The Emancipation of Massachusetts Part 10

At the Conquest, the Hanse merchants had a house in London, which was afterward famous as the Steel Yard. They lived a strange life,--a combination of that of the trader, the soldier, and the monk. Their fortified warehouse, exposed to the attacks of the ferocious mob, was occasionally taken and sacked; and the garrison shut up within was subject to an iron discipline. They were forbidden to marry, no woman pa.s.sed the gates, nor did they ever sleep a night without the walls; but, always on the watch, they lay in their cells ready to repulse a storm. For many years these Germans seem to have monopolized the carrying trade, for it was not till the thirteenth century that Englishmen appear to have made an effort at compet.i.tion. However, about 1296 certain London mercers are said to have obtained a grant of privileges from John, Duke of Brabant, and to have established a wool market at Antwerp. [Footnote: Andersen's _History of Commerce_.] The recognition of the Flemish government was of course necessary; but they could hardly have maintained themselves without some support at home; for, although their warehouse was abroad, they were English merchants, and they must have relied upon English protection. No very early doc.u.ments remain; but an elaborate charter, granted by Edward IV. in 1463, proves that the corporation had then had a long legal existence.

[Footnote: Hakluyt's _Voyages_, i. 230.] The crown thereby confirmed one Obrey, the governor, in his office during pleasure, with the wages theretofore enjoyed; existing laws were approved; the governor and merchants were empowered to elect twelve Justicers, who were to hold courts for all merchants and mariners in those parts; and the company was authorized to regulate the trade and control the traders, provided no laws were pa.s.sed contrary to the intent of that charter.

Here, as in the Merchant Guild, the inevitable aristocratic revolution took place, and the old democratic brotherhood became a strict monopoly.

The oppression was so flagrant that a pet.i.tion was presented to Parliament in 1497 against the exactions of the Merchant Adventurers, as the a.s.sociation was then called, by which it appeared that interlopers, trading to Holland and Flanders, were fined 40, whereas any subject might have become a freeman in earlier times for an old n.o.ble, or about 6s. 8d.; [Footnote: 12 Henry VII. ch. vi.] and the scandal was so great that the fine was fixed at 10 marks, or 6 l3s. 4d., by statute.

During the stagnation of the Middle Ages few traces of such commercial enterprises are to be found, but with the sixteenth century Europe awoke to a new life and thrilled with a new energy. Trade shared in the impulse. In 1554 Philip and Mary incorporated the Russia Company in regular modern form; in 1581 the Turkey Company was organized; in 1600 the East India Company received its charter; and, to come directly to what is material, in 1629 Charles I. signed the patent of the Governor and Company of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay in New England.

Stripped of its verbiage, the provisions are simple. The stockholders, or "freemen," as they were then called, were to meet once a quarter in a "General Court." This General Court, or stockholders' meeting, chose the officers, of which there were twenty, the governor, deputy governor, and eighteen a.s.sistants or directors, on the last Wednesday in each Easter Term. The a.s.sistants were intrusted with the business management, and were to meet once a month or oftener; while the General Court was empowered to admit freemen, and "to make laws and ordinances for the good and welfare of the said company, and for the government and ordering of the said lands and plantation, and the people inhabiting and to inhabit the same, as to them from time to time shall be thought meet,--so as such laws and ordinances be not contrary or repugnant to the laws and statutes of this our realm of England." The criminal jurisdiction was limited to the "imposition of lawful fines, mulcts, imprisonment, or other lawful correction, according to the course of other corporations in this our realm of England."

The "course of corporations" referred to was well established. The Master and Wardens of the Guild of Drapers in London, for example, could make "such ... pains, punishments, and penalties, by corporal punishment, or fines and amercements," ... "as shall seem ...

necessary," provided their statutes were reasonable and not contrary to the laws of the kingdom. [Footnote: Herbert's _Livery Companies_, i.

