The emancipation of Massachusetts; the dream and the reality

,

•^^ -v "^«>_r

• • 5 * '

s>

^^^^.

^^"V

V V

\.-^--V \ ... ^

,4 q^ > ^i^

0^ rV^^^': %v^^

r^ tz-o^

THE EMANCIPATION OF
MASSACHUSETTS

THE DREAM AND THE REALITY

BY
BROOKS ADAMS

Revised and Enlarged Edition

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

(Cbe IMMtx^ibt pcetf^ Cambci&se
1919

r

F^1

/

COPYRIGHT, 18S7, 1915, AND 1919, BY BROOKS ADAMS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

oti- It) !9!y

©CI.A53n803

PREFATORY NOTE
TO FIRST EDITION.

I AM under the deepest obligations to the Hon.
Mellen Chamberlain and Mr. Charles Deane.

The generosity of my friend Mr. Frank Hamilton
Cashing in putting at my disposal the unpublished
results of his researches among the Zufiis is in keep-
ing with the originality and power of his mind. With-
out his aid my attempt would have been impossible.
I have also to thank Prof. Henry C. Chapman, J. A.
Gordon, M. D., Prof. William James, and Alpheus
Hyatt, Esq., for the kindness with which they assisted
me. I feel that any merit this volume may possess is
due to these gentlemen ; its faults are all my own.

BROOKS ADAMS.
QuiNCY, September 17, 1886.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Preface 3

CHAPTER L
The Commonwealth . .171

CHAPTER II.
The Antikomians 214

CHAPTER III.
The Cambridge Platform 249

CHAPTER IV.
The Anabaptists 275

CHAPTER V.
The Quakers 298

CHAPTER VI.
The Scibe Facias 349

CHAPTER VII.
The Witchcraft 386

CHAPTER Vm.
Brattle Church 407

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.
Harvabd College 425

CHAPTER X.
The Lawyers 456

CHAPTER XI.
The Revoltttion 484

PREFACE
TO NEW EDITION.

PREFACE
TO NEW EDITION.

CHAPTER I.

I WROTE this little volume more than thirty years
ago, since when I have hardly opened it. Therefore
I now read it almost as if it were written by another
man, and I find to my relief that, on the whole, I think
rather better of it than I did when I published it. In-
deed, as a criticism of what were then the accepted
views of Massachusetts history, as expounded by her
most authoritative historians, I see nothing in it to
retract or even to modify, I do, however, somewhat
regret the rather acrimonious tone which I occasion-
ally adopted when speaking of the more conservative
section of the clergy. Not that I think that the
Mathers, for example, and their like, did not deserve
all, or, indeed, more than all I ever said or thought
of them, but because I conceive that equally effective
strictures might have been conveyed in urbaner lan-
guage; and, as I age, I shrink from anything akin to
invective, even in what amounts to controversy.

Therefore I have now nothing to alter in the Eman-
cipation of Massachusetts, viewed as history, though I
might soften its asperities somewhat, here and there;
but when I come to consider it as philosophy, I am
startled to observe the gap which separates the present
epoch from my early middle life.

4 PREFACE.

The last generation was strongly Darwinian in the
sense that it accepted, almost as a tenet of religious
faith, the theory that human civilization is a pro-
gressive evolution, moving on the whole steadily
toward perfection, from a lower to a higher intellectual
plane, and, as a necessary part of its progress, develop-
ing a higher degree of mental vigor. I need hardly
observe that all belief in democracy as a final solution
of social ills, all confidence in education as a means to
attaining to universal justice, and all hope of approx-
imating to the rule of moral right in the administra-
tion of law, was held to hinge on this great funda-
mental dogma, which, it followed, it was almost im-
pious to deny, or even to doubt. Thus, on the first
page of my book, I observe, as if it were axiomatic,
that, at a given moment, toward the opening of the
sixteenth century, "Europe burst from her mediaeval
torpor into the splendor of the Renaissance," and
further on I assume, as an equally self-evident axiom,
that freedom of thought was the one great permanent
advance which western civilization made by all the
agony and bloodshed of the Reformation. Apart al-
together from the fact that I should doubt whether,
in the year 1919, any intelligent and educated man
would be inclined to maintain that the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries were, as contrasted with the nine-
teenth, ages of intellectual torpor, what startles me
in these paragraphs is the self-satisfied assumption of
the finality of my conclusions. I posit, as a fact not
to be controverted, that our universe is an expression

PREFACE. 5

of an universal law, which the nineteenth century
had discovered and could formulate.

During the past thirty years I have given this sub-
ject my best attention, and now I am so far from
assenting to this proposition that my mind tends in
the opposite direction. Each day I live I am less able
to withstand the suspicion that the universe, far from
being an expression of law originating in a single
primary cause, is a chaos which admits of reaching
no equilibrium, and with which man is doomed eter-
nally and hopelessly to contend. For human society, to
deserve the name of civilization, must be an embodi-
ment of order, or must at least tend toward a social
equilibrium. I take, as an illustration of my meaning,
the development of the domestic relations of our race.

I assume it to be generally admitted, that possibly
man's first and probably his greatest advance toward
order — and, therefore, toward civilization — was
the creation of the family as the social nucleus. As
Napoleon said, when the lawyers were drafting his
Civil Code, " Make the family responsible to its head,
and the head to me, and I will keep order in France."
And yet although our dependence on the family sys-
tem has been recognized in every age and in every
land, there has been no restraint on personal liberty
which has been more resented, by both men and women
alike, than has been this bond which, when perfect,
constrains one man and one woman to live a joint
life until death shall them part, for the propagation,
care, and defence of their children.

6 PREFACE.

The result is that no civiHzation has, as yet, ever
succeeded, and none promises in the immediate future
to succeed, in enforcing this primary obHgation, and
we are thus led to consider the cause, inherent in our
complex nature, which makes it impossible for us to
establish an equilibrium between mind and matter.
A difficulty which never has been even partially over-
come, which wrecked the Roman Empire and the
Christian Church, which has wrecked all systems of
law, and which has never been more lucidly defined
than by Saint Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans,
"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am
carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate,
that do I. . . . Now then it is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. . . . For the good that I would,
I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. . . .
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
. . . But I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?" ^

And so it has been since a time transcending the
limits of imagination. Here in a half-a-dozen sentences
Saint Paul exposes the ceaseless conflict between mind
and matter, whose union, though seemingly the
essence of life, creates a condition which we cannot
comprehend and to which we could not hope to con-
^ Romans vii, 14-24.

PREFACE. 7

form, even if we could comprehend it. In short, which
indicates chaos as being the probable core of an uni-
verse from which we must evolve order, if ever we
are to cope with violence, fraud, crime, war, and
general brutality. Wheresoever we turn the prospect
is the same. If we gaze upon the heavens we discern
immeasurable spaces sprinkled with globules of mat-
ter, to which our earth seems to be more or less akin,
but all plunging, apparently, both furiously and aim-
lessly, from out of an infinite past to an equally im-
measurable future.

Whence this material mass comes, or what its wild
flight portends, we neither know nor could we, prob-
ably, comprehend even were its secret divulged to us
by a superior intelligence, always conceding that there
be such an intelligence, or any secret to disclose.
These latter speculations lie, however, beyond the
scope of my present purpose. It suflSces if science
permits me to postulate (a concession by science
which I much doubt if it could make) that matter, as
we know it, has the semblance of being what we call
a substance, charged with a something which we
define as energy, but which at all events simulates a
vital principle resembling heat, seeking to escape into
space, where it cools. Thus the stars, having blazed
until their vital principle is absorbed in space, sink
into relative torpor, or, as the astronomers say, die.
The trees and plants diffuse their energy in the in-
finite, and, at length, when nothing but a shell re-
mains, rot. Lastly, our fleshly bodies, when the union

8 PREFACE.

between mind and matter is dissolved, crumble into
dust. When the involuntary partnership between mind
and matter ceases through death, it is possible, or at
least conceivable, that the impalpable soul, admitting
that such a thing exists, may survive in some medium
where it may be free from material shackles, but,
while life endures, the flesh has wants which must be
gratified, and which, therefore, take precedence of the
yearnings of the soul, just as Saint Paul points out
was the case with himself; and herein lies the inex-
orable conflict between the moral law and the law
of competition which favors the strong, and from
whence comes all the abominations of selfishness, of
violence, of cruelty and crime.

Approached thus, perhaps no historical fragment
is more suggestive than the exodus of the Jews from
Egypt under Moses, who was the first great optimist,
nor one which is seldomer read with an eye to the con-
trast which it discloses between Moses the law-giver,
the idealist, the religious prophet, and the visionary;
and Moses the political adventurer and the keen and
unscrupulous man of the world. And yet it is here
at the point at which mind and matter clashed, that
Moses merits most attention. For Moses and the
Mosaic civilization broke down at this point, which
is, indeed, the chasm which has engulfed every pro-
gressive civilization since the dawn of time. And the
value of the story as an illustration of scientific his-
tory is its familiarity, for no Christian child lives who
has not been brought up on it.

PREFACE. 9

We have all forgotten when we first learned how the
Jews came to migrate to Egypt during the years of
the famine, when Joseph had become the minister of
Pharaoh through his acuteness in reading dreams.
Also how, after their settlement in the land of Goshen,
— which is the Egyptian province lying at the end of
the ancient caravan road, which Abraham travelled,
leading from Palestine to the banks of the Nile, and
which had been the trade route, or path of least re-
sistance, between Asia and Africa, probably for ages
before the earliest of human traditions, — they pros-
pered exceedingly. But at length they fell into a spe-
cies of bondage which lasted several centuries, during
which they multipUed so rapidly that they finally
raised in the Egyptian government a fear of their
domination. Nor, considering subsequent events, was
this apprehension unreasonable. At all events the
Egyptian government is represented, as a measure of
self-protection, as proposing to kill male Jewish babies
in order to reduce the Jewish military strength; and
it was precisely at this juncture that Moses was born.
Moses, indeed, escaped the fate which menaced him,
but only by a narrow chance, and he was nourished
by his mother in an atmosphere of hate which tinged
his whole life, causing him always to feel to the Egyp-
tians as the slave feels to his master. After birth the
mother hid the child as long as possible, but when she
could conceal the infant no longer she platted a basket
of reeds, smeared it with pitch, and set it adrift in the
Nile, where it was likely to be found, leaving her eld-

10 PREFACE.

est daughter, named Miriam, to watch over it. _ Pres-
ently Pharaoh's daughter came, as was her habit, to
the river to bathe, as Moses's mother expected that
she would, and there she noticed the "ark" floating
among the bulrushes. She had it brought her, and,
noticing Miriam, she caused the girl to engage her
mother, whom Miriam pointed out to h^r, as a nurse.
Taking pity on the baby the kind-hearted princess
adopted it and brought it up as she would had it been
her own, and, as the child grew, she came to love the
boy, and had him educated with care, and this edu-
cation must be kept in mind since the future of Moses
as a man turned upon it. For Moses was most pe-
culiarly a creation of his age and of his environment;
if, indeed, he may not be considered as an incarna-
tion of Jewish thought gradually shaped during many
centuries of priestly development.

According to tradition, Moses from childhood was
of great personal beauty, so much so that passers by
would turn to look at him, and this early promise was
fulfilled as he grew to be a man. Tall and dignified,
with long, shaggy hair and beard, of a reddish hue
tinged with gray, he is described as "wise as beauti-
ful." Educated by his foster-mother as a priest at
Heliopolis, he was taught the whole range of Chaldean
and Assyrian literature, as well as the Egyptian, and
thus became acquainted with all the traditions of
oriental magic: which, just at that period, was in its
fullest development. Consequently, Moses must have
been familiar with the doctrines of Zoroaster.

PREFACE. 11

Men who stood thus, and had such an education,
were called Wise Men, Magi, or Magicians, and had
great influence, not so much as priests of a God, as
enchanters who dealt with the supernatural as a pro-
fession. Daniel, for example, belonged to this class.
He was one of three captive Jews whom Nebuchad-
nezzar, King of Babylon, gave in charge to the master
of his eunuchs, to whom he should teach the learning
and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Daniel, very shortly,
by his natural ability, brought himself and his com-
rades into favor with the chief eunuch, who finally
presented them to Nebuchadnezzar, who conversed
with them and found them "ten times better than all
the magicians and astrologers that were in all his
realm."

The end of it was, of course, that Nebuchadnezzar
dreamed a dream which he forgot when he awoke and
he summoned "the magicians, and the astrologers,
and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the
king his dreams," but they could not unless he told
it them. This vexed the king, who declared that
unless they should tell him his dream with the inter-
pretation thereof, they should be cut in pieces. So the
decree went forth that all "the wise men" of Babylon
should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows
to slay them. Therefore, it appears that together
with its privileges and advantages the profession of
magic was dangerous in those ages. Daniel, on this
occasion, according to the tradition, succeeded in
revealing and interpreting the dream; and, in return.

12 PREFACE.

Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel a great man, chief
governor of the province of Babylon.

Precisely a similar tale is told of Joseph, who, hav-
ing been sold by his brethren to Midianitish merchant-
men with camels, bearing spices and balm, journeying
along the ancient caravan road toward Egypt, was in
turn sold by them to Potiphar, the captain of Pha-
raoh's guard.

And Joseph rose in Potiphar 's service, and after
many alternations of fortune was brought before
Pharaoh, as Daniel had been before Nebuchadnezzar,
and because he interpreted Pharaoh's dream accept-
ably, he was made "ruler over all the land of Egypt"
and so ultimately became the ancestor whom Moses
most venerated and whose bones he took with him
when he set out upon the exodus.

It is true also that Josephus has preserved an idle
tale that Moses was given command of an Egyptian
army with which he made a successful campaign
against the Ethiopians, but it is unworthy of credit
and may be neglected. His bringing up was indeed
the reverse of military. So much so that probably far
the most important part of his education lay in ac-
quiring those arts which conduce to the deception of
others, such deceptions as jugglers have always prac-
tised in snake-charming and the like, or in gaining
control of another's senses by processes akin to hyp-
notism; — processes which have been used by the
priestly class and their familiars from the dawn of
time. In especial there was one miracle performed

PREFACE, 13

by the Magi, on which not only they, but Moses him-
self, appear to have set great store, and on which
Moses seemed always inclined to fall back, when
hard pressed to assert his authority. They pretended
to make fire descend onto their altars by means of
magical ceremonies.^ Nevertheless, amidst all these
ancient eastern civilizations, the strongest hold which
the priests or sorcerers held over, and the greatest
influence which they exercised upon, others, lay in
their relations to disease, for there they were sup-
posed to be potent. For example, in Chaldea, diseases
were held to be the work of demons, to be feared in
proportion as they were powerful and malignant,
and to be restrained by incantations and exorcisms.
Among these demons the one, perhaps most dreaded,
was called Namtar, the genius of the plague. Moses
was, of course, thoroughly familiar with all these
branches of learning, for the relations of Egypt were
then and for many centuries had been, intimate with
Mesopotamia. Whatever aspect the philosophy may
have, which Moses taught after middle life touching
the theory of the religion in which he believed, Moses
had from early childhood been nurtured in these
Mesopotamian beliefs and traditions, and to them —
or, at least, toward them — he always tended to re-
vert in moments of stress. Without bearing this
fundamental premise in mind, Moses in active life
can hardly be understood, for it was on this founda-
tion that his theories of cause and effect were based.
^ Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 226.

14 PREFACE.

As M. Lenormant has justly and truly observed,
go back as far as we will in Egyptian religion, we find
there, as a foundation, or first cause, the idea of a
divine unity, — a single God, who had no beginning
and was to have no end of days, — the primary cause
of all.^ It is true that this idea of unity was early
obscured by confounding the energy with its mani-
festations. Consequently a polytheism was engen-
dered which embraced all nature. Gods and demons
struggled for control and in turn were struggled
with. In Egypt, in Media, in Chaldea, in Persia,
there were wise men, sorcerers, and magicians who
sought to put this science into practice, and among
this fellowship Moses must always rank foremost.
Before, however, entering upon the consideration of
Moses, as a necromancer, as a scientist, as a states-
man, as a priest, or as a commander, we should first
glance at the authorities which tell his history.

Scholars are now pretty well agreed that Moses and
Aaron were men who actually lived and worked prob-
ably about the time attributed to them by tradition.
That is to say, under the reign of Ramses II, of the
Nineteenth Egyptian dynasty who reigned, as it is
computed, from 1348 to 1281 B.C., and under whom
the exodus occurred. Nevertheless, no very direct or
conclusive evidence having as yet been discovered
touching these events among Egyptian documents,
we are obliged, in the main, to draw our information
from the Hebrew record, which, for the most part,

1 Chaldean Magic, 79.

PREFACE. 15

is contained in the Pentateuch, or the first five books
of the Bible.

Possibly no historical documents have ever been
subjected to a severer or more minute criticism than
have these books during the last two centuries. It is
safe to say that no important passage and perhaps
no paragraph has escaped the most searching and
patient analysis by the acutest and most highly
trained of minds; but as yet, so far as the science of
history is concerned, the results have been disappoint-
ing. The order in which events occurred may have
been successfully questioned and the sequence of the
story rearranged hypothetically; but, in general, it
has to be admitted that the weight of all the evidence
obtained from the monuments of contemporary peo-
ples has been to confirm the reliability of the Biblical
narrative. For example, no one longer doubts that
Joseph was actually a Hebrew, who rose, through
merit, to the highest offices of state under an Egyp-
tian monarch, and who conceived and successfully
carried into execution a comprehensive agrarian policy
which had the effect of transferring the landed estates
of the great feudal aristocracy to the crown, and of
completely changing Egyptian tenures. Nor does any
one question, at this day, the reality of the power
which the Biblical writers ascribed to the Empire of
the Hittites. Under such conditions the course of the
commentator is clear. He should treat the Jewish
record as reliable, except where it frankly accepts the
miracle as a demonstrated fact, and even then re-

16 PREFACE.

gard the miracle as an important and most suggestive
part of the great Jewish epic, which always has had,
and always must have, a capital influence on human
thought.

The Pentateuch has, indeed, been demonstrated to
be a compilation of several chronicles arranged by
different writers at different times, and blended into
a unity under different degrees of pressure, but now,
as the book stands, it is as authentic a record as could
be wished of the workings of the Mosaic mind and of
the minds of those of his followers who supported him
in his pilgrimage, and who made so much of his task
possible, as he in fact accomplished.

Moses, himself, but for the irascibility of his temper,
might have lived and died, contented and unknown,
within the shadow of the Egyptian court. The princess
who befriended him as a baby would probably have
been true to him to the end, in which case he would
have lived wealthy, contented, and happy and would
have died overfed and unknown. Destiny, however,
had planned it otherwise.

The Hebrews were harshly treated after the death
of Joseph, and fell into a quasi-bondage in which they
were forced to labor, and this species of tyranny irri-
tated Moses, who seems to have been brought up
under his mother's influence. At all events, one day
Moses chanced to see an Egyptian beating a Jew,
which must have been a common enough sight, but a
sight which revolted him. Whereupon Moses, think-
ing himself alone, slew the Egyptian and hid his body

PREFACE. 17

in the sand. Moses, however, was not alone. A day or
so later he again happened to see two men fighting,
whereupon he again interfered, enjoining the one who
was in the wrong to desist. Whereupon the man whom
he checked turned fiercely on him and said, "Who
made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest
thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian.^*"

When Moses perceived by this act of treachery on
the part of a countryman, whom he had befriended,
that nothing remained to him but flight, he started in
the direction of southern Arabia, toward what was
called the Land of Midian, and which, at the moment,
seems to have lain beyond the limits of the Egyptian
administrative system, although it had once been one
of its most prized metallurgical regions. Just at that
time it was occupied by a race called the Kenites, who
were more or less closely related to the Amalekites,
who were Bedouins and who relied for their living
upon their flocks, as the Israelites had done in the
time of Abraham. Although Arabia Patrea was then,
in the main, a stony waste, as it is now, it was not
quite a desert. It was crossed by trade routes in many
directions along which merchants travelled to Egypt,
as is described in the story of Joseph, whose brethren
seized him in Dothan, and as they sat by the side of
the pit in which they had thrown him, they saw a
company of Ishmaelites who came from Gilead and
who journeyed straight down from Damascus to
Gilead and from thence to Hebron, along the old
caravan road, toward Egypt, with camels bearing

18 PREFACE.

spices and myrrh, as had been their custom since long
beyond human tradition, and which had been the
road along which Abraham had travelled before them,
and which was still watered by his wells. This was the
famous track from Beersheba to Hebron, where Hagar
was abandoned with her baby Ishmael, and if the
experiences of Hagar do not prove that the wilderness
of Shur was altogether impracticable for women and
children it does at least show that for a mixed multi-
tude without trustworthy guides or reliable sources
of supply, the country was not one to be lightly
attempted.

It was into a region similar to this, only somewhat
further to the south, that Moses penetrated after his
homicide, travelling alone and as an unknown ad-
venturer, dressed like an Egyptian, and having noth-
ing of the nomad about him in his looks. As Moses
approached Sinai, the country grew wilder and more
lonely, and Moses one day sal himself down, by the
side of a well whither shepherds were wont to drive
their flocks to water. For shepherds came there, and
also shepherdesses; among others were the seven
daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, who came
to water their father's flocks. But the shepherds
drove them away and took the water for themselves.
Whereupon Moses defended the girls and drew water
for them and watered their flocks. This naturally
pleased the young women, and they took Moses home
with them to their father's tent, as Bedouins still
would do. And when they came to their father, he

PREFACE. 19

asked how it chanced that they came home so early
that day. "And they said, an Egyptian dehvered us
out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water
enough for us, and watered the flock." And Jethro
said, "Where is he? Why is it that ye have left the
man.'^ Call him that he may eat bread."

"And Moses was content to dwell with" Jethro,
who made him his chief shepherd and gave him
Zipporah, his daughter. And she bore him a son.
Seemingly, time passed rapidly and happily in this
peaceful, pastoral life, which, according to the tra-
dition preserved by Saint Stephen, lasted forty years,
but be the time long or short, it is clear that Moses
loved and respected Jethro and was in return valued
by him. Nor coula anything have been more natural,
for Moses was a man who made a deep impression at
first sight — an impression which time strengthened.
Intellectually he must have been at least as notable
as in personal appearance, for his education at Helio-
polis set him apart from men whom Jethro would
have been apt to meet in his nomad life. But if
Moses had strong attractions for Jethro, Jethro drew
Moses toward himself at least as strongly in the
position in which Moses then stood. Jethro, though
a child of the desert, was the chief of a tribe or at
least of a family, a man used to command, and to
administer the nomad law; for Jethro was the head
of the Kenites, who were akin to the Amalekites,
with whom the Israelites were destined to wage mortal
war. And for Moses this was a most important

20 PREFACE.

connection, for Moses after his exile never permitted
his relations with his own people in Egypt to lapse.
The possibility of a Jewish revolt, of which his own
banishment was a precursor, was constantly in his
mind. To Moses a Jewish exodus from Egypt was
always imminent. For centuries it had been a dream
of the Jews. Indeed it was an article of faith with
them. Joseph, as he sank in death, had called his
descendants about him and made them solemnly
swear to "carry his bones hence." And to that end
Joseph had caused his body to be embalmed and put
in a coffin that all might be ready when the day came.
Moses knew the tradition and felt himself bound by
the oath and waited in Midian with confidence until
the moment of performance should come. Presently
it did come. Very probably before he either expected
or could have wished it, and actually, as almost his
first act of leadership, Moses did carry the bones of
Joseph with him when he crossed the Red Sea. Moses
held the tradition to be a certainty. He never con-
ceived it to be a matter of possible doubt, nor prob-
ably was it so. There was in no one's mind a question
touching Joseph's promise nor about his expectation
of its fulfilment. What Moses did is related in Exodus
XIII, 19: "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with
him; for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel,
saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry
up my bones away hence with you."

In fine, Moses, in the solitude of the Arabian wil-
derness, in his wanderings as the shepherd of Jethro,

PRE FA CE. 21

came to believe that his destiny was Hnked with that
of his countrymen in a revolution which was certain
to occur before they could accomplish the promise of
Joseph and escape from Egypt under the guidance of
the god who had befriended and protected him. More-
over, Moses was by no means exclusively a religious
enthusiast. He was also a scientific man, after the
ideas of that age. Moses had a high degree of educa-
tion and he was familiar with the Egyptian and
Chaldean theory of a great and omnipotent prime
motor, who had had no beginning and should have no
end. He was also aware that this theory was obscured
by the intrusion into men's minds of a multitude of
lesser causes, in the shape of gods and demons, who
mixed themselves in earthly affairs and on whose
sympathy or malevolence the weal or woe of human
life hinged. Pondering deeply on these things as he
roamed, he persuaded himself that he had solved the
riddle of the universe, by identifying the great first
cause of all with the deity who had been known to his
ancestors, whose normal home was in the promised
land of Canaan, and who, beside being all-powerful,
was also a moral being whose service must tend toward
the welfare of mankind. For Moses was by tempera-
ment a moralist in whom such abominations as those
practised in the worship of Moloch created horror.
He knew that the god of Abraham would tolerate no
such wickedness as this, because of the fate of Sodom
on much less provocation, and he believed that were
he to lead the Israelites, as he might lead them, he

22 PREFACE.

could propitiate such a deity, could he but by an
initial success induce his congregation to obey the
commands of a god strong enough to reward them for
leading a life which should be acceptable to him. All
depended, therefore, should the opportunity of leader-
ship come to him, on his being able, in the first place,
to satisfy himself that the god who presented himself
to him was verily the god of Abraham, who burned
Sodom, and not some demon, whose object was to vex
mankind: and, in the second place, assuming that he
himself were convinced of the identity of the god, that
he could convince his countrymen of the fact, and also
of the absolute necessity of obedience to the moral
law which he should declare, since without absolute
obedience, they would certainly merit, and probably
suffer, such a fate as befell the inhabitants of Sodom,
under the very eyes of Abraham, and in spite of his
prayers for mercy.

There was one other apprehension which may have
troubled, and probably did trouble, Moses. The god
of the primitive man, and certainly of the Bedouin, is
usually a local deity whose power and whose activity
is limited to some particular region, as, for instance, a
mountain or a plain. Thus the god of Abraham might
have inhabited and absolutely ruled the plain of
Mamre and been impotent elsewhere. But this, had
Moses for a moment harbored such a notion, would
have been dispelled when he thought of Joseph.
Joseph, when his brethren threw him into the pit,
must have been under the guardianship of the god of

PREFACE. 23

his fathers, and when he was drawn out, and sold in
the ordinary course of the slave-trade, he was bought
by Potiphar, the captain of the guard. "And the
Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man."
Thenceforward, Joseph had a wonderful career. He
received in a dream a revelation of what the weather
was to be for seven years to come. And by this dream
he was able to formulate a policy for establishing pub-
lic graineries like those which were maintained in
Babylon, and by means of these graineries, ably ad-
ministered, the crown was enabled to acquire the
estates of the great feudatories, and thus the whole
social system of Egypt was changed. And Joseph,
from being a poor waif, cast away by his brethren in
the wilderness, became the foremost man in Egypt
and the means of settling his compatriots in the
province of Gotham, where they still lived when
Moses fled from Egypt. Such facts had made a pro-
found impression upon the mind of Moses, who very
reasonably looked upon Joseph as one of the most
wonderful men who had ever lived, and one who
could not have succeeded as he succeeded, without
the divine interposition. But if the god who did these
things could work such miracles in Egypt, his power
was not confined by local boundaries, and his power
could be trusted in the desert as safely as it could be
on the plain of Mamre or elsewhere. The burning of
Sodom was a miracle equally in point to prove the
stern morality of the god. And that also, was a fact,
as incontestable, to the mind of Moses, as was the

24 PREFACE.

rising of the sun upon the morning of each day. He
knew, as we know of the battle of Great Meadows,
that one day his ancestor Abraham, when sitting in
the door of his tent toward noon, "in the plain of
Mamre," at a spot not far from Hebron and perfectly
familiar to every traveller along the old caravan road
hither, on looking up observed three men standing
before him, one of whom he recognized as the "Lord."
Then it dawned on Abraham that the "Lord" had
not come without a purpose, but had dropped in for
dinner, and Abraham ran to meet them, "and bowed
himself toward the ground." And he said, "Let a
little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest
yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel
of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that you
shall pass on." "And Abraham ran unto the herd,
and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a
young man; and he hasted to dress it. And he took
butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed,
and set it before them; and he stood by them under
the tree, and they did eat." Meanwhile, Abraham
asked no questions, but waited until the object of the
visit should be disclosed. In due time he succeeded in
his purpose. "And they said unto him. Where is
Sarah thy wife? And he said. Behold, in the tent.
And he [the Lord] said, . . . Sarah thy wife shall have
a son. . . . Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and
well stricken in age." At this time Abraham was
about one hundred years old, according to the tra-
dition, and Sarah was proportionately amused, and

PREFACE. 25

"laughed within herself." This mirth vexed "the
Lord," who did not treat his words as a joke, but
asked, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Then
Sarah took refuge in a He, and denied that she had
laughed. But the lie helped her not at all, for the
Lord insisted, "Nay, but thou didst laugh." And this
incident broke up the party. The men rose and
"looked toward Sodom": and Abraham strolled with
them, to show them the way. And then the "Lord"
debated with himself whether to make a confidant of
Abraham touching his resolution to destroy Sodom
utterly. And finally he decided that he would, "be-
cause the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and
because their sin is very grievous." Whereupon
Abraham intervened, and an argument ensued, and
at length God admitted that he had been too hasty
and promised to think the matter over. And finally,
when "the Lord" had reduced the number of right-
eous for whom the city should be saved to ten, Abra-
ham allowed him to go " his way . . . and Abraham
returned to his place."

In the evening of the same day two angels came to
Sodom, who met Lot at the gate, and Lot took them
to his house and made them a feast and they did eat.
Then it happened that the mob surrounded Lot's
house and demanded that the strangers should be
delivered up to them. But Lot successfully defended
them. And in the morning the angels warned Lot to
escape, but Lot hesitated, though finally he did es-
cape to Zoar.

26 PREFACE.

"Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon
Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of
heaven."

"And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the
place where he stood before the Lord:

"And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah,
and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and,
lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of
a furnace."

We must always remember, in trying to reconstruct
the past, that these traditions were not matters of
possible doubt to Moses, or indeed to any Israelite.
They were as well established facts to them as would
be the record of volcanic eruptions now. Therefore it
would not have astonished Moses more that the Lord
should meet him on the slope of Horeb, than that the
Lord should have met his ancestor Abraham on the
plain of Mamre. Moses' doubts and perplexities lay
in another direction. Moses did not question, as did
his great ancestress, that his god could do all he
promised, if he had the will. His anxiety lay in his
doubt as to God's steadiness of purpose supposing he
promised; and this doubt was increased by his lack
of confidence in his own countrymen. The god of
Abraham was a requiring deity with a high moral
standard, and the Hebrews were at least in part some-
what akin to a horde of semi-barbarous nomads, much
more likely to fall into offences resembling those of
Sodom than to render obedience to a code which
would strictly conform to the requirements which

PREFACE. 27

alone would ensure Moses support, supposing he
accepted a task which, after all, without divine aid,
might prove to be impossible to perform.

When the proposition which Moses seems, more or
less confidently, to have expected to be made to him
by the Lord, came, it came very suddenly and very
emphatically.

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-
law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the
backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of
God, even to Horeb.

"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush : and he looked,
and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed."

And Moses, not, apparently, very much excited,
said, "I will now turn aside, and see this great sight."
But "God called unto him out of the midst of the
bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said. Here am
I." Then the voice commanded him to put off his
shoes from off his feet, for the place he stood on was
holy ground.

"Moreover," said the voice, "I am the God of thy
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was
afraid to look upon God.

" And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction
of my people . . . and have heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.

"And I am come down to deliver them out of the

28 PREFACE.

hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of
that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land
flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and
the Perizzites. . . .

"Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto
Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the
children of Israel, out of Egypt.

"And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I
should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? . . . And
Moses said unto God, Behold, when I am come unto
the children of Israel, and shall say unto them. The
God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they
shall say to me. What is his name? what shall I say
unto them?

"And God said unto Moses, I am That I Am; and
he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of
Israel, / Am hath sent me unto you.

"And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of
your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is
my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all
generations."

Then the denizen of the bush renewed his instruc-
tions and his promises, assuring Moses that he would
bring him and his following out of the land of afflic-
tion of Egypt and into the land of the Canaanites,
and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and others, unto

PREFACE. 29

a land flowing v/ith milk and honey. In a word to
Palestine. And he insisted to Moses that he should
gain an entrance to Pharaoh, and that he should tell
him that "the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met
with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three
days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacri-
fice to the Lord our God."

Also God did not pretend to Moses that the King
of Egypt would forthwith let them go; whereupon he
would work his wonders in Egypt and after that
Pharaoh would let them go.

Moreover, he promised, as an inducement to their
avarice, that they should not go empty away, for that
the Lord God would give the Hebrews favor in the sight
of the Egyptians, "so that every woman should borrow
of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her
house, jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment,"
and that they should spoil the Egyptians. But all this
time God did not disclose his name; so Moses tried
another way about. If he would not tell his name he
might at least enable Moses to work some wonder
which should bring conviction to those who saw it,
even if the god remained nameless. For Moses ap-
preciated the difficulty of the mission suggested to
him. How was he, a stranger in Egj^pt, to gain the
confidence of that mixed and helpless multitude,
whom he was trying to persuade to trust to his guid-
ance in so apparently desperate an enterprise as
crossing a broad and waterless waste, in the face of a
well-armed and vigorous foe. Moses apprehended

30 PREFACE.

that there was but one way in which he could by
possibiHty succeed. He might prevail by convincing
the Israelites that he was commissioned by the one
deity whom they knew, who was likely to have both
the will and the power to aid them, and that was the
god who had visited Abraham on the plain of Mamre,
who had destroyed Sodom for its iniquity, and who
had helped Joseph to become the ruler of Egypt.
Joseph above all was the man who had made to his
descendants that solemn promise on whose faith
Moses was, at that very moment, basing his hopes of
deliverance; for Joseph had assured the Israelites in
the most solemn manner that the god who had aided
him would surely visit them, and that they should
carry his bones away with them to the land he prom-
ised. That land was the land to which Moses wished
to guide them. Now Moses was fully determined to
attempt no such project as this unless the being who
spoke from the bush would first prove to him, Moses,
that he was the god he purported to be, and should
beside give Moses credentials which should be con-
vincing, by which Moses could prove to the Jews in
Egypt that he was no impostor himself, nor had he
been deceived by a demon. Therefore Moses went on
objecting as strongly as at first:

"And Moses answered and said, But behold they
will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice; for they
will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee."

