The commissioners were appointed to secure liberty in religion in Massachusetts. In this they also failed; for, after their departure, affairs continued in their usual course several years longer. There is, of course, not the severity that characterized Massachusetts' early history; but the opposition to dissenters is still strongly felt. In 1668 a congregation of Baptists established themselves on Noddle Island, in Boston harbor. The magistrates tried to get rid of them, first by winning them over in public discussion. In this they were not successful. Three of the Baptists were then sentenced to banishment, and threatened with imprisonment should they return. The authorities, however, were advised not to enforce the sentence. The sentiment of the colony would not support it. The dissenters were not banished; they gathered their church on the Island, and were not molested. Five years later one of their number wrote: "The church of the baptized do peaceably enjoy their liberty." Even in Plymouth colony there remained some opposition to dissenters. As early as 1663 the Baptists in Rohoboth "solemnly covenanted together as a Church of Christ."2 Complaint was made against them because there was a Congregational church there; in consequence a small fine was imposed upon them. Four years later, however, the town of Swansea was granted to them by the Court itself. A Baptist church was organized, and it flourished there for many years. 1 In 1665 the Commissioners in their report said of Connecticut that it would not "hinder any from enjoying the Sacraments and using the Common Prayer Book, provided they hinder not the maintenance of the public minister." 3 This tolerant spirit in the colony developed sufficiently by 1669 to enact the Toleration law, already quoted. Dissenters, however, had to be "approved, according to law, as orthodox and sound in the fundamentals of Christian religion," in order to 1Quoted in Palfrey, Vol. II, p. 104. have "allowance of their persuasion and profession in church ways." Just how much liberty was enjoyed under this law it is difficult to say. "Orthodox and sound," according to Puritan ideas, did not apply to many. Dr. Beardsley, in his History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, says: "For there was no letting up of the Puritan rigor, no relaxation of the rule that none should have liberty to worship God publicly except after the order of religion established by the civil government, until 1708." The Royal Commissioners of 1664-5 had accomplished nothing. Ten years later the mother country again undertook to call the colonies, particularly Massachusetts, to account. In the dispute with the colony, which began in 1675, and resulted in vacating the charter in 1684, an important subject of contention was that bearing on religious liberty. While the Massachusetts agents, Stoughton and Bulkeley, were in England to bring about a reconciliation, the Baptists stealthily built a church in Boston. It was not known to be a church until the Baptists met for services. Later the General Court voted to take the house away from them if they continued to worship there. The Baptists lost no time to report the matter in England. When the colony's agents returned in 1679, they brought with them a letter in which the King said: "We shall henceforth expect that there shall be suitable obedience in respect of freedom and liberty of conscience, so as those that desire to serve God in the way of the Church of England, be not thereby made obnoxious or discountenanced from sharing in the government, much less that any other of our good subjects (not being Papists) who do not agree in the Congregational way, be by law subjected to fines or forfeitures, or other incapacities, for the same; which is a severity the more to be wondered at, whereas liberty of conscience was made one principal motive for your first transportation unto those parts." In spite of this letter, by order of the Court, 1 Vol. I, p. 16. 2 the Baptist church doors were nailed and the congregation forbidden to meet there. The church was afterward opened in some way, and the Baptists again held services. They were summoned before the Court, where they argued that the church had been built before the law was enacted; and, further, that the letter of the King was in their favor. The Court forgave their past conduct, but forbade future meetings of Baptists in the church. Doubtless, the controversy with the King and his recent letter had considerable influence upon the Court in its mild treatment of these dissenters. In the following year the General Court taking into consideration the King's objections to their laws voted to repeal the law "for punishing with death Quakers returned from banishment." At the same time the law against heresy was amended. In 1682 the agents sent to England in response to the King's demands, were specially instructed to inform the King that there was now no law prohibiting any members of the Church of England from civil privileges, and that the laws against "violent and impetuous intrusions of the Quakers had been repealed;" Anabaptists were "subject to no other penal statutes than those of the Congregational way;" the church membership qualification for citizenship, too, was abolished. All this shows that the religious exclusiveness of Massachusetts was a chief cause of complaint against her. In 1684 her charter was declared forfeited. Under the Royal governors until the Revolution, religious liberty made no progress in New England. The government was changed after the accession of William and Mary. Connecticut and Rhode Island resumed their governments under their old charters. Massachusetts received a new one and organized its government on the new basis in 1692. Plymouth and Maine were associated with Massachusetts. New Hampshire was made a royal province. The new charter for Massachusetts distinctly provided for liberty of conscience to all, except papists, as was 'Palfrey, Vol. II, p. 239. 'Palfrey, Vol. II, p. 242. seen in the previous chapter. The year 1692 marks the beginning of a new era for Massachusetts. The colony, however, was yet far from religious freedom. All citizens were compelled to support the Congregational church; but progress had been made, and the day when dissenters should be exempted from taxes for the state church was not far distant. We have noticed three forces tending to promote religious liberty in the seventeenth century. (1). Persecution of dissenters, in the early history of the colonies, met with opposition and developed a spirit of toleration, which made its influence felt in Rhode Island from the foundation, in Massachusetts from 1661, and in Connecticut, though not to any great extent here, from the year 1669. (2). The extension of the franchise, in Connecticut by the Charter of 1662, in Massachusetts by the incorporation of Maine and New Hampshire towns, and by the Half-way covenant, gave the privileges of citizenship to many not enthusiastic for, and perhaps, not at all in sympathy with, the church established by law. In consequence, a new element, in opposition to narrowness and in favor of liberality of policy, appears to foster a healthier public opinion. (3). The controversies of Massachusetts with the Crown forced that colony to amend or repeal laws restricting freedom in matters of religion. CHAPTER IV. DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE The Charter of 1691 marks an epoch in the history of Massachusetts. The long struggle that arose because of the association of church membership with the franchise was ended. The religious test for citizenship did not endure until the coming in of the eighteenth century. A great change had come over New England. Church and state were far different from what they were in the time of Governor Bradford. In some respects there is a marked advance; in others, retrogression. The population of New England in 1700 was about 106,000. Of these, 70,000 were under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts; Connecticut had 25,000; New Hampshire, 5,000, and Rhode Island 6,000.1 They were nearly all descendants of the Puritan emigrants, whose prime motive of leaving their native land for America, was to enjoy freedom of worship. Religion was not the all-absorbing topic with the first generation of the eighteenth century, as it had been with their grandfathers. Religion was for a time in the background, while agriculture and commerce came into prominence. From an economic point of view New England was prospering. Large incomes were derived from the fisheries. Trade with the West Indies was brisk. Ship-building was carried on, on so large a scale, that English builders complained of American 1 Thwaite's Colonies, p. 181. |