489.] In like manner, boroughs such as Tiverton might "impose and a.s.sess punishments by imprisonments, etc., and reasonable fines upon offenders." [Footnote: See _History of Tiverton_, App. 5.]

But all lawyers knew that such grants did not convey full civil or criminal jurisdiction, which, when thought needful, was specially conferred, as was done in the case of the East India Company upon their pet.i.tion in 1624, [Footnote: Bruce, _Annals_, i. 252.] and in that of Ma.s.sachusetts by the charter of William and Mary.

Such was the undoubted theory, and evidently there must always have been some practical means of checking the abuse of power by these strong organizations. In semi-barbarous ages the sovereign took matters into his own hands by seizing the franchise, and even the Plantagenets repeatedly suspended or revoked the liberties of London,--often, no doubt, for cause, but sometimes also to make money by a resale; and a succession of these arbitrary forfeitures demonstrated that charters to be of value must be beyond the grantor's control. Resort was had to the courts, as a matter of course, and finally it was settled that relief should be given by a writ of _quo warranto_, upon which the question of the violation of privileges could be tried; and curious records still remain of ancient litigations of this nature.

In 1321 complaint was made against the London Weavers for injuring the public by pa.s.sing regulations tending to raise the price of cloth.

[Footnote: _Liber Customarum_, i. 416-424.] It was alleged that the guild, with this intent, had limited the working hours in the day, the working days in the year, and the number of apprentices the freemen might employ; and the prayer was that for these abuses the charter should be annulled.

The cause was tried before a jury, who found the truth of some of the charges; but the judgment is lost, as the roll is imperfect.

There was danger, moreover, to the citizen from the oppression of these powerful bodies, as well as to the public from their usurpations; and were authority wholly wanting, argument would be almost unnecessary to prove that some appellate tribunal must always have had jurisdiction to pa.s.s upon the validity of corporate legislation; for otherwise any summary punishment might have been inflicted upon an individual, though notoriously unlawful, and the only redress possible would have been subsequent proceedings to vacate the charter.

Through appeals, corporations could be controlled; and by none was this control so stubbornly disputed, or its necessity so clearly demonstrated, as by the Governor and Company of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay in New England. A good ill.u.s.tration is the trial of the Quaker, Wenlock Christison, for his life in 1661.

"William Leddra being thus dispatch'd, it was resolved to make an end also of Wenlock Christison. He therefore was brought from the prison to the court at Boston, where the governor John Indicot, and the deputy governor Richard Billingham, being both present, it was told him, 'Unless you will renounce your religion, you shall surely die.' But instead of shrinking, he said with an undaunted courage, 'Nay, I shall not change my religion, nor seek to save my life; neither do I intend to deny my Master; but if I lose my life for Christ's sake, and the preaching of the gospel, I shall save my life.' ... John Indicot asked him 'what he had to say for himself, why he should not die?' ... Then Wenlock asked, 'By what law will you put me to death?' The answer was, 'We have a law, and by our law you are to die.' 'So said the Jews of Christ,' (reply'd Wenlock) 'we have a law, and by our law he ought to die. Who empowered you to make that law?' To which one of the board answered, 'We have a patent, and are the patentees; judge whether we have not power to make laws.' Hereupon Wenlock asked again, 'How, have you power to make laws repugnant to the laws of England?' 'No,' said the governor. 'Then,' (reply'd Wenlock,) 'you are gone beyond your bounds, and have forfeited your patent; and that is more than you can answer.'

'Are you,' ask'd he, 'subjects to the king, yea or nay?' ... To which one said, 'Yea, we are so.' 'Well,' said Wenlock, 'so am I.' ...