Then the being in the bush proceeded to submit his
method of proof, which was of a truth feeble, and

PREFACE. 31

which Moses rejected as feeble. A form of proof
which never fully convinced him, and which, in his
judgment could not be expected to convince others,
especially men so educated and intelligent as the
Egyptians. For the Lord had nothing better to sug-
gest than the ancient trick of the snake-charmer, and
even the possessor of the voice seems implicitly to
have admitted that this could hardly be advanced as
a convincing miracle. So the Lord proposed two
other tests: the first was that Moses should have his
hand smitten with leprous sores and restored imme-
diately by hiding it from sight in "his bosom." And in
the event that this test left his audience still sceptical,
he was to dip Nile water out of the river, and turn it
into blood on land.

Moses at all these three proposals remained cold as
before. And with good reason, for Moses had been
educated as a priest in Egypt, and he knew that
Egyptian "wise men" could do as well, and even
better, if it came to a magical competition before
Pharaoh. And Moses had evidently no relish for a
contest in the presence of his countrymen as to the
relative quality of his magic. Therefore, he objected
once more on another ground: "I am not eloquent,
neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto
thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow
tongue." This continued hesitancy put the Lord out
of patience; who retorted sharply, "Who hath made
man's mouth.'' or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or
the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord?

32 PREFACE.

"Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth,
and teach thee what thou shalt say."

Then Moses made his last effort. "O my Lord,
send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou
wilt send." Wliich was another way of saying, Send
whom you please, but leave me to tend Jethro's flock
m Midian.

"And the anger of the Lord was kindled against
Moses; and he said. Is not Aaron the Levite thy
brother.'* I know that he can speak well. And also,
behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he
seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

"And he shall be, ... to thee instead of a mouth,
and thou shalt be to him instead of God."

Then Moses, not seeming to care very much what
Aaron might think about the matter, went to Jethro,
and related what had happened to him on the moun-
tain, and asked for leave to go home to Egypt, and see
how matters stood there. And Jethro listened, and
seems to have thought the experiment worth trying,
for he answered, "Go in peace."

"And the Lord said unto Moses," — but where is
not stated, probably in Midian, — "Go, return into
Egypt," which you may do safely, for all the men are
dead which sought thy life.

"And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set
them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of
Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand."

It was after this, apparently, that Aaron travelled
to meet Moses in Midian, and Moses told Aaron what

PREFACE. 33

had occurred, and performed his tests, and, seemingly,
convinced him; for then Moses and Aaron went to-
gether into Egypt and called the elders of the children
of Israel together, "and did the signs in the sight of
the people. And the people believed: and . . . bowed
their heads and worshipped." Meanwhile God had
not, as yet, revealed his name. But as presently mat-
ters came to a crisis between Moses and Pharaoh, he
did so. He said to Moses, "I am the Lord:

"I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; but by my
name Jehovah was I not known to them. . . .

"Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am
the Lord. . . . And I will bring you in unto the land,
concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abra-
ham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you
for an heritage: I am the Lord.

"And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel:
but they hearkened not unto Moses, for anguish of
spirit, and for cruel bondage. . . .

"And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold
the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me;
how then shall Pharaoh hear me.'*" And from this
form of complaint against his countrymen until his
death Moses never ceased.

Certain modern critics have persuaded themselves
to reject this whole Biblical narrative as the product
of a later age and of a maturer civilization, contend-
ing that it would be childish to attribute the reason-
ing of the Pentateuch to primitive Bedouins like the

34 PREFACE.

patriarchs or like the Jews who followed Moses into
the desert. Setting aside at once the philological dis-
cussion as to whether the language of the Pentateuch
could have been used by Moses, and admitting for the
sake of argument that Moses did not either himself
write, or dictate to another, any part of the documents
in question, it would seem that the application of a
little common sense would show pretty conclusively
that Moses throughout his whole administrative life
acted upon a single scientific theory of the application
of a supreme energy to the afiFairs of life, and upon the
belief that he had discovered what that energj' was
and understood how to control it.

His syllogism amounted to this:

Facts, which are admitted by all Hebrews, prove
that the single dominant power in the world is the
being who revealed himself to our ancestors, and who,
in particular, guided Joseph into Egypt, protected
him there, and raised him to an eminence never before
or since reached by a Jew. It can also be proved, by
incontrovertible facts, that this being is a moral being,
who can be placated by obedience and by attaining
to a certain moral standard in life, and by no other
means. That this standard has been disclosed to me,
I can prove to you by sundry miraculous signs. There-
fore, be obedient and obey the law which I shall pro-
mulgate "that ye may prosper in all that ye do."

Indeed, the philosophy of Moses was of the sternly

• practical kind, resembling that of Benjamin Franklin.

He did not promise his people, as did the Egyptians,

PREFACE. 35

felicity in a future life. He confined himself to pros-
perity in this world. And to succeed in his end he set
an attainable standard. A standard no higher cer-
tainly than that accepted by the Egj^ptians, as it is
set forth in the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead,
a standard to which the soul of any dead man had to
attain before he could be admitted into Paradise. Nor
did Moses, as Dr. Budde among others assumes, have
to deal with a tribe of fierce and barbarous Bedouins,
like the Amalekites, to whom indeed the Hebrews
were antagonistic and with whom they waged in-
cessant war.

The Jews, for the most part, differed widely from
such barbarians. They had become sedentary at the
time of the exodus, whatever they may have been
when Abraham migrated from Babylon. They were
accustomed in Egypt to living in houses, they culti-
vated and cooked the cereals, and they fed on vege-
tables and bread. They did not live on flesh and milk
as do the Bedouins; and, indeed, the chief difficulty
Moses encountered in the exodus was the ignorance
of his followers of the habits of desert life, and their
dislike of desert fare. They were forever pining for
the delights of civilization. "Would to God we had
died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,
when we eat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat
bread to the full! for ye have brought us forth into
this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with
hunger."^

1 Ex. XVI, 3.

36 PREFACE.

"We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt
freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks,
and the onions, and the garlick." These were the
wants of sedentary and of civilized folk, not of bar-
barous nomads who are content with goat's flesh and
milk. And so it was with their morality and their
conceptions of law. Moses was, indeed, a highly civi-
lized and highly educated man. No one would prob-
ably pretend that Moses represented the average Jew
of the exodus, but Moses understood his audience
reasonably well, and would not have risked the suc-
cess of his whole experiment by preaching to them a
doctrine which was altogether beyond their under-
standing. If he told them that the favor of God could
only be gained by obeying the laws he taught, it was
because he thought such an appeal would be efifective
with a majority of them.

Dr. Budde, who is a good example of the modern
hypercritical school, takes very nearly the opposite
ground. His theory is that Moses was in search of a
war god, and that he discovered such a god, in the
god of the Bedouin tribe of the Kenites whose ac-
quaintance he first made when dwelling with his
father-in-law Jethro at Sinai. The morality of such
a god he insists coincided with the morality which
Moses may have at times countenanced, but which
was quite foreign to the spirit of the decalogue.

Doubtless this is, in a degree, true. The religion of
the pure Bedouin was very often crude and shocking,
not to say disgusting. But to argue thus is to ignore

PREFACE. 37

the fact that all Bedouins did not, in the age of Moses,
stand on the same intellectual or moral level, and it
is also to ignore the gap that separated Moses and his
congregation intellectually and morally from such
Bedouins as the Amalekites.

Dr. Budde, in his Religion of Israel to the Exile, in-
sists that the Kenite god, Jehovah, demanded "The
sacred ban by which conquered cities with all their
living beings were devoted to destruction, the slaughter
of human beings at sacred spots, animal sacrifices at
which the entire animal, wholly or half raw, was de-
voured, without leaving a remnant, between sunset
and sunrise, — these phenomena and many others of
the same kind harmonise but ill with an aspiring
ethical religion."

He also goes on to say: "We are further referred
to the legislation of Moses, . . . comprising civil and
criminal, ceremonial and ecclesiastical, moral and
social law in varying compass. This legislation, how-
ever, cannot have come from Moses. . . . Such legis-
lation can only have arisen after Israel had lived a
long time in the new home."

To take these arguments in order, — for they must
be so dealt with to develop any reasonable theory of
the Mosaic philosophy, — Moses, doubtless, was a
ruthless conqueror, as his dealings with Sihon and Og
sufficiently prove. "So the Lord our God delivered
into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all
his people: and we smote him until none was left to
him remaining. . . .

38 PREFACE.

"And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto
Sihon, king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men,
women, and children of every city." ^

There is nothing extraordinary, or essentially bar-
barous, in this attitude of Moses. The same theory
of duty or convenience has been held in every age and
in every land, by men of the ecclesiastical tempera-
ment, at the very moment at which the extremest
doctrines of charity, mercy, and love were practised
by their contemporaries, or even preached by them-
selves. For example:

At the beginning of the thirteenth century the two
great convents of Cluny and Citeau, together, formed
the heart of monasticism, and Cluny and Citeau were
two of the richest and most powerful corporations in
the world, while the south of France had become, by
reason of the eastern trade, the wealthiest and most
intelligent district in Europe. It suffices to say here
that, just about this time, the people of Languedoc
had made up their minds, because of the failure of
the Crusades, the cost of such magnificent estab-
lishments was not justified by their results, and ac-
cordingly Count Raymond of Toulouse, in sympathy
with his subjects, did seriously contemplate secular-
ization. To the abbots of these great convents, it was
clear that if this movement spread across the Rhone
into Burgundy, the Church would face losses which
they could not contemplate with equanimity. At this
period one Arnold was Abbot of Citeau, universally
1 Deut. in, 3-6.

PREFACE. 39

recognized as perhaps the ablest and certainly one of
the most unscrupulous men in Europe. Hence the
crusade against the Albigenses which Simon de Mont-
fort commanded and Arnold conducted. Arnold's
first exploit was the sack of the undefended town of
Beziers, where he slaughtered twenty thousand men,
women, and children, without distinction of religious
belief. When asked whether the orthodox might not
at least be spared, he replied, "Kill them all; God
knows his omti."

This sack of Beziers occurred in 1209. Exactly con-
temporaneously Saint Francis of Assisi was organiz-
ing his order whose purpose was to realize Christ's
kingdom upon earth, by the renunciation of worldly
wealth and by the practice of poverty, humility, and
obedience. Soon after, Arnold was created Arch-
bishop of Narbonne and became probably the greatest
and richest prelate in France, or in the world. This
was in l^^S. In 1226 the first friars settled in England.
They multiplied rapidly because of their rigorous dis-
cipline. Soon there were to be found among them
some of the most eminent men in England. Their
chief house stood in London in a spot called Stinking
Lane, near the Shambles in Newgate, and there,
amidst poverty, hunger, cold, and filth, these men
passed their lives in nursing horrible lepers, so loath-
some that they were rejected by all but themselves,
while Arnold lived in magnificence in his palace, upon
the spoil of those whom he had immolated to his greed.

In the case of Moses the contrast between precept

40 PREFACE.

and practice in the race for wealth and fortune was
not nearly so violent. Moses, it is true, according to
Leviticus, declared it to be the will of the Lord that
the Israelites should love their neighbors as them-
selves,^ while on the other hand in Deuteronomy he
insisted that obedience was the chief end of life, and
that if the Israelites were to thoroughly obey the
Lord's behests, they were to "consume all the people
which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye
shall have no pity upon them: neither" should thou
serve their gods, "for the Lord thy God is a jealous
God." ^ And the penalty for slackness was "lest
the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against
thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth." ^
There is, nevertheless, this much to be said in favor
of the morality of Moses as contrasted with that of
thirteenth-century orthodox Christians like Arnold;
Moses led a crusade against a foreign and hostile
people, while Arnold slaughtered the Albigenses, who
were his own flock, sheep to whom he was the shep-
herd, communicants in his own church, and wor-
shippers of the God whom he served. ^Vhat concerns
us, however, is that the same stimulant animated
Moses and Arnold alike. The stimulant, pure and
simple, of greed. On these points Moses was as out-
spokenly, one may say as brutally, frank as was
Arnold. In the desert Moses commanded his followers
to exterminate the inhabitants of the kingdom of
Bashan in order that they might appropriate their
1 Lev. XIX, 18. 2 Deut. vii, 16. 3 Deut. vi, 15.

PREFACE. 41

possessions, v»^liich he enumerated, and Moses had no
other argument to urge but the profitableness of it by
which to secure obedience to his moral law.

Arnold stood on precisely the same platform. He
did not accuse Count Raymond of heresy or any other
crime, nor did Pope Innocent III consider Raymond
as morally guilty of a criminal offence, or worthy of
punishment. Indeed, the pope would have protected
the Count had it been possible, and summoned him
before the Fourth Lateran Council for that purpose.
But Arnold told his audience that were Raymond
allowed to escape there would be an end of the
Catholic faith in France. Or, in other words, monas-
tic property would be secularized. Perhaps he was
right. At all events, this argument prevailed, and
Raymond and his family and people were sacrificed.

Moses promised his congregation that, if they
would spare nothing they should enjoy abundance of
good things, without working for them. He was much
more pitiless than such a man as King David thought
it necessary to be, but Moses was not a soldier like
David. He could not promise to win victories himself,
he could but promise what he had in hand, and that
was the spoil of those they massacred. Moses never
had but one appeal to make for obedience, one in-
centive to offer to obey. In this he was perfectly
honest and perfectly logical. His congregation and he,
finding Egypt untenable, were engaged in a common
land speculation to improve their condition; a specu-
lation in which Moses believed, but which could only

42 PREFACE.

be brought to a successful end by obtaining control of
the dominant energy of the world. This energy, he
held, could be handled by no one but himself, and
then only in case those who acted with him were ab-
solutely obedient to his commands, which, taken to-
gether, were equivalent to a magical exorcism or spell.
Then only could they hope that the Lord of Abraham
and Isaac would give them "great and goodly cities,
which thou buildedst not. And houses full of all good
things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged,
which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees,
which thou plantedst not." ^

Very obviously, if the theory which Moses pro-
pounded were sound the assets which he offered as
an inducement for docility could be obtained, at so
cheap a rate, in no other way. All Moses' moral teach-
ing amounted, therefore, to this — "It pays to be
obedient and good." No argument could have been
better adapted to Babylonish society, and it seems to
have answered nearly as well with the Israelites, which
proves that they stood on nearly the same intellectual
plane. The chief difficulty with which Moses had to
contend was that his countrymen did not thoroughly
believe in him, nor in the efficacy of his motor. They
always were tempted to try experiments with other
motors which were operated by other prophets and
by other peoples who were, apparently, as prosperous
as they, or even more so. His trouble was not that his
followers were nomads unprepared for a sedentary life
1 Deut. VI, 10, 11.

PREFACE. 43

or a moral law like his, or unable to appreciate the
value of the property of a people further advanced in
civilization than they were. The Amalekites would
have responded to no such system of bribery as Moses
offered the Israelites, who did respond with intelli-
gence, if not always with enthusiasm.

The same is true of the Mosaic legislation which Dr.
Budde curtly dismisses as impossible to have come
from Moses, ^ as presupposing a knowledge of a settled
agricultural life, which "Israel did not reach until
after Moses' death."

All this is an assumption of fact unsupported by
evidence; but quite the contrary, as we can see by an
examination of the law in question. Whatever may
have been the date of the establishment of the cities
of refuge, I suppose that it will not be seriously denied
that the law of the covenant as laid down in Exodus
XX, 1, Numbers xxxv, 6, is at least as old as the age of
Moses, in principle, if not in words; and this legal
principle is quite inconsistent with, if not directly
antagonistic to, all the prejudices and regulations,
moral, religious, or civil, of a pure nomadic society,
since it presupposes a social condition which, if
adopted, would be fatal to a nomad society.

The true nomad knows no criminal law save the law
of the blood feud, which is the law of revenge, and
which prevailed among the Hebrews much earlier. In
the early Saxon law it was expressed by the apothegm
"Factum reputabitur pro volunie." The act implies
' Religion of Israel to the Exile, 31.

44 PREFACE.

the intent. That is to say, the tribe is an enlarged
family who, since they have no collective system of
sovereignty which gives them common protection by
an organized police, and courts with power to enforce
process, have no option but to protect each other.
Therefore, it is incumbent on each member of the
tribe or family to avenge an injury to any other mem-
ber, whether the injury be accidental or otherwise;
and to be himself the judge of what amounts to an
injury. Such a condition prevailed among the He-
brews at a very early period; "And God blessed Noah
and his sons, and said unto them: ... at the hand of
every man's brother will I require the life of man.
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood
be shed." ^ These customs and the type of thought
which sustain them are very tenacious and change
slowly. Moses could not have altered the nomadic
customs of thought and of blood revenge, had he tried,
more than could Canute. It would have been im-
possible. The advent of a civilized conception of the
law is the work of centuries as the history of England
proves.

. We know not how long ago it was that the law of
the blood feud was fully recognized in England, but it
had already been shaken at the conquest, and its
death-blow was given it by the Church, which had
begun to tire of the responsibility entailed by the
trial by ordeal or miracle, and the obloquy which it
involved, at a relatively early date. For the purposes
1 Gen. IX, 1, 5, 6.

PREFACE. 45

of the Church and the uses of confession it was more
convenient to regard crime or tort, as did the Romans;
as a mental condition, dependent altogether upon the
state of the mind or "animus." Malice in the eye of
the Church was the virus which poisoned the other-
wise innocent act, and made the thought alone pun-
ishable. Indeed, this conception is one which has not
yet been completely established even in the modern
law. The first signs of such a revolution in juris-
prudence only began to appear in England some seven
centuries ago. As Mr. Maitland has observed in his
History of English Law,^ "We receive a shock of sur-
prise when we meet with a maxim which has troubled
our modern lawyers, namely, Reum nonfacit nisi mens
rea, in the middle of the Leges Henrici." That is to
say somewhere about the year 1118 a.d. This maxim
was taken bodily out of a sermon of Saint Augustine,
which accounts for it, but at that time the Church
had another process to suggest by which she asserted
her authority. She threw the responsibility for detect-
ing guilt, in cases of doubt, upon God. By the ordeal,
if a homicide, for example, were committed, and the
accused denied his guilt, he was summoned to appear,
and then, after a solemn reference to God by the
ecclesiastics in charge, he was caused either to carry
a red-hot iron bar a certain distance or to plunge his
arms in boiling water. If he were found, after a certain
length of time, during which his arms were bandaged,
to have been injured, he was held to have been guilty.
1 Vol. II, 476.

46 PREFACE.

If he had escaped unhurt he was innocent. Gradually,
however, the ordeal began to fall into ridicule. William
Rufus gibed at it, for of fifty men sent to the ordeal of
iron, under the sacred charge of the clerks, all escaped,
which certainly, as Mr. Maitland intimates, looks as
if the oflSciating ecclesiastics had an interest in the
result.^ At length, by the Lateran Council of 1215,
the Church put an end to the institution, but long
afterward it found its upholders. For example, the
Mirror, written in the reign of Edward I (circa 1285)
complained, "It is an abuse that proofs and com-
purgations be not by the miracle of God where other
proof faileth." Nor was the principle that "attempts"
to commit indictable offences are crimes, established
as law, until at least the time of the Star Chamber,
before its abolition in the seventeenth century.
Though doubtless it is the law to-day. ^ And this, al-
though the means used may have been impossible.
Moreover, the doctrine is still in process of enlarge-
ment.

Very convincing conclusions may be drawn from
these facts. The subject is obscure and diflScult, but
if the inception of the process of breaking down the
right of enforcing the blood feud be fixed provisionally
toward the middle of the tenth century, — and this
date is early enough, — the movement of thought
cannot be said to have attained anything like ultimate
results before at least the year 1321 when a case is

1 History of English Law, ii, 599, note 2.

2 Stephen, Digest of the Criminal Law, 192.

PREFACE. 47

cited wherein a man was held guilty because he had
attempted to kill his master, and the "voluntas in isto
casu reputabitur pro facto"

Measuring by this standard five hundred years is a
short enough period to estimate the time necessary
for a community to pass from the stage when the
blood feud is recognized as unquestioned law, to the
status involved in the administration of the cities of
refuge, for in these cities not only the mental condition
is provided for as a legitimate defence, but the defence
of negligence is made admissible in a secular court.

" These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the chil-
dren of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the so-
journer among them; that every one that killeth any
person unawares may flee thither. . . .

" If he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying
of wait that he die;

"Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die:
he that smote him shall surely be put to death ; for he
is a murderer: the revenger of blood shall slay the
murderer, when he meeteth him.

" But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or
have cast upon him anything without laying of wait,

"Or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, see-
ing him not, and cast it upon him, that he die, and was
not his enemy, neither sought his harm:

"Then the congregation shall judge between the
slayer and the revenger of blood according to these
judgments :

"And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out

48 PREFA CE.

of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congre-
gation shall restore him to the city of his refuge,
whither he was fled.". . . ^

Here we have a defendant in a case of homicide
setting up the defence that the killing happened
through an accident, but an accident not caused by
criminal negligence, and this defence is to be tried by
the congregation, which is tantamount to trial by jury.
It is not left to God, under the oversight of the Church;
and this is precisely our own system at the present
day. We now come to the inferences to be drawn from
these facts. Supposing that the Israelites when they
migrated to Egypt, in the time of Joseph, were in the
condition of pure nomads among whom the blood feud
was fully recognized as law, an interval of four or
five hundred years, such as they are supposed to have
passed in Goshen would bring them to the exodus.
Now, assuming that the Israelites during those four
centuries, when they lived among civilized neighbors
and under civilized law, made an intellectual move-
ment corresponding in velocity to the movement the
English made after the conquest, they would have
been, about the time when the cities of refuge were
created, in the position described in Numbers, which
is what we should expect assuming the Biblical tra-
dition to be true.

To us the important question is not whether a cer-
tain piece of the supposed Mosaic legislation actually
went into effect during the life of Moses, for that is
^ Numbers xxxv, 15, 20-S25.

PREFA CE. 49

relatively immaterial, but whether the Biblical nar-
rative is, on the whole, worthy of credence, and this
correlation of dates gives the strongest possible evi-
dence in its favor. Very possibly, perhaps it may
even be said certainly, the order in which events oc-
curred may have been transposed, but, taken as a
whole, it is impossible to resist the inference that the
Bible story is excellent history and that, due allowance
being made for the prejudice of the various scribes
who wrote the Pentateuch in favor of the miraculous,
where Moses was concerned, the Biblical record is
good and trustworthy history, and frank at that ; —
much superior to quantities of modern documents
which we accept without question.

Of all the achievements of Moses' life none equals
the exodus itself, either in brilliancy or success. How
it was possible for Moses, with the assistance he had
at command, to marshal and move a column of a
million or a million and a half of men, women, and
children, without discipline or cohesion, and encum-
bered with their baggage, beside their cattle, is an
insoluble mj^stery. "And the children of Israel did
according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed
of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold,
and raiment: . . . And they spoiled the Egyptians.
And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to
Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were
men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went
up also with them; and flocks and herds, even very
much cattle." They started from Ramses and Succoth.

50 PREFACE.

The position of Ramses has been identified; that of
Succoth is more questionable. Ramses and Pithom
were fortified places, built by the Israelites for Ramses
II, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, but apparently Suc-
coth was the last halting-place before coming to
the difficult ground which was overflowed by the
sea.

The crossing was made at night, but it is hard to
understand how, even under the most favorable con-
ditions of weather, such a vast and confused multi-
tude of women and children could have made the
march in darkness with an active enemy pursuing,
without loss of life or material. Indeed, even at that
day the movement seemed to the actors so unpar-
alleled that it always passed for a miracle, and its
perfect success gave Moses more reputation with the
Israelites and more practical influence over them than
anything else he ever did, or indeed than all his other
works together. "And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the
people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his
servant Moses."

"And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron;
and all the women went after her with timbrels and
with dances." Now Miriam was in general none too
loyal a follower of her younger brother, but that day,
or rather night, she did proclaim Moses as a con-
queror; which was a great concession from her, and
meant much. And Moses exulted openly, as he had
good cause to do, and gave vent to his exultation in

PREFACE. 61

a song which tradition has ever since attributed to
him, and has asserted to have been sung by him and
his congregation as they stood by the shore of the sea
and watched the corpses of the Egyptians lying in the
sand. And, if ever man had, Moses then had, cause
for exultation, for he had seemingly proved by the
test of war, which is the ultimate test to which a man
can subject such a theory as his, that he had indeed
discovered the motor which he sought, and, more im-
portant still, that he knew how to handle it. There-
fore, he was master of supreme energy and held his
right to command by the title of conquest. This was
the culminating; moment of his life; he never again
reached such exaltation. From this moment his slow
and gradual decline began.

And, indeed, great as had been the momentary suc-
cess of Moses, his position was one of extreme diflS-
culty, and probably he so understood it, otherwise
there would be no way to account for his choosing the
long, difficult, and perilous journey by Sinai, instead
of approaching the "Promised Land" directly by
way of Kadesh-Barnea, which was, in any event, to
be his ultimate objective. It may well have been
because Moses felt himself unable alone to cope with
the difficulties confronting him that he decided at
any cost to seek Jethro in Midian, who seems to have
been the only able, honest, and experienced man within
reach. Joshua, indeed, might be held to be an excep-
tion to this generalization, but Joshua, though a good
soldier, was a man of somewhat narrow understanding,

52 PREFACE.

and quite unfit to grapple with questions involving
jurisprudence and financial topography.

And at this juncture Moses must have felt his own
deficiencies keenly. As a captain he made no pre-
tence to efficiency. The Amalekites were, as he well
knew, at this moment lying in wait for him, and forth-
with he recognized that he had no alternative but to
retire into the background himself and surrender the
active command of the army to Joshua, a fatal con-
cession had Joshua been ambitious or unscrupulous.
And this was but the beginning. Before he could
occupy Palestine he had to encounter and overcome
numbers of equally formidable foes, a defeat by any
one of whom might well be fatal. A man like Jethro,
therefore, would be invaluable in guiding the caravan
to spots favorable for action, from whence retreat
to a place of safety would be open in case of a check.
A reverse which happened on a later occasion gave
Moses a shock he never forgot.

Furthermore, though Moses lived many years with
Jethro, as his chief servant, he never seems to have
travelled extensively in Arabia, and to have been
ignorant of the chief trade routes along which wells
were dug, and of the oases where pasture was to be
found; so that Moses was nearly worthless as a
guide, and this was a species of knowledge in which
Jethro, according to Moses' own statement, excelled.
Meanwhile, the lives of all his followers depended
on such knowledge. And Moses, when he reached
Sinai, left no stone unturned to overcome Jethro 's

PREFACE. 53

reluctance to join him and to instruct him on the
march north.

More important and pressing than all, Moses was
ignorant of how, practically, to administer the law
which he taught. His only idea was to do all in per-
son, but this, with so large a following, was impossible.
And here also his hope lay in Jethro. For when
he got to Sinai, and Jethro remonstrated with him
upon his methods, pointing out that they were im-
practicable, all Moses had to say in reply was that he
sat all day to hear disputes and " I judge between one
and another; and I do make them know the statutes
of God, and his laws." Further than this he had
nothing to propose. It was Jethro who explained to
him a constructive policy.

On the whole, upon this analysis, it appears that in
all those executive departments in which Moses, by
stress of the responsibilities which he had assumed,
was called upon, imperatively, to act, there was but
one, that of the magician or wise man, in which, by
temperament and training, he was fitted to excel, and
the functions of this profession drove him into an
intolerably irksome and distressing position, yet a
position from which throughout his life he found it
impossible to escape. No one who attentively weighs
the evidence can, I apprehend, escape the conviction
that Moses was at bottom an honest man who would
have conformed to the moral law he laid dowTi in the
name of the Lord had it been possible for him to do
so. Among these precepts none ranked higher than

54 PREFACE.

a regard for truth and honesty. "Ye shall not steal,
neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another." ^
And this text is but one example of a general drift of
thought.

Whether these particular words of Leviticus, or any
similar phrases, were ever used by Moses is imma-
terial. No one can doubt that, in substance, they
contained the gist of his moral doctrine and that he
enforced the moral duty which they convey to the
best of his power. And here the burden lay, which
crushed this man, from which he never thenceforward
could, even for an instant, free himself, and which
Saint Paul avers to be the heaviest burden man can
bear. Moses, to fulfil what he conceived to be his
destiny and which at least certainly was his ambition,
was condemned to lead a life of deceit and to utter
no word during his long subsequent march which was
not positively or inferentially a lie. And the bitterest
of his trials must have been the agony of anxiety in
which he must have lived lest some error in judgment
on his part, some slackness in measuring the exact
credulity of his audience, should cause his exposure
and lead to his being cast out of the camp as an im-
postor and hunted to death as a false prophet: a fate
which more than once nearly overtook him. Indeed,
as he aged and his nerves lost their elasticity under the
tension, he became obsessed with the fixed idea that
God had renounced him and that some horror would
overtake him should he attempt to cross the Jordan
^ Leviticus xix, 11.

PREFACE. 65

and enter the "Promised Land." Defeated at Hor-
mah, he dared not face another such check and,
therefore, dawdled away his time in the wilderness
until further dawdling became impossible. Then fol-
lowed his mental collapse which is told in Deuter-
onomy, together with his suicide on Mount Nebo.
And thus he died because he could not gratify at once
his lust for power and his instinct to live an honest
man.

CHAPTER II.

The interval during which Moses led the exodus
falls, naturally, into three parts of unequal length.
The first consists of the months which elapsed be-
tween the departure from Ramses and the arrival at
Sinai. The second comprises the halt at Sinai, while
the third contains the story of the rest of his life, end-
ing with Mount Nebo.

His trials began forthwith. The march was hardly
a week old before the column was in quasi-revolt be-
cause he had known so little of the country, that he
had led the caravan three days through a waterless
wilderness where they feared to perish from thirst.
And matters grew steadily worse. At Rephidim,
"And the people murmured against Moses, and said,
Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of
Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst?" Not impossibly Moses may still, at this
stage of his experiences, have believed in himself, in
the God he pretended to serve, and in his mission. At
least he made a feint of so doing. Indeed, he had to.
Not to have done so would have caused his instant
downfall. He always had to do so, in every emer-
gency of his life. A few days later he was at his wits'
end. He cried unto the Lord, "What shall I do unto
this people? They be almost ready to stone me." In
short, long before the congregation reached Sinai, and

PREFACE. bl

indeed before Moses had fought his first battle with
Amaiek, the people had come to disbelieve in Moses
and also to question whether there was such a god as
he pretended.

"And he called the name of the place Massah, and
Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of
Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is
the Lord among us, or not?"

"Then came Amaiek, and fought with Israel in
Rephidim." ^

Under such conditions it was vital to Moses to show
resolution and courage; but it was here that Moses,
on the contrary, flinched; as he usually did flinch when
it came to war, for Moses was no soldier.

"And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men
and go out, fight with Amaiek : to-morrow I will stand
on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine
hand."

And Moses actually had the assurance to do as he
proposed, nor did he even have the endurance to
stand. He made Aaron and Hur fetch a stone on
which he should sit and then hold up his hands for
him, pretending the while that when Moses held up
his hands the Hebrews prevailed and when he lowered
them Amaiek prevailed. Notwithstanding, Joshua
won a victory. But it may readily be believed that
this performance of his functions as a captain, did little
to strengthen the credit of Moses among the fighting
men. Nor evidently was Moses satisfied with the
* Exodus XVII, 7, 8.

58 PREFACE.

figure that he cut, nor was he confident that Joshua
approved of him, for the Lord directed Moses to make
excuses, promising to do better the next time, by as-
suring Joshua that "I will utterly put out the remem-
brance of Amalek from under heaven." This was the
best apology Moses could make for his weakness.
However, the time had now come when Moses was
to realize his plan of meeting Jethro.

"And Jethro . . . came with his sons and his wife
unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped
at the mount of God: . . . And Moses went out to
meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed
him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and
they came into the tent.

"And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord
had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for
Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon
them by the way, and how the Lord had delivered
them. . . .

"And Jethro said. Blessed be the Lord, who hath
delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians. . . .
Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods.
. . . And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to
eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God."

It is from all this very plain that Jethro had a
controlling influence over Moses, and was the prox-
imate cause of much that followed. For the next
morning Moses, as was his custom, "sat to judge the
people : and the people stood by Moses from the morn-
ing unto the evening." And when Jethro saw how

PREFACE. 69

Moses proceeded he remonstrated, " Why sittest thou
thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from
morning unto even?"

And Moses replied : " Because the people come unto
me to enquire of God."

And Jethro protested, saying " The thing thou doest
is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou
and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too
heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself
alone.

"Hearken, ... I will give thee counsel, and God
shall be with thee; Be thou for the people to God-
ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God."

Then it was that Moses perceived that he must
have a divinely promulgated code. Accordingly,
Moses made his preparations for a great dramatic
effect, and it is hard to see how he could have made
them better. For, whatever failings he may have had
in his other capacities as a leader, he understood his
part as a magician.

He told the people to be ready on the third day, for
on the third day the Lord would come down in the
sight of all upon Mount Sinai. But, "Take heed to
yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, or touch
the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall
be surely put to death:

"There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall
surely be stoned or shot through; whether it be beast
or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth
long, they shall come up to the mount."

