History in 1883, to which the Rev. George T. Knight was promoted (but without increase in salary). It was decided at first that the resulting vacancy in the instructorship would not be filled. However, the faculty of the school insisted that its needs required a replacement, particularly as Sawyer was forced to reduce his teaching and administrative load because of failing eyesight and other infirmities that came with advancing age. The Trustees again bowed to the wishes of the school by employing Rev. George M. Harmon in 1883, but only by following the rather drastic financial expedient of reducing the salaries of Tousey and Sawyer sufficiently to make up the new faculty member's salary. Sawyer was left with a college-owned residence and a salary of $650. As can be readily imagined, this evoked a lengthy protest from the elderly clergyman, who had come to Tufts as the first Packard Professor. Less than a year later, when he was relieved of all academic duties, his salary was further reduced, although he was permitted to live in his house rent-free.[4] 

Even before the financial difficulties facing both the College

It is clear that the Trustees intended the divinity school to be kept as separate as possible from the rest of the College; it is equally clear that the attempt was far from successful for at least thirty years. The divinity school faculty was administratively distinct from the general faculty, kept separate records, and made its recommendations for degrees directly to the Trustees. When the Trustees provided Visiting Committees in 1869-70, a separate one was

The divinity school did receive money earmarked for its own use. The Greenwood Scholarship was established in 1878-79 (from an income of $1,000) to be awarded for "excellence in such department of work as the Faculty of that School shall determine." In 1882 a gift of $500 was made to strengthen the library; the income was to be spent for books relating to subjects taught in the Department of Homiletics. Other early gifts included the Dockstader Fund of $6,000, which was established in 1889 "in aid of indigent and deserving young men, preparing for the Universalist ministry"; and the Warren S. Woodbridge Professorship of Applied Christianity, which was provided with the understanding that the donor would be the first incumbent. The divinity school also received a life insurance policy assigned to the College in 1894, of which $2,000 was to be used to establish the Benjamin H. Davis Scholarship for students who would take the prescribed course in the College and then enroll in the divinity school.

But no matter how distinct the divinity school might have been in theory, in practice the relationship to the College was inevitably close. The school and the College had a common Board of

The decision to levy tuition charges on divinity school students was based on two arguments. Free tuition was thought to be bad on principle, for it created a privileged class of students who might not always deserve or appreciate such generosity or the advantages they were receiving. More immediate was the hard fact that the College had to support the school largely out of its general funds because the denomination had not stepped forth to support the theological school on the scale that had been hoped. In the nineteenth century the school never paid its own way. The finance Committee of the Trustees made a special report in 1896 indicating that the school had cost the College over $180,000 since it had been established. The income of the school itself in 1896 was only $5,000, and the operating expenses were estimated at $11,000. The $6,000 loss that year increased the total College deficit to over $18,000. The services of Anson B. Curtis, who had been employed as Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament in 1894, had to be dispensed with only two years later as an economy move. The device used was to abolish the professorship and distribute the work among the remaining faculty. When divinity school alumni inquired whether it would be proper to raise money to reinstate Curtis, the Executive

The idea of a separate endowment for the divinity school was first recommended in 1884, after the Rev. Henry Rugg had surveyed the situation and had found the school severely handicapped by inadequate resources. The Trustees devoted much time in 1889 to discussions about the relationship between the school and the College, and approved a proposal that "at an early date" the school should be given "a distinctive name ... in order that there may be not only a real but also an apparent separation of that school from the College of Letters."[5]  The Trustees echoed the sentiments expressed by the students almost fifteen years before, when they justified their proposal on the grounds that there had been "in the minds of many persons an erroneous idea that Tufts College was only an institution for the education of young men for the ministry." Although this misconception was not as prevalent as before, there was "no doubt that at the present time it operates somewhat prejudicially to the college proper and does not advance the interests of the divinity school." The school, it was argued, should have not only "a particular name of its own, but it should also have funds specially appropriated and set apart for its maintenance." A special Committee on Finances did not, however, feel that the Trustees themselves should undertake to raise any large amount of money for such purposes, as it was apparent that "the needs of the school will not keep pace with the demands of the college itself." The money-raising should be a project for persons especially interested in the school. If they could raise "a perpetual endowment fund" of $100,000 for the benefit of the school (the income to be expended by the Trustees at their discretion), the Trustees would agree to furnish a separate building for the school "unless sooner provided."

Miner thoroughly agreed that separate housing should be

[4] The house itself was old, and apparently needed constant repairs. It had been the residence of the Teele farm, which had been purchased by the College in 1863. On one occasion Mrs. Sawyer requested a new floor in the dining room, which had been the old kitchen. For over sixteen years the kitchen had been used for canning and pickling for market, and there is no doubt that the floor had been well seasoned.

[5] The designation "College of Letters" began to be used in 1882, after the by-laws of the Trustees were revised and a "General Faculty" had been created. The term "General Faculty" was only temporary, for the expression "Faculty of the College of Letters" prevailed; it did not, of course, include the divinity school.