'Therefore seeing that you and I are subjects to the king, I demand to be tried by the laws of my own nation.' It was answered, 'You shall be tried by a bench and a jury.' For it seems they began to be afraid to go on in the former course, of trial without a jury ... But Wenlock said, 'That is not the law, but the manner of it; for I never heard nor read of any law that was in England to hang Quakers.' To this the governor reply'd 'that there was a law to hang Jesuits.' To which Wenlock return'd, 'If you put me to death, it is not because I go under the name of a Jesuit, but of a Quaker. Therefore, I appeal to the laws of my own nation.' But instead of taking notice of this, one said 'that he was in their hands, and had broken their law, and they would try him.'"

[Footnote: Sewel, pp. 278, 279.]

Yet, though the ecclesiastical party in Ma.s.sachusetts obstinately refused to admit appeals to the British judiciary up to the last moment of their power, for the obvious reason that the existence of the theocracy depended upon the enforcement of such legislation as that under which the Quakers suffered, there was no principle in the whole range of English jurisprudence more firmly established. By a statute of Henry VI. pa.s.sed in 1436, corporate enactments were to be submitted to the judges for approval; and the Court of King's Bench always set aside such as were bad, whenever the question of their validity was presented for adjudication. [Footnote: Stat. 15 H. VI. ch. 6. Stat 19 H. VII.

ch. 7. Clark's Case, 5 c.o.ke, 633, decided A. D. 1596. See Kyd on Corporations, ii. 107-110, where authorities are collected. Child v.

Hudson Bay Co., 2 P. W. 207.]

But discussion is futile; the proposition is self-evident, that an a.s.sociation endowed with the capacity of acting like a single man, for certain defined objects, which shall attempt other objects, or shall seek to compa.s.s its ends by unlawful means, violates the condition upon which its life has been granted, transcends the limits of its existence, and forfeits its privileges; and that under such circ.u.mstances its ordinances are void, and none are bound to yield them their obedience.

Approached thus from the standpoint of legal history, no doubt can exist concerning the scope of the franchise secured by the Puritans for the Ma.s.sachusetts colony. The instrument obtained from Charles I. embodied certain of their number in an English corporation, whose only lawful business was the American trade, as the business of the East India Company was trade in Hindostan. To enable them to act effectively, a tract of land in New England, between the Merrimack and the Charles, was conveyed to them, as the soil upon which a town stood was conveyed to the mayor and commonalty. Within this territory they were authorized to established their plantations and forts, which they were empowered to defend against attack, as the Hanse merchants defended the Steel Yard in London. They were also permitted to govern the country within their grant by reasonable regulations calculated to preserve the peace, and of much the same character as the munic.i.p.al ordinances of towns, subject, of course, to judicial supervision. The corporation itself was created subject to the munic.i.p.al laws of England, and could have no existence without the realm; and though perhaps even then the American wilderness might have been held to belong to the British empire, it formed no part of the kingdom, [Footnote: Blackstone's _Commentaries_, i. 109.] and was altogether beyond the limits of that jurisdiction from whose customs and statutes the life of this imaginary being sprang. Therefore, the governing body could legally exercise its functions only when domiciled in some English town. [Footnote: On this subject see the able paper of Mr. Deane, in _Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society Proceedings_, December, 1869, p. 166.]

Sir Richard Sheldon, the solicitor-general, advised the king that he was signing a charter containing "such ... clauses for ye electing of Governors and Officers here in England, ... and powers to make lawes and ordinances for setling ye governement and magistracye for ye plantacon there, ... as ... are usuallie allowed to Corporacons in England."

[Footnote: _Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc. Proc._ 1869-70, p. 173.] And there can be no question that his opinion was sound.