60 PREFACE.

It must be admitted that Moses either had won-
derful luck, or that he had wonderful judgment in
weather, for, as it happened in the passage of the Red
Sea, so it happened here. At the Red Sea he was
aided by a gale of wind which coincided with a low
tide and made the passage practicable, and at Sinai
he had a thunder-storm.

"And it came to pass on the third day, in the morn-
ing, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a
thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the
trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that
was in the camp trembled." Moses had undoubtedly
sent some thoroughly trustworthy person, probably
Joshua, up the mountain to blow a ram's horn and to
light a bonfire, and the effect seems to have been
excellent.

"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, be-
cause the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the
smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace,
and the whole mount quaked greatly.

"And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long,
and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God
answered him by a voice.

"And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on
the top of the mount; and the Lord called Moses up
to the top of the mount; and Moses went up." And
the first thing that Moses did on behalf of the Lord
was to "charge the people, lest they break through
unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish."

And Moses replied to God's enquiry, "The people

PREFACE. 61

cannot come up to Mount Sinai: for thou chargedst
us, saying, Set bounds about the mount.

"And the Lord said imto him, Away, get thee down,
and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee:
but let not the priests and the people break through
to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon
them.

"So Moses went down unto the people, and spake
unto them."

Whether the decalogue, as we know it, was a code
of law actually delivered upon Sinai, which German
critics very much dispute as being inconsistent with
the stage of civilization at which the Israelites had
arrived, but which is altogether kindred to the Baby-
lonish law with which Moses was familiar, is imma-
terial for the present purpose. What is essential is
that beside the decalogue itself there is a considerable
body of law chiefly concerned with the position of
servants or slaves, the difference between assaults or
torts committed with or without malice, theft, tres-
pass, and the regulation of the lex talionis. There are
beside a variety of other matters touched upon all of
which may be found in the 21st, 22d, and 23d chap-
ters of Exodus.

Up to this point in his show Moses had behaved
with discretion and had obtained a complete success.
The next day he went on to demand an acceptance of
his code, which he prepared to submit in form. But
as a preliminary he made ready to take Aaron and his
two sons, together with seventy elders of the congre-

\ -^

62 PREFACE.

gation up the mountain, to be especially impressed
with a sacrifice and a feast which he had it in his mind
to organize. In the first place, "Moses . . . rose up
early in the morning, and builded an altar, . . , and
sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. . . .

"And he took the book of the covenant, and read
in the audience of the people: and they said, All that
the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient."

Had Moses been content to end his ceremony here
and to return to the camp with his book of the cov-
enant duly accepted as law, all might have been well.
But success seems to have intoxicated him, and he
conceived an undue contempt for the intelligence of
his audience, being, apparently, convinced that there
were no limits to their credulity, and that he could do
with them as he pleased.

It was not enough for him that he should have them
accept an ordinary book admittedly written by him-
self. There was nothing overpoweringly impressive
in that. What he wanted was a stone tablet on
which his code should be engraved, as was the famous
code of Hammurabi, which he probably knew well,
and this engraving must putatively be done by God
himself, to give it the proper solemnity.

To have such a code as this engraved either by him-
self or by any workman he could take into the moun-
tain with him, would be a work of time and would
entail his absence from the camp, and this was a very
serious risk. But he was over-confident and deter-
mined to run it, rather than be baulked of his purpose.

PREFACE. 63

"And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua; and
Moses went up into the mount of God.

"And he said unto the elders, Tarry you here for us,
until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron
and Hur are with you: and if any man have matters
to do, let him come unto them. And Moses went
into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the
mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and
forty nights."

But Moses had made the capital mistake of under-
valuing the intelligence of his audience. They had,
doubtless, been impressed when Moses, as a showman,
had presented his spectacle, for Moses had a com-
manding presence and he had chosen a wonderful lo-
cality for his performance. But once he was gone
the effect of what he had done evaporated and they
began to value the exhibition for what it really was.
As men of common sense, said they to one another,
why should w^e linger here, if Moses has played this
trick upon us? Why not go back to Egypt, where at
least we can get something to eat? So they decided
to bribe Aaron, who was venal and would do anything
for money.

"And when the people saw that Moses delayed to
come down out of the mount, the people gathered
themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him,
Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for
this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the
land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."

When Aaron heard this proposition he showed no

64 PREFACE.

objection to accept, provided the people made it
worth his while to risk the wrath of Moses; so he
answered forthwith, "Break off the golden earrings,
which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and
of your daughters, and bring them unto me."

These were the ornaments of which the departing
Israelites had spoiled the Egyptians and they must
have been of very considerable value. At all events,
Aaron took them and melted them and made them
into the image of a calf, such as he had been used to
see in Egypt. The calf was probably made of wood
and laminated with gold. Sir G. Wilkinson thinks
that the calf was made to represent Mnevis, with
whose worship the Israelites had been familiar in
Egypt. Then Aaron proclaimed a feast for the next
day in honor of this calf and said, "To-morrow is a
feast to the Lord," and they said, "These be thy gods,
O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt."

"And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered
burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings: and the
people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to
play."

It was not very long before Moses became suspicious
that all was not right in the camp, and he prepared to
go down, taking the two tables of testimony in his
hands. These stone tablets were covered with writing
on both sides, which must have taken a long time to en-
grave considering that Moses was on a bare mountain-
side with probably nobody to help but Joshua. Of

PREFACE. 65

course all that made this weary expedition worth the
doing was that, as the Bible says, "the tables were"
to pass for "the work of God, and the writing was the
writing of God." Accordingly, it is not surprising that
as Moses "came nigh unto the camp," and he "saw the
calf, and the dancing": that his " anger waxed hot, and
he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them
beneath the mount.

"And he took the calf which they had made, and
burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and
strewed it upon the water, and made the children of
Israel drink of it.

"And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people
unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon
them?

"And Aaron said. Let not the anger of my lord wax
hot : thou knowest the people, that they are set on mis-
chief.

"For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall
go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not
what is become of him.

"And I said unto them. Whosoever hath any gold,
let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast
it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

"And when Moses saw that the people were naked;
(for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame
among their enemies:) " that is to say, the people had
come to the feast unarmed, and without the slightest
fear or suspicion of a possible attack; then Moses saw

66 PREFACE.

his opportunity and placed himself in a gate of the
camp, and said: "Who is on the Lord's side? Let him
come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered them-
selves together unto him.

"And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in
and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and
slay every man his brother, and every man his com-
panion, and every man his neighbour.

"And the children of Levi did according to the word
of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about
three thousand men."

There are few acts in all recorded history, including
the awful massacres of the Albigenses by Simon de
Montfort and the Abbot Arnold, more indefensible
than this wholesale murder by Moses of several thou-
sand people who had trusted him, and whom he had
entrusted to the care of his own brother, who partici-
pated in their crime, supposing that they had com-
mitted any crime saving the crime of tiring of his
dictatorship.

The effect of this massacre was to put Moses, for the
rest of his life, in the hands of the Levites with Aaron at
their head, for only by having a body of men stained
with his own crimes and devoted to his fortunes could
Moses thenceforward hope to carry his adventure to a
good end. Otherwise he faced certain and ignominious
failure. His preliminary task, therefore, was to devise
for the Levites a reward which would content them.
His first step in this direction was to go back to the

PREFACE. 67

mountain and seek a new inspiration and a revelation
more suited to the existing conditions than the revela-
tion conveyed before the golden calf incident.

Up to this time there is nothing in Jewish history to
show that the priesthood was developing into a priv-
ileged and hereditary caste. With the consecration
of Aaron as high priest the process began. Moses spent
another six weeks in seclusion on the mount. And as
soon as he returned to the camp he proclaimed how the
people should build and furnish a sanctuary in which
the priesthood should perform its functions. These
directions were very elaborate and detailed, and part
of the furnishings of the sanctuary consisted in the
splendid and costly garments for Aaron and his sons
"for glory and for beauty."

"And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments,
and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minis-
ter unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt bring
his sons, and clothe them with coats : And thou shalt
anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they
may minister unto me in the priest's office: for their
anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood,
throughout their generations.

"Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord
commanded him, so did he."

It followed automatically that, with the creation of
a great vested interest centred in an hereditary caste
of priests, the pecuniary burden on the people was cor-
respondingly increased and that thenceforward Moses
became nothing but the representative of that vested

68 PREFACE.

interest: as reactionary and selfish as all such repre-
sentatives must be. How selfish and how reactionary
may readily be estimated by glancing at Numbers
XVIII, where God's directions are given to Aaron touch-
ing what he was to claim for himself, and what the
Levites were to take as their wages for service. It was
indeed liberal compensation. A good deal more than
much of the congregation thought such services worth.

In the first place, Aaron and the Levites with him
for their service "of the tabernacle" were to have "all
the tenth in Israel for an inheritance." But this was
a small part of their compensation. There were be-
side perquisites, especially those connected with the
sacrifices which the people were constrained to make
on the most trifling occasions; as, for example, when-
ever they became unclean, through some accident, as
by touching a dead body:

"This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved
from the fire: every oblation of their's, every meat
offering of their's, and every sin offering of their's, and
every trespass offering of their's, which they shall ren-
der unto me, shall be most holy for thee and thy sons.

" In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male
shall eat it; it shall be holy unto thee.

"And this is thine. ... All the best of the oil, and all
the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of
them which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have
I given thee; . . . every one that is clean in thine house
shall eat of it.

"Everything devoted in Israel shall be thine. . . .

PREFACE. 69

"All the heave offerings of the holy things, which
the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given
thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a
statute forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before
the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee."

Also, on the taking of a census, such as occurred at
Sinai, Aaron received a most formidable perquisite.

The Levites were not to be numbered; but there was
to be a complicated system of redemption at the rate
of "five shekels by the poll, after the shekel of the
sanctuary."

"And Moses took the redemption money of them
that were over and above them that were redeemed by
the Levites: Of the first-born of the children of Israel
took he the money; a thousand three hundred and
three score and five shekels, after the shekel of the
sanctuary; And Moses gave the money of them that
were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons."

Assuming the shekel of those days to have weighed
two hundred and twenty-four grains of silver, its value
in our currency would have been about fifty -five cents,
but its purchasing power, twelve hundred years before
Christ, would have been, at the very most moderate
estimate, at least ten for one, which would have
amoimted to between six and seven thousand dollars in
hard cash for no service whatever, which, considering
that the Israelites were a wandering nomadic horde in
the wilderness, was, it must be admitted, a pretty heavy
charge for the pleasure of observing the performances
of Aaron and his sons, in their gorgeous garments.

70 PREFACE.

Also, under any sedentary administration it followed
that the high priest must become the most consider-
able personage in the community, as well as one of the
richest. And thus as payment for the loyalty to himself
of the Levites during the massacre of the golden calf,
Moses created a theocratic aristocracy headed by Aaron
and his sons, and comprising the whole tribe of Levi,
whose advancement in fortune could not fail to create
discontent. It did so: a discontent which culminated
very shortly after in the rebellion of Korah, which
brought on a condition of things at Kadesh which con-
tributed to make the position of Moses intolerable.

Moses was one of those administrators \\ho were
particularly reprobated by Saint Paul; Men who "do
evil," as in the slaughter of the feasters who set up the
golden calf, "that good may come," and "whose dam-
nation," therefore, "is just." ^

And Moses wrought thus through ambition, because,
though personally disinterested, he could not endure
having his will thwarted. Aaron had nearly the con-
verse of such a temperament. Aaron appears to have
had few or no convictions; it mattered little to him
whether he worshipped Jehovah on Sinai or the golden
calf at the foot of Sinai, provided he were paid at his
own price. And he took care to exact a liberal price.
Also the inference to be drawn from the way in which
Moses behaved to him is that Moses understood
what manner of man he was.

Jethro stood higher in the estimation of Moses, and
* Romans in, 8.

PREFACE. 71

Moses did his best to keep Jethro with him, but, appar-
ently, Jethro had watched Moses closely and was not
satisfied with his conduct of the exodus. On the eve of
departure from Sinai, just as the Israelites were break-
ing camp, Moses sought out Jethro and said to him;
"We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord
said, I will give it you; come thou with us, and we will
do thee good; for the Lord has spoken good concerning
Israel.

"And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will de-
part to mine own land, and to my kindred."

Not discouraged, Moses kept on urging: "Leave us
not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we
are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be
to us instead of eyes.

"And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be,
that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same
will we do unto thee." It has been inferred from a
passage in Judges,^ that Moses induced Jethro to re-
consider his refusal and that he did accompany the con-
gregation in its march to Kadesh, but, on the whole,
the text of the Bible fails to bear out such in-
ference, for there is no subsequent mention of Jethro
in the books which treat directly of the trials of the
journey, although there would seem to have been
abundant occasion for Moses to have called upon
Jethro for aid had Jethro been present. In his appar-
ent absence the march began, under the leadership
of the Lord and Moses, very much missing Jethro.
^ Judges I, 16.

72 PREFACE.

They departed from the mount: "And the cloud of
the Lord was upon them by day," when they left the
camp "to search out a resting-place." Certainly, on
this occasion, the Lord selected a poor spot for the pur-
pose, quite different from such an one as Jethro
would have been expected to have pointed out; for the
children of Israel began complaining mightily, so much
so that it displeased the Lord who sent fire into the ut-
termost parts of the camp, where it consumed them.

"And the people cried unto'^Moses, and when Moses
prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched."

This suggestion of a divine fire under the control of
Moses opens an interesting speculation.

The Magi, who were the priests of the Median reli-
gion, greatly developed the practices of incantation
and sorcery. Among these rites they "pretended to
have the power of making fire descend on to their al-
tars by means of magical ceremonies." ^ Moses ap-
pears to have been very fond of this particular miracle.
It is mentioned as having been effective here at Ta-
berah, and it was the supposed weapon employed to
suppress Korah's rebellion. Moses was indeed a pow-
erful enchanter. His relations with all the priestcraft
of central Asia were intimate, and if the Magi had
secrets which were likely to be of use to him in main-
taining his position among the Jews, the inference is
that he would certainly have used them to the utmost;
as he did the brazen serpent, the ram's horns at Sinai,
and the like. But in spite of all his miracles Moses
' Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 226, 238.

PREFACE. 73

found his task too heavy, and he frankly confessed
that he wished himself dead.

"Then Moses heard the people weep throughout
their families . . . and the anger of the Lord was
kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.

"And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast
thou afflicted thy servant? . . . that thou layest the
burden of all this people upon me.'*

"Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten
them, that thou shouldest say unto me. Carry them
in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking
child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their
fathers?

"Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this
people? for they weep unto me saying. Give us flesh
that we may eat.

"I am not able to bear all this people alone, because
it is too heavy for me.

"And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee,
out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and
let me not see my wretchedness."

Leaving aside for the moment all our childish pre-
ventions, and considering this evidence in the cold
light of history, it becomes tolerably evident that
Moses had now reached the turning-point in his career,
the point whither he had inexorably tended since the
day on which he bid good-bye to Jethro to visit Egypt
and attempt to gain control of the exodus, and the
point to which all optimists must come who resolve to
base a religious or a political movement on the manip-

74 PREFACE.

ulation of the supernatural. However pure and dis-
interested the motives of such persons may be at the
outset, and however thoroughly they may believe in
themselves and in their mission, sooner or later, to
compass their purpose, they must resort to deception
and thus become impostors who flourish on the cre-
dulity of their dupes.

Moses, from the nature of the case, had to make such
demands on the credulity of his followers that even
those who were bound to him by the strongest ties of
affection and self-interest were alienated, and those
without such commanding motives to submit to his
claim to exact from them absolute obedience, revolted,
and demanded that he should be deposed. The first
serious trouble with which Moses had to contend
came to a head at Hazeroth, the second station after
leaving Sinai. The supposed spot is still used as a
watering-place. There Miriam and Aaron attacked
Moses because they were jealous of his wife, whom
they decried as an "Ethiopian." And they said,
"Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath
he not spoken also by us,'*" Instantly, it became evi-
dent to Moses that if this denial of his superior inti-
macy with God were to be permitted, his supremacy
must end. Accordingly the Lord came down "in the
pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the taber-
nacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both
came forth." And the Lord explained that he had no
objection to a prophet; if any one among the congre-
gation had an ambition to be a prophet he would com-

PREFACE. 75

municate with him in a dream ; but there must alwaj-s
be a wide difference between such a man or woman and
Moses with w^hom he would "speak mouth to mouth,
even apparently, and not in dark speeches." And
then God demanded irritably, "^Vherefore, then, were
ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"
" Afterward the cloud," according to the Bible, de-
parted and God with it.

Ever since the dawn of time the infliction of or
tlie cure of disease has been the stronghold of the
necromancer, the wise man, the magician, the saint,
the prophet and the priest, and Moses was no excep-
tion to the rule, only hitherto he had had no occasion
to display his powers of this kind. Nevertheless, among
the Hebrews of the exodus, the field for this form
of miracle was large. Leprosy was very prevalent, so
much so that in Egy]:)t the Jews were called a nation
of lepers. And in the camp the regulations touching
them were strict and numerous. But the Jews were
always a dirty race.

In chapter xiii of Leviticus, elaborate directions are
given as to how the patient shall be brought before
Aaron himself, or at least some other of the priests,
who was to examine the sore and, if it proved to be a
probable case of leprosy, the patient was to be excluded
from the camp for a week. At the end of that time
the disease, if malignant, was supposed to show signs
of spreading, in which case there was no cure and the
patient was condemned to civil death. On the con-
trary, if no virulent symptoms developed during

76 rREFACE.

the week, the patient was pronounced clean and re-
turned to ordinary life.

The miracle in the case of Miriam was this: When
the cloud departed from off the tabernacle, IVIiriam was
found to be "leprous, white as snow," just as Moses'
hand was found to be white with leprosy after his con-
versation with the Lord at the burning bush. Upon
this Aaron, who had been as guilty as Miriam, and
was proportionately nervous, made a prayer to Moses :
"Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon
us, wherein we have done foolishly. . . . Let her not be
as one dead.

"And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her
now, O God, I beseech thee."

But the Lord replied: "If her father had but spit in
her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let
her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after
that let her be received in again."

This was the Mosaic system of discipline. And it
was serious for all parties concerned. Evidently it
was very serious for Miriam, who had to leave her tent
and be exiled to some spot in the desert, where she had
to shift for herself. We all know the almost intoler-
able situation of those unfortunates who, in the East,
are excluded from social intercourse, and sit without
the gate, and are permitted to approach no one. But
it was also a serious infliction for the congregation,
since Miriam was a personage of consequence, and had
to be waited for. That is to say, a million or two of
people had to delay their pilgrimage until Moses

PREFACE. 77

had determined how much punishment Miriam de-
served for her insubordination, and this was a question
which lay altogether within the discretion of Moses.
In that age there were at least seven varieties of erup-
tions which could hardly, if at all, be distinguished, in
their early stages, from leprosy, and it was left to
INIoses to say whether or not Miriam had been attacked
by true leprosy or not. There was no one, apparently,
to question his judgment, for, since Jethro had left
the camp, there was no one to controvert the Mosaic
opinion on matters such as these. Doubtless Moses
was content to give Aaron and Miriam a fright; but
also Moses intended to make them understand that
they lay absolutely at his mercy.

After this outbreak of discontent had been thus sum-
marily suppressed and Miriam had been again received
as "clean," the caravan resumed its march and entered
into the wilderness of Paran, which adjoined Palestine,
and from whence an invasion of Canaan, if one were
to be attempted, would be organized. Accordingly
Moses appointed a reconnaissance, who in the lan-
guage of the Bible are called "spies," to examine the
country, report its condition, and decide whether an
attack were feasible.

On this occasion Moses seems to have remembered
the lesson he learned at Sinai. He did not undertake
to leave the camp himself for a long interval. He sent
the men whom he supposed he could best trust, among
whom were Joshua and Caleb. These men, who cor-
responded to what, in a modern army, would be called

78 PREFACE.

the general-staff, were not sent to manufacture a re-
port which they might have reason to suppose woulcj be
pleasing to Moses, but to state precisely what they
saw and heard together with their conclusions thereon,
that they might aid their commander in an arduous
campaign; and this duty they seem, honestly enough,
to have performed. But this was very far from satis-
fying Moses, who wanted to make a strenuous offen-
sive, and yet sought some one else to take the respon-
sibility therefor.

The spies were absent six weeks and when they re-
turned were divided in opinion. They all agreed that
Canaan was a good land, and, in verity, flowing with
milk and honey. But the people, most of them thought,
were too strong to be successfully attacked. "The
cities were walled and very great," and moreover "we
saw the children of Anak there."

"The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and
the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites,
dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by
the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

"And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and
said, Let us go up at once, ... for we are well able to
overcome it.

"But the men that went up with him said. We be
not able to go up against the people; for they are
stronger than we.

"And they brought up an evil report of the land
which they had searched, . . . saying, ... all the people
that we saw in it are men of great stature.

PREFACE. 79

"And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, . . .
and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so
were we in their sight,"

Had Moses been gifted with mihtary talent, or with
any of the higher instincts of the soldier, he would have
arranged to have received this report in private and
would then have acted as he thought best. Above
all he would have avoided anything like a council of
war by the whole congregation, for a vast popular
meeting of that kind was certain to become unman-
ageable the moment a division appeared in their com-
mand, upon a difficult question of pohcy.

Moses did just the opposite. He convened the
people to hear the report of the "spies." And im-
mediately the majority became dangerously depressed,
not to say mutinous.

"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and
cried; and the people wept that night.

"And all the children of Israel miu-mured against
Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congrega-
tion said unto them. Would God that we had died in
the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this
wilderness! . . .

"And they said one to another. Let us make a cap-
tain, and let us return into Egypt.

"Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before
all the assembly of the congregation of the children of
Israel."

But Joshua, who was a soldier, when Moses thus
somewhat ignominiously collapsed, retained his pres-

80 PREFACE.

ence of mind and his energy. He and Caleb "rent
their clothes," and reiterated their advice.

"And they spake unto all the company of the chil-
dren of Israel, saying. The land which we passed
through to search it, is an exceeding good land.

"If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into
this land, and give it us; a land which flowetli with
milk and honey.

"Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear
ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us:
tlieir defence is departed from them . . . fear them not.

"But all the congregation bade stone them with
stones."

By this time Moses seems to have recovered some
composure. Enough, at least, to repeat certain violent
threats of the "Lord."

Nothing is so impressive in all this history as the dif-
ference between Moses when called upon to take
responsibility as a military commander, and Moses
when, not to mince matters, he acted as a quack. On
the one hand, he was all vacillation, timidity, and ir-
ritability. On the other, all temerity and effrontery.

In this particular emergency, which touched his
very life, Moses vented his disappointment and vexa-
tion in a number of interviews which he pretended to
have had with the "Lord," and which he retailed to the
congregation, just at the moment when they needed,
as Joshua perceived, to be steadied and encouraged.

"How long," vociferated the Lord, when Moses had
got back his power of speech, "will this people provoke

PREFACE. 81

me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all
the signs which I have shewed among them?

"I will smite them with the pestilence, and disin-
herit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and
mightier than they."

But when Moses had cooled a little and came to re-
flect upon what he had made the "Lord" say, he fell
into his ordinary condition of hesitancy. Supposing
some great disaster should happen to the Jews at Ka-
desh, which lay not so very far from the Egj^^tian bor-
der, the Egyptians would certainly hear of it, and in
that case the Eg-j^jtian army might pursue and capture
Moses. Such a contingency was not to be contem-
plated, and accordingly Moses began to make reserva-
tions. It must be remembered that all these osten-
sible conversations with the "Lord" went on in public;
that is to say, Moses proffered his advice to the Lord
aloud, and then retailed his version of the answer he
received.

"Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man,
then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will
speak, saying,

"Because the Lord was not able to bring this people
into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he
hath slain them in the wilderness. . . .

" Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people
according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou
hast forgiven this people from Egj^^t even until now.

"And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to
thy word."

82 PREFACE.

Had Moses left the matter there it would not have
been so bad, but he could not contain his vexation, be-
cause his staff had not divined his wishes. Those men,
though they had done their strict duty only, must be
punished, so he thought, to maintain his ascendancy.

Of the twelve "spies" whom Moses had sent into
Canaan to report to him, ten had incurred his bitter
animosity because they failed to render him such a re-
port as would sustain him before the people in making
the campaign of invasion to which he felt himself
pledged, and on the success of which his reputation
depended. Of these ten men, Moses, to judge by the
character of his demands upon the Lord, thought it in-
cumbent on him to make an example, in order to sus-
tain his own credit.

To simply exclude these ten spies from Palestine, as
he proposed to do with the rest of the congregation,
would hardly be enough, for the rest of the Hebrews
were, at most, passive, but these ten had wilfully ig-
nored the will of Moses, or, as he expressed it, of the
Lord. Therefore it was the Lord's duty, as Moses saw
it, to punish them. And this Moses proposed that
the Lord should do in a prompt and awful manner:
the lesson being pointed by the immunity of Joshua
and Caleb, the two spies who had had the wit to divine
the will of Moses. Therefore, all ten of these men died
of the plague while the congregation lay encamped at
Kadesh, though Joshua and Caleb remained immune.

Moses, as the commanding general of an attacking
army, took a course diametrically opposed to that

PREFACE. 83

of Joshua, and calculated to be fatal to victory^. He
vented his irritation in a series of diatribes which he
attributed to the "Lord," and which discouraged and
confused his men at the moment when their morale was
essential to success.

Therefore, the Lord, according to Moses, went on:

"But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled
with the glory of the Lord.

"Because all those men which have seen my glory,
and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wil-
derness, have tempted me now these ten times, and
have not hearkened to my voice;

"Surely they shall not see the land which I swear
imto their fathers, neither shall any of them that pro-
voked me see it:

"But my servant Caleb, because he had another
spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will
I bring into the land whereinto he went; ..."

Having said all this, and, as far as might be, disor-
ganized the army, Moses surrendered suddenly his
point. He made the " Lord " go on to command : " To-
morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by
the way of the Red Sea." But, not even yet content,
Moses assured them that this retreat should profit
them nothing.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron,
saying. How long shall I bear with this evil congrega-
tion, which murmur against me? I have heard the
murmurings of the children of Israel, which they mur-
mur against me." And the Lord continued:

84 PREFA CE.

"Say unto them, As truly as I live, ... as ye have
spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you.

"Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all
that were numbered of you, . . . from twenty years old
and upward, which have murmured against me,

"Doubtless ye shall not come into the land. . . .

"But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this
wilderness. ...

"And the men which Moses sent to search the land,
who returned, and made all the congregation to mur-
mur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the
land, —

"Even those men that did bring up the evil report
upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

"But Joshua . . . and Caleb, . . . which were of the
men that went to search the land, lived still.

"And Moses told these sayings unto all the children
of Israel and the people mourned greatly."

The congregation were now completely out of hand.
They knew not what Moses wanted to do, nor did they
comprehend what Moses was attempting to make the
Lord threaten : except that he had in mind some dire
mischief. Accordingly, the people decided that the
best thing for them was to go forward as Joshua and
Caleb proposed. So, early in the morning, they went
up into the top of the mountain, saying, "We be
here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord
hath promised: for we have sinned."

But Moses was more dissatisfied than ever.
"Wherefore now do you transgress the command-

PRE FA CE. 85

ment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper." Not-
withstanding, "they presumed to go up unto the hill-
top : nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

"Then the Amalekites came down, and the Ca-
naanites, which dwelt in that hill, and smote them,
and discomfited them, even unto Hormah"; which
was at a very considerable distance, — perhaps not
less than thirty miles, though the positions are not
very w^ell established.

This is the story as told by the priestly chronicler,
who, of course, said the best that could be said for
Moses. But he makes a sorry tale of it. According
to him, Moses, having been disappointed with the re-
port made by his officers on the advisability of an im-
mediate offensive, committed the blunder of summon-
ing the whole assembly of the people to listen to it, and
then, in the midst of the panic he had created, he lost
his self-possession and finally his temper. Whereupon
his soldiers, not knowing what to do or what he
wanted, resolved to follow the advice of Joshua and
advance.

But this angered Moses more than ever, who com-
mitted the unpardonable crime in the eyes of the sol-
dier; he abandoned his men in the presence of the en-
emy and by this desertion so weakened them that they
sustained the worst defeat the Israelites suffered dur-
ing the whole of their wanderings in the wilderness.
Such a disaster brought on a crisis. The only wonder
is that it had been so long delayed. Moses had had

86 PREFACE.

since the exodus a wonderful opportunity to test the
truth of his theories. He had asserted that the uni-
verse was the expression of a single and supreme mind,
which operated according to a fixed moral law. That
he alone, of all men, understood this mind, and could
explain and administer its law, and that this he could
and would do were he to obtain absolute obedience
to the commands which he uttered. Were he only
obeyed, he would win for his followers victory in battle,
and a wonderful land to which they should march
under his guidance, which was the Promised Land, and
thereafter all was to be well with them.

The disaster at Hormah had demonstrated that he
was no general, and even on that very day the people
had proof before their eyes that he knew nothing of the
desert, and that the Lord knew no more than he, since
there was no water at Kadesh, and to ask the congre-
gation to encamp in such a spot was preposterous.
Meanwhile Moses absorbed all the offices of honor and
profit for his family. Aaron and his descendants mo-
nopolized the priesthood, and this was a bitter griev-
ance to other equally ambitious Levites. In short, the
Mosaic leadership was vulnerable on every hand. At-
tack on Moses was, therefore, inevitable, and it came
from Korah, who was leader of the opposition.

Korah was a cousin of Moses, and one of the ablest
and most influential men in the camp, to whom Dathan
and Abiram and "two hundred and fifty" princes of
the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of re-
nown, joined themselves. "And they gathered them-

PRE FA CE. 87

selves together against Moses and against Aaron, and
said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing
all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and
the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift you up
yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?"

Korah's grievance was that he had been, although
a Levite, excluded from the priesthood in favor of the
demands of Aaron and his sons.

"And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face."

And yet something had to be done. Moses faced
an extreme danger. His life hung upon the issue.
As between him and Korah he had to demonstrate
which was the better sorcerer or magician, and he could
only do tliis by challenging Korah to the test of the or-
deal : the familiar test of the second clause of the code
of Hammurabi; "If the holy river makes that man to
be innocent, and has saved him, he who laid the spell
upon him shall be put to death. He who plunged into
the holy river shall take to himself the house of him
who wove the spell upon him." ^ And so with Elijah,
to whom Ahaziah sent a captain of fifty to arrest him.
And Elijah said to the captain of fifty, "If I be a man
of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and con-
sume thee and thy fifty. And there came dovNTi fire
from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty." -

In a word, the ordeal was the common form of test

by which the enchanter, the sorcerer, or the magician

always was expected to prove himself. Moses already

^ Code of Laws promulgated by Hammurabi, King of Babylon.
Translated by C. H. W. Johns, M.A., § 2.
2 2 Kings I, 10.

88 PREFACE.

had tried the test by fire at least once, and probably
oftener. So now Moses reproached Korah because
he was jealous of Aaron; "and what is Aaron, that ye
murmur against him? . . . This do; Take you censers,
Korah, and all his company; and put fire therein, and
put incense in them before the Lord to-morrow; and
. . . whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: ye
take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi."

But it was not only about the priesthood that Moses
had trouble on his hands. He had undertaken, with
the help of the Lord, to lead the Israelites through the
wilderness. But at every step of the way his incom-
petence became more manifest. Even there, at that
very camp of Kadesh, there was no water, and all the
people clamored. And, therefore, Dathan and Abiram
taunted him with failure, and with his injustice to those
who served him. And Moses had no reply, except
that he denied having abused his power.

"And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the
sons of Eliab: which said. We will not come up:

"Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up
out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill
us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself alto-
gether a prince over us?

"Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that
floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of
fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of
these men [probably alluding to the "spies "] ? We will
not come up."

This was evidently an exceedingly sore spot. Moses

PREFA CE. 89

had boasted that, because the "spies" had rendered
to the congregation what they believed to be a true
report instead of such a report as he had expected, the
"Lord" had destroyed them by the plague. And it is
pretty evident that the congregation believed him. It
could hardly have been by pure accident that out of
twelve men, the ten who had offended Moses should
have died by the plague, and the other two alone
should have escaped. Moses assumed to have the
power of destroying whom he pleased by the pestilence
through prayer to the "Lord," and he, indeed, proba-
bly had the power, in such a spot as an ancient Jewish
Nomad camp, not indeed by prayer, but by the very
human means of communicating so virulent a poison
as the plague: means which he very well understood.

Therefore it is not astonishing that this insinuation
should have stung Moses to the quick.

"And Moses was very \NToth, and said unto the Lord,
Respect not thou their offering: I have not taken one
ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them."

Then Moses turned to Korah, "Be thou and all thy
company before the Lord, thou, and they, and Aaron,
to-morrow :

" And take every man his censer, and put incense in
them, and bring ye before the Lord every man his
censer, two hundred and fifty censers."

And Korah, on the morrow, gathered all the con-
gregation against them unto the door of the taber-
nacle. And the "Lord" then as usual intervened and
advised Moses to " separate yourselves from among this

90 PREFACE.

congregation, that I may consume them in a moment."
And Moses did so. That is to say, he made an effort
to divide the opposition, who, when united, he seems
to have appreciated, were too strong for him.

What happened next is not known. That Moses
partially succeeded in his attempt at division is ad-
mitted, for he persuaded Dathan and Abiram and their
following to " depart . . . from the tents of these wicked
men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed
in all their sins."

Exactly what occurred after this is unknown. The
chronicle, of course, avers that " the earth opened her
mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and
all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their
goods." But it could not have been this or anything
like it, for the descendants of Korah, many generations
after, were still doing service in the Temple, and at
the time of the miracle the spectators were not intimi-
dated by the sight, although all "Israel that were
round about them fled at the cry of them: for they
said. Lest the earth swallow us up also.

