Some formidable dangers of division arising from the double derivation of the episcopate were happily averted by the tact and statesmanship of Bishop White, and liturgical changes incidental to the reconstitution of the church were made, on the whole with cautious judgment and good taste, and successfully introduced.

But for many years the church lived only a languishing life.

Bishop Provoost of New York, after fourteen years of service, demitted his functions in 1801, discouraged about the continuance of the church.

He "thought it would die out with the old colonial families."[213:1] The large prosperity of this church dates only from the second decade of this century.

It is the more notable for the brief time in which so much has been accomplished.
* * * * * The difficulties in the way of the organization of the Catholic Church for the United States were not less serious, and were overcome with equal success, but not without a prolonged struggle against opposition from within.