Nothing can be imagined more ill-suited to serve as the organic law of a new commonwealth than this instrument. No provision was made for superior or probate courts, for a representative a.s.sembly, for the incorporation of counties and towns, for police or taxation. In short, hardly a step could be taken toward founding a territorial government based upon popular suffrage without working a forfeiture of the charter by abuse of the franchise. The colonists, it is true, afterward advanced very different theories of construction; but that they were well aware of their legal position is demonstrated by the fact that after some hesitation from apprehension of consequences, they ventured on the singularly bold and lawless measure of secretly removing their charter to America and establis.h.i.+ng their corporation in a land which they thought would be beyond the process of Westminster Hall. [Footnote: 1629, Aug. 29.] The details of the settlement are related in many books, and require only the briefest mention here. In 1628 an a.s.sociation of gentlemen bought the tract of country lying between the Merrimack and Charles from the Council of Plymouth, and sent Endicott to take charge of their purchase. A royal patent was, however, thought necessary for the protection of a large colony, and one having been obtained, the Company of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay was at once organized in England, Endicott was appointed governor in America, and six vessels sailed during the spring of 1629, taking out several hundred persons and a "plentiful provision of G.o.dly ministers." In August the church of Salem was gathered and Mr. Higginson was consecrated as their teacher. In that same month Winthrop, Saltonstall, and others met at Cambridge and signed an agreement binding themselves upon the faith of Christians to embark for the plantation by the following March; "Provided always that before the last of September next, the whole government, together with the patent, ... be first by an order of court legally transferred and established to remain with us and others which shall inhabite upon the said plantation." [Footnote: _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. i. 28.] The Company accepted the proposition, Winthrop was chosen governor, and he anch.o.r.ed in Salem harbor in June. [Footnote: 1630] More than a thousand settlers landed before winter, and the first General Court was held at Boston in October; nor did the emigration thus begun entirely cease until the meeting of the Long Parliament.

From the beginning the colonists took what measures they thought proper, without regarding the limitations of the law. Counties and towns had to be practically incorporated, taxes were levied upon inhabitants, and in 1634 all pretence of a General Court of freemen was dropped, and the towns chose delegates to represent them, though the legislature was not divided into two branches until ten years later. When the government had become fully organized supreme power was vested in the General Court, a legislature composed of two houses; the a.s.sistants, or magistrates, as they were called, and the deputies. The governor, deputy governor, and a.s.sistants were elected by a general vote; but each town sent two deputies to Boston.

For some years justice was dispensed by the magistrates according to the Word of G.o.d, but gradually a judicial system was established; the magistrate's local court was the lowest, from whence causes went by appeal to the county courts, one of whose judges was always an a.s.sistant, and probate jurisdiction was given to the two held at Ipswich and at Salem. From the judgments entered here an appeal lay to the Court of a.s.sistants, and then to the General Court, which was the tribunal of last resort. The clergy and gentry pertinaciously resisted the enactment of a series of general statutes, upon which the people as steadily insisted, until at length, in 1641, "The Body of Liberties" was approved by the legislature. This compilation was the work of the Rev. Mr. Ward, pastor of Ipswich, and contained a criminal code copied almost word for word from the Pentateuch, but apart from matters touching religion, the legislation was such as English colonists have always adopted. A major-general was elected who commanded the militia, and in 1652 money was coined.

The social inst.i.tutions, however, have a keener interest, for they reflect that strong cast of thought which has stamped its imprint deep into the character of so much of the American people. The seventeenth century was aristocratic, and the inhabitants of the larger part of New England were divided into three cla.s.ses, the commonalty, the gentry, and the clergy. Little need be said of the first, except that they were a brave and determined race, as ready to fight as Cromwell's saints, who made Rupert's troopers "as stubble to their swords;" that they were intelligent, and would not brook injustice; and that they were resolute, and would not endure oppression. All know that they were energetic and shrewd.

The gentry had the weight in the community that comes with wealth and education, and they received the deference then paid to birth, for they were for the most part the descendants of English country-gentlemen. As a matter of course they monopolized the chief offices; and they were not sentenced by the courts to degrading punishments, like whipping, for their offences, as other criminals were. They even showed some wish at the outset to create legal distinctions, such as a magistracy for life, and a disposition to magnify the jurisdiction of the Court of a.s.sistants, whose seats they filled; but the action of the people was determined though quiet, a chamber of deputies was chosen, and such schemes were heard of no more.