" And there came out a fire from the Lord, and con-
sumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered
incense."

Notwithstanding all which, the congregation next
day were as hostile and as threatening as ever.

"On the morrow all the congregation of the children
of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron,
saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. . . .

"And they fell upon their faces."

PREFACE. 91

In this crisis of his fate, when it seemed that nothing
could save Moses from a conflict with the mass of his
followers, who had renounced him, Moses showed that
audacity and fertility of resource, which had hitherto
enabled liim, and was destined until his death to en-
able him, to maintain his position, at least as a prophet,
among the Jewish people.

The plague was always the most dreaded of visita-
tions among the ancient Jews: far more terrible than
war. It was already working havoc in the camp, as
the death of the "spies" shows us. Moses always
asserted his ability to control it, and at this instant,
when, apparently, he and Aaron were lying on their
faces before the angry people, he conceived the idea
that he would put his theurgetic powers to the proof.
Suddenly he called to Aaron to "take a censer and put
fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and
go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atone-
ment for them: for there is wrath gone out from the
Lord; the plague is begun."

"And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran
into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the
plague was begun among the people: . . . and made
an atonement for the people.

"And he stood between the dead and the living;
and the plague was stayed.

"Now they that died in the plague were fourteen
thousand and seven hundred, beside them that died
about the matter of Korah."

Even this was not enough. The discontent con-

92 PREFA CE.

tinued, and Moses went on to meet it by the miracle
of Aaron's rod.

Moses took a rod from each tribe, twelve rods in all
and on Aaron's rod he wrote the name of Levi, and
Moses laid them out in the tabernacle. And the next
day Moses examined the rods and showed the con-
gregation how Aaron's rod had budded. And Moses
declared that Aaron's rod should be kept for a token
against the rebels : and that they must stop their mur-
murings "that they die not."

This manipulation of the plague by Moses, upon
what seems to have been a sudden inspiration, was a
stroke of genius in the way of quackery. He was,
indeed, in this way almost portentous. It had a
great and terrifying effect upon the people, who were
completely subdued by it. Against corporeal enemies
they might hope to prevail, but they were helpless
against the plague. And they all cried out with one
accord, " Behold we die, we perish, we all perish. Who-
soever Cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of
the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying .'^"

As I have already pointed out, Moses was a very
great theurgist, as many saints and prophets have
been. When in the actual presence of others he evi-
dently had the power of creating a belief in himself
which approached the miraculous, so far as disease
was concerned. And he presumed on this power and
took correspondingly great risks. The case of the
brazen serpent is an example. The story is — and
there is no reason to doubt its substantial truth — that

PREFACE. 93

the Hebrews were attacked by venomous serpents
probably in the neighborhood of Mount Hor, where
Aaron died, and thereupon Moses set up a large
brazen serpent on a pole, and declared that whoever
would look upon the serpent should live. Also, appar-
ently, it did produce an effect upon those who believed :
which, of course, is not an unprecedented phenomenon
among faith healers. But what is interesting in this
historical anecdote is not that Moses performed cer-
tain faith cures by the suggestion of a serpent, but that
the Israelites themselves, when out of the presence of
Moses, recognized that he had perpetrated on them a
vulgar fraud. For example. King Hezekiah destroj-ed
this relic, which had been preserved in the Temple,
calling it "Nehushtan," "a brazen thing," as an expres-
sion of his contempt. And what is more remarkable
still is that although Hezekiah reigned four or five
centuries after the exodus, yet science had made no
such advance in the interval as to justify this con-
tempt. Hezekiah seems to have been every whit as
credulous as were the pilgrims who looked on the
brazen serpent and were healed. Hezekiah "was
sick unto death, and Isaiah came to see him, and told
him to set his house in order; for thou shalt die, and
not live. . . . And Hezekiah wept sore."

Then, like Moses, Isaiah had another revelation in
which he was directed to return to Hezekiah, and tell
him that he was to live fifteen years longer. And Isai-
ah told the attendants to take "a lump of figs." "And
they took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered."

94 PREFACE.

Afterward Hezekiah asked of Isaiah how he was to
know that the Lord would keep his word and give
him fifteen additional years of life. Isaiah told him
that the shadow should go back ten degrees on the dial.
And Isaiah "cried unto the Lord," and he brought the
shadow ten degrees backward "by which it had gone
down in the dial of Ahaz." ^ And yet this man Heze-
kiah, who could believe in this marvellous cure of
Isaiah, repudiated with scorn the brazen serpent as
an insult to credulity. The contrast between Moses,
who hesitated not to take all risks in matters of dis-
ease with which he felt himself competent to cope, and
his timidity and hesitation in matters of war, is as-
tounding. But it is a common phenomenon with the
worker of miracles and indicates the limit of faith at
which the saint or prophet has always betrayed the
impostor. For example: Saint Bernard, when he
preached in 1146 the Second Crusade, made miracu-
lous cures by the thousand, so much so that there was
danger of being killed in the crowds which pressed
upon him. And yet this same saint, when chosen by
the crusaders four years later, in 1150, to lead them
because of his power to constrain victory by the inter-
vention of God, wrote, after the crusaders' defeat,
in terror to the pope to protect him, because he was
unfit to take such responsibility.

But even with this reservation Moses could not gain
the complete confidence of the congregation and the
insecurity of his position finally broke him down.
1 2 Kings XX, 11.

PREFACE. 95

At this same place of Kadesh, Miriam died, "and
the people chode with Moses because there was no
water for the congregation." ^ Moses thereupon with-
drew and, as usual, received a revelation. And the
Lord directed him to take his rod, "and speak ye unto
the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his
water."

And Moses gathered the congregation and said
unto them, "Hear now, ye rebels; must w^e fetch you
water out of this rock.'^"

"And he smote the rock twice: and the water came
out abundantly."

But Moses felt that he had offended God, "Because
ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the
children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this con-
gregation into the land which I have given them."

Moses had become an old man, and he felt himself
unequal to the burden he had assumed. He recog-
nized that his theory of cause and effect had broken
down, and that the "Lord" whom at the outset he had
firmly believed to be an actual and efficient power to
be dominated by him, either could not or would not
support him in emergency. In short, he had learned
that he was an adventurer who must trust to himself.
Hence, after Hormah he was a changed man. Nothing
could induce him to lead the Jews across the Jordan
to attack the peoples on the west bank, and though
the congregation made a couple of campaigns against
Sihon and Og, whose ruthlessness has always been a
* Numbers xx, 3.

96 PREFACE.

stain on Moses, the probability is that Moses did not
meddle much with the active command. Had he done
so, the author of Deuteronomy would have given the
story in more detail and Moses more credit. All that
is attributed to Moses is a division of the conquests
made together with Joshua, and a fruitless prayer to the
Lord that he might be permitted to cross the Jordan.

Meanwhile life was ending for him. His elder sister
Miriam died at Kadesh, and Aaron died somewhat
later at Mount Hor, which is supposed to lie about as
far to the east of Kadesh as Hormah is to the west, but
there are circumstances about the death of Aaron which
point to Moses as having had more to do with it than
of having been a mere passive spectator thereof.

The whole congregation is represented as having
"journeyed from Kadesh and come unto Mount Hor
... by the coast of the land of Edom," and there
the "Lord" spoke unto Moses and Aaron, and ex-
plained that Aaron was to be "gathered unto his
people, . . . because ye rebelled ... at the water of
Meribah." Therefore Moses was to "take Aaron and
Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto Mount Hor :
and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon
Eleazar," . . . and that Aaron . . . shall die there.

"And they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of
all the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of
his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son ; and
Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses
and Eleazar came down from the mount." ^
1 Numbers xx, 22-28.

PRE FA CE. 97

Now it is incredible that all this happened as
straightforwardly as the chronicle would have us be-
lieve. Aaron was an old man and probably failing, but
his death was not imminent. On the contrary, he had
strength to climb Mount Hor with Moses, without aid,
and there is no hint that he suffered from any ailment
likely to end his life suddenly. Moses took care that
he and Eleazar should be alone with Aaron so that
there should be no witness as to what occurred, and
INIoses alone knew what was expected.

Moses had time to take off the priestly garments,
which were the insignia of office and to put them on
Eleazar, and then, when all was ready, Aaron simply
ceased to breathe at the precise moment when it
was convenient for Moses to have him die, for the
policy of Moses evidently demanded that Aaron should
live no longer. Under the conditions of the march
Moses was evidently preparing for his own death, and
for a complete change in the administration of affairs.
Appreciating that his leadership had broken down and
that the system he had created was collapsing, he had
dawdled as long on the east side of the Jordan as the
patience of the congregation would permit. An ad-
vance had become inevitable, but Moses recognized his
own inability to lead it. The command had to be
delegated to a younger man and that man was Joshua.
Eleazar, on the other hand, was the only available
candidate for the high priesthood, and Moses took the
opportunity of making the investiture on Mount Hor.
So Aaron passed away, a sacrifice to the optimism of

98 PREFACE.

Moses. Next came the turn of Moses himself. The
whole story is told in Deuteronomy. Within, prob-
ably, something less than a year after Aaron's death
the "Lord" made a like communication to Moses.

"Get thee up . . . unto Mount Nebo, which is in the
land of Moab, that is over against Jericho;

"And die in the Mount whither thou goest up, and be
gathered unto thy people; as Aaron, thy brother died
in Mount Hor;

"Because ye trespassed against me among the
children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in
the wilderness of Zin, because ye sanctified me not in
the midst of the children of Israel.

"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto
the mountain of Nebo, . . . And the Lord showed him
all the land of Gilead, unto Dan.

"And Moses the servant of the Lord died there
in the land of Moab, according to the word of the
Lord. . . . But no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto
this day.

"And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old
when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force
abated."

The facts, as preserved by Josephus, appear to have
been these: Moses ascended the mountain with only
the elders, the high priest Eleazar, and Joshua. \i
the top of the mountain he dismissed the elders, and
then, as he was embracing Joshua and Eleazar and
still speaking, a cloud covered him, and he disappeared
in a ravine. In other words, he killed himself.

PREFACE. 99

Such is the story of Moses, a fragment of history in-
teresting enough in itself, but especially material to us
not only because of the development of the thought
dealt with in the following volumes, but of the infer-
ences which, at the present time, it permits us to draw
touching our own immediate future.

Moses was the first great optimist of whom any
record remains, and one of the greatest. He was the
prototype of all those who have followed. He was a
visionary. All optimists must be visionaries. Moses
based the social system which he tried to organize, not
on observed facts, but on a priori theories evolved out
of his owTi mind, and he met with the failure that all
men of that cast of mind must meet with when he
sought to realize his visions. His theory was that the
universe about him was the expression of an infinite
mind which operated according to law. That this
mind, or consciousness, was intelligent and capable of
communicating with man. That it did, in fact, so
communicate through him, as a medium, and that
other men had only to receive humbty and obey im-
plicitly his revelations to arrive at a condition nearly
approaching, if not absolutely reaching, perfection,
while they should enjoy happiness and prosperity in
the land in which they should be permitted, by an
infinite and supernatural power and wisdom, to
dwell. All this is not alien to the attitude of scien-
tific optimists at the present day, who anticipate pro-
gressive perfection.

Let us consider, for a moment, whither these a priori

100 PREFACE.

theories led, when put in practice upon human beings,
incUiding himself. And, in the first place, it will prob-
ably be conceded that no optimist could have, or ever
hope to have, a fairer opportunity to try his experiment
than had Moses on that plastic Hebrew community
which he undertook to lead through Arabia. Also it
must be admitted that Moses, as an expounder of a
moral code, achieved success. The moral principles
which he laid down have been accepted as sound from
that day to this, and are still written up in our churches,
as a standard for men and women, however slackly
they may be observed. But when we come to mark
the methods by which Moses obtained acceptance of
his code by his contemporaries, and, above all, sought
to constrain obedience to himself and to it, we find the
prospect unalluring. To begin with, Moses had only
begun the exodus when he learned from his practical
father-in-law that the system he employed was fan-
tastic and certain to fail : his notion being that he should
sit and judge causes himself, as the mouthpiece of the
infinite, and that therefore each judgment he gave
would demand a separate miracle or imposture. This
could not be contemplated. Therefore Moses was
constrained to impose his code in writing, once for all,
by one gigantic fraud which he must perpetrate him-
self. This he tried at Sinai, unblushingly declaring
that the stone tablets which he produced were "writ-
ten with the finger of God"; wherefore, as they must
have been written by himself, or under his personal
supervision, he brazenly and deliberately lied. His

PREFACE. 101

good faith was obviously suspected, and this suspicion
caused disastrous results. To support his lie Moses
caused three thousand unsuspecting and trusting men
to be murdered in cold blood, whose only crime was
that they would have preferred another leadersliip to
his, and because, had they been able to effect their
purpose, they would have disappointed his ambition.
To follow Moses further in the course which opti-
mism enforced upon him would be tedious, as it would
be to recapitulate the story which has already been
told. It suffices to say shortly that, at every camp,
he had to sink to deeper depths of fraud, deception,
lying, and crime in order to maintain his credit. It
might be that, as at Meribah, it was only claiming for
himself a miracle which he knew he could not work,
and for claiming which, instead of giving the credit
to God, he openly declared he deserved and must re-
ceive punishment; or it might be some impudent
quackery, like the brazen serpent, which at least was
harmless; or it might have been complicated combi-
nations which suggest a deeper shade; as, for example,
the outbreak of the plague, after Korah's rebellion,
which bears the aspect of a successful effort at intimi-
dation to support his own wavering credit. But the
result was always the same. Moses had promised
that the supernatural power he pretended to control
should sustain him and give victory. Possibly, when
he started on the exodus he verily believed that such
a power existed, was amenable and could be con-
strained to intervene. He found that he had been

102 PREFACE.

mistaken on all these heads, and when he accepted
these facts as final, nothing remained for him but sui-
cide, as has been related. It only remains to glance,
for a single moment, at what befell, when he had gone,
the society he had organized on the optimistic prin-
ciple of the approach of human beings toward perfec-
tion. During the period of the Judges, when "there
was no king in Israel, but every man did that which
was right in his own eyes," ^ anarchy supervened, in-
deed, but also the whole Mosaic system broke down
because of the imbecility of the men on whom Moses
relied to Uft the people toward perfection.

Eli, a descendant of Aaron, was high priest, and a
judge, being the predecessor of Samuel, the last of the
judges. Now Eli had two sons who "were sons of
Belial; they knew not the Lord."

Eli, being very old, "heard all that his sons did unto
all Israel; and how they lay with the women that as-
sembled at the door of the tabernacle. ..." And Eli
argued with them; "notwithstanding they barkened
not unto the voice of their father."

Samuel succeeded Eli. He was not a descendant of
Aaron, but became a judge, apparently, upon his own
merits. But as a judge he did not constrain his sons
any better than Eli had his, for "they took bribes, and
perverted judgment." So the elders of Israel came to
Samuel and said, " Give us a king to judge us." " And
Samuel prayed unto the Lord," though he disliked
the idea. Yet the result was inevitable. The king-
' Judges XVII, 6.

PREFACE. 103

dom was set up, and the Mosaic society perished.
Nothing was left of Mosaic optimism but the tradi-
tion. Also there was the Mosaic morality, and what
that amounted to may best, perhaps, be judged by
David, who was the most perfect flower of the perfec-
tion to which humanity was to attain under the Mo-
saic law, and has always stood for what was best in
Mosaic optimism. David's morality is perhaps best
illustrated by the story of Uriah the Hittite.

One day David saw Uriah's wife taking a bath on
her housetop and took a fancy to her. The story is all
told in the Second of Samuel. How David sent for
her, took her into the palace, and murdered Uriah by
sending him to Joab who commanded the army, and
instructing* Joab to set Uriah in the forefront of the
hottest battle, and "retire ye from him that he may
be smitten and die." And Uriah was killed.

Then came the famous parable by Nathan of the
ewe lamb. "And David's anger was greatly kindled
against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord
liveth, the man who hath done this thing shall surely
die.

"And Nathan said to David. Thou art the man."

And Nathan threatened David with all kinds of dis-
aster and even with death, and David was very re-
pentant and "he fasted and lay all night upon the
earth." But for all that, when assured that nothing
worse was to happen to him than the loss of the son
Bathsheba had borne him, David comforted Bathsheba.
He by no means gave her up. On the contrary, "he

104 PREFACE.

went in unto her . . . and she bare him a son, and he
called his name Solomon: and the Lord loved him."

Again the flesh had prevailed. And so it has always
been with each new movement which has been stim-
ulated by an idealism inspired by a belief that the
spirit was capable of generating an impulse which would
overcome the flesh and which could cause men to move
toward perfection along any other path than the least
resistant. And this because man is an automaton,
and can move no otherwise. In this point of view
notliing can be more instructive than to compare the
Roman with the Mosaic civilization, for the Romans
were a sternly practical people and worshipped force
as Moses worshipped an ideal.

As Moses dreamed of realizing the divine conscious-
ness on earth by introspection and by prayer, so the
Romans supposed that they could attain to prosperity
and happiness on earth by the development of su-
perior physical force and the destruction of all rivals.
Cato the Censor was the typical Roman landowner,
the type of the class which built up the great vested
interest in land which always moved and dominated
Rome. He expressed the Roman ideal in his famous
declaration in the Senate, when he gave his vote for
the Third Punic War; "Delenda est Carthago," Car-
thage must be destroyed. And Carthage was de-
stroyed because to a Roman to destroy Carthage
was a logical competitive necessity. Subsequently,
the Romans took the next step in their social adjust-
ment at home. They deified the energy which had

PREFA CE. 105

destroyed Carthage. The incarnation of physical
force became the head of the State ; — the Emperor
when Hving, the Divus, when dead. And this con-
ception gained expression in the Law. This godhke
energy found vent in the Imperial will; ''Quod prin-
cipi placuit, legis habet vigorem." ^

Nothing could be more antagonistic to the Mosaic
philosophy, which invoked the supernatural unity as
authority for every pohce regulation. Moreover, the
Romans carried out their principle relentlessly, to
their own destruction. That great vested interest
which had absorbed the land of Italy, and had erected
the administrative entity which policed it, could not
hold and cultivate its land profitably, in competition
with other lands such as Egj'^pt, North Africa, or As-
sj-ria, which were worked by a cheaper and more
resistant people. Therefore the Roman landowners
imported this competitive population from their homes,
having first seized them as slaves, and cultivated their
own Italian fields with them after the eviction of the
original native peasants, who could not survive on the
scanty nutriment on which the eastern races throve.^

1 Inst. 1, 2, 6.

2 I have dealt with this subject at length in my Law of Civiliza-
tion and Decay, chapter ii, to which I must refer the reader. More
fully still in the French translation. "This unceasing emigration
gradually changed the character of the rural population, and a
similar alteration took place in the army. As early as the time of
Civsar, Italy was exhausted; his legions were mainly raised in Gaul,
and as the native farmers sank into serfdom or slavery, and then
at last vanished, recrviits were drawn more and more from beyond
the limits of the empire." I cannot repeat mj' arguments here, but
I am not aware that they have been seriously controverted.

106 PREFACE.

The Roman law, the Romana lex, was as gigantic,
as original, and as comprehensive a structure as was
the empire which gave to it expression. Modern Euro-
pean law is but a dilution thereof. The Roman law
attained perfection, as I conceive, about the time of
the Antonines, through the great jurists who then
flourished. If one might name a particular moment at
which so vast and complex a movement culminated,
one would be tempted to suggest the reign of Hadrian,
who appointed Salvius Julianus to draw up the edictum
perpetuum, or permanent edict, in the year 132 a.d.
Thenceforward the magistrate had to use his discre-
tion only when the edict of Julianus did not apply.

I am not aware that any capital principle of munici-
pal law has been evolved since that time, and the aston-
ishing power of the Roman mind can only be appre-
ciated when it is remembered that the whole of this
colossal fabric was original. Modern European law
has been only a servile copy. But, regard being had to
the position of the emperor in relation to the people,
and more especially in relation to the vast bureau-
cracy of Rome, which was the embodiment of the
vested interest which was Rome itself, the adherence
of Roman thought to the path of least resistance was
absolute. "So far as the cravings of Stoicism found
historical and political fulfilment, they did so in the
sixty years of Hadrian and the Antonines, and so far
again as an individual can embody the spirit of an age,
its highest and most representative impersonation is
unquestionably to be found in the person of Marcus

PREFACE. 107

Antoninus. . . . Stoicism faced the whole problem of
existence, and devoted as searching an investigation
to processes of being and of thought, to physics and
to dialectic, as to the moral problems presented by the
emotions and the will." ^

Such was stoicism, of which Marcus Aurelius was
and still remains the foremost expression. He ad-
mitted that as emperor his first duty was to sacri-
fice himself for the public and he did his duty with a
constancy which ultimately cost him his life. Among
these duties was the great duty of naming his succes-
sor. The Roman Empire never became strictly he-
reditary. It hinged, as perhaps no other equally de-
veloped system ever hinged, upon the personality of
the emperor, who incarnated the administrative bu-
reaucracy which gave efiPect to the Pax Romana and
the Romana lex from the Euphrates to the Atlantic
and from Scotland to the Tropic of Cancer. Of all
men ISIarcus Aurelius was the most conscientious and
the most sincere, and he understood, as perhaps no
other man in like position ever understood, the respon-
sibility which impinged on him, to allow no private pre-
vention to impose an unfit emperor upon the empire.
But Marcus had a son Commodus, who was nineteen
when his father died, and who had already developed
traits which caused foreboding. Nevertheless, Mar-
cus associated Commodus with himself in the empire
when Commodus was fourteen and Commodus at-

^ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, in English, by Gerald H. Rendall,
Introduction, xxvii.

108 PREFACE.

tained to absolute power when Marcus died. Subse-
quently, Commodus became the epitome of all that was
basest and worst in a ruler. He was murdered by
the treachery of Marcia, his favorite concubine, and
the Senate decreed that "his body should be dragged
with a hook into the stripping room of the gladiators,
to satiate the public fury." ^

From that day Rome entered upon the acute stage
of her decline, and she did so very largely because
Marcus Aurelius, the ideal stoic, was incapable of
violating the great law of nature which impelled him
to follow not reason, but the path of least resistance in
choosing a successor; or, in other words, the instinct
of heredity. Moreover, this instinct and not reason
is or has been, among the strongest which operate
upon men, and makes them automata. It is the basis
upon which the family rests, and the family is the
essence of social cohesion. Also the hereditary in-
stinct has been the prime motor which has created
constructive municipal jurisprudence and which has
evolved religion.

With the death of Marcus Aurelius individual com-
petition may be judged to have done its work, and pres-
ently, as the population changed its character under
the stress thereof, a new phase opened : a phase which
is marked, as such phases usually are, by victory in
war. Marcus Aurelius died in 180 a.d. Substantially
a century later, in 312, Constantine won the battle
of the Milvian Bridge with his troops fighting under
^ Decline and Fall, chap. iv.

PREFACE. 109

the Labarum, a standard bearing a cross with the
device "In hoc signo vinces"; By this sign conquer.
Probably Constantine had himself scanty faith in the
Labarum, but he speculated upon it as a means to
arouse enthusiasm in his men. It served his purpose,
and finding the step he had taken on the whole satis-
factory, he followed it up by accepting baptism in
337 A.D.

From this time forward the theory of the possibility
of securing divine or supernatural aid by various
forms of incantation or prayer gained steadily in power
for about eight centuries, until at length it became a
passion and gave birth to a school of optimism, the
most overwhelming and the most brilliant which the
world has ever known and which evolved an age
whose end we still await.

The Germans of the fourth century were a very
simple race, who comprehended little of natural laws,
and who therefore referred phenomena they did not
understand to supernatural intervention. This inter-
vention could only be controlled by priests, and thus
the invasions caused a rapid rise in the influence of the
sacred class. The power of every ecclesiastical or-
ganization has always rested on the miracle, and the
clergy have always proved their divine commission as
did Moses. This was eminently the case w'ith the
mediaeval Church. At the outset Christianity was
socialistic, and its spread among the poor was appar-
ently caused by the pressure of servile competition ; for
the sect only became of enough importance to be per-

110 PREFACE.

secuted under Nero, contemporaneously with the first
signs of distress which appeared through the debase-
ment of the denarius. But socialism was only a pass-
ing phase, and disappeared as the money value of the
miracle rose, and brought wealth to the Church.
Under the Emperor Decius, about 250, the magis-
trates thought the Christians opulent enough to use
gold and silver vessels in their service, and by the
fourth century the supernatural so possessed the popu-
lar mind that Constantine, as we have seen, not only
allowed himself to be converted by a miracle, but
used enchantment as an engine of war.

The action of the Milvian Bridge, fought in 312,
by which Constantine established himself at Rome,
was probably the point whence nature began to dis-
criminate decisively against the vested interest of
Western Europe. Capital had already abandoned
Italy; Christianity was soon after officially recog-
nized, and during the next century the priest began to
rank with the soldier as a force in war.

Meanwhile, as the population sank into exhaustion,
it yielded less and less revenue, the police deteriorated,
and the guards became unable to protect the frontier.
In 376, the Goths, hard pressed by the Huns, came to
the Danube and implored to be taken as subjects by
the emperor. After mature deliberation the Council
of Valens granted the prayer, and some five hundred
thousand Germans were cantoned in Mcesia. The
intention of the government was to scatter this multi-
tude through the provinces as coloni, or to draft them

PREFACE. Ill

into the legions; but the detachment detailed to handle
them was too feeble, the Goths mutinied, cut the
guard to pieces, and having ravaged Thrace for two
years, defeated and killed Valens at Hadrianople. In
another generation the disorganization of the Roman
army had become complete, and Alaric gave it its
death-blow in his campaign of 410.

Alaric was not a Gothic king, but a barbarian de-
serter, who, in 392, was in the service of Theodosius.
Subsequently he sometimes held imperial commands,
and sometimes led bands of marauders on his own
account, but was always in difficulty about his pay.
Finally, in the revolution in which Stilicho w^as mur-
dered, a corps of auxiliaries mutinied and chose him
their general. Alleging that his arrears were unpaid,
Alaric accepted the command, and with this army
sacked Rome.

During the campaign the attitude of the Christians
was more interesting than the strategy of the soldiers.
Alaric was a robber, leading mutineers, and yet the
orthodox historians did not condemn him. They did
not condemn him because the sacred class instinctively
loved the barbarians whom they could overawe,
whereas they could make little impression on the ma-
terialistic intellect of the old centralized society. Un-
der the empire the priests, like all other individuals, had
to obey the power which paid the police; and as long as
a revenue could be drawn from the provinces, the
Christian hierarchy were subordinate to the monied
bureaucracy who had the means to coerce them.

112 PREFACE.

Yet only very slowly, as the empire disintegrated, did
the theocratic idea take shape. As late as the ninth
century the pope prostrated himself before Charle-
magne, and did homage as to a Roman emperor.^

Saint Benedict founded Monte Cassino in 529, but
centuries elapsed before the Benedictine order rose to
power. The early convents were isolated and feeble,
and much at the mercy of the laity, who invaded and
debauched them. Abbots, like bishops, were often
soldiers, who lived within the walls with their wives
and children, their hawks, their hounds, and their
men-at-arms; and it has been said that, in all France,
Corbie and Fleury alone kept always something of
their early discipline.

Only in the early years of the most lurid century of
the Middle Ages, when decentralization culminated,
and the imagination began to gain its fullest intensity,
did the period of monastic consolidation open with the
foundation of Cluny. In 910 William of Aquitaine
draw a charter ^ which, so far as possible, provided for
the complete independence of his new corporation.
There was no episcopal visitation, and no interference
with the election of the abbot. The monks were put
directly under the protection of the pope, who was
made their sole superior. John XI confirmed this char-
ter by his bull of 932, and authorized the affiliation of
all converts who wished to share in the reform.^

* Perz, Amiales Lauressenses, i, 188.
^ Bruel, Rerueil des Charles de VAhhaye de Cluny, i, 124.
3 Bull. Chin. p. 2, col. 1. Also Luchaire, Manuel des Institutions
Fratigaises, 93, 95, where the authorities are collected.

PREFACE. 113

The growth of Cluny was marvellous; by the
twelfth century two thousand houses obeyed its rule,
and its wealth was so great, and its buildings so vast,
that in 1'245 Innocent IV, the Emperor Baldwin, and
Saint Louis were all lodged together within its walls,
and with them all the attendant trains of prelates
and nobles with their servants.

In the eleventh century no other force of equal en-
ergy existed. The monks were the most opulent, the
ablest, and the best organized society in Europe, and
their effect upon mankind was proportioned to their
strength. They intuitively sought autocratic power,
and during the centuries when nature favored them,
they passed from triumph to triumph. They first
seized upon the papacy and made it self -perpetuating;
they then gave battle to the laity for the possession
of the secular hierarchy, which had been under tem-
poral control since the very foundation of the Church.

According to the picturesque legend, Bruno, Bishop
of Toul, seduced by the flattery of courtiers and the
allurements of ambition, accepted the tiara from the
emperor, and set out upon his journey to Italy with a
splendid retinue, and with his robe and crown. On his
way he turned aside at Cluny, where Hildebrand was
prior. Hildebrand, filled with the spirit of God, re-
proached him with having seized upon the seat of the
vicar of Christ by force, and accepted the holy oflSce
from the sacrilegious hand of a layman. He exhorted
Bruno to cast away his pomp, and to cross the Alps
humbly as a pilgrim, assuring him that the priests and

114 PREFACE.

people of Rome would recognize him as their bishop,
and elect him according to canonical forms. Then he
would taste the joys of a pure conscience, having en-
tered the fold of Christ as a shepherd and not as a rob-
ber. Inspired by these words, Bruno dismissed his
train, and left the convent gate as a pilgrim. He
walked barefoot, and when after two months of pious
meditations he stood before Saint Peter's, he spoke to
the people and told them it was their privilege to elect
the pope, and since he had come unwillingly he would
return again, were he not their choice.

He was answered with acclamations, and on Feb-
ruary 2, 1049, he was enthroned as Leo IX. His first
act was to make Hildebrand his minister.

The legend tells of the triumph of Cluny as no his-
torical facts could do. Ten years later, in the reign of
Nicholas II, the theocracy made itself self -perpetuat-
ing through the assumption of the election of the pope
by the college of cardinals, and in 1073 Hildebrand, the
incarnation of monasticism, was crowned under the
name of Gregory VII.

With Hildebrand's election, war began. The Coun-
cil of Rome, held in 1075, decreed that holy orders
should not be recognized where investiture had been
granted by a layman, and that princes guilty of con-
ferring investiture should be excommunicated. The
Council of the next year, which excommunicated the
emperor, also enunciated the famous propositions of
Baronius — the full expression of the theocratic idea.
The priest had grown to be a god on earth.

PREFACE. 115

"So strong in this confidence, for the honour and
defence of your Church, on behalf of the omnipotent
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by
your power and authority, I forbid the government of
the German and Italian kingdoms, to King Henry,
the son of the Emperor Henry, who, with unheard-of
arrogance, has rebelled against your Church. I ab-
solve all Christians from the oaths they have made
or may make to him, and I forbid that any one should
obey him as king." ^

Henry marched on Italy, but in all European history
there has been no drama more tremendous than the ex-
piation of his sacrilege. To his soldiers the world was
a vast space, peopled by those fantastic beings which
are still seen on Gothic towers. These demons obeyed
the monk of Rome, and his army, melting from about
the emperor under a nameless horror, left him helpless.

Gregory lay like a magician in the fortress of Ca-
nossa: but he had no need of carnal weapons, for when
the emperor reached the Alps he was almost alone.
Then his imagination also took fire, the panic seized
him, and he sued for mercy.

On August 7, 1106, Henry died at Liege, an outcast
and a mendicant, and for five long years his body lay
at the church door, an accursed thing which no man
dared to bury.

Gregory prevailed because, to the understanding
of the eleventh century, the evidence at hand indicated
that he embodied in a high degree the infinite energy.
^ Migne, cxlviii, 790.

116 PREFACE.

The eleventh century was intensely imaginative and
the evidence which appealed to it was those phenom-
ena of trance, hypnotism, and catalepsy which are as
mysterious now as they were then, but whose effect
was then to create an overpowering demand for mir-
acle-working substances. The sale of these substances
gradually drew the larger portion of the wealth of the
community into the hands of the clergy, and with
wealth went temporal power. No vested interest in
any progressive community has probably ever been
relatively stronger, for the Church found no difficulty,
when embarrassed, in establishing and operating a
thorough system for exterminating her critics.

Under such a pressure modern civilization must have
sunk into some form of caste had the mediaeval mind
resembled any antecedent mind, but the middle age,
though superficially imaginative, was fundamentally
materialistic, as the history of the crusades showed.

At Canossa the laity conceded as a probable hy-
pothesis that the Church could miraculously control
nature ; but they insisted that if the Church possessed
such power, she must use that power for the common
good. Upon this point they would not compromise,
nor would they permit delay. During the chaos of
the ninth century turmoil and violence reached a stage
at which the aspirations of most Christians ended
with self-preservation; but when the discovery and
working of the Harz silver had brought with it some
semblance of order, an intense yearning possessed
both men and women to ameliorate their lot. If relics

PREFA CE. 117

could give protection against oppression, disease, fam-
ine, and death, then rehcs must be obtained, and, if the
cross and the tomb were the most effective rehcs, then
the cross and the tomb must be conquered at any-
cost. In the north of Europe especially, misery was
so acute that the people gladly left their homes upon
the slenderest promise of betterment, even following
a vagrant like Peter the Hermit, who was neither sol-
dier nor priest. There is a passage in William of Tyre
which has been often quoted to exjjlain a frenzy which
is otherwise inexplicable, and in the old English of
Caxton the words still glow with the same agony which
makes lurid the supplication of the litany, — "From
battle and murder, and from sudden death. Good
Lord deliver us":

"Of chary te men spack not, debates, discordes, and
warres were nyhe oueral, in suche wyse, that it seemed,
that thende of the world was nyghe, by the signes
that our lord sayth in the gospell, ffor pestylences and
famynes were grete on therthe, ferdfulness of heuen,
tremblyng of therthe in many places, and many other
thinges there were that ought to fere the hertes of
men. . . .

