Bertrand Martin Tipple

Bertrand Martin Tipple was born on 1 December 1868 in Camden, New York, to Martin Tipple (d. 15 May 1901) and Sara Elizabeth Squier (June 1841 – 3 June 1916). His older brother, Ezra Squier Tipple (1861–1936) would become the fifth president of Drew Theological Seminary (1912-1929). His younger siblings were Martin Jr. and Helen.

He was educated at the non-sectarian Methodist high school (where Leland Stanford was also an alumnus) Cazenovia Seminary (1890); Syracuse University (A.B., 1894; D.D. 1904; Phi Beta Kappa); and Drew Theological Seminary (B.D. 1897). While at Syracuse, as a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity, he lived in D. U. house with author Stephen Crane. While there he was a student journalist (editor for the monthly University Herald), sportsman (baseball); and student of classical history. He served as a correspondent for the New York Tribune, the Mail and Express, and for the Post-Standard of Syracuse.

In 1897 Tipple was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church. While at Drew, he served as assistant pastor of Grace M.E. Church, New York City, and then was successively pastor of Epworth M.E. Church, New Haven, Connecticut (1897-1900); Embury Memorial M.E. Church, Brooklyn, New York (1900-1906); and First M.E. Church, in Stamford, Connecticut (1906-1909).

On 2 Jun 1897, Tipple married a fellow Syracuse student, Jane 'Jennie' Baldwin nee Downs, daughter of Samuel Simpson Downs and Mary Louisa nee Silva. They would have four children together: Silva Lake (b. 1898; m1. Robert Warrington New; m2: Prof. Kirsopp Lake, 1932); Elizabeth (1900-1978); Bertrand Squier (1901-1955); and Marion (b. 1904).

In 1909, Tipple accepted a call to be pastor of the small American Methodist Episcopal Church on Via XX Settembre in Rome, Italy, and a missionary to Italy. They lived next door at 38 Via Firenze. It was a contentious spot, given that Via XX Settembre was the old Strada Pia, along which the newly triumphant Liberal Kingdom of Italy had first entered, then cleared papal possessions to build it new Ministries and public buildings. When the church of San Caio was cleared in 1885, the new Via Firenze quickly became the home for a new ME 'Temple', designed as the administrative centre for the growing number of Methodist institutions in the city (See https://www.metodistiroma.it/il-nostro-tempio/). Given that the church only had about ten members when Tipple arrives, the new position was to afford him the opportunity to pursue missionary work.

Tipple took up the pastorate only to find himself at the centre of a furore in April 1910, when ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, during his six-week tour through Europe, created a scandal by failing to meet with the Pope. If he was going to be overlooked by the American leader, the Pontiff did not want the ex-president to also call on the Methodist mission while in Rome. Roosevelt, who had had no intention of such a visit, was incensed by the restriction that Pius X seemed to be making on him and declined to call on him. The episode, which was mostly the result of misunderstandings, caused quite a stir.

As the senior Methodist minister in the city, Tipple quickly aggregated responsibilities. The religious resistance from the Church of Rome only reinforced the Methodist push into education. From 1910-1923 he acted as president of Reeder Theological Seminary, which prepared boys for the Methodist ministry in Italy. During the same period he embarked on numerous fundraising and lecture trips throughout the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. He was a delegate to the world convention of the YMCA at Robert College in Constantinople in 1911 and a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference in Edinburgh, 1913. From 1912 to 1924, maintaining his journalistic outreadch, he was correspondent-at-large in Europe and North Africa for The Christian Science Monitor. During World War I, he maintained social service rooms in the Methodist building in Rome for British and American soldiers and sailors.

In 1914, in order to expand the ME Church's educational mission, Tipple secured six acres at the southern end of Monte Mario, one of the most beautiful locations near the city. He planned on a large-scale building program to expand the college; however, his plans were met with strong opposition from the Holy See. The site overlooked the Vatican, and was widely seen as both as a form of architectural imposition and an expression of Protestant American imperialism. The Methodists were in continual conflict with the Vatican during Tipple's fourteen years in Rome.

His efforts, however, were appreciated in a country which saw in education a means of modernization, and in the United States a great ally. In 1910, Tipple was received at the Italian Court, and in July 1915, Tipple was conferred Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy (Cavaliere dell' Ordine della Corona d'Italia) by King Victor Emanuel III and in 1920 he was made Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy for making Americans aware of Italy's sacrifice during the Great War. Like his father (Philanthropic Lodge 164 F&AM), Tipple was also a Mason (33rd degree of Italy).

His educational dreams made progress, but were ultimately undermined by the rapprochement between the Catholic Church and the newly installed Fascist state. On 20 May 1922, the first of seven planned buildings was finally dedicated on Monte Mario. In 1923, Tipple resigned as president of the college on 20 November 1923, stating ill health as the necessitating cause, and shortly thereafter the new fascist government would stall and eventually stop the extensive building plans.

In his later years he focused on traveling, lecturing and writing. He joined his daughter Silva Tipple New Lake on the American expedition to the ruins at Van Fortress, Turkey, in 1938-40.

He died 19 October 1952, South Pasadena, California.

His daughter Silva became well known in her own right as a classics professor, archaeologist, and scholar of the New Testament.

Sources:

newspapers.com

Price, C. F. (ed.). Who's Who in American Methodism (New York: E. B. Treat & Co., 1916), p. 222

Robins, J G, 'Masons and Methodists in Rome,' America 3.6 (1910): 149.