Yet notwithstanding the existence of this aristocratic element, the real substance of influence and power lay with the clergy. It has been taught as an axiom of Ma.s.sachusetts history, that from the outset the town was the social and political unit; but an a.n.a.lysis of the evidence tends to show that the organization of the Puritan Commonwealth was ecclesiastical, and the congregation, not the town, the basis upon which the fabric rested. By the const.i.tution of the corporation the franchise went with the freedom of the company; but in order to form a const.i.tuency which would support a sacerdotal oligarchy, it was enacted in 1631 "that for time to come noe man shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke, but such as are members of some of the churches within ... the same." [Footnote: _Ma.s.s. Records_, i. 87.] Thus though communicants were not necessarily voters, no one could be a voter who was not a communicant; therefore the town-meeting was in fact nothing but the church meeting, possibly somewhat attenuated, and called by a different name. By this insidious statute the clergy seized the temporal power, which they held till the charter fell. The minister stood at the head of the congregation and moulded it to suit his purposes and to do his will; for though he could not when opposed admit an inhabitant to the sacrament, he could peremptorily exclude therefrom all those of whom he disapproved, for "none are propounded to the congregation, except they be first allowed by the elders." [Footnote: Winthrop's reply to Vane, _Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. i. 101.] In such a community the influence of the priesthood must have been overwhelming. Not only in an age without newspapers or tolerable roads were their sermons, preached several times each week to every voter, the most effective of political harangues; but, unlike other party orators, they were not forced to stimulate the sluggish, or to convince the hostile, for from a people glowing with fanaticism, each elder picked his band of devoted servants of the church, men pa.s.sionately longing to do the will of Christ, whose commands concerning earth and heaven their pastor had been ordained to declare. Nor was their power bounded by local limits; though seldom holding office themselves, they were solemnly consulted by the government on every important question that arose, whether of war or peace, and their counsel was rarely disregarded. They gave their opinion, no matter how foreign the subject might be to their profession or their education; and they had no hesitation in pa.s.sing upon the technical construction of the charter with the authority of a bench of judges. An amusing example is given by Winthrop: "The General Court a.s.sembled again, and all the elders were sent for, to reconcile the differences between the magistrates and deputies. When they were come the first question put to them was, ... whether the magistrates are, by patent and election of the people, the standing council of this commonwealth in the vacancy of the General Court, and have power accordingly to act in all cases subject to government, according to the said patent and the laws of this jurisdiction; and when any necessary occasions call for action from authority, in cases where there is no particular express law provided, there to be guided by the word of G.o.d, till the General Court give particular rules in such cases. The elders, having received the question, withdrew themselves for consultation about it, and the next day sent to know, when we would appoint a time that they might attend the court with their answer. The magistrates and deputies agreed upon an hour "and ... their answer was affirmative," on the magistrates behalf, in the very words of the question, with some reasons thereof. It was delivered in writing by Mr. Cotton in the name of them all, they being all present, and not one dissentient." Then the magistrates propounded four more questions, the last of which is as follows: "Whether a judge be bound to p.r.o.nounce such sentence as a positive law prescribes, in case it be apparently above or beneath the merit of the offence?" To which the elders replied at great length, saying that the penalty must vary with the gravity of the crime, and added examples: "So any sin committed with an high hand, as the gathering of sticks on the Sabbath day, may be punished with death when a lesser punishment may serve for gathering sticks privily and in some need." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 204, 205.] Yet though the clerical influence was so unbounded the theocracy itself was exposed to constant peril. In monarchies such as France or Spain the priests who rule the king have the force of the nation at command to dispose of at their will; but in Ma.s.sachusetts a more difficult problem was presented, for the voters had to be controlled. By the law requiring freemen to be church-members the elders meant to grasp the key to the suffrage, but experience soon proved that more stringent regulation was needed.