"Theprynces and the barons brente and destroyed
the contrees of theyr neyghbours, yf ony man had
saved ony thynge in theyr kepyng, theyr owne lordes
toke them and put them in prison and in greuous tor-
mentis, for to take fro them suche as they had, in suche
qyse that the chyldren of them that had ben riche
men, men myght see them goo fro dore to dore, for to

118 PREFACE.

begge and gete theyr brede, and some deye for hungre
and mesease." ^

Throughout the eleventh century the excitement
touching the virtues of the holy places in Judea grew,
until Gregory VII, about the time of Canossa, per-
ceived that a paroxysm was at hand, and considered
leading it, but on the whole nothing is so suggestive
of the latent scepticism of the age as the irresolution
of the popes at this supreme moment. The laity were
the pilgrims and the agitators. The kings sought the
relics and took the cross; the clergy hung back. Rob-
ert, Duke of Normandy, for example, the father of
William the Conqueror, died in 1035 from hardship at
Nicaea when returning from Palestine, absorbed to the
last in the relics which he had collected, but the popes
stayed at home. Whatever they may have said in pri-
vate, neither Hildebrand nor Victor nor Urban moved
officially until they were swept forward by the torrent.
They shunned responsibility for a war which they
would have passionately promoted had they been
sure of victory. The man who finally kindled the
conflagration was a half-mad fanatic, a stranger to the
hierarchy. No one knew the family of Peter the Her-
mit, or whence he came, but he certainly was not an
ecclesiastic in good standing. Inflamed by fasting
and penance, Peter followed the throng of pilgrims to
Jerusalem, and there, wrought upon by what he saw, he
sought the patriarch. Peter asked the patriarch if

^ Godcffroy of Bologne, by William, Archbishop of Tyre, trans-
lated from the French by William Caxton, London, 1893, 21, 22.

PREFACE. 119

nothing could be done to protect the pilgrims, and to
retrieve the Holy Places. The patriarch replied,
"Nothing, unless God will touch the heart of the west-
ern princes, and will send them to succor the Holy-
City." The patriarch did not propose meddling him-
self, nor did it occur to him that the pope should inter-
vene. He took a rationalistic view of the Moslem
military power. Peter, on the contrary, was logical,
arguing from eleven th-centurj^ premises. If he could
but receive a divine mandate, he would raise an invin-
cible army. He prayed. His prayer was answered.
One day while prostrated before the sepulchre he heard
Christ charge him to announce in Europe that the ap-
pointed hour had come. Furnished with letters from
the patriarch, Peter straightway embarked for Rome
to obtain Urban's sanction for his design. Urban
listened and gave a consent which he could not pru-
dently have withheld, but he abstained from partici-
pating in the propaganda. In March, 1095, Urban
called a Council at Piacenza, nominally to consider
the deliverance of Jerusalem, and this Council was
attended by thirty thousand impatient laymen, only
waiting for the word to take the vow, but the pope did
nothing. Even at Clermont eight months later, he
showed a disposition to deal with private war, or
church discipline, or with anything in fact rather than
with the one engrossing question of the day, but this
time there was no escape. A vast multitude of de-
termined men filled not only Clermont but the adja-
cent towns and villages, even sleeping in the fields, al-

120 PREFACE.

though the weather was bitterly cold, who demanded
to know the poHcy of the Church. Urban seems to
have procrastinated as long as he safely could, but, at
length, at the tenth session, he produced Peter on the
platform, clad as a pilgrim, and, after Peter had spoken^
he proclaimed the war. Urban declined, however, to
command the army. The only effective force which
marched was a body of laymen, organized and led by
laymen, who in 1099 carried Jerusalem by an ordinary
assault. In Jerusalem they found the cross and the
sepulchre, and with these relics as the foundation of
their power, the laity began an experiment which lasted
eighty -eight years, ending in 1187 with the battle of
Tiberias. At Tiberias the infidels defeated the Chris-
tians, captured their king and their cross, and shortly
afterward seized the tomb.

If the eleventh-century mind had been as rigid as
the Roman mind of the first century, mediaeval civiliza-
tion could hardly, after the collapse of the crusades,
have failed to degenerate as Roman civilization de-
generated after the defeat of Varus. Being more elas-
tic, it began, under an increased tension, to develop
new phases of thought. The effort was indeed prodi-
gious and the absolute movement possibly slow, but a
change of intellectual attitude may be detected almost
contemporaneously with the fall of the Latin kingdom
in Palestine. It is doubtless true that the thirteenth
century was the century in which imaginative thought
reached its highest brilliancy, when Albertus Magnus
and Saint Thomas Aquinas taught, when Saint Fran-

PREFA CE. 121

cis and Saint Clara lived, and when Thomas of Celano
wrote the Dies Ires. It was then that Gothic architec-
ture touched its climax in the cathedrals of Chartres
and Amiens, of Bourges and of Paris; it was then also
that Blanche of Castile ruled in France and that
Saint Louis bought the crown of thorns, but it is
equally true that the death of Saint Louis occurred
in 1270, shortly after the thorough organization of the
Inquisition by Innocent IV in 1252, and within two
years or so of the production by Roger Bacon of his
Opus Majus.

The establishment of the Inquisition is decisive, be-
cause it proves that sceptical thought had been spread
far enough to goad the Church to general and system-
atic repression, while the Opus Majus is a scientific
exposition of the method by which the sceptical mind
is trained.

Roger Bacon was bom about 1214, and going early
to Oxford fell under the influence of the most liberal
teachers in Europe, at whose head stood Robert
Grosseteste, aftenvard Bishop of Lincoln. Bacon con-
ceived a veneration for Grosseteste, and even for
Adam de Marisco his disciple, and turning toward
mathematics rather than toward metaphysics he ea-
gerly applied himself, when he went to Paris, to astrol-
ogy and alchemy, which were the progenitors of the
modem exact sciences. In the thirteenth century a
young man like Bacon could hardly stand alone, and
Bacon joined the Franciscans, but before many years
elapsed he embroiled himself with his superiors. His

122 PREFA CE.

friend, Grosseteste, died in 1253, the year after In-
nocent IV issued the bull Ad extirpanda estabhshing
the Inquisition, and Bacon felt the consequences.
The general of his order, Saint Bonaventura, with-
drew him from Oxford where he was prominent, and
immured him in a Parisian convent, treating him rig-
orously, as Bacon intimated to Pope Clement IV.
There he remained, silenced, for some ten years, until
the election of Clement IV, in 1265. Bacon at once
wrote to Clement complaining of his imprisonment,
and deploring to the pope the plight into which sci-
entific education had fallen. The pope replied direct-
ing Bacon to explain his views in a treatise, but did
not order his release. In response Bacon composed
the Opus Majus.

The Opus Majus deals among other things with ex-
perimental science, and in the introductory chapter to
the sixth part Bacon stated the theory of inductive
thought quite as lucidly as did Francis Bacon three
and a half centuries later in the Novum Organum.^

Clement died in 1268. The papacy remained vacant
for a couple of years, but in 1271 Gregory X came in

^ Positis radicibus sapientiae Latinorum penes Linguas et Math-
ematicam et Perspectivam, nunc volo revolvere radices a parte Sci-
entiae Experimentalis, quia sine experientia nihil sufficienter
scire protest. Duo enim sunt modi cognoscendi, scilicet per argu-
mentum et experimentum. Argumentum concludit et facit nos
concedere conclusionem, sed non certificat neque removet dubita-
tionem ut quiescat animus in intuitu veritatis, nisi eam inveniat via
experlentiae; quia multi habent argumenta ad scibilia, sed quia non
habent experientiam, negligunt ea, nee vitant nociva nex perse-
quuntue bona. J. H. Bridges, The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon (Ox-
ford, 1897), u, 167.

PREFACE. 123

on a conservative reaction. Bacon passed most of the
rest of his Hfe in prison, perhaps through his own un-
governable temper, and ostensibly his writings seem to
liave had h'ttle or no effect on his contemporaries, yet
it is certain that he was not an isolated specimen of a
type of intelligence which suddenly bloomed during
the Reformation. Bacon constantly spoke of his
friends, but his friends evidently did not share his tem-
perament. 'The scientific man has seldom relished
martyrdom, and Galileo's experience as late as 1633
shows what risks men of science ran who even indirectly
attacked the vested interests of the Church. After
the middle of the thirteenth century the danger was
real enough to account for any degree of secretiveness,
and a striking case of this timidity is related by Bacon
himself. No one knows even the name of the man
to whom Bacon referred as "Master Peter," but ac-
cording to Bacon, "Master Peter" was the greatest
and most original genius of the age, only he shunned
publicity. The " Dominus experimentorum, " as Bacon
called him, lived in a safe retreat and devoted himself
to mathematics, chemistry, and the mechanical arts
with such success that. Bacon insisted, he could by his
in\entions have aided Saint Louis in his crusade more
than his whole army.^ Nor is this assertion altogether
fantastic. Bacon understood the formula for gun-
powder, and if Saint Louis had been provided with
even a poor explosive he might have taken Cairo; not
to speak of the terror which Greek fire always inspired.
' Emilc Charles, Roger Bacon. Sa vie et ses outrages, 17.

124 PREFACE.

Saint Louis met his decisive defeat in a naval battle
fought in 1250, for the command of the Nile, by which
he drew supplies from Damietta, and he met it, ac-
cording to Matthew Paris, because his ships could not
withstand Greek fire. Gunpowder, even in a very-
simple form, might have changed the fate of the war.

Scepticism touching the value of relics as a means
for controlling nature was an efiFect of experiment, and,
logically enough, scepticism advanced fastest among
certain ecclesiastics who dealt in relics. For example,
in 1248 Saint Louis undertook to invade Egypt in de-
fence of the cross. Possibly Saint Louis may have
been affected by economic considerations also touching
the eastern trade, but his ostensible object was a cru-
sade. The risk was very great, the cost enormous, and
the responsibility the king assumed of the most serious
kind. Nothing that he could do was left undone to en-
sure success. In 1249 he captured Damietta, and then
stood in need of every pound of money and of every
man that Christendom could raise; yet at this crisis the
Church thought chiefly of making what it could in
cash out of the war, the inference being that the hier-
archy suspected that even if Saint Louis prevailed and
occupied Jerusalem, little would be gained from an ec-
clesiastical standpoint. At all events, Matthew Paris
has left an account, in his chronicle of the year 1249,
of how the pope and the Franciscans preached this
crusade, which is one of the most suggestive passages
in thirteenth-century literature:

"About the same time, by command of the pope,

PREFACE. 125

whom they obeyed impHcitly, the Preacher and Minor-
ite brethren diligently employed themselves in preach-
ing; and to increase the devotion of the Christians, they
went with great solemnity to the places where their
preaching was previously indicated, and granted many
days of indulgence to those who came to hear them. . . .
Preaching on behalf of the cross, they bestowed that
symbol on people of every age, sex and rank, whatever
their property or worth, and even on sick men and
women, and those who were deprived of strength by
sickness or old age; and on the next day, or even di-
rectly afterwards, receiving it back from them, they
absolved them from their vow of pilgrimage, for what-
ever sum they could obtain for the favour. What
seemed unsuitable and absurd was, that not many days
afterwards. Earl Richard collected all this money in
his treasury, by the agency of Master Bernard, an
Italian clerk, who gathered in the fruit; whereby no
slight scandal arose in the Church of God, and amongst
the people in general, and the devotion of the faithful
evidently cooled." ^

When tlie unfortunate Baldwin 11 became Emperor
of the East in 1237, the relics of the passion were his
best asset. In 1238, while Baldwin was in France try-
ing to obtain aid, the French barons who carried on
the government at Constantinople in his absence were
obliged to pledge the crown of thorns to an Italian
syndicate for 13,134 perpera, which Gibbon conjectures

* Matthew Paris, English History, translated by the Rev. J. A.
Giles, u, 309.

126 PREFACE.

to have been besants. Baldwin was notified of the
pledge and urged to arrange for its redemption. He
met with no difficulty. He confidently addressed him-
self to Saint Louis and Queen Blanche, and "Although
the king felt keen displeasure at the deplorable condi-
tion of Constantinople, he was well pleased, neverthe-
less, with the opportunity of adorning France with the
richest and most precious treasure in all Christendom."
More especially with "a relic, and a sacred object
which was not on the commercial market." ^

Louis, beside paying the loan and the cost of transpor-
tation which came to two thousand French pounds (the
mark being then coined into £2, 15 sous and 6 pence),
made Baldwin a present of ten thousand pounds for
acting as broker. Baldwin was so well contented with
this sale which he closed in 1239, that a couple of years
later he sent to Paris all the contents of his private
chapel which had any value. Part of the treasure was
a fragment of what purported to be the cross, but the
authenticity of this relic was doubtful; there was be-
side, however, tlie baby linen, the spear-head, the
sponge, and the chain, beside several miscellaneous
articles like the rod of Moses.

Louis built the Sainte Chapelle at a cost of twenty
thousand marks as a shrine in which to deposit them.
The Sainte Chapelle has usually ranked as the most
absolutely perfect specimen of mediaeval religious archi-
tecture.^

^ Du Cange, Histoire de Vem.'pire de Constantinople sous les em-
pereurs Fran^ais, edition de Buchon, i, 259.

2 On this whole subject of the inter-relation of mediaeval theology

PREFACE. 127

When Saint Louis bought the Crown of Thorns from
Baldwin in 1239, the commercial value of relics may,
possibly, be said to have touched its highest point, but,
in fact, the adoration of them had culminated with the
collapse of the Second Crusade, and in another century
and a half the market had decisively broken and the
Reformation had already begun, with the advent of
Wycliffe and the outbreak of Wat Tyler's Rebellion in
1381. For these social movements have always a
common cause and reach a predetermined result.

In the eleventh century the convent of Cluny, for
example, had an enormous and a perfectly justified
hold upon the popular imagination, because of the
sanctity and unselfishness of its abbots. Saint Hugh
won his sainthood by a self-denial and effort which
were impossible to ordinary men, but with Louis IX
the penitential life had already lost its attractions and
men like Arnold rapidly brought religion and religious
thought into contempt. The famous Grosseteste,
Bishop of Lincoln, born, probably, in 1175, died in 1253.
He presided over the diocese of Lincoln at the precise
moment when Saint Louis was building the Sainte Cha-
pelle, but Grosseteste in 1250 denounced in a sermon
at Lyons the scandals of the papal court with a ferocity
which hardly was surpassed at any later day.

To attempt even an abstract of the thought of the
English Reformation would lead too far, however fas-

with architecture and philosophy the reader is referred to Mont-
Saint-Michel et Ckartres, by Henry Adams, which is the most phil-
osophical and thorough exposition of this subject which ever has
been attempted.

128 PREFACE.

cinating the subject might be. It must suffice to say
briefly that theology had httle or nothing to do with it.
Wycliflfe denounced the friars as lazy, profligate im-
postors, who wrung money from the poor which they
afterwards squandered in ways offensive to God, and
he would have stultified himself had he admitted, in
the same breath, that these reprobates, when united,
formed a divinely illuminated corporation, each mem-
ber of which could and did work innumerable miracles
through the interposition of Christ. Ordinary mir-
acles, indeed, could be tested by the senses, but the es-
sence of transubstantiation was that it eluded the
senses. Thus nothing could be more convenient to
the government than to make this invisible and in-
tangible necromancy a test in capital cases for heresy-
Hence Wyclifle had no alternative but to deny tran-
substantiation, for nothing could be more insulting to
the intelligence than to adore a morsel of bread which
a priest held in his hand. The pretension of the priests
to make the flesh of Christ was, according to Wycliffe,
an impudent fraud, and their pretension to possess this
power was only an excuse by which they enforced their
claim to collect fees, and what amounted to extor-
tionate taxes, from the people.^ But, in the main,
no dogma, however incomprehensible, ever troubled
Protestants, as a class. They easily accepted the Trin-
ity, the double procession, or the Holy Ghost itself,
though no one had the slightest notion what the Holy

' Nowhere, perhaps, does Wycliffe express himself more strongly
on this subject than in a little tract called The Wicket, written in
English, which he issued for popular consumption about this time.

PREFACE. 129

Ghost miglit be. WycIifTe roundly declared in the
first paragraph of his confession ^ that the body of Christ
which was crucified was truly and really in the conse-
crated host, and Huss, who inherited the Wyclifiian
tradition, answered before the Council of Constance,
" Verily, I do think that the body of Christ is really and
totally in the sacrament of the altar, which was born
of the Virgin Mary, suffered, died, and rose again, and
sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty." ^
That which has rent society in twain and has caused
blood to flow like water, has never been abstract opin-
ions, but that economic competition either between
states or classes, that lust for power and wealth, which
makes a vested interest. Thus by 1382 the eucharist
had come to represent to the privileged classes power
and wealth, and they would have repudiated Wycliffe
even had they felt strong enough to support him. But
they were threatened by an adversary equally formida-
ble with heresy in the person of the villeins whom
the constantly increasing momentum of the time had
raised into a position in which they undertook to com-
pete for the ownership of the land which they still
tilled as technical serfs.

^ Fasciculi Zizaniorum, 115.

^ Foxe, Acts and Monuments, in, 452.

CHAPTER III.

Now the courts may say what they will in support of
the vested interests, for to support vested interests is
what lawyers are paid for and what courts are made for.
Only, unhappily, in the process of argument courts
and lawyers have caused blood to flow copiously, for in
spite of all that can be said to the contrary, men have
practically proved that they do own all the property
they can defend, all the courts in Christendom not-
withstanding, and this is an issue of physical force and
not at all of words or of parchments. And so it proved
to be in England in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies, alike in Church and State. It was a matter
of rather slow development. After the conquest vil-
leins could neither in fact nor theory acquire or hold
property as against their lord, and the class of land-
lords stretched upwards from the owner of a knight's
fee to the king on his throne, who was the chief landlord
of all, but by so narrow a margin that he often had
enough to do to maintain some vestige of sovereignty.
So, to help himself, it came to pass that the king
intrigued with the serfs against their restive masters,
and the abler the king, the more he intrigued, like
Henry I, until the villeins gained very substantial ad-
vantages. Thus it was that toward 1215, or pretty
nearly contemporaneously with the epoch when men
like Grosseteste began to show restlessness under the

PRE FA CE. 131

extortionate corruption of the Church, the villein was
discovered to be able to defend his claim to some
portion of the increment in the value of the land which
he tilled and which was due to his labor: and this title
the manorial courts recognized, because they could not
help it, as a sort of tenant right, calling it a customary
tenancy by base service. A century later these serv-
ices in kind had been pretty frequently commuted into
a fixed rent paid in money, and the serf had become
a freeman, and a rather formidable freeman, too. For
it was largely from among these technical serfs that
Edward III recruited the infantry who formed his line
at Crecy in 1346, and the archers of Crecy were not
exactly the sort of men who take kindly to eviction, to
say nothing of slavery. As no one meddled much with
the villeins before 1349, all went well until after Crecy,
but in 1348 the Black Death ravaged England, and so
many laborers died that the cost of farming property by
hired hands exceeded the value of the rent which the
villeins paid. Then the landlords, under the usual re-
actionary and dangerous legal advice, tried coercion.
Their first experiment was the famous Statute of Labor-
ers, which fixed wages at the rates which prevailed in
1347, but as this statute accomplished nothing the
landlords repudiated their contracts, and undertook
to force their villeins to render their ancient customary
services. Though the lay landlords were often hard
masters, the ecclesiastics, especially the monks, were
harder still, and the ecclesiastics were served by law-
yers of their own cloth, whose sharp practice became

132 PREFACE.

proverbial. Thus the law declined to recognize rights
in property existing in fact, with the inevitable result
of the peasant rising in 1381, known as Wat Tyler's
Rebellion. Popular rage perfectly logically ran high-
est against the monks and the lawyers. Both the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon de Sudbury, the
Lord Chancellor, and the Chief Justice were killed, and
the insurgents wished to kill, as Capgrave has related,
"all the men that had learned ony law," Finally the
rebellion was suppressed, chiefly by the duplicity of
Richard II. Richard promised the people, by written
charters, a permanent tenure as freemen at reasonable
rents, and so induced them to go home with his char-
ters in their hands; but they were no sooner gone than
vengeance began. Though Richard had been at the
peasants' mercy, who might have killed him had they
wished, punitive expeditions were sent in various direc-
tions. One was led by Richard himself, who travelled
with Tresilian, the new Chief Justice, the man who
afterward was himself hanged at Tyburn. Tresilian
worked so well that he is said to have strung up a dozen
villeins to a single beam in Chelmsford because he had
no time to have them executed regularly. Stubbs has
estimated that seven thousand victims hardly satis-
fied the landlords' sense of outraged justice. What con-
cerns us, chiefly, is that this repression, however savage,
failed altogether to bring tranquillity. After 1381 a
full century of social chaos supervened, merging at
times into actual civil war, until, in 1485, Henry Tudor
came in after his victory at Bosworth, pledged to de-

PREFACE. 133

stroy the whole reactionary class which incarnated
feudalism. For the feudal soldier was neither flexible
nor astute, and allowed himself to be caught between
the upper and the nether millstone. While industrial
and commercial capital had been increasing in the
towns, capitalistic methods of farming had invaded the
country, and, as police improved, private and preda-
tory warfare, as a business, could no longer be made to
pay. The importance of a feudal noble lay in the body
of retainers who followed his banner, and therefore the
feudal tendency always was to overcharge the estate
with military expenditure. Hence, to protect them-
selves from creditors, the landlords passed the Statute
De Bonis ^ which made entails inalienable. Toward
the end of the Wars of the Roses, however, the pressure
for money, which could only be raised by pledging
their land, became too strong for the feudal aristocracy.
Edward IV, who was a very able man, perceived, pretty
early in his reign, that his class could not maintain
themselves unless their land were put upon a commer-
cial basis. Therefore he encouraged the judges, in
the collusive litigation known to us as Taltarum's Case,
decided in 1472, to set aside the Statute De Donis, by
the fiction of the Common Recovery. The concession,
even so, came too late. The combination against them
had growTi too strong for the soldiers to resist. Other
classes evolved by competition wanted their property,
and these made Henry Tudor king of England to seize
it for them.

1 13 Edw. I, c. 1 (a.d. 1284).

134 PREFACE.

Henry's work was simple enough. After Bosworth,
with a competent pohce force at hand to execute proc-
ess, he had only to organize a political court, and to
ruin by confiscatory fines all the families strong
enough, or rash enough, to maintain garrisoned
houses. So Henry remodelled the Star Chamber, in
1486,^ to deal with the martial gentry, and before long
a new type of intelligence possessed the kingdom.

The feudal soldiers being disposed of, it remained to
evict the monks, who were thus left without their
natural defenders. No matter of faith was involved.
Henry VIII boasted that in doctrine he was as ortho-
dox as the pope. There was, however, an enormous
monastic landed property to be redistributed This
was confiscated, and appropriated, not to public pur-
poses, but, as usually happens in revolutions, to the
use of the astutest of the revolutionists. Among these,
John Russell, afterward Earl of Bedford, stood pre-
eminent, Russell had no particular pedigree or genius,
save the acquisitive genius, but he made himself useful
to Henry in such judicial murders as that of Richard
Whiting, Abbot of Glastonbury. He received in pay-
ment, among much else, Woburn Abbey, which has
since remained the Bedford country seat, and Covent
Garden or Convent Garden, one of the most valuable
parcels of real estate in London. Covent Garden the
present duke recently sold, anticipating, perhaps, some
such legislation as ruined the monks and made his
ancestor's fortune. As for the monks whom Henry
1 3 Henry 7, C 1.

]

PREFACE. 135

CN-icted, they wandered forth from their homes beg-
gars, and Henry hanged all of them whom he could
catch as vagrants. How many perished as counter-
poise for the peasant massacres and Lollard burnings
of the foregoing two centuries can never be kno^Aoi,
nor to us is it material. What is essential to mark,
from the legal standpoint, is that while this long and
bloody revolution, of one hundred and fifty j^ears,
displaced a favored class and confiscated its property,
it raised up in their stead another class of land mo-
nopolists, rather more greedy and certainly quite as
cruel as those whom they superseded. Also, in spite
of all opposition, labor did make good its claim to par-
ticipate more or less fully in the owTiership of the prop-
erty it cultivated, for while the holding of the ancient
villein grew to be well recognized in the royal courts
as a copyhold estate, villeinage itself disappeared.

Yet, unless I profoundly err, in the revolution of the
sixteenth century, the law somewhat conspicuously
failed in its function of moderating competition, for I
am persuaded that competition of another kind sharp-
ened, and shortly caused a second civil war bloodier
than the \Yars of the Roses.

Fifteen years before the convents were seized, Sir
Thomas More wrote Utopia, in whose opening chapter
More has given an account of a dinner at Cardinal
Morton's, who, by the way, presided in the Star
Chamber. At this dinner one of the cardinal's guests
reflected on the thievish propensities of Englishmen,
who were to be found throughout the country hanged

136 PREFACE.

as felons, sometimes twenty together on a single
gallows. More protested that this was not the fault
of the poor who were hanged, but of rich land mo-
nopolists, who pastured sheep and left no fields for
tillage. According to More, these capitalists plucked
down houses and even towns, leaving nothing but the
church for a sheep-house, so that "by covin and fraud,
or by violent oppression, ... or by wrongs and in-
juries," the husbandmen "be thrust out of their own,"
and, "must needs depart away, poor, wretched souls,
men, women, husbands, wives, fatherless children,
widows." The dissolution of the convents accelerated
the process, and more and more of the weaker yeo-
manry were ruined and evicted. It is demonstrated
that the pauperization of the feebler rural population
went on apace by the passage of poor-laws under Eliza-
beth, which, in the Middle Ages, had not been needed
and, therefore, were unknown. This movement, de-
scribed by More, was the beginning of the system of
enclosing common lands which afterward wrought
havoc among the English yeomen, and which, I sup-
pose, contributed more than any other single cause to
the Great Rebellion of the seventeenth century. In
the mediaeval village the owners of small farms en-
joyed certain rights in the common land of the com-
munity, affording them pasturage for their cattle and
the like, rights without which small farming could not
be made profitable. These commons the land monop-
olists appropriated, sometimes giving some shadow
of compensation, sometimes by undisguised force, but

PREFA CE. 137

on the whole compensation amounted to so little that
the enclosure of the commons must rank as confisca-
tion. Also this seizure of property would doubtless
have caused a convulsion as lasting as that which fol-
lowed the insurrection of 1381, or as did actually occur
in Ireland, had it not been for an unparalleled con-
temporaneous territorial and industrial expansion.
Thorold Rogers always insisted that between 1563, the
year of the passage of the Statute of Apprentices, ^ and
18'24, a regular conspiracy existed between the law-
yers "and the parties interested in its success . . .
to cheat the English workman of his wages, . . . and
to degrade him to irremediable poverty," ^ Certainly
the land monopolists resorted to strong measures to
accumulate land, for something like six hundred and
fifty Enclosure Acts were passed between 1760, the
opening of the Industrial Revolution, and 1774, the
outbreak of the American War. But without insist-
ing on Rogers's view, it is not denied that the weakest
of the small yeomen sank into utter misery, becoming
paupers or worse. On the other hand, of those stronger
some emigrated to America, others, who were among
the ablest and the boldest, sought fortune as adven-
turers over the whole earth, and, like the grand-
father of Chatham, brought home from India as smug-
glers or even as pirates, diamonds to be sold to kings
for their crowns, or, like Clive, became the greatest
generals and administrators of the nation. Probably,
however, by far the majority of those who were of
^ 5 Eliz. c. 4. 2 Work and Wages, 398.

138 PREFACE.

average capacity found compensation for the confis-
cated commons in domestic industry, owning their
houses with lots of land and the tools of their trade.
Defoe has left a charming description of the region
about Halifax in Yorkshire, toward the year 1730,
where he found the whole population busy, prosperous,
healthy, and, in the main, self-sufficing. He did not
see a beggar or an idle person in the whole country.
So, favored by circumstances, the landed oligarchy met
with no effective resistance after the death of Crom-
well, and achieved what amounted to being autocratic
power in 1688. Their great triumph was the conver-
sion of the House of Commons into their own personal
property, about the beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury, with all the guaranties of law. In the Middle
Ages the chief towns of England had been summoned
by the king to send burgesses to Westminster to grant
him money, but as time elapsed the Commons ac-
quired influence and, in 1642, became dominant.
Then, after the Restoration, the landlords conceived
the idea of appropriating the right of representation,
as they had appropriated and were appropriating the
common lands. Lord John Russell one day observed
in the House of Commons that the burgesses were
originally chosen from among the inhabitants of the
towns they represented, but that, in the reign of Anne,
the landlords, to depress the shipping interest, opened
the borough representation to all qualified persons
without regard to domicile.^ Lord John was mistaken
^ 36 Hansard, Third Series, 548.

PREFACE. 139

in his date, for the change occurred earlier, but he de-'-
scribed correctly enough the persistent animus of the
landlords. An important part of their policy turned
on the so-called Determination Acts of 1696 and 1729,
which defined the franchises and which had the effect
of confirming the titles of patrons to borough property,^
thus making a seat in the House of Commons an incor-
poreal hereditament fully recognized by law. On this
point so high an authority as Lord Eldon was em-
phatic. ^ By the time of the American War the oli-
garchy had become so narrow that one hundred and
fifty -four peers and commoners returned three hundred
and seven members, or much more than a majority of
the House as then organized.^ With the privileged class
reduced to these contemptible numbers a catastrophe
necessarily followed. Almost impregnable as the posi-
tion of the oligarchy appeared, it yet had its vulner-
able point. As Burke told the Duke of Portland, a
duke's power did not come from his title, but from his
wealth, and the landlords' wealth rested on their ability
to draw a double rent from their estates, one rent for
themselves, and another to provide for the farmer to
whom they let their acres. Evidently British land could
not bear this burden if brought in competition with
other equally good land that paid only a single rent,
and from a pretty early period the landlords appear to
have been alive to this fact. Nevertheless, ocean
freights afforded a fair protection, and as long as the

' Porritt, Unreformcd House of Commons, i, 9, et seq.

2 12 Hansard, Third Series, 396.

3 Grey's motion for Reform, 30 Pari. Hist. 795 (a.d. 1793).

140 PREFACE.

industrial population remained tolerably self-support-
ing, England rather tended to export than to import
grain. But toward 1760 advances in applied science
profoundly modified the equilibrium of English so-
ciety. The new inventions, stimulated by steam,
could only be utilized by costly machinery installed
in large factories, which none but considerable capi-
talists could build, but once in operation the product
of these factories undersold domestic labor, and ruined
and evicted the population of whole regions like Hali-
fax. These unfortunate laborers were thrust in abject
destitution into filthy and dark alleys in cities, where
they herded in masses, in misery and crime. In con-
sequence grain rose in value, so much so that in
1766 prayers were offered touching its price. Thence-
forward England imported largely from America, and
in 1773 Parliament was constrained to reduce the
duty on wheat to a point lower than the gentry
conceded again, until the total repeal of the Corn
Laws in 1846.^ The situation was well understood in
London. Burke, Governor Pownall, and others ex-
plained it in Parliament, while Chatham implored
the landlords not to alienate America, which they
could not, he told them, conquer, but which gave
them a necessary market, — a market as he aptly
said, both of supply and demand. And Chatham
was right, for America not only supplied the grain to
feed English labor, but bought from England at least
one third of all her surplus manufactures.

1 John Morley, The Life of Richard Cobden, 167, note 5.

PREFACE. 141

This brings us to the eighteenth century, which di- Xs
rectly concerns us, because the religious superstition,
which had previously caused men to seek in a conscious
supreme energy the effective motor in human affairs,
had waned, and the problem presented was reduced
to the operation of that acceleration of movement by
the progress of applied science which always has been,
and always must be, the prime cause of the quickening
of economic competition either as between communi-
ties or as between individuals. And this is the capital
phenomenon of civilization. For it is now generally
admitted that war is nothing but economic competition
in its acutest form. When competition reaches a cer-
tain intensity it kindles into war or revolution, pre-
cisely as when iron is raised to a certain heat it kindles
into flame. And, for the purjioses of illustration, pos-
sibly the best method of showing how competition was
quickened, and how it affected adjacent communities
during the eighteenth century, is to take navigation,
not only because navigation was much improved dur-
ing the first three quarters of that period, but because
both England and France competed for control in
America by means of ships. It suffices to mention,
very succinctly, a few of the more salient advances
which were then made.

Toward 1761 John Harrison produced the chronom-
eter, by which longitude could be determined at sea,
making the ship independent in all parts of the world.
At the same time more ingenious rigging increased her
power of working to windward. With such advantages

142 PREFACE.

^Captain Cook became a mighty discoverer both in the
southern and western oceans, charted New Zealand
and much else, and more important than all, in 1759 he
surveyed the Saint Lawrence and piloted ships up the
river, of which he had established the channel. Speak-
ing of Cook naturally leads to the solution of the prob-
lem of the transportation of men, sailors, soldiers, and
emigrants, on long voyages, thereby making popula-
tion fluid. Cook, in his famous report, read before the
Royal Society in March, 1776, after his second voyage,
established forever the hygienic principles by observ-
ing which a ship's company may safely be kept at sea
for any length of time. Previously there had always
been a very high mortality from scurvy and kindred
diseases, which had, of course, operated as a very
serious check to human movement. On land the same
class of phenomena were even more marked. In Eng-
land the Industrial Revolution is usually held to date
from 1760, and, by common consent, the Industrial
Revolution is attributed altogether to applied science,
or, in other words, to mechanical inventions. In 1760
the flying-shuttle appeared, and coal began to replace
wood for smelting. In 1764 Hargreaves invented the
spinning-jenny; in 1779 Crompton contrived the mule;
and in 1768 Watt brought the steam-engine to matu-
rity. In 1761 the first boat-load of coals sailed over
the Barton viaduct, which James Brindley built for the
Duke of Bridge water's canal, to connect Worsley with
Manchester, thus laying the foundation of British in-
land navigation, which before the end of the century

PREFACE. 143

had covered England; while John Metcalf, the blind
roadbuilder, began his lifework in 1765. He was des-
tined to improve English highways, which up to that
time had been mostly impossible for wheeled traffic.
In France the same advance went on. Arthur Young
described the impression made on him in 1789 by the
magnificence of the French roads which had been built
since the administration of Colbert, as well as by the
canal which connected the Mediterranean with the
Atlantic.

In the midst of this activity Washington grew up.
Washington was a born soldier, engineer, and surveyor
with the topographical instinct peculiar to that temper-
ament. As early as 1748 he was chosen by Lord Fair-
fax, who recognized his ability, though only sixteen
years old, to survey his vast estate west of the Blue
Ridge, which was then a wilderness. He spent three
years in this work and did it well. In 1753 Governor
Dinwiddle sent Washington on a mission to the French
commander on the Ohio, to warn him to cease tres-
passing on English territory, a mission which Wash-
ington fulfilled, under considerable hardship and some
peril, with eminent success. Thus early, for he was
then only twenty-two, Washington gained that
thorough understanding of the North American river
system which enabled him, many years afterward, to
construct the Republic of the United States upon the
lines of least resistant intercommunication. And
Washington's conception of the problem and his
solution thereof were, in substance, this:

>f

144 PREFACE.

The American continent, west of the mountains and
south of the Great Lakes, is traversed in all directions
by the Mississippi and its tributaries, but we may con-
fine our attention to two systems of watercourses, the
one to the west, forming by the Wisconsin and the
main arm of the Mississippi, a thoroughfare from Lake
Michigan to the Gulf; and the other by French Creek
and the Allegheny, broken only by one easy portage,
affording a perfect means of access to the Ohio, a river
which has always operated as the line of cleavage be-
tween our northern and southern States. The French
starting from Quebec floated from Lake Erie down
the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, the English ascended
the Potomac to Cumberland, and thence, following
the most practicable watercourses, advanced on the
French position at the junction of the Allegheny and
the Monongahela. There Washington met and fought
them in 1754, and ever after Washington maintained
that the only method by which a stable rniion among
the colonies could be secured was by a main trunk
system of transportation along the line of the Ohio and
the Potomac. This was to be his canal which should
bind north and south, east and west, together by a com-
mon interest, and which should carry the produce of
the west, north, and south, to the Atlantic coast, where
it should be discharged at the head of deep-water navi-
gation, and which should thus stimulate industry ad-
jacent to the spot he chose for the Federal City, or, in
our language, for the City of Washington. Thus the
capital of the United States was to become the capital

PREFACE. 145

of a true nation, not as a political compromise, but '
because it lay at the central point of a community made
cohesive by a social circulation which should build it
up, in his own words, into a capital, or national heart, if
not "as large as London, yet of a magnitude inferior
to few others in Europe." ^ Maryland and Virginia
abounded, as Washington well knew, in coal and iron.
His canal passing through this region would stimulate
industry, and these States would thus become the focus
of exchanges. Manufacturing is incompatible with
slavery, hence slavery would gradually and peacefully
disappear, and the extremities of the Union would be
drawn together at what he described as "the great
emporium of the United States." To crown all, a
national university was to make this emporium power-
ful in collective thought.

Doubtless Grenville and Townshend had not con-
sidered the American problem as maturely as had
Washington, but nevertheless, most well-informed
persons now agree that Englishmen in 1763 were quite
alive to the advantages which would accrue to Great
Britain, by holding in absolute control a rich but inco-
herent body of colonies whose administrative centre
lay in England, and were as anxious that London should
serve as the heart of America as Washington was that
America should have its heart on the Potomac.

Accordingly, England attempted to isolate Massa-
chusetts and pressed an attack on her with energy, be-
fore the whole thirteen colonies should be able to draw

1 Washington to Mrs. Fairfax, 16 May, 1798; Sparks, xi, 233.

146 PREFACE.

to a unity. On the other hand, Washington, and most
sensible Americans, resisted this attack as resohitely
as might be under such disadvantages, not wishing for
independence, but hoping for some compromise Hke
that which Great Britain has since effected with her
remaining colonies. The situation, however, admitted
of no peaceful adjustment, chiefly because the imbecil-
ity of American administration induced by her inca-
pacity for collective thought, was so manifest, that
Englishmen could not believe that 'such a society could
wage a successful war. Nor could America have done
so alone. She owed her ultimate victory altogether to
Washington and France.

It would occupy too much space for me to undertake
to analyze, even superficially, the process by which,
after the Seven Years' War, competition between Amer-
ica and England reached an intensity which kindled
the American Revolution, but, shortly stated, the
economic tension arose thus : As England was then or-
ganized, the estates of the English landlords had to
pay two rents, one to the landlord himself, the other to
the farmer who leased his land, and this it could not
do were it brought into direct competition with equally
good land which paid but one profit, and which was not
burdened by an excessive cost of transportation in
reaching its market. As freights between England
and America fell because of improved shipping and
the greater safety of the seas, England had to have
protection for her food and she proposed to get it thus :
If competing Continental exports could be excluded

PREFACE. 147

from America, and, at the same time, Americans could
be prevented from manufacturing for themselves, the
colonists might be constrained to take what they
needed from England, at prices which would enable
labor to buy food at a rate which would yield the
double profit, and thus America could be made to pay
the cost of supporting the landlords. As Cobden
afterward observed, the fortunes of England have
turned on American competition. A part of these
fortunes were represented by the Parliamentary bor-
oughs w^iich the landlords owned and which were con-
fiscated by the Reform Bill, and these boroughs were
held by Lord Eldon to be incorporeal hereditaments:
as truly a part of the private property of the gentry
who owned them as church advowsons, or the like.
And the gentry held to their law-making power which
gave them such a privilege with a tenacity which pre-
cipitated two wars before they yielded; but this was
naught compared to the social convulsion which rent
France, when a population which had been for centuries
restrained from free domestic movement, burst its
bonds and insisted on levelling the barriers w^hich had
immobilized it.

The story of the French Revolution is too familiar
to need recapitulation here : indeed, I have already dealt
with it in my Social Revolutions; but the effects of that
convulsion are only now beginning to appear, and these
effects, without the shadow of a doubt, have been in
their ultimate development the occasion of that great
war whose conclusion we still await.

148 PREFACE.

France, in 1792, having passed into a revolution
which threatened the vested interests of Prussia, was
attacked by Prussia, who was defeated at Valmy.
Presently, France retaliated, under Napoleon, in-
vaded Prussia, crushed her army at Jena, in 1807, dis-
membered the kingdom and imposed on her many
hardships. To obtain their freedom the Prussians
found it needful to reorganize their social system from
top to bottom, for this social system had descended
from Frederic William, the Great Elector of Branden-
burg (1640-1688), and from Frederic the Great (1740-
1786), and was effete and incapable of meeting the
French onset, which amounted, in substance, to a
quickened competition. Accordingly, the new Prus-
*' sian constitution, conceived by Stein, put the com-
munity upon a relatively democratic and highly devel-
oped educational basis. By the Emancipating Edict
of 1807, the peasantry came into possession of their
land, while, chiefly through the impulsion of Scharn-
horst, who was the first chief of staff of the modern army,
the country adopted universal military service, which
proved to be popular throughout all ranks. Previous
to Scharnhorst, under Frederic the Great, the quali-
fication of an officer had been birth. Scharnhorst de-
fined it as education, gallantry, and intelligence. Simi-
larly, Gneisenau's conception of a possible Prussian
supremacy lay in its army, its science, and its adminis-
tration. But the civil service was intended to incar-
nate science, and was the product of the modernized
university, exemplified in the University of Berlin or-

PREFACE. 149

ganized by William von Humboldt. Herein lay the
initial advantage which Germany gained over Eng- '
land, an advantage which she long maintained. And
the advantage lay in this: Germany conceived a sys-
tem of technical education matured and put in opera-
tion by the State. Hence, so far as in human affairs
such things are possible, the intelligence of Germans
was liberated from the incubus of vested interests, who
always seek to use education to advance themselves.
It was so in England. The English entrusted educa-
tion to the Church, and the Church was, bj^ the neces-
sity of its being, reactionary and hostile to science,
whereas the army, in the main, was treated in England
as a social function, and the oflScers, speaking gener-
ally, were not technically specially educated at all.
Hence, in foreign countries, but especially in Ger-
many which was destined to be ultimately England's
great competitor, England laid herself open to rather
more than a suspicion of weakness, and indeed, when
it came to a test, England found herself standing, for
several years of war, at a considerable disadvantage
because of the lack of education in those departments
wherein Germany had, by the attack of France, been
forced to make herself proficient. This any one may
see for himself by reading the addresses of Fichte to the
German nation, delivered in 1807 and 1808, when Ber-
lin was still occupied by the French. In fine, it was
with Prussia a question of competition, brought to its
ultimate tension by war. Prussia had no alternative
as a conquered land but to radically accelerate her

150 PREFACE.

momentum, or perish. And so, at the present day, it
may not improbably be with us. Competition must
grow intenser.

With England the situation in 1800 was very differ-
ent. It was less strenuous. Nothing is more notable
in England than to observe how, after the Industrial
Revolution began, there was practically no means by
which a poor man could get an education, save by edu-
cating himself. For instance, in February 1815, four
months before Waterloo, George Stephenson took out
a patent for the locomotive engine which was to rev-
olutionize the world. But George Stephenson was a
common laborer in the mines, who had no state in-
struction available, nor had he even any private insti-
tution at hand in which the workmen whom he em-
ployed in practical construction could be taught. He
and his son Robert, had to organize instruction for
themselves and their employees independently. So
it was even with a man like Faraday, who began life
as an errand boy, and later on who actually went
abroad as a sort of valet to Sir Humphry Davy.
Davy himself was a self-made man. In short, Eng-
land, as a community, did little or nothing by educa-
tion for those who had no means, and but little to draw
any one toward science. It was at this precise moment
that Germany was cast into the furnace of modern
competition with England, who had, because of a
series of causes, chiefly geographical, topographical,
and mineralogical, about a century the start of her.
Against this advantage Germany had to rely exclusively

PREFACE. 151

upon civil and military education. At first this com-
petition by Germany took a military complexion, and
very rapidly wrought the complete consolidation of
Germany by the Austrian and the French wars.
But this phase presently passed, and after the French
campaign of 1870 the purely economic aspect of the
situation developed more strenuously still, so much so
that intelligent observers, among whom Lord Rob-
erts was conspicuous, perceived quite early in the
present century^ that the heat generated in the con-
flict must, probably, soon engender war. Nor could
it either theoretically or practically have been other-
wise, for the relations between the two countries had
reached a point where they generated a friction which
caused incandescence automatically. And, moreover,
the inflammable material fit for combustion was, es-
pecially in Germany, present in quantity. From the
time of Fichte and Scharnhorst dowmward to the end
of the century, the whole nation had learned, as a sort
of gospel, that the German education produced a most
superior engine of economic competition, whereas the
slack education and frivolous amusements of English
civil and military life alike, had gradually created a
society apt to crumble. And it is only needful for
any person who has the curiosity, to glance at the light
literature of the Victorian age, which deals with the
army, to see how dominant a part such an amusement
as hunting played in the life of the younger officers,
especially in the fashionable regiments, to be impressed
with the soundness of much of this German criticism.

152 PREFACE.

Assuming, then, for the sake of argument, that these
historical premises are sound, I proceed to consider how
they bear on our prospective civilization.

This is eminently a scientific age, and yet the scien-
tific mind, as it is now produced among us, is not with-
out tendencies calculated to cause uneasiness to those
a little conversant with history or philosophy. For
whereas no one in these days would dream of utilizing
prayer, as did Moses or Saint Hugh, as a mechanical
energy, nevertheless the search for a universal prime
motor goes on unabated, and yet it accomplishes
nothing to the purpose. On the contrary, the effect
is one which could neither be expected nor desired.
Instead of being an aid to social coordination, it stimu-
lates disintegration to a high degree as the war has
shown. It has stimulated disintegration in two ways.
First, it has enormously quickened physical movement,
which has already been discussed, and secondly, it has
stimulated the rapidity with which thought is diffused.
The average human being can only absorb and assim-
ilate safely new forms of thought when given enough
time for digestion, as if he were assimilating food. If
he be plied with new thought too rapidly he fails to
digest. He has a surfeit, serious in proportion to its
enormity. That is to say, his power of drawing cor-
rect conclusions from the premises submitted to him
fails, and we have all sorts of crude experiments in so-
ciology attempted, which end in that form of chaos
which we call a violent revolution. The ordinary re-
sult is infinite waste fomented by fallacious hopes; in

PREFACE. 153

a word, financial disaster, supplemented usually by
loss of life. The experience is an old one, and the re-
sult is almost invariable.

For example, during the Middle Ages, men like
Saint Hugh and Peter the Venerable, and, most of all,
Saint Francis, possessed by dreams of attaining to per-
fection, by leading lives of inimitable purity, self-de-
votion, and asceticism, inspired the community about
them with the conviction that they could work miracles.
They thereby, as a reward, drew to the Church they
served what amounted to being, considering the age
they lived in, boundless wealth. But the effect of this
economic phenomenon was far from what they had
hoped or expected. Instead of raising the moral
standard of men to a point where all the world would
be improved, they so debased the hierarchy, by making
money the standard of ambition within it, that, as a
whole, the priesthood accepted, without any effective
protest, the fires of the Council of Constance which
consumed Huss, and the abominations of the Borgias
at Rome. Perfectly logically, as a corollary to this
orgy of crime and bestiality, the wars of the Refor-
mation swept away many, many thousands of human
beings, wasted half of Europe, and only served to
demonstrate the futility of ideals.

And so it was with the Puritans, who were them-
selves the children of the revolt against social corrup-
tion. They fondly believed that a new era was to be
ushered in by the rule of the Cromwellian saints.
What the Cromwellian saints did in truth usher in, was

154 PREFACE.

the carnival of debauchery of Charles II, in its turn
to be succeeded by the capitalistic competitive age
which we have known, and which has abutted in the
recent war.

Man can never hope to change his physical necessi-
ties, and therefore his moral nature must always re-
main the same in essence, if not in form. As Washing-
ton truly said, "The motives which predominate most
in human affairs are self-love and self-interest," and
"nothing binds one country or one state to another
but interest."

If, then, it be true, that man is an automatic animal
moving always along the paths of least resistance to-
ward predetermined ends, it cannot fail to be useful to
us in the present emergency to mark, as distinctly as we
can, the causes which impelled Germany, at a certain
point in her career, to choose the paths which led to her
destruction rather than those which, at the first blush,
promised as well, and which seemed to be equally as
easy and alluring. And we may possibly, by this proc-
ess, expose certain phenomena which may profit us,
since such an examination may help us to estimate
what avenues are like to prove ultimately the least
resistant.

Throughout the Middle Ages North Germany, which
is the region whereof Berlin is the capital, enjoyed
relatively little prosperity, because Brandenburg, for
example, lay beyond the zone of those main trade routes
which, before the advent of railways, served as the
arteries of the eastern trade. Not until after the open-

PREFACE. 155

ing of the Industrial Revolution in England, did that
condition alter. Nor even then did a change come
rapidly because of the inertia of the Russian people.
Nevertheless, as the Russian railway system developed,
Berlin one day found herself standing, as it were, at
the apex of a vast triangle whose boundaries are,
roughly, indicated by the position of Berlin itself,
Petersburg, Warsaw, Moscow, Kiev, and the Ukraine.
Beyond Berlin the stream of traffic flowed to Hamburg
and thence found vent in America, as a terminus.
Great Britain, more especially, demanded food, and
food passed by sea from Odessa. Hence Russia
served as a natural base for Germany, taking German
manufactures and offering to Germany a reservoir ca-
pable of absorbing her redundant population. Thus
it had long been obvious that intimate relations with
Russia were of prime importance to Germany since all
the world could perceive that the monied interests of
Russia must more and more fall into German hands,
because of the intellectual limitations of the Russians.
Also pacification to the eastward always was an in-
tegral part of Bismarck's policy. Notwithstanding
which other influences conflicted with, and ultimately
overbalanced, this eastern trend in Germany.

For many thousand years before written history
began, the economic capital of the world, the seat for
the time being of opulence and of splendor, and at once
the admiration and the envy of less favored rivals, has
been a certain ambulatory spot upon the earth's surface,
at a point where the lines of trade from east to west

156 PREFACE.

have converged. And always the marked idiosyn-
crasy of this spot has been its unrest. It has con-
stantly oscillated from east to west according as the
fortunes of war have prevailed, or as the march of ap-
plied science has made one or another route of trans-
portation cheaper or more defensible.

Thus Babylon was conquered and robbed by Rome,
and Rome, after a long heyday of prosperity, yielded
to Constantinople, while Constantinople lost her su-
premacy to Venice, Genoa, and North Italy, follow-
ing the sack of Constantinople by the Venetians in
1202 A.D. The Fairs of Champaign in France, and
the cities of the Rhine and Antwerp were the glory of
the Middle Ages, but these great markets faded when
the discovery of the long sea voyage to India threw the
route by the Red Sea and Cairo into eccentricity, and
caused Spain and Portugal to bloom. Spain's pros-
perity did not, however, last long. England used
war during the sixteenth century as an economic
weapon, pretty easily conquering. And since the
opening of the Industrial Revolution, at least, London,
with the exception of the few years when England suf-
fered from the American revolt of 1776, has assumed
steadily more the aspect of the great international
centre of exchanges, until with Waterloo her suprem-
acy remained unchallenged. It was this brilliant
achievement of London, won chiefly by arms, which
more than any other cause impelled Germany to try
her fortunes by war rather than by the methods of
peace.

PREFACE. 157

Nor was the German calculation of chances unrea-
sonable or unwarranted. For upwards of two centu-
ries Germany had found war the most profitable of all
her economic ventures; especially had she found the
French war of 1870 a most lucrative speculation. And
she felt unbounded confidence that she could win as
easy a triumph with her army, over the French, in the
twentieth as in the nineteenth century. But, could
she penetrate to Paris and at the same time occupy the
littoral of the Channel and Antwerp, she was persuaded
that she could do to the commerce of England what
England had once done to the commerce of Spain, and
that Hamburg and Berlin would supplant London.
And this calculation might have proved sound had it
not been for her oversight in ignoring one essential
factor in the problem. Ever since North America was
colonized by the English, that portion of the continent
which is now comprised by the Republic of the United
States, had formed a part of the British economic sys-
tem, even when the two fragments of that system were
competing in war, as has occurred more than once.
And as America has waxed great and rich these rela-
tions have grown closer, until of recent years it has be-
come hard to determine whether the centre of gravity
of this vast capitalistic mass lay to the east or to the
west of the Atlantic. One fact, however, from before
the outset of this war had been manifest, and that was
that the currents of movement flowed with more power
from America to England than from America to Ger-
many. And this had from before the outbreak of hos-

158 PREFACE.

tilities affected the relations of the parties. Should
Germany prevail in her contest with England, the result
would certainly be to draw the centre of exchanges to
the eastward, and thereby to throw the United States,
more or less, into eccentricity; but were England to pre-
vail the United States would tend to become the centre
toward which all else would gravitate. Hence, per-
fectly automatically, from a time as long ago as the
Spanish War, the balance, as indicated by the weight
of the United States, hung unevenly as between Ger-
many and England, Germany manifesting something
approaching to repulsion toward the attraction of the
United States while Great Britain manifested favor.
And from subsequent evidence, this phenomenon
would seem to have been thus early developed, because
the economic centre of gravity of our modern civiliza-
tion had already traversed the Atlantic, and by so doing
had decided the fortunes of Germany in advance, in
the greater struggle about to come. Consider atten-
tively what has happened. In April, 1917, when the
United States entered the conflict, Germany, though it
had suffered severely in loss of men, was by no means
exhausted. On the contrary, many months subse-
quently she began her final offensive, which she pushed
so vigorously that she penetrated to within some sixty
miles of Paris. But there, at Chateau Thierry, on the
Marne, she first felt the weight of the economic shift.
She suddenly encountered a division of American
troops advancing to oppose her. Otherwise the road
to Paris lay apparently open. The American troops

PREFACE. 159

were raw levies whom the Germans pretended to de-
spise. And yet, almost without making a serious effort
at prolonged attack, the Germans began their retreat,
which only ended with their collapse and the fall of
the empire.

A similar phenomenon occurred once before in Ger-
man history, and it is not an uncommon incident in
human experience when nature has already made, or
is on the brink of making, a change in the seat of the
economic centre of the world. In the same way, when
Constantine won the battle of the Milvian Bridge, with
his men fighting under the standard of the Labarum,
it was subsequently found that the economic capital
of civilization had silently migrated from the Tiber to
the Bosphorus, where Constantine seated himseK at
Constantinople, which was destined to be the new
capital of the world for about eight hundred years.
So in 1792, when the Prussians and the French refu-
gees together invaded France, they never doubted for
an instant that they should easily disperse the mob,
as they were pleased to call it, of Kellermann's "vaga-
bonds, cobblers, and tailors." Nevertheless the Ger-
mans recoiled on the slope of Valmy from before the
republican army, almost without striking a blow, nor
could they be brought again to the attack, although the
French royalists implored to be allowed to storm the
hill alone, provided they could be assured of support.
Then the retreat of the Duke of Brunswick began, and
this retreat was the prelude to the Napoleonic empire,
to Austerlitz, to Jena, to the dismemberment and to

160 PREFACE.

the reorganization of Prussia and to the evolution of
modern Germany: in short, to the conversion of the
remnants of mediaeval civilization into the capitalistic,
industrial, competitive society which we have known.
And all this because of the accelerated movement
caused by science.

If it be, indeed, a fact that the victory of Chateau
Thierry and the subsequent retreat of the German
army together with the collapse of the German Em-
pire indicate, as there is abundant reason to suppose
that they may, a shift in the world's social equilibrium,
equivalent to the shift in Europe presaged by Valmy,
or to that which substituted Constantinople for Rome
and which was marked by the Milvian Bridge, it fol-
lows that we must prepare ourselves for changes pos-
sibly greater than our world has seen since it marched
to Jerusalem under Godfrey de Bouillon. And the
tendency of those changes is not so very difficult, per-
haps, roughly to estimate, always premising that they
are hardly compatible with undue optimism. Sup-
posing, for example, we consider, in certain of their
simpler aspects, some of the relations of Great Britain
toward ourselves, since Great Britain is not only our
most important friend, assuming that she remain a
friend, but our most formidable competitor, should
competition strain our friendship. Also Great Britain
has the social system nearest akin to our own, and most
likely to be influenced by the same so-called demo-
cratic tendencies. For upwards of a hundred years
Great Britain has been, and she still is, absolutely de-

PREFA CE. 161

pendent on her maritime supremacy for life. It was on
that issue she fought the Napoleonic wars, and when
she prevailed at Trafalgar and Waterloo she assumed
economic supremacy, but only on the condition that
she should always be ready and willing to defend it,
for it is only on that condition that economic suprem-
acy can be maintained. War is the most potent en- ^
gine of economic competition. Constantinople and
Antwerp survived and flourished on the same identical
conditions long before the day of London. She must
keep her avenues of communication with all the world
open, and guard them against possible attack. So
long as America competed actively with England on
the sea, even for her own trade, her relations with
Great Britain were troubled. The irritation of the
colonies with the restrictions which England put upon
their commerce materially contributed to foment the
revolution, as abundantly appears in the famous case
of John Hancock's sloop Liberty, which was seized for
smuggling. So in the War of 1812, England could not
endure the United States as a competitor in her con-
test with France. She must be an ally, or, in other
words, she must function as a component part of the
British economic system, or she must be crushed. The
crisis came with the attack of the Leopard on the
Chesapeake in 1807, after which the possibility of main-
taining peace, under such a pressure, appeared, in its
true light, as a phantasm. After the war, with more
or less constant friction, the same conditions con-
tinued until the outbreak of the Rebellion, and then

162 PREFACE.

Great Britain manifested her true animus as a com-
petitor. She waged an unacknowledged campaign
against the commerce of the United States, building,
equipping, arming, manning, and succoring a navy for
the South, which operated none the less effectively
because its action was officially repudiated. And in
this secret warfare England prevailed, since when the
legislation of the United States has made American
competition with England on the sea impossible.
Wherefore we have had peace with England. We have
supplied Great Britain with food and raw materials,
abandoning to England the carrying trade and an un-
disputed naval supremacy. Consequently Great Brit-
ain feels secure and responds to the full force of that
economic attraction which makes America naturally,
a component part of the British economic system.
But let American pretensions once again revive to the
point of causing her to attempt seriously to develop
her sea power as of yore, and the same friction would
also revive which could hardly, were it pushed to its
legitimate end, eventuate otherwise than in the ulti-
mate form of all economic competition.

If such a supposition seems now to be fanciful, it is
only necessary to reflect a moment on the rapidity
with which national relations vary under competition,
to be assured that it is real. As Washington said,
the only force which binds one nation to another is
interest. The rise of Germany, which first created
jealousy in England, began with the attack on Den-
mark in 1864. Then Russia was the power which the

PREFACE. 163

British most feared and with whom they were on the
worst of terms. About that period nothing would
have seemed more improbable than that these relations
would be reversed, and that Russia and England would
jointly, within a generation, wage fierce war on Ger-
many. We are very close to England now, but we may
be certain that, were we to press, as Germany pressed,
on British maritime and industrial supremacy, we
should be hated too. It is vain to disguise the fact
that British fortunes in the past have hinged on Amer-
ican competition, and that the wisest and most saga-
cious Englishmen have been those who have been most
alive to the fact. Richard Cobden, for example, was
one of the most liberal as he was one of the most emi-
nent of British economists and statesmen of the middle
of the nineteenth century. He was a democrat by
birth and education, and a Quaker by religion. In
1835, just before he entered public life, Cobden visited
the United States and thus recorded his impressions
on his return:

"America is once more the theatre upon which
nations are contending for mastery; it is not, how-
ever, a struggle for conquest, in which the victor
will acquire territorial dominion — the fight is for
commercial supremacy, and will be won by the cheap-
est. ... It is from the silent and peaceful rivalry of
American commerce, the growth of its manufac-
tures, its rapid progress in internal improvements,
... it is from these, and not from the barbarous policy
or the impoverishing armaments of Russia, that the

164 PREFACE.

grandeur of our commercial and national prosperity
is endangered." ^

It is not, however, any part of my contention that
nature should push her love of competition so far as
necessarily to involve us in war with Great Britain,
at least at present, for nature has various and most
unlooked-for ways of arriving at her ends, since men
never can determine, certainly in advance, what
avenue will, to them, prove the least resistant. They
very often make an error, as did the Germans, which
they can only correct by enduring disaster, defeat,
and infinite suffering. Nature might very well, for
example, prefer that consolidation should advance yet
another step before a reaction toward chaos should
begin.

This last war has, apparently, been won by a fusion
of two economic systems which together hold and ad-
minister a preponderating mass of fluid capital, and
which have partially pooled their resources to prevail.
They appear almost as would a gigantic lizard which,
having been severed in an ancient conflict, was now
making a violent but only half -conscious effort to cause
the head and body to unite with the tail, so that the
two might function once more as a single organism,
governed by a single will. Under our present form of
capitaUstic life there would seem to be no reason why
this fluid capital should not fuse and by its energy
furnish the motor which should govern the world.
Rome, for centuries, was governed by an emperor, who
1 John Morley, The Life of Richard Cohden, 107, 108.

PREFACE. 165

represented the landed class of Italy, under the forms ^
of a republic. It is not by any means necessary that '^
a plutocratic mass should have a recognized political ■"
head. And America and England, like two enormous
banking houses, might in effect fuse and yet go on as
separate institutions with nominally separate boards
of directors.

But it is inconceivable that even such an expedient
as this, however successful at the outset, should perma-
nently solve the problem, which resolves itself once
more into individual competition. It is not imagin-
able that such an enormous plutocratic society as I
have supposed could conduct its complex affairs upon
the basis of the average intelligence. As in Rome,
a civil service would inevitably be organized which
would contain a carefully selected body of ability. We
have seen such a process, in its initial stages, in the
recent war. And such a civil service, however se-
lected and however trained, would, to succeed, have
to be composed of men who were the ablest in their
calling, the best educated, and the fittest: in a word,
the representatives of what we call "the big business"
of the country. Such as they might handle the rail-
roads, the telegraph lines, the food supply, the question
of competitive shipping, and finally prices, as we have
seen it done, but only on condition that they belonged
to the fortunate class by merit.

But supposing, in the face of such a government, the
unfortunate class should protest, as they already do
protest in Russia, in Germany, and even in England and

166 PREFA CE.

here at home, that a legal system which sanctions such
a civilization is iniquitous. Here, the discontented say,
you insist on a certain form of competition being carried
to its limit. That is, you demand intellectual and
peaceful competition for which I am unfit both by
education, training, and mental ability. I am there-
fore excluded from those walks in life which make a
man a freeman. I become a slave to capital. I must
work, or fight, or starve according to another man's
convenience, caprice, or, in fine, according to his will.
I could be no worse off under any despot. To such a
system I will not submit. But I can at least fight.
Put me on a competitive equality or I will blow your
civilization to atoms. To such an argument there is
no logical answer possible except the answer which all
extreme socialists have always advanced. The for-
tunate man should be taxed for all he earns above the
average wage, and the State should confiscate his accu-
mulations at death. Then, with a system of govern-
ment education, obligatory on all, children would start
equal from birth.

Here we come against the hereditary instinct, the
creator and the preserver of the family: the instinct
which has made law and order possible, so far as our
ancestors or we have known order, as far back as the
Ice Age. If the coming world must strive with this
question, or abandon the "democratic ideal," the fu-
ture promises to be stormy.

But even assuming that this problem of individual
competition be overcome, we are as far as ever from

PREFACE. 167

creating a system of moral law which shall avail us,
for we at once come in conflict with the principle of ab-
stract justice which demands that free men shall be
permitted to colonize or move where they will. But
supposing England and America to amalgamate; they
now hold or assume to control all or nearly all the
vacant regions of the earth which are suited to the
white man's habitation. And the white man cannot
live and farm his land in competition with the Asiatic;
that was conclusively proved in the days of Rome.

But it is not imaginable that Asiatics will submit to
this discrimination in silence. Nothing can probably
constrain them to resignation but force, and to apply
force is to revert to the old argument of the savage or
the despot, who admits that he knows no law save that
of the stronger, which is the system, however much
we have disguised it and, in short, lied about it, under
which we have hved and under which our ancestors
have lived ever since the family was organized, and
under which it is probable that we shall continue to
live as long as any remnant of civilization shall survive.

Nevertheless, it seems to be far from improbable
that the system of industrial, capitalistic civilization,
which came in, in substance, with the "free thought"
of the Reformation, is nearing an end. Very prob-
ably it may have attained to its ultimate stages and
may dissolve presently in the chaos which, since the
Reformation, has been visibly impending. Democracy
in America has conspicuously and decisively failed, in
the collective administration of the common pubUc

168 PREFACE.

property. Granting thus much, it becomes simply a
question of relative ineflSciency, or degradation of
type, culminating in the exhaustion of resources by
waste; unless the democratic man can supernatu-
rally raise himself to some level more nearly ap-
proaching perfection than that on which he stands.
For it has become self-evident that the democrat
cannot change himself from a competitive to a non-
competitive animal by talking about it, or by pretend-
ing to be already or to be about to become other than
he is, — the victim of infinite conflicting forces.

BROOKS ADAMS.
QuiNCY, July 20, 1919.

THE EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

THE

EMANCIPATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

The mysteries of the Holy Catholic Church had
been venerated for ages when Europe burst from her
mediaeval torpor into the splendor of the Renaissance.
Political schemes and papal abuses may have precipi-
tated the inevitable outbreak, but in the dawn of mod-
ern thought the darkness faded amidst which mankind
had so long cowered in the abject terrors of supersti-
tion. Already in the beginning of the fifteenth cen-
tury many of the ancient dogmas had begun to awaken
incredulity, and sceptics learned to mock at that claim
to infallibility upon which the priesthood based their
right to command the blind obedience of the Chris-
tian world. Between such adversaries compromise
was impossible ; and those who afterward revolted
against the authority of the traditions of Rome sought
refuge under the shelter of the Bible, which they
grew to reverence with a passionate devotion, believ-
ing it to have been not only directly and verbally in-
spired by God, but the only channel through which he
had made known his will to men.

172 THE COMMONWEALTH.

Thus the movement was not toward new doctrines ;
on the contrary, it was the rejection of what could no
longer be believed. Calvin was no less orthodox than
St. Augustine in what he accepted ; his heresy lay
in the denial of enigmas from which his understand-
ing recoiled. The mighty convulsion of the Reforma-
tion, therefore, was but the supreme effort of the race
to tear itself from the toils of a hierarchy whose life
hung upon its success in forcing the children to wor-
ship the myths of their ancestral religion.

Three hundred years after Luther nailed his theses
to the church door the logical deduction had been
drawn fi'om his great act, and Christendom had been
driven to admit that any concession of the right to
reason upon matters of faith involved the recognition
' of the freedom of individual thought. But though
this noble principle has been at length established,
long years of bloodshed passed before the victory was
won ; and from the outset the attitude of the clergy
formed the chief obstacle to the triumph of a more
liberal civilization ; for howsoever bitterly Catholic
and Protestant divines have hated and persecuted
each other, they have united like true brethren in
their hatred and their persecution of heretics ; for
such was their inexorable destiny.