According to the original Congregational theory each church was complete and independent, and elected its own officers and conducted its own wors.h.i.+p, free from interference from without, except that others of the same communion might offer advice or admonition. Under the theocracy no such loose system was possible, for heresy might enter in three different ways; first, under the early law, "blasphemers" might form a congregation and from thence creep into the company; second, an established church might fall into error; third, an unsound minister might be chosen, who would debauch his flock by securing the admission of sectaries to the sacrament. Above all, a creed was necessary by means of which false doctrine might be instantly detected and condemned.

Accordingly, one by one, as the need for vigilance increased, laws were pa.s.sed to guard these points of danger.

First, in 1635 it was enacted, [Footnote: 1635-6, March 3.] "Forasmuch as it hath bene found by sad experience, that much trouble and disturbance hath happened both to the church & civill state by the officers & members of some churches, which have bene gathered ... in an vndue manner ... it is ... ordered that ... this Court doeth not, nor will hereafter, approue of any such companyes of men as shall henceforthe ioyne in any pretended way of church fellows.h.i.+pp, without they shall first acquainte the magistrates, & the elders of the greater parte of the churches in this jurisdiction, with their intenctions, and have their approbaction herein. And ffurther, it is ordered, that noe person, being a member of any churche which shall hereafter be gathered without the approbaction of the magistrates, & the greater parte of the said churches, shallbe admitted to the ffreedome of this commonwealthe."

[Footnote: _Ma.s.s. Rec._ i. 168.]

In 1648 all the elders met in a synod at Cambridge; they adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith and an elaborate "Platform of Church Discipline," the last clause of which is as follows: "If any church ... shall grow schismatical, rending itself from the communion of other churches, or shall walk incorrigibly and obstinately in any corrupt way of their own contrary to the rule of the word; in such case the magistrate, ... is to put forth his coercive power, as the matter shall require." [Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 5, ch. xvii. Section 9.]

In 1658 the General Court declared: "Whereas it is the duty of the Christian magistrate to take care the people be fed with wholesome & sound doctrine, & in this houre of temptation, ... it is therefore ordered, that henceforth no person shall ... preach to any company of people, whither in church society or not, or be ordeyned to the office of a teaching elder, where any two organnick churches, councill of state, or Generall Court shall declare theire dissatisfaction thereat, either in refference to doctrine or practize... and in case of ordination... timely notice thereof shall be given unto three or fower of the neighbouring organicke churches for theire approbation."

[Footnote: _Ma.s.s. Rec._ iv. pt. 1, p. 328.] And lastly, in 1679, the building of meeting-houses was forbidden, without leave from the freemen of the town or the General Court. [Footnote: _Ma.s.s. Rec._ v. 213.]

But legislation has never yet controlled the action of human thought.

All experience shows that every age, and every western nation, produces men whose nature it is to follow the guidance of their reason in the face of every danger. To exterminate these is the task of religious persecution, for they can be silenced only by death. Thus is a dominant priesthood brought face to face with the alternative, of surrendering its power or of killing the heretic, and those b.l.o.o.d.y deeds that cast their sombre shadow across the history of the Puritan Commonwealth cannot be seen in their true bearing unless the position of the clergy is vividly before the mind.

Cromwell said that ministers were "helpers of, not lords over, G.o.d's people," [Footnote: Cromwell to Dunda.s.s, letter cxlviii. Carlyle's _Cromwell_, iii. 72.] but the orthodox New Englander was the va.s.sal of his priest. Winthrop was the ablest and the most enlightened magistrate the ecclesiastical party ever had, and he tells us that "I honoured a faithful minister in my heart and could have kissed his feet."

[Footnote: _Life and Letters of Winthrop_, i. 61.] If the governor of Ma.s.sachusetts and the leader of the emigration could thus describe his moral growth,--a man of birth, education, and fortune, who had had wide experience of life, and was a lawyer by profession,--the awe and terror felt by the ma.s.s of the communicants can be imagined.