Men who firmly believe that salvation lies within
their creed alone, and that doubters suffer endless tor-
ments, never can be tolerant. They feel that duty
commands them to defend their homes against a deadly
peril, and even pity for the sinner urges them to wring

THE COMMONWEALTH. 173

from him a recantation before it is too late ; and then,
moreover, dissent must lessen the power and influence
of a hierarchy and may endanger its very existence ;
therefore the priests of every church have been stimu-
lated to crush out schism by the two strongest passions
that can inflame the mind — by bigotry and by ambi-
tion.

In England the Reformation was controlled by
statesmen, whose object was to invest the crown with ''
ecclesiastical power, and who made no changes except
such as they thought necessary for their purpose.
They repudiated the papal supremacy, and adopted
articles of religion sufficiently evangelical in form, but
they retained episcopacy, the liturgy, and the sur-
plice ; the cross was still used in baptism, the people
bowed at the name of Jesus, and knelt at the com-
munion. Such a compromise with what they deemed
idolatry was offensive to the stricter Protestants, and
so early as 1550 John Hooper refused the see of
Gloucester because he would not wear the robes of
office ; thus almost from its foundation the church was
divided into factions, and those who demanded a more
radical reform were nicknamed Puritans. As time
elapsed large numbers who could no longer bring
themselves to conform withdrew from the orthodox
communion, and began to worship by themselves ;
persecution followed, and many fled to Holland, where
they formed congregations in the larger towns, the
most celebrated of them being that of John Robinson
at Leyden, which afterward founded Plymouth. But

174 THE COMMONWEALTH.

the intellectual ferment was universal, and the same
upheaval that was rending the church was shaking
the foundations of the state : power was passing into
the hands of the people, but a century was to elapse
before the relations of the sovereign to the House of
Commons were fully adjusted. During this interval
the Stuarts reigned and three of the four kings suf-
fered exile or death in the fierce contest for mastery.

The fixed determination of Charles I. was to es-
tablish a despotism and enforce conformity with ritu-
alism ; and the result was the Great Rebellion.

Among the statesmen who advised him, none has
met with such scant mercy from posterity as Laud,
who has been gibbeted as the impersonification of
narrowness, of bigotry, and of cruelty. The judgment
is unscientific, for whatever may be thought of the
humanity or wisdom of his policy, he only did what
all have done who have attempted to impose a creed
on men.

The real grievance has never been that an obser-
vance has been required, or an indulgence refused, but
that the right to think has been denied. Provided a
boundary be fixed within which the reason must be
chained, the line drawn by Laud is as reasonable as
that of Calvin ; Geneva is no more infallible than
Canterbury or Rome. Comprehension is the dream
of visionaries, for some will always differ from any
confession of faith, however broad ; and where there
are dogmas there will be heretics till all have perished.
But in their fear and hatred of individual free thought

THE COMMONWEALTH. 175

regarding the mysteries of religion, Laud, Calvin, and
the Pope agreed.

With the progress of the war, the Puritans, who
had at first been united in their opposition to the
crown, themselves divided ; one party, to which most
of the peers and of the non-conforming clergy be-
longed, being anxious to reestablish the monarchy,
and set up a rigid Presbyterianism ; the other, of
whose spirit Cromwell was the incarnation, resolving
each day more firmly to crush the king and proclaim
freedom of conscience ; and it was this doctrine of
toleration which was the snare and the abomination in
the eyes of evangelical divines.

Robert Baillie, the Scotch commissioner, while in
London, anxiously watching the rise of the power of
the Lidependents in Parliament, with each victory of
their armies in the field wrote, " Liberty of conscience,
and toleration of all and any religion, is so prodigious
an impiety that this religious parliament cannot but
abhor the very meaning of it." Nor did his reverend
brethren of the Westminster Assembly fall any whit
behind him when they rose to expound the word. In
a letter of 17th May, 1644, he thus described their
doctrine : " This day was the best that I have seen
since I came to England. . . . After D. Twisse had
begun with a brief prayer, Mr. Marshall prayed large
two hours, most divinely, confessing the sins of the
members of the assembly, in a wonderful, pathetick,
and prudent way. After, Mr. Arrowsmith preached an
hour, then a psalm ; thereafter, Mr. Vines prayed near

176 THE COMMONWEALTH.

two hours, and Mr. Palmer preached an hour, and Mr.
Seaman prayed near two hours, then a psalm ; after,
Mr. Henderson brought them to a sweet conference of
the heat confessed in the assembly, and other seen faults
to be remedied, and the conveniency to preach against
all sects, especially Anabaptists and Antinomians.
Dr. Twisse closed with a short prayer and blessing." ^

But Cromwell, gifted with noble instincts and tran-
scendent political genius, a layman, a statesman, and
a soldier, was a liberal from birth till death.

" Those that were sound in the faith, how proper was
it for them to labor for liberty, . . . that men might
not be trampled upon for their consciences ! Had not
they labored but lately under the weight of persecu-
tion ? And was it fit for them to sit heavy upon oth-
ers ? Is it ingenuous to ask liberty and not to give it ?
What greater hypocrisy than for those who were op-
pressed by the bishops to become the greatest oppres-
sors themselves, so soon as their yoke was removed ?
I could wish that they who call for liberty now also
had not too much of that spirit, if the power were in
their hands." ^

" If a man of one form will be trampling upon the
heels of another form, if an Independent, for example,
will despise him under Baptism, and will revile him
and reproach him and provoke him, — I will not suffer
it in him. If, on the other side, those of the Anabap-

^ Baillie's Letters and Journals, ii. 18.

2 Speech at dissolution of first Parliament, Jan. 22, 1655.
Carlyle's Cromwell, iv. 107.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 177

tist shall be censuring the godly ministers of the
nation who profess under that of Independency ; or
if those that profess under Presbytery shall be re-
proaching or speaking evil of them, traducing and
censuring of them, as I would not be willing to see
the day when England shall be in the power of the
Presbytery to impose upon the consciences of others
that profess faith in Christ, — so I will not endure
any reproach to them." ^

The number of clergymen among the emigrants to
Massachusetts was very large, and the character of
the class who formed the colony was influenced by
them to an extraordinary degree. Many able pastors
had been deprived in England for non-conformity,
and they had to choose between silence or exile. To
men of their temperament silence would have been in-
tolerable ; and most must have depended upon their
profession for support. America, therefore, offered
a convenient refuge. The motives are less obvious
which induced the leading laymen, some of whom
were of fortune and consequence at home, to face the
hardships of the wilderness. Persecution cannot be
the explanation, for a government under which Hamp-
den and Cromwell could live and be returned to Par-
liament w^as not intolerable ; nor does it appear that
any of them had been severely dealt with. The wish
of the Puritan party to have a place of retreat, should
the worst befall, may have had its weight with indi-
viduals, but probably the influence which swayed the

* Speech made September, 1656. Carlyle's Cromwell, iv. 234.

178 THE COMMONWEALTH.

larger number was the personal ascendancy of their
pastors, for that ascendancy was complete. In a com-
munity so selected, men of the type of Baillie must
have vastly outnumbered those of the stamp of Crom-
well, and in point of fact their minds were generally
cast in the ecclesiastical mould and imbued with the
ecclesiastical feeling. Governor Dudley represented
them well, and at his death some lines were found in
his pocket in which their spirit yet glows in aU the
fierceness of its bigotry.

" Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch
O're such as do a Toleration hatch,
Lest that 111 Egg bring forth a Cockatrice,
To poison all with heresie and vice." ^

' In former ages churches had been comprehensive
to this extent : infants had been baptized, and, when
the child had become a man, he had been admitted to
the communion as a matter of course, unless his life
had given scandal ; but to this system the Congrega-
tionalist was utterly opposed. He believed that, hu-
man nature being totally depraved, some became re-
generate through grace ; that the signs of grace were
as palpable as any other traits of character, and could
be discerned by all the world ; therefore, none should
be admitted to the sacrament who had not the marks
of the elect ; and as in a well-ordered community the
godly ought to rule, it followed that none should be
enfranchised but members of the church.

To suppose such a government could be maintained
in England was beyond the dreams even of an enthu-
1 Magnalia, bk. 2, ch. v. § 1.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 179

siast, and there can be little doubt that the controlling
incentive with many of those who sailed was the hope,
with the aid of their divines, of founding- a religious
commonwealth in the wilderness which should har-
monize with their interpretation of the Scriptures.

The execution of such a project was, however, far
from easy. It would have been most unsafe for the
emigrants to have divulged their true designs, since
these were not only unlawful, but would have been
highly offensive to the king, and yet they were too
feeble to exist without the protection of Great Britain,
therefore it was necessary to secure for themselves the
rights of English subjects, and to throw some sem-
blance at least of the sanction of law over the orjrani-
zation of their new state. Accordingly, a patent ^ was
obtained from the crown, by which twenty-five persons
were incorporated under the name of the Governor
and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England ;
and as the extent of the powers therein granted has
given rise to a controversy which is not yet closed, it
is necessary to understand the nature of that instru-
ment m order to comprehend the bearings of the bit-
ter strife which darkens the history of the first fifty
years of the colony.

The germ of the written charter is so ancient as to
be lost in obscurity. During the Middle Ages, op-
pression was, speaking generally, the accepted con-
dition of society, no man not noble having the right
in theory, or the power in practice, to control his own
actions without interference from his feudal superior.
1 March 4, 1629.

/

180 THE COMMONWEALTH.

^ Under such circumstances the only hope for the weak
was to combine, and most of the early triumphs of
V freedom were won by combinations of commons against
some noble, or of nobles against a king. Organization
is difficult for a peasantry, but easy for burghers, and
from the outset these seem to have united for their
common defense against the neighboring barons ; and
thus was born the mediseval guild.

The ancient townsmen were not usually strong
' enough to fight for their liberties, so they generally
resorted to purchase ; they agreed with their lord
upon a price to be paid for a privilege, and were
given for their money a grant, which, because it was
written, was called a charter.

The following charter of the Merchants' Guild of
Leicester is very early and very simple. It presup-
poses that there could be no doubt about the local
customs, which are therefore not enumerated, and it
shows that the guild of Leicester existed as a corpora-
tion at the Conquest, and must already have held
property in succession and been liable to suit through
two reigns : —

" Robert, Earl of Mellent, to Ralph, and all his
barons, French and English, of all his land in Eng-
land, greeting : Know ye, that I have granted to my
merchants of Leicester their Guild Merchant, with all
^ customs which they held in the time of King William,
of King William his son, and now hold in the time of
Henry the king.

" Witness : R., the son of Alcitil."

THE COMMONWEALTH. 181

The object of these ancient writings was only to
record the fact of corporate existence ; the popuhir
custom by which the guilds were regulated was taken "^
for granted ; but obviously they must have had suc-
cession, been liable to suit, able to contract, and, in a
word, to do all those acts which were afterward set
forth. And such has uniformly been the process by '^
which English jurisprudence has been shaped ; a
usage grows up that courts recognize, and, by their
decisions, establish as the common law ; but judicial
decisions are inflexible, and, as they become anti-
quated, they are themselves modified by legislation.
Lawyers observed these customary companies for
some centuries before they learned what functions were
universal ; but, with the lapse of time, the patents be-
came more elaborate, until at length a voluminous
grant of each particular power was held necessary to '
create a new corporation.

A merchants' guild, like the one of Leicester, was
an association of the townsmen for their common wel-
fare. Every trader was then called a merchant, and
as almost every burgher lived by trade, and was also /
a landowner, to the extent at least of his dwelling, it
followed that the guild practically included all free '
male inhabitants ; the guild hall was used as the town
hall, the guild ordinances were the town ordinances, /
and the corporation became the government of the
borough, and as such chose persons to represent it in
Parliament, when summoned by the king's writ to
send burgesses to Westminster.

182 THE COMMONWEALTH.

London is a corporation by prescription and not by
virtue of any particular charter, and to this day its
city hall is called by the ancient name, Guild Hall.
But with the growth of wealth and population the
original fraternity divided into craft organizations (so
long ago, indeed, that no record of its existence re-
mains), and each trade organized a guild, with a hall
of its own ; and thus it came to pass that the twelve
livery companies — the Mercers, the Grocers, the
Goldsmiths, the Drapers, the Fishmongers, and the
rest — became the government of the capital of Eng-
land.

All mediaeval institutions tended to aristocracy and
monopoly, and, accordingly, after the merchant guilds
had split into these corporate trade unions, boroughs
waxed exclusive, and membership, instead of being
an incident of citizenship, grew to confer citizenship
itself ; thus the franchise, being confined to freemen,
and freedom or membership having come to depend
on birth, marriage, election, or purchase, the constit-
uencies which returned a majority of the House of
Commons grew so petty and corrupt as to threaten
the existence of parliamentary government itself, and
the abuse at last culminated in the agitation which
produced the Reform Bill.

When legal forms had taken shape, the land upon
which a town stood was not unusually granted to the
mayor and commonalty by metes and bounds,^ to

1 See Charter of Plymouth, granted 1439. History of Plym-
outh,, p. 50. The incorporation was by statute.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 183

them and their successors forever, upon payment of
a rent ; and the mayor and common council were em-
powered to make laws and ordinances for the local
government, and to fine, imprison, and sometimes
whip and otherwise punish offenders, so as their stat-
utes, fines, pains, and penalties were reasonable and
not repugnant to law.^ The foreign trading company
was an offshoot of the guild, and was intended to
protect commerce. Obviously some such organization
must have been necessary, for, if property was inse-
cure within the realm, it was far more exposed with-
out; and, indeed, in the fourteenth century, English
merchants domiciled on the Continent could hardly
have been safer than Europeans are now who garrison
the so-called factories upon the coast of Africa.

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 fero-
cious mob, was occasionally taken and sacked ; and the
garrison shut up within was subject to an iron dis-
cipline. They were forbidden to marry, no woman
passed the gates, nor did they ever sleep a night with-
out 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 compe-
1 History of Tiverton, App. 5.

184 THE COMMONWEALTH.

tition. However, about 1296 certain London mer-
cers are said to have obtained a grant of privileges
from John, Duke of Brabant, and to have established
a wool market at Antwerp.^ The recognition of the
Flemish government was of course necessary ; but
they could hardly have maintained themselves with-
out some supiJort at home ; for, although their ware-
house was abroad, they were English merchants, and
they must have relied upon English protection. No
very eai'ly documents remain ; but an elaborate char-
ter, granted by Edward IV. in 14G3, proves that the
corporation had then had a long legal existence.^ 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 Jus-
ticers, who were to hold courts for all merchants and
mariners in those parts ; and the company was au-
thorized to regulate the trade and control the traders,
provided no laws were passed contrary to the intent
of that charter.

Here, as in the Merchant Guild, the inevitable aris-
tocratic revolution took place, and the old democratic
brotherhood became a strict monopoly. The oppres-
sion was so flagrant that a petition was presented to
Parliament in 1497 against the exactions of the Mer-
chant Adventurers, as the association was then called,
by which it appeared that interlopers, trading to Hot

^ Anderson's History of Commerce.
2 Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 230.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 185

land and Flanders, were fined £40, whereas any sub-
ject might have become a freeman in earlier times for
an old noble, or about %s. 8d. ; ^ and the scandal was
so great that the fine was fixed at 10 marks, or £6
13s. 4:d., by statute. During the stagnation of the
Middle Ages few traces of such commercial enter-
prises 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 regu-
lar 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 mate-
rial, in 1629 Charles I. signed the patent of the Gov-
ernor and Company of Massachusetts 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' meet-
ing, chose the officers, of which there were twenty, the
governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants
or directors, on the last Wednesday in each Easter
Term. The assistants were intrusted with the business
management, and were to meet once a month or of-
tener ; while the General Court was empowered to ad-
mit 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 planta-
1 12 Heury VII. ch. vi.

186 THE COMMONWEALTH.

tion, 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 re-
pugnant 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 king-
dom.i In like manner, boroughs such as Tiverton
might " impose and assess punishments by imprison-
ments, etc., and reasonable fines upon offenders." ^

But all lawyers knew that such grants did not con-
vey 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 pe-
tition in 1624,^ and in that of Massachusetts by the
charter of William and Mary.

Such was the undoubted theory, and evidently there
must always have been some practical means of check-
ing the abuse of power by these strong organizations.

^ Herbert's Livery Companies, i. 489.
* See History of Tiverton, App. 5.
8 Bruce, Annals, i. 252.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 187

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 lib-
erties of London, — often, no doubt, for cause, but
sometimes also to make money by a resale ; and a suc-
cession 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 ques-
tion of the violation of privileges could be tried ; and
curious records still remain of ancient litio-ations of
this nature.

In 1321 complaint was made against the London
Weavers for injuring the public by passing regulations
tending to raise the price of cloth.^ 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 unneces-
sary to prove that some appellate tribunal must always
1 Liber Customarxim, i. 416-424.

188 THE COMMONWEALTH.

have had jurisdiction to pass upon the validity of cor-
porate legislation ; for otherwise any summary punish-
ment might have been inflicted upon an individual,
though notoriously unlawful, and the only redress pos-
sible 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 Massachusetts Bay in New
England. A good illustration is the trial of the
Quaker, Wenlock Christison, for his life in 1G61.

" William Leddra being thus dispatch'd, it was re-
solved 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 pres-
ent, it was told him, ' Unless you will renounce your
religion, you shall surely die.' But instead of shrink-
ing, he said wath 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 gos-
pel, 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

THE COMMONWEALTH. 189

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 Eng-
land?' '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 L' . . . ' There-
fore 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.' " ^

Yet, though the ecclesiastical party in Massachusetts
obstinately refused to admit appeals to the British
judiciary up to the last moment of their power, for the
1 Sewel, pp. 278, 279.

190 THE COMMONWEALTH.

obvious reason that the existence of the theocracy de-
pended 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.
passed in 1436, corporate enactments were to be sub-
mitted to the judges for approval ; and the Court of
King's Bench always set aside such as were bad, when-
ever the question of their validity was presented for
adjudication.^

But discussion is futile ; the proposition is self-evi-
dent, that an association endowed with the capacity of
acting like a single man, for certain defined objects,
which shall attempt other objects, or shall seek to com-
pass 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 circumstances its ordinances are void,
and none are bound to yield them their obedience.

Approached thus from the standpoint of legal his-
tory, no doubt can exist concerning the scope of the
franchise secured by the Puritans for the Massachu-
setts colony. The instrument obtained from Charles I.
embodied certain of their number in an English cor-
poration, whose only lawful business was the American
trade, as the business of the East India Company was

1 Stat. 15 H. VI. ch. 6. Stat. 19 H. VII. ch. 7. Clark's
Case, 5 Coke, 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.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 191

trade in Hindostan. To enable them to act effec-
tively, 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 gov-
ern the country within their grant by reasonable regu-
lations calcvdated to preserve the peace, and of much
the same character as the municipal ordinances of
towns, subject, of course, to judicial supervision. The
corporation itself was created subject to the municipal
laws of England, and could have no existence without
the realm ; and though perhaps even then the Amer-
ican wilderness might have been held to belong to the
British empire, it formed no part of the kingdora,^
and was altogether beyond the limits of that juris-
diction from whose customs and statutes the life of
this imaginary being sprang. Therefore, the govern-
ing body could legally exercise its functions only
when domiciled in some English town."

Sir Richard Sheldon, the solicitor-general, advised
the king that he was signing a charter containing "such
. . . clauses for y^ electing of Governors and Officers
here in England, . . . and powers to make lawes and

* Blaxjkstone's Commentaries, i. 109.

2 On this subject see the able paper of Mr. Deane, in Massa-
chusetts Historical Society Proceedings, December, 1809, p. 166.

1/

192 THE COMMONWEALTH.

ordinances for setling ye governement and maglstraeye
for y® plantacon there, . . . as . . . are usuallie al-
lowed to Corporacbns in England." ' 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 assembly, 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 Amer-
ica and establishing their corporation in a land which
they thought would be beyond the process of West-
minster Hall.^ The details of the settlement are
related in many books, and require only the brief-
est mention here. In 1628 an association of gen-
tlemen bought the tract of country lying between
the Merrimack and Charles from the Council of Plym-
outh, and sent Endicott to take charge of their pur-
chase. A royal patent was, however, thought neces-
sary for the protection of a large colony, and one

1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. 1869-70, p. 173. a 1629, Aug. 29.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 193

y
having been obtained, the Company of Massachusetts

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 godly minis-
ters." 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 es-
tablished to remain with us and others which shall
inhabite upon the said plantation." ^ The Company
accepted the proposition, WinthroiJ was chosen gov-
ernor, and he anchored in Salem harbor in June.^
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 meas-
ures they thought proper, without regarding the lim- ^
itations of the law. Counties and towns had to be
practically incorporated, taxes were levied upon in-
habitants, and in 1634 all pretence of a General Court
of freemen was dropped, and the towns chose dele- y
gates to represent them, though the legislature was
1 Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. i. 28. ^ 1630.

194 THE COMMONWEALTH.

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 assistants,
or magistrates, as they were called, and the depu-
ties. The governor, deputy governor, and assistants
were elected by a general vote ; but each town sent
two deputies to Boston.

For some years justice was dispensed by the magis-
trates according to the Word of God, 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 assistant, 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
Assistants, 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 Lib- ^
erties" was approved by the legislature. This com-
pilation was the work of the Rev. Mr. Ward, pastor
of Ipswich, and contained a criminal code copied al-
most 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 mili-
tia, and in 1652 money was coined.

The social institutions, however, have a keener in-

THE COMMONWEALTH. 195

terest, 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
classes, 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- gen tie-
men. 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 dis-
tinctions, such as a magistracy for life, and a disposi-
tion to magnify the jurisdiction of the Court of Assist-
ants, 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 aristo-
cratic element, the real substance of influence and ^

196 THE COMMONWEALTH.

power lay with the clergy. It has been taught as an
axiom of Massachusetts history, that from the outset
the town was the social and political unit ; but an
analysis of the evidence tends to show that the or-
ganization of the Puritan Commonwealth was eccle-
siastical, and the congregation, not the town, the basis
upon which the fabric rested. By the constitution of
the corporation the franchise went with the freedom
of the company ; but in order to form a constituency
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 polli-
ticke, but such as are members of some of the
churches within . . . the same." ^ Thus though com-
municants 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
m.eeting, 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 op-
posed admit an inhabitant to the sacrament, he could
peremptorily exclude therefrom all those of whom he
disapproved, for "none are propounded to the congre-
gation, except they be first allowed by the elders." ^
In such a community the influence of the priesthood

^ Mass. Records, i. 87.

2 Winthrop's reply to Vane, Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. i. 101.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 197

must have been overwhelming. Not only in an age
without newsjjapers or tolerable roads were their ser-
mons, preached several times each week to every

V 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

y picked his band of devoted servants of the church,

^ men passionately 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 pass-
ing upon the technical construction of the charter

^- with the authority of a bench of judges. An amus-
ing example is given by Winthrop : " The General
Court assembled again, and all the elders were sent
for, to reconcile the differences between the magis-
trates 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

v^

198 THE COMMONWEALTH.

any necessary occasions call for action from authority,
in cases where there is no particular express law pro-
vided, there to be guided by the word of God, 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 mag-
istrates and deputies agreed upon an hour " and
..." their answer was affirmative, on the magis-
trates 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 magis-
trates propounded four more questions, the last of
which is as follows : " Whether a judge be bound to
pronounce 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
J sticks privily and in some need." ^ Yet though the
clerical influence was so unbounded the theocracy it-
self 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
1 Winthrop, u. 204, 205.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 199

at their will ; but in Massachusetts a more difficult
problem was presented, for the voters had to be con-
trolled. By the law requiring freemen to be church-
members the elders meant to grasp the key to the suf-
frage, 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 worship, free
from interference from without, except that others of
the same communion might offer advice or admoni-
tion. 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. Accord-
ingly, one by one, as the need for vigilance increased,
laws were passed to guard these points of danger.

First, in 1635 it was enacted,^ " Forasmuch as it
hath bene found by sad experience, that much trouble
and disturbance hath happened both to the chiipch
& civill state by the officers & members of some
churches, w*^^ have bene gathered ... in an vndue
manner . . . it is . . . ordered that . . . this Court
1 1635-6, March 3.

/

200 THE COMMONWEALTH.

doeth not, nor will hereafter, approue of any such com-
panyes of men as shall henceforthe ioyne in any pre-
tended way of church fellowshipp, without they shall
first acquainte the magistrates, & the elders of the
great"" pte of the churches in this jurisdicion, with
their intencons, and have their approbacon herein.
And fPurther, it is ordered, that noe pson, being a
member of any churche which shall hereafter be gath-
ered without the approbaSon of the magistrates, & the
greater pte of the said churches, shallbe admitted to
the ffreedome of this comonwealthe." ^

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 schism atical, rending itself from the
communion of other churches, or shall walk incor-
rigibly 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." ^

In 1658 the General Court declared : " Whereas it
is the duty of the Christian magistrate to take care
the people be fed w''^ wholesome & sound doctrine, &
in this houre of temptation, ... it is therefore ordered,
that henceforth no person shall . . . preach to any com-
pany 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

^ Mass. Rec. i. 168. ^ Magnolia, bk. 5, ch. xvii. § 9.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 201

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." ^ And lastly, in
1679, the building of meeting-houses was forbidden,
without leave from the freemen of the town or the
General Court.^

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 bloody 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 be-
fore the mind.

Cromwell said that ministers were " helpers of,
not lords over, God's people," ^ but the orthodox New
Englander was the vassal of his priest. Winthrop
was the ablest and the most enlightened magistrate
the ecclesiastical party ever had, and he tells us that

^ Mass. Rec. iv. pt. 1, p. 328.
2 Mass. Rec. v. 213.

^ Cromwell to Dundass, letter cxlviii. Carlyle's Cromwell,
iii. 72.

202 THE COMMONWEALTH.

" I honoured a faithful minister in my heart and could
have kissed his feet." ^ If the governor of Massachu-
setts and the leader of the emigration could thus de-
scribe 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 mass 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-break-
ing 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 di-
rected unto them all ; but such would be the compas-
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." ^

^ Life and Letters of Winthrop, i. 61.
3 Magnalia, bk. 4, ch. iv. §§ 9, 10.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 203

Their arrogance was fed by the submission of the
people, and they would not tolerate the slighest oppo-
sition even from their most devoted retainers. The
Reforming Synod was held in 1679. " When the re-
port of a committee on ' the evils that had provoked
the Lord ' came vip 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. Stod-
der ' (minister of Northampton) ' charged the deputy
with saying what was not true, and the deputy gov-
ernor ' (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.' " ^ Wheelock was
lucky in not having to smart more severely for his
temei'ity, for the unfortunate Ursula Cole was sen-
tenced to pay £5 ^ or be whipped for the lighter crime
of saying " she had as lief hear a cat mew " ^ as Mr.

^ Palfrey's History of New England, iii. 330, note 2. Extract
from Journal of Rev. Peter Thacher.

^ Five pounds was equivalent to a sum between one himdred
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.

8 Frothingham, History of Charlestown, p. 208.

{^

y

y

204 THE COMMONWEALTH.

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 Assistants, thinking " the
keepeing of lectures att the ordinary howres nowe ob-
serued in the forenoone, to be dyvers wayes peiudi-
ciall to the comon good, both in the losse of a
whole day, & bringing oth'" charges & troubles to the
place where the lecture is kept," ordered that they
should not beg^in before one o'clock.' 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.^ 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 covdd 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," ^
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 ; * and the
General Court had to give way. A few lines in Win-
throp's Journal give an idea of the tax this loquacity
must have been upon the time of a poor and scattered

1 Mass. Rec. i. 110. 2 Felt's Ecd. Hist. i. 201.

8 Winthrop, i. 324. * Idem, i. 325.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 205

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 God 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." ^

Common men could not have kept this hold vipon
the inhabitants of New England, but the clergy w^ere
learned, resolute, and able, and their strong but nar-
row minds burned with fanaticism and love of power ;
with their beliefs and under their temptations perse-
cution 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 idol-
aters and blasphemers is manifold.

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

" Secondly, it driveth away wolves from worrying
and scattering the sheep of Christ. For false teach-
ers 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.
1 Winthrop, i. 304.

206 THE COMMONWEALTH.

" 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 God's blessings upon the civill state. . . .

" Fifthly, it is an honour to God's Justice that such
judgments are executed. . . ." ^

All motives combined to drive them headlong into
cruelty ; for in the breasts of the larger number, even
the passion 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 lusts are sweet to them, and
they would not be disturbed or disquieted in their
sin. Hence there be so many such as cry up tollera-
tion boundless and libertinism so as (if it were in
their power) to order a total and perpetual confine-
ment 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 instituted churches under heaven.)" ^

" Let the magistrates coercive power in matters of

1 Bloody Tenent Washed, pp. 137, 138.

^ Eye Salve, Election Sermon, by Mr. Shepard of Charles-
town, p. 21.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 207

religion (therefore) be still asserted, seing he is one
who is bound to God more than any other men to
cherish his trvie religion ; . . . and how wofuU would
the state of things soon be among us, if men might
have liberty without eontroU to profess, or preach, or
print, or publish what they list, tending to the seduc-
tion of others." ^ Such feelings found their fit ex-
pression in savage laws against dissenting sects ; these,
however, will be dealt with hereafter ; only those
which illustrate 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 tempta-
tion, 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.^

" If any christian so called . . . shall contemptu-
ously behave himselfe toward y* word preached, or y®
messeng"^^ thereof called to dispence y® same in any
congregation, ... or like a sonn of Corah cast upon
his true doctrine or himselfe any reproach . . . shall
for y^ first scandole be convented . . . and bound to
their good behaviour ; and if a second time they
breake forth into y^ like contemptuous carriages,
either to pay <£5 to y^ publike treasury or to stand

1 Eye Salve, p. 38.

* 1634^35, 4 March. Mass. Rec. i. 140.

208 THE COMMONWEALTH.

two houres openly upon a block 4 foote high, on a
lecture day, w*^ a pap fixed on his breast w*^ this,
A Wanton Gospeller, written in capitall letfs y*
oth'"s may fear & be ashamed of breaking out into the
like wickednes." ^

" Though no humane pow'" be Lord ov' y® faith &
consciences of men and therefore may not constraine
y™ to beleeve or pfes ag®* their conscience, yet be-
cause such as bring in damnable heresies tending to
y® subversion of y® Christian faith . . . ought duely
to be restrained fro*" such notorious impiety, if any
christian . . . shall go about to subvert . . . y^ Chris-
tian faith, by broaching . . . any damnable heresy,
as deniing y® iniortality of y^ soule, or y® resurrection
of y® body, or any sinn to be repented of in y® regen'-
ate, or any evill done by y® outward man to be ac-
counted sinn, or deniing y* Christ gave himselfe a ran-
some for o' sinns ... or any oth"" heresy of such
nature & degree . . . shall pay to y® coin on treas-
ury during y^ first six months 20s. a month and for y®
next six months 40s. p. m., and so to continue dureing
his obstinacy ; and if any such pson shall endeav'^ to
seduce others ... he shall forfeit . . . for every sev-
erall offence . . . five pounds." ^

" For y® honno"^ of y® aetaernall God, whome only
wee wor^P and serve," (it is ordered that) "no
pson w*4n this jurisdicon, whether X*ian or pagan,
shall wittingly and willingly psume to blaspheme his

1 1646, 4 Nov. Mass. Rec. ii. 179.

2 1646, 4 Nov. Mass. Rec. ii. 177.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 209

holy name either by wilfull or obstinate denying y^
true God, or reproach y^ holy religion of God, as if it
were but a polliticke devise to keepe ignorant men
in awe, ... or deny his creation or gourn"^* of y®
world, or shall curse God, or shall vtter any other
eminent kind of blasphemy, of y® like nature and de-
gree ; if any pson or psons w*soeuer w**^in our juris-
dicon shall breake this lawe they shall be putt to
death." 1

The special punishments for Antinomians, Baptists,
Quakers, and other sectaries were fine and imprison-
ment, branding, whipping, mutilation, banishment,
and hanging. Nor were the elders men to shrink
from executing these laws with the same ferocious
spirit in which they were enacted. Remonstrance
and command were alike neglected. The Long Par-
liament warned them to beware ; Charles II. repeat-
edly ordered them to desist ; their trusted and dear-
est friend. Sir Richard Saltonstall, wrote from London
to Cotton : "" It doth not a little grieve my spirit to
heare what sadd things are reported dayly of your
tyranny and persecution in New England, as that you
fyne, whip, and imprison men for their consciences," ^
and told them their " rigid wayes have laid you very
lowe in the hearts of the saynts." Thirteen of the
most learned and eminent nonconforming ministers in
England wrote to the governor of Massachusetts im- "^
ploring him that he and the General Court would not /

1 Mass. Rcc. iii. 98.

2 Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 127.

210 THE COMMONWEALTH.

by their violence " put an advantage into the hands of
some who seek pretences and occasions against our
liberty." ^ Winthrop, the wisest and ablest champion
the clergy ever had, hung back. Like many another
political leader, he was forced by his party into meas-
ures from which his judgment and his heart recoiled.
He tells us how, on a question arising between him and
Mr. Haynes, the elders " delivered their several rea-
sons which all sorted to this conclusion, that strict dis-
cipline, both in criminal offences and in martial af-
fairs, was more needful in plantations than in a settled
state, as tending to the honor and safety of the gos-
pel. Whereupon Mr. Winthrop acknowledged that
he was convinced that he had failed in over much
lenity and remissness, and would endeavor (by God's
assistance) to take a more strict course thereafter." ^
But his better nature revolted from the foid task and
once more regained ascendancy just as he sunk in
death. For while he was lying very sick, Dudley
came to his bedside with an order to banish a here-
tic : " No," said the dying man, " I have done too
much of that work already," and he would not sign
the warrant.^

Nothing could avail, for the clergy held the state
within their grasp, and shrank from no deed of blood
to guard the interests of their order.