Jonathan Mitchel, one of the most famous of the earlier divines, thus describes his flock: "They were a gracious, savoury-spirited people, principled by Mr. Shepard, liking an humbling, mourning, heart-breaking ministry and spirit; living in religion, praying men and women." And "he would speak with such a transcendent majesty and liveliness, that the people ... would often shake under his dispensations, as if they had heard the sound of the trumpets from the burning mountain, and yet they would mourn to think, that they were going presently to be dismissed from such an heaven upon earth." ... "When a publick admonition was to be dispensed unto any one that had offended scandalously... the hearers would be all drowned in tears, as if the admonition had been, as indeed he would with much artifice make it be directed unto them all; but such would be the compa.s.sion, and yet the gravity, the majesty, the scriptural and awful pungency of these his dispensations, that the conscience of the offender himself, could make no resistance thereunto."

[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, ch. iv. Sub-section 9, 10.]

Their arrogance was fed by the submission of the people, and they would not tolerate the slightest opposition even from their most devoted retainers. The Reforming Synod was held in 1679. "When the report of a committee on 'the evils that had provoked the Lord' came up for consideration, 'Mr. Wheelock declared that there was a cry of injustice in that magistrates and ministers were not rated' (taxed), 'which occasioned a very warm discourse. Mr. Stodder' (minister of Northampton) 'charged the deputy with saying what was not true, and the deputy governor' (Danforth) 'told him he deserved to be laid by the heels, etc.'

"'After we broke up, the deputy and several others went home with Mr.

Stodder, and the deputy asked forgiveness of him and told him he freely forgave him, but Mr. Stodder was high.' The next day 'the deputy owned his being in too great a heat, and desired the Lord to forgive it, and Mr. Stodder did something, though very little, by the deputy.'"

[Footnote: Palfrey's _History of New England_, in. 330, note 2. Extract from _Journal_ of Rev. Peter Thacher.] Wheelock was lucky in not having to smart more severely for his temerity, for the unfortunate Ursula Cole was sentenced to pay 5 [Footnote: Five pounds was equivalent to a sum between one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and fifty dollars now. Ursula was of course poor, or she would not have been sentenced to be whipped. The fine was therefore extremely heavy.] or be whipped for the lighter crime of saying "she had as lief hear a cat mew" [Footnote: Frothingham, _History of Charlestown_, p. 208.] as Mr. Shepard preach.

The daily services in the churches consumed so much time that they became a grievance with which the government was unable to cope.

In 1633 the Court of a.s.sistants, thinking "the keepeing of lectures att the ordinary howres nowe obserued in the forenoone, to be dyvers wayes preiudiciall to the common good, both in the losse of a whole day, & bringing other charges & troubles to the place where the lecture is kept," ordered that they should not begin before one o'clock. [Footnote: _Ma.s.s. Rec._ i. 110.] The evil still continued, for only the next year it was found that so many lectures "did spend too much time and proved overburdensome," and they were reduced to two a week. [Footnote: Felt's _Eccl. Hist._ i. 201.] Notwithstanding these measures, relief was not obtained, because, as the legislature complained in 1639, lectures "were held till night, and sometimes within the night, so as such as dwelt far off could not get home in due season, and many weak bodies could not endure so long, in the extremity of the heat or cold, without great trouble and hazard of their health," [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 324.] and a consultation between the elders and magistrates was suggested.

But to have the delights of the pulpit abridged was more than the divines could bear. They declared roundly that their privileges were invaded; [Footnote: _Idem_, i. 325.] and the General Court had to give way. A few lines in Winthrop's Journal give an idea of the tax this loquacity must have been upon the time of a poor and scattered people.