The case of Gorton may serve as an example of a
rigor that shocked even the Presbyterian Baillie ; it

1 Magnalia, bk. 7, ch. iv. § 4. ^ Winthrop, i. 178.

8 Life and Letters of Winthrop, ii. 393.

1

THE COMMONWEALTH. 211

must be said in explanation of his story that the mag-
istrates condemned Gorton and his friends to death
for the crime of heresy in obedience to the unanimous
decision of the elders,^ but the deputies refusing to
concur, the sentence of imprisonment in/ irons during
the pleasure of the General Court was agreed upon
as a compromise. " Only they in New England are
more strict and rigid than we, or any church, to svip-
press, by the power of the magistrate, all who are not
of their way, to banishment ordinarily and presently
even to death lately, or perpetual slavery ; for one
Jortin, sometime a famous citizen here for piety, hav-
ing taught a number in New England to cast oft the
word and sacrament, and deny angels and devils, and
teach a gross kind of union with Christ in this life, by
force of arms was brought to New Boston, and there
with ten of the chief of his followers, by the civil
court was discerned perpetual slaves, but the votes of
many were for their execution. They lie in irons,
though gentlemen ; and out of their prison write to
the admiral here, to deal with the parliament for their
deliverance." ^

Like all phenomena of nature, the action of the
mind is obedient lo law ; the cause is followed by the
consequence with the precision that the earth moves
round the sun, and impelled by this resistless power
his destiny is wrought out by man. To the ecclesias-
tic a deep debt of gratitude is due, for it was by his
effort that the first step from barbarism was made.

1 Winthrop, ii. 146. ^ Baillie's Letters, ii. 17, 18.

212 THE COMMONWEALTH.

In the world's childhood, knowledge seems divine, and
those who first acquire its rudiments claim, and are
believed, to have received it by revelation from the
gods. In an archaic age the priest is likewise the law-
giver and the physician, for all erudition is concen-
I trated in one supremely favored class — the sacred
caste. Their discoveries are kept profoundly secret,
and yet to perpetuate their mysteries among their
descendants they found schools which are the only re-
positories of learning ; but the time must inevitably
come when this order is transformed into the deadliest
enemy of the civilization which it has brought into be-
ing. The power of the spiritual oligarchy rests upon
superstitious terrors which dwindle before advancing
enlightenment ; hence the clergy have become reaction-
ary, have sought to stifle the spirit of free inquiry,
and have used the schools which they have builded
as instruments to keep alive unreasoning prejudice,
or to serve their selfish ends. This, then, has been
the fiercest battle of mankind ; the heroic struggle
to break down the sacerdotal barrier, to popularize
knowledge, and to liberate the mind, began ages be-
fore the crucifixion upon Calvary ; it still goes on.
In this cause the noblest and the bravest have poured
forth their blood like water, and the path to freedom
has been heaped with the corpses of her martyrs.

In that tremendous drama Massachusetts has played
her part ; it may be said to have made her intellectual
life ; and it is the passion of the combat which gives
an interest at once so sombre and so romantic to her
story.

THE COMMONWEALTH. 213

In the tempest of the Reformation a handful of the
sternest rebels were cast upon the bleak New England
coast, and the fervor of that devotion which led them
into the wilderness inspired them with the dream of
reproducing the institutions of God's chosen people, a
picture of which they believed was divinely preserved ^
for their guidance in the Bible. What they did in
reality was to surrender their new commonwealth to ^
their priests. Yet they were a race in whose bone and
blood the spirit of free thought was bred ; the impulse
which had goaded them to reject the Roman dogmas
was quick within them still, and revolt against the ec- ^"
clesiastical yoke was certain. The clergy upon their
side trod their appointed path with the precision of
machines, and, constrained by an inexorable destiny,
they took that position of antagonism to liberal
thought which has become typical of their order.
And the struggles and the agony by which this poor
and isolated community freed itself from its gloomy
bondage, the means by which it secularized its educa-
tion and its government, won for itself the blessing of •'
free thought and speech, and matured a system of '-^
constitutional liberty which has been the foundation
of the American Union, rise in dignity to one of the
supreme efforts of mankind.

CHAPTER n.

THE ANTINOMIANS.

Habit may be defined with enough accuracy for
ordinary purposes as the result of reflex action, or
the immediate response of the nerves to a stimulus,
without the intervention of consciousness. Many bod-
ily functions are naturally reflex, and most move-
ments may be made so by constant repetition ; they
are then executed independently of the will. It is no
exaggeration to say that the social fabric rests on the
control this tendency exerts over the actions of men ;
and its strength is strikingly exemplified in armies,
which, when well organized, are machines, wherein
subjection to command is instinctive, and insubordi-
nation, therefore, practically impossible.

An analogous phenomenon is presented by the
church, whose priests have intuitively exhausted their
ingenuity in weaving webs of ceremonial, as soldiers
have directed their energies to perfecting manuals of
arms ; and the evidence leads to the conclusion that
increasing complexity of ritual indicates a densening
ignorance and a deepening despotism. The Hindoos,
the Spaniards, and the English are types of the pro-
gression.

Within the historic asres unnumbered methods of

THE ANTINOMIANS. 215

sacerdotal discipline have been evolved, but whether
the means used to compass the end has been the be-
wildering maze of a Levitical code, or the rosary and
the confessional of Rome, the object has always been
to reduce the devotee to the implicit obedience of the
trooper. And the stupendous power of these amaz-
ingly perfect systems for destroying the capacity for
original thought cannot be fully realized until the
mind has been brought to dwell upon the fact that
the greatest eras of human progress have begun with
the advent of those who have led successful insur-
rection ; nor can the dazzling genius of these brilliant
exceptions be appreciated, unless it be remembered
how infinitely small has been the number of those
among mankind who, having been once drilled to
rigid conformity, have not lapsed into automatism,
but have been endowed with the mental energy to re-
volt. On the other hand, though ecclesiastics have
differed widely in the details of the training they have
enforced upon the faithful, they have agreed upon this
cardinal principle : they have uniformly seized upon
the education of the young, and taught the child to
revere the rites in which he was made to partake
before he could reason upon their meaning, for they
understood well that the habit of abject submission to
authority, when firmly rooted in infancy, would ripen
into a second nature in after years, and would almost
invariably last till death.

But this manual of religion, this deadening of
the soul by making mechanical prayers and genu-

y

216 THE ANTINOMIANS.

flexions the gauge of piety, has always roused the
deepest indignation in the great reformers ; and, un-
appalled by the most ghastly perils, they have never
ceased to exhort mankind to cast off the slavery of
custom and emancipate the mind. Christ rebuked
the Pharisees because they rejected the command-
ment of God to keep their own tradition ; Paul pro-
claimed that men should be justified by faith without
the deeds of the law; and Luther preached that the
Christian was free, that the soul did not live because
the body wore vestments or prayed with the lips, and
he denounced the tyranny of the clergy, who arrogated
to themselves a higher position than others who were
Christian in the spirit. On their side priesthoods
know these leaders of rebellion by an unerring in-
stinct and pursue them to the death.

The ministers of New England were formalists to
the core, and the society over which they dominated
was organized upon the avowed basis of the manifes-
tation of godliness in the outward man. The sad
countenance, the Biblical speech, the sombre garb, the
austere life, the attendance at worship, and, above all,
the unfailing deference paid to themselves, were the
marks of sanctification by which the elders knew the
saints on earth, for whom they were to open the path
to fortune by making them members of the church.

Happily for Massachusetts, there has never been
a time when all her children could be docile under
such a rule ; and, among her champions of freedom,
none have been braver than those who have sprung

THE ANTINOMIANS. 217

from the ranks of her ministry, as the fate of Roger
Williams had already proved. In such a community,
before the ecclesiastical power had been solidified
by time, only a spark was needed to kindle a confla-
gration, and that spark was struck by a woman.

So early as 1634 a restless spirit was abroad, for
Winthrop was then set aside, and now, in 1636,
young Henry Vane was enthusiastically elected gov-
ernor, though he was only twenty-four, and had been
but a few months in the colony. The future seemed
bright and serene, yet he had hardly taken office be-
fore the storm burst, which not only overthrew him,
but was destined to destroy that unhappy lady whom
the Rev. Thomas Welde called the American Jezebel.^

John Cotton, the former rector of St. Botolph's,
was the teacher of the Boston church. By common
consent the leader of the clergy, he was the most brill-
iant, and, in some respects, the most powerful man
in the colony. Two years before, Anne Hutchinson,
with all her family, had followed him from her home
in Lincolnshire into the wilderness, for, " when our
teacher came to New England, it was a great trou-
ble unto me, my brother. Wheelwright, being put by
also." 2 A gentlewoman of spotless life, with a kind
and charitable heart, a vigorous understanding and
dauntless courage, her failings were vanity and a bit-

^ Opinions are divided as to the authorship of the Short Story,
but I conclude from internal evidence that the ending at least
was written by Mr. Welde.

a Hutch. Hist. ii. 440.

218 THE ANTINOMIANS.

ter tongue toward those whom she disliked.^ Unfortu-
nately also for herself, she was one of the enthusiasts
who believe themselves subject to divine revelations,
for this pretension would probably in any event have
brought upon her the displeasure of the church. It
is worth while to attempt some logical explanation of
the dislike felt by the Massachusetts elders to any sug-
gestion of such supernatural interposition. The half-
unconscious train of reasoning on which they based
their claim to exact implicit obedience from the peo-
ple seems, when analyzed, to yield this syllogism : All
revelation is contained in the Bible ; but to interpret
the ancient sacred writings with authority, a techni-
cal training is essential, which is confined to priests ;
therefore no one can define God's will who is not of
the ministry. Had the possibility of direct revelation
been admitted this reasoning must have fallen ; for
then, obviously, the word of an inspired peasant would
have outweighed the sermon of an uninspired divine ;
it follows, necessarily, that ecclesiastics so situated
would have been jealous of lay preaching, and abso-
lutely intolerant of the inner light.

In May, 1636, the month of Yane's election,
Mrs. Hutchinson had been joined by her brother-in-
law, John Wheelwright, the deprived vicar of Bilsby.
Her social influence was then at its height ; her ami-
able disposition had made her popular, and for some
time past she had held religious meetings for women
at her house. The ostensible object of these gather-
1 Cotton, Way of New England Churches, p. 52.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 219

ings was to recapitulate the sermons of the week ; but
the step from discussion to criticism was short, and it
soon began to be said that she cast reproach " upon
the ministers, . . . saying that none of them did
preach the covenant of free grace, but Master Cotton,
and that they have not the scale of the Spirit, and so
were not able ministers of the New Testament." ^ Or,
to use colloquial language, she accused the clergy of
being teachers of forms, and said that, of them all,
Cotton alone appealed to the animating spirit like
Luther or St. Paul.

" A company of legall professors," quoth she, " lie
poring on the law which Christ hath abolished." ^

Such freedom of speech was, of course, intolerable ;
and so, as Cotton was implicated by her imprudent
talk, the elders went to Boston in a body in October
to take him to task. In the hope of adjusting the
difficulty, he suggested a friendly meeting at his
house, and an interview took place. At first Mrs.
Hutchinson, with much prudence, declined to commit
herself ; but the Rev. Hugh Peters besought her so
earnestly to deal frankly and openly with them that
she, confiding in the sacred character of a confidential
conversation with clergymen in the house of her own
religious teacher, committed the fatal error of ad-
mitting that she saw a wide difference between Mr.
Cotton's ministry and theirs, and that they could not
preach a covenant of grace so clearly as he, because

1 Short Story, p. 36.

2 Wonder- Working Providence, Poole's ed. p. 102.

220 THE ANTINOMIANS.

they had not the seal of the Spirit. The progress of
the new opinion was rapid, and it is clear Mrs. Hutch-
inson had only given expression to a feeling of discon-
tent which was both wide-spread and deep. Before
winter her adherents, or those who condemned the
covenant of works, — in modern language, the liberals,
— had become an organized political party, of which
Vane was the leader ; and here lay their first danger.

Notwithstanding his eminent ability, he was then
but a boy, and the task was beyond his strength. The
stronghold of his party was Boston, where, except
some half-dozen,^ the whole congregation followed him
and Cotton : yet even here he met with the powerful
opposition of Winthrop and the pastor, John Wilson.
In the country he was confronted by the solid body
of the clergy, whose influence proved sufficient to hold
together a majority of the voters in substantially all
the towns, so that the conservatives never lost control
of the legislature.

The position was harassing, and his nerves gave
way under the strain. In December he called a court
and one day suddenly announced that he had received
letters from England requiring his immediate return ;
but when some of his friends remonstrated he " brake
forth into tears and professed that, howsoever the
causes propounded for his departure were such as did
concern the utter ruin of his outward estate, yet he
would rather have hazarded all " . . . " but for the
danger he saw of God's judgment to come upon us
1 Winthrop, i. 212.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 221

for these differences and dissensions which he saw
amongst us, and the scandalous imputations brought
upon himself, as if he should be the cause of all," '

Such a flight was out of the question. The weight
of his name and the protection given his supporters
by the power of his family in England could not be
dispensed with, and therefore the Boston congregation
intervened. After a day's reflection he seems himself
to have become convinced that he had gone too far
to recede, so he " expressed himself to be an obedient
child to the church and therefore . . . durst not go
away. ^

That a young and untried man like Vane should
have grown weary of his office and longed to escape
will astonish no one who is familiar with the charac-
ter and the mode of warfare of his adversaries.

In that society a layman could not retort upon a
minister who insulted him, nor could Vane employ the
arguments with which Cromwell so effectually silenced
the Scotch divines. The following is a specimen of
the treatment to which he was probably almost daily
subjected, and the scene in this instance was the more
mortifying because it took place before the assembled
legislature.

" The ministers had met a little before and had
drawn into heads all the points wherein they sus-
pected ]Mr. Cotton did differ from them, and had pro-
pounded them to him, and pressed him to a direct
answer ... to every one ; which he had promised.

1 Winthrop, i. 207. 2 i^^m, i. 208.

222 THE ANTINOMIANS.

. , . This meeting being spoke of in the court the
day before, the governour took great offence at it,
as being without his privity, &c., which this day Mr.
Peter told him as plainly of (with all due reverence),
and how it had sadded the ministers' spirits, that he
should be jealous of their meetings, or seem to re-
strain their liberty, &c. The governour excused his
speech as sudden and upon a mistake. Mr. Peter
told him also, that before he came, within less than
two years since, the churches were in peace. . . . Mr.
Peter also besought him humbly to consider his youth
and short experience in the things of God, and to be-
ware of peremptory conclusions which he perceived
him to be very apt unto." ^ This coarse bully was the
same Hugh Peters of whom Whitelock afterward com-
plained that he often advised him, though he "under-
stood little of the law, but was very opinionative," ^
and who was so terrified at the approach of death
that on his way to the scaffold he had to drink liquor
to keep from fainting.^

" Mr. Wilson " also " made a very sad speech to the
General Court of the condition of our churches, and
the inevitable danger of separation, if these differ-
ences . . . were not speedily remedied, and laid the
blame upon these new opinions . . . which all the
magistrates except the governour and two others did
confirm and all the ministers but two." ^ Those two
were John Cotton and John Wheelwright, the preach-
ers of the covenant of grace.

1 Wiiithrop, i. 209. " Memorials, p. 521.

8 Burnet, i. 162. < Wiuthrop, i. 209.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 223

Their brethren might well make sad speeches, for
their cup of bitterness was full ; but they must be
left to describe for themselves the tempest of fear and
wrath that raged within them. " Yea, some that had
beene begotten to Christ by some of their faithful!
labours in this land " (England, where the tract was
published,) " for whom they could have laid downe
their lives, and not being able to beare their absence
followed after them thither to New England to enjoy
their labours, yet these falling acquainted with those
seducers, were suddenly so altered in their affections
toward those their spiritual! fatliers, that they would
neither lieare them, nor willingly come in their com-
pany, professing they had never received any good
from them." . . . "Now the faitliful! ministers of
Christ must have dung cast on their faces . . . must
be pointed at as it were with the finger, and reproached
by name, such a church officer is an ignorant man,
and Itnows not Christ ; such an one is under a cov-
enant of works : such a pastor is a proud man, and
would make a good persecutor ... so that tlirough
these reproaches occasion was given to men, to ab-
horre the offerings of tlie Lord." ^

"Now, one of tliem in a solemne convention of min-
isters dared to say to their faces, that they did not
preach the Covenant of Free Grace, and that they
themselves had not the scale of the Spirit. . . . Now,
after our sermons were ended at our publike lectures,
you might have scene halfe a dozen pistols discharged
1 Welde's Short Story, Pref. §§ 7-11.

224 THE ANTINOMIANS.

at the face of the preacher (I meane) so many objec
tions made by the opinionists in the open assembly
against our doctrine ... to the marvellous weaken-
ing of holy truths delivered ... in the hearts of all
the weaker sort." ^

John Wheelwright was a man whose character ex-
torts our admiration, if it does not win our love. The
personal friend of Cromwell and of Vane, with a mind
vigorous and masculine, and a courage stern and de-
termined even above the Puritan standard of resolu-
tion and of daring, he spoke the truth which was within
him, and could neither be intimidated nor cajoled.
In October an attempt had been made to have him
settled as a teacher of the Boston church in conjunc-
tion with Wilson and Cotton, but it had miscarried
through Winthrop's opposition, and he had afterward
taken charge of a congregation that had been gathered
at Mount WoUaston, in what is now Quincy.

On the 19th of January a fast was held on account
of the public dissensions, and on that day Wheel-
wright preached a great sermon in Boston which brought
on the crisis. He was afterward accused of sedition :
the charge was false, for he did not utter one se-
ditious word,; but he did that which was harder to
forgive, he struck at what he deemed the wrong with
his whole might, and those who will patiently pore
over his pages until they see the fire glowing through
his rugged sentences will feel the power of his blow.
And what he told his hearers was in substance this;
1 Welde's ShoH Story, Pref. §§ 7-11.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 225

It maketh no matter how seemingly holy men be ac-
cording to the law, if . . , they are such as trust to
their own righteousness they shall die, saith the Lord.
Do ye not after their works ; for they say and do
not. They make broad their phylacteries and en-
large the borders of their garments ; and love the up-
permost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the
synagogues ; and greetings in the market place and to
be called of men. Rabbi, Rabbi. But believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved, for being
justified by faith we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. And the way we must take if so
be we will not have the Lord Jesus Christ taken from
us is this, we must all prepare a spiritual combat, we
must put on the whole armor of God, and must have
our loins girt up and be ready to fight, . . . because
of fear in the night if we will not fight the Lord Jesus
Christ may come to be surprised.

And when his brethren heard it they sought how
they might destroy him ; for they feared him, because
all the people were astonished at his doctrine.

In March the legislature met, and Wheelwright was
arraigned before a court composed, according to the ac-
count of the Quaker Groom, of Henry Vane, " twelve
magistrates, twelve priests, & thirty-three deputies." ^
His sermon was produced, and an attempt was made
to obtain an admission that by those under a covenant
of works he meant his brethren. But the accused
was one whom it was hard to entrap and impossible
^ Groom's Glass for New England, p. 6.

226 THE ANTINOMIANS.

to frighten. He defied his judges to controvert his
doctrine, offering to prove it by the Scriptures, and
as for the application he answered that " if he were
shown any that walked in such a way as he had
described to be a covenant of works, them did he
mean." ^ Then the rest of the elders were asked if
they " did walk in such a way, and they all acknowl-
edged they did," ^ excepting John Cotton, who declared
that " brother Wheelwright's doctrine was according
to God in the parts controverted, and wholly and alto-
gether." ^ He received ecclesiastical justice. There
was no jury, and the popular assembly that decided
law and fact by a partisan vote was controlled by his
adversaries. Yet even so, a verdict of sedition was
such a flagrant outrage that the clergy found it impos-
sible to command prompt obedience. For two days
the issue was in doubt, but at length " the priests got
two of the magistrates on their side, and so got the
major part with them."* They appear, however, to
have felt too weak to proceed to sentence, for the pris-
oner was remanded until the next session.

No sooner was the judgment made known than more
than sixty of the most respected citizens of Boston
signed a petition to the court in Wheelwright's behalf.
In respectful and even submissive language they
pointed out the danger of meddling with the right of

^ Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 17, note 27.
2 Winthrop, i. 215. Wheelwright, p. 18.
8 Groom's Glass for New England, p. 7.
< Felt's Ecd. Hist. ii. 611.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 227

free speech. " Paul was counted a pestilent fellow, or
a moover of sedition, and a ringleader of a sect, . . .
and Christ himselfe, as well as Paul, was charged to
bee a teacher of New Doctrine. . . . Now wee beseech
you, consider whether that old serpent work not after
his old method, even in our daies." ^

The charge of sedition made against them they re-
pudiated in emphatic words, which deserve attention,
as they were afterwards held to be criminal.

" Thirdly, if you look at the effects of his doctrine
upon the hearers, it hath not stirred up sedition in us,
not so much as by accident ; wee have not drawn the
sword, as sometimes Peter did, rashly, neither have wee
rescued our innocent brother, as sometimes the Israel-
ites did Jonathan, and j'et they did not seditiously.
The covenant of free grace held forth by our brother
hath taught us rather to become humble suppliants
to your worships, and if wee should not prevaile, wee
would rather with patience give our cheekes to the
smiters." ^

The liberal feeling ran so strongly in Boston that
the conservatives thought it prudent to remove the
government temporarily to Cambridge, that they might
more easily control the election which was to come in
May. Vane, with some petulance, refused to enter-
tain the motion ; but Endicott put the question, and it
was carried. As the time drew near the excitement
increased, the clergy straining every nerve to bring up

^ Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. p. 21.
2 Idem.

228 THE ANTINOMIANS.

their voters from the country ; and on the morning of
the day the feeling was so intense that the Rev. Mr.
Wilson, forgetting his dignity and his age, scrambled
up a tree and harangued the people from its branches.^

Yet, though the freemen were so deeply moved,
there was no violence, and Winthrop was peaceably
elected governor, with a strong conservative majority
in the legislature. It so happened that just at this
time a number of the friends of Wheelwright and the
Hutchinsons were on their way from England to set-
tle in Massachusetts. The first act of the new gov-
ernment was to exclude these new-comers by passing
a law forbidding any town to entertain strangers for
more than three weeks without the consent of two of
the magistrates.

This oppressive statute caused such discontent that
Winthrop thought it necessary to publish a defence, to
which Vane replied and Winthrop rejoined. The con-
troversy would long since have lost its interest had it
not been for the theory then first advanced by Win-
throp, that the corporation of Massachusetts, having
bought its land, held it as though it were a private
estate, and might exclude whom they pleased there-
from ; and ever since this plea has been set up in jus-
tification of every excess committed by the theocracy.

Winthrop was a lawyer, and it is but justice to his
reputation to presume that he spoke as a partisan,
knowing his argument to be fallacious. As a legal
proposition he must have been aware that it was un-
sound.

^ Hutch, Hist. i. 62, note.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 229

Although during the reign of Charles I. monopolies *^
were a standing grievance with the House of Commons,
yet they had been granted and enforced for centuries ;
and had Massachvisetts claimed the right to exclude
strangers as interlopers in trade, she would have stood
upon good precedent. Such, however, was not her con-
tention. The legislation against the friends of Wheel-
wright was passed avowedly upon grounds of religious
difference of opinion, and a monopoly in religion was "
unknown. y

Her commercial privileges alone were exclusive, and,
provided he respected them, a British subject had the
same right to dwell in Massachusetts as in any of the
other dominions of the crown, or, indeed, in any borough
which held its land by grant, like Plymouth. To sub-
ject Englishmen to restriction or punishment unknown
to English law was as outrageous as the same act
would have been had it been perpetrated by the city
of London, — both corporations having a like power ^
to preserve the peace by local ordinances, and both be--^
ing controlled by the law of the land as administered '-^
by the courts. Such arguments as those advanced by
Winthrop were only solemn quibbling to cloak an
indefensible policy. To banish freemen for demand-
ing liberty of conscience was a still more flagrant
wrong. A precisely parallel case would have been
presented had the directors of the East India Com-
pany declared the membership of a proprietor to be
forfeited, and ordered his stock to be sold, because
he disapprovetl of enforcing conformity in worship ^
among inhabitants of the factories in Hindostan.

230 THE ANTINOMIANS.

Vane sailed early in August, and his departure
cleared the last barrier from the way of vengeance.
Proceedings were at once begun by a synod of all the
ministers, which was held at Cambridge, for the pur-
pose of restoring peace to the churches. " There were
about eighty opinions, some blasphemous, others er-
roneous, and all unsafe, condemned by the whole as-
sembly. . . . Some of the church of Boston . . . were
offended at the producing of so many errors, . . .
and called to have the persons named which held those
errors." To which the elders answered that all those
opinions could be proved to be held by some, but it
was not thought fit to name the parties. " Yet this
would not satisfy some but they oft called for wit-
nesses ; and because some of the magistrates declared
to them . . . that if they would not forbear it would
prove a civil disturbance . . . they objected. ... So
as he " (probably meaning Winthrop) " was forced to
tell one of them that if he would not forbear ... he
might see it executed. Upon this some of Boston de-
parted from the assembly and came no more." ^ Once
freed from their repinings all went well, and their
pastor, Mr. Wilson, soon had the satisfaction of send-
ing their reputed heresies " to the devil of hell from
whence they came." ^ Cotton, seeing that all was lost,
hastened to make his peace by a submission which the
Rev. Mr. Hubbard of Ipswich describes with uncon-
scious cynicism. " If he were not convinced, yet he

1 Winthrop, i. 238.

2 Magnolia, bk. 3, ch. iii. § 13.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 231

was persuaded to an amicable compliance with the
other ministers ; . . . for, although it was thought he
did still retain his own sense and enjoy his own appre-
hension in all or most of the things then controverted
(as is manifest by some expressions of his . . . since
that time published," . . .) yet. "By that means did
that reverend and worthy minister of the gospel re-
cover his former splendour throughout . . . New Eng-
land." 1

He was not a sensitive man, and having once deter-
mined to do penance, he was far too astute a politician
to do it by halves ; he not only gave himself up to the
task of detecting the heterodoxy of his old friends,^
but on a day of solemn fasting he publicly professed
repentance with many tears, and told how, " God leav-
ing him for a time, he fell into a spirituall slumber ;
and had it not been for the watchfulnesse of his
brethren, the elders, &c., hee might have slept on,
. . . and was very thankfull to his brethren for their
watchfulnesse over him." ^ Nor to the end of his life
did he feel quite at ease ; " yea, such was his ingenuity
and piety as that his soul was not satisfied without
often breaking forth into affectionate bewailing of his
infirmity herein, in the publick assembly, sometimes
in his prayer, sometimes in his sermon, and that with
tears."*

Wheelwright was made of sterner stuff, and was in«

^ Hubbard, p. 302. 2 Wintbrop, i. 253.

^ Hypocrisie Unmasked, p. 76.
* Norton's Funeral Sermon, p. 37.

232 THE ANTINOMIANS.

flexible. In fact, however, the difference of dogma, if
any existed, was trivial The clergy used the cry of
heresy to excite odium, just as they called their oppo-
nents Antinomians, or dangerous fanatics. To support
these accusations the synod gravely accepted every un-
savory inference which ingenuity could wring from the
tenets of their adversaries ; and these, together with the
fables invented by idle gossip, made up the long list
of errors they condemned. Though the scheme was
unprincipled, it met with complete success, and the
Antinomians have come down to posterity branded as
deadly enemies of Christ and the commonwealth ; yet
nothing is more certain than that they were not only
good citizens, but substantially orthodox. On such a
point there is no one among the conservatives whose
testimony has the weight of Winthrop's, who says:
" Mr. Cotton . . . stated the differences in a very nar-
row scantling ; and Mr. Shepherd, preaching at the
day of election, brought them yet nearer, so as, except
men of good understanding, and such as knew the
bottom of the tenents of those of the other party, few
could see where the difference was." ^ While Cotton
himself complains bitterly of the falsehoods spread
about him and his friends : " But when some of . . .
the elders of neighbour churches advertised me of the
evill report . . . I . . . dealt with Mrs. Hutchinson and
others of them, declaring to them the erroneousnesse
of those tenents, and the injury done to myself in fa-
thering them upon mee. Both shee and they utterly
1 Winthrop, i. 221.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 233

denyed that they held such tenents, or that they had
fathered them upon mee. I returned their answer to
the elders. . . . They answered nie they had but one
witnesse, . . . and that one loth to be known." . . }
Moreover, it is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding
the advantage it would have given the reactionists to
have been able to fix subversive opinions upon their
prominent opponents, it was found impossible to prove
heresy in a single case which was brought to trial. The
legislature chosen in May was apparently unfit for the
work now to be done, for the extraordinary step of a
dissolution was decided on, and a new election held, un-
der circumstances in which it was easy to secure the
return of suitable candidates. The session ojiened on
November 2, and Wheelwright was summoned to ap-
pear. He was ordered to submit, or prepare for sen-
tence. He replied that he was guilty of neither sedition
nor contempt ; that he had preached only the truth of
Christ, the application of which was for others, not
for him. " To which it was answered by the court
that they had not censured his doctrine, but left it as
it was ; but his application, by which hee laid the mag-
istrates and ministers and most of the people of God
in these churches under a covenant of works." ^ The
prisoner was then sentenced to be disfranchised and
banished. He demanded an appeal to the king; it
was refused ; and he was given fourteen days to leave
Massachusetts. So he went forth alone in the bit-

1 Cotton, Way of New England Churches, pp. 39, 40.

2 Short Story, p. 24.

234 THE ANTINOMIANS.

ter winter weather and journeyed to the Piscataqua,
— yet " it was marvellous he got thither at that
time, when they expelled him, by reason of the deep
snow in which he might have perished."^ Nor was
banishment by any means the trivial penalty it has
been described. On the contrary, it was a punish-
ment of the utmost rigor. The exiles were forced sud-
denly to dispose of their property, which, in those
times, was mostly in houses and land, and go forth
among the savages with helpless women and children.
Such an ordeal might well appall even a brave man ;
but Wheelwright was sacrificing his intellectual life.
He was leaving books, friends, and the mental activ-
ity, which made the world to him, to settle in the
forests among backwoodsmen ; and yet even in this
desolate solitude the theocracy continued to pursue
him with persevering hate.

But there were others beside Wheelwright who had
sinned, and some pretext had to be devised by which
to reach them. The names of most of his friends
were upon the petition that had been drawn up after
his trial. It is true it was a proceeding with which
the existing legislature was not concerned, since it had
been presented to one of its predecessors ; it is also
true that probably never, before or since, have men
who have protested they have not drawn the sword
rashly, but have come as humble suppliants to offer
their cheeks to the smiters, been held to be public
enemies. Such scruples, however, never hampered

1 Wheelwright, Prince Soc. ed. Mercurius Americanus, p. 24.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 235

the theocracy. Their justice was trammelled neither
by judges, by juries, nor by laws ; the petition was
declared to be a seditious libel, and the petitioners
were given their choice of disavowing their act and
making humble submission, or exile.

Aspinwall was at once disfranchised and banished.^
Coddington, Coggeshall, and nine more were given
leave to depart within three months, or abide the
action of the court ; others were disfranchised ; and
fifty-eight of the less prominent of the party were
disarmed in Boston alone.^

Thus were the early liberals crushed in Massachu-*^
setts ; the bold were exiled, the timid were terrified ;
as a political organization they moved no more till the
theocracy was tottering to its fall ; and for forty years ^
the power of the clergy was absolute in the land.

The fate of Anne Hutchinson makes a fit ending to '^
this sad tale of oppression and of wrong. In Novem-
ber, 1637, when her friends were crushed, and the tri-
umphant priests felt that their victim's doom was sure,
she was brought to trial before that ghastliest den of ^
human iniquity, an ecclesiastical criminal court. The
ministers were her accusers, who came burning with
hate to testify to the words she had spoken to them at ^
their own request, in the belief that the confidence she'
reposed was to be held sacred. She had no jury to
whose manhood she could appeal, and John Winthrop,
to his lasting shame, was to prosecute her from the
judgment seat. She was soon to become a mother,

1 Mass. Rec. i. 1207. 2 Jdem, i. 223.

236 THE ANTINOMIANS.

and her health was feeble, but she was made to stand
till she was exhausted ; and yet, abandoned and for-
lorn, before those merciless judges, through two long,
weary days of hunger and of cold, the intrepid woman
defended her cause with a skill and courage which even
now, after two hundred and fifty years, kindles the
heart with admiration. The case for the government
w^as opened by John Winthrop, the presiding justice,
the attorney - general, the foreman of the jury, and
the chief magistrate of Massachusetts Bay. He up-
braided the prisoner with her many evil courses, with
having spoken things prejudicial to the honor of the
ministers, with holding an assembly in her house, and
with divulging the opinions held by those who had
been censured by that court ; closing in these words,
which sound strangely in the mouth of a New England
judge : —

"We have thought good to send for you . . . that
if you be in an erroneous way we may reduce you
that so you may become a profitable member here
among us, otherwise if you be obstinate . . . that then
the court may take such course that you may trouble
us no further, therefore I would entreat you . . .
whether you do not justify Mr. Wheelwright's sermon
and the petition.

Mrs. H. I am called here to answer before you,
but I hear no things laid to my charge.

Gov. I have told you some already, and more 1
ean tell you.

Mrs. H. Name one, sir.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 237

Gov. Have I not named some already ?

Mrs. H. What have I said or done ? . . .

Gov. You have joined with them in the faction.

Mrs. H. In what faction have I joined with them ?

Gov. In presenting the petition. . . .

Mrs. H. But I had not my hand to the petition.

Gov. You have counselled them.

Mrs. H. Wherein ?

Gov. Why, in entertaining them.

Mrs. H. What breach of law is that, sir?

Gov. Why, dishonoring of parents. . . .

Mrs. H. I may put honor upon them as the chil-
dren of God and as they do honor the Lord.

Gov. We do