"Mr. Hooker being to preach at Cambridge, the governor and many others went to hear him.... He preached in the afternoon, and having gone on, with much strength of voice and intention of spirit, about a quarter of an hour, he was at a stand, and told the people that G.o.d had deprived him both of his strength and matter, &c. and so went forth, and about half an hour after returned again, and went on to very good purpose about two hours." [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 304.] Common men could not have kept this hold upon the inhabitants of New England, but the clergy were learned, resolute, and able, and their strong but narrow minds burned with fanaticism and love of power; with their beliefs and under their temptations persecution seemed to them not only their most potent weapon, but a duty they owed to Christ--and that duty they unflinchingly performed. John Cotton, the most gifted among them, taught it as a holy work: "But the good that is brought to princes and subjects by the due punishment of apostate seducers and idolaters and blasphemers is manifold.

"First, it putteth away evill from the people and cutteth off a gangreene, which would spread to further unG.o.dlinesse....

"Secondly, it driveth away wolves from worrying and scattering the sheep of Christ. For false teachers be wolves, ... and the very name of wolves holdeth forth what benefit will redound to the sheep, by either killing them or driving them away.

"Thirdly, such executions upon such evill doers causeth all the country to heare and feare, and doe no more such wickednesse.... Yea as these punishments are preventions of like wickednesse in some, so are they wholesome medicines, to heale such as are curable of these eviles....

"Fourthly, the punishments executed upon false prophets and seducing teachers, doe bring downe showers of G.o.d's blessings upon the civill state....

"Fifthly, it is an honour to G.o.d's Justice that such judgments are executed...." [Footnote: _b.l.o.o.d.y Tenent Washed_, pp. 137, 138.]

All motives combined to drive them headlong into cruelty; for in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the larger number, even the pa.s.sion of bigotry was cool beside the malignant hate they felt for those whose opinions menaced their earthly power and dominion; and they never wearied of exhorting the magistrates to destroy the enemies of the church. "Men's l.u.s.ts are sweet to them, and they would not be disturbed or disquieted in their sin. Hence there be so many such as cry up tolleration boundless and libertinism so as (if it were in their power) to order a total and perpetual confinement of the sword of the civil magistrate unto its scabbard; (a notion that is evidently distructive to this people, and to the publick liberty, peace, and prosperity of any inst.i.tuted churches under heaven.)" [Footnote: _Eye Salve_, Election Sermon, by Mr. Shepard of Charlestown, p. 21.] "Let the magistrates coercive power in matters of religion (therefore) be still a.s.serted, seing he is one who is bound to G.o.d more than any other men to cherish his true religion; ... and how wofull would the state of things soon be among us, if men might have liberty without controll to profess, or preach, or print, or publish what they list, tending to the seduction of others." [Footnote: _Eye Salve_, p. 38.] Such feelings found their fit expression in savage laws against dissenting sects; these, however, will be dealt with hereafter; only those which ill.u.s.trate the fundamental principles of the theocracy need be mentioned here. One chief cause of schism was the hearing of false doctrine; and in order that the people might not be led into temptation, but might on the contrary hear true exposition of the word, every inhabitant was obliged to attend the services of the established church upon the Lord's day under a penalty of fine or imprisonment; the fine not to exceed 5s. (equal to about $5 now) for every absence.

[Footnote: 1634-35, 4 March. _Ma.s.s. Rec._ i. 140.]

"If any Christian so called ... shall contemptuously behave himselfe toward ye word preached, or ye messengers thereof called to dispence ye same in any congregation, ... or like a sonn of Corah cast upon his true doctrine or himselfe any reproach ... shall for ye first scandole be convented ... and bound to their good behaviour; and if a second time they breake forth into ye like contemptuous carriages, either to pay 5 to ye publike treasury or to stand two houres openly upon a block 4 foote high, on a lecture day, with a pap fixed on his breast with this, A Wanton Gospeller, written in capitall letters ye others may fear & be ashamed of breaking out into the like wickednes." [Footnote: 1646, 4 Nov. _Ma.s.s. Rec._ ii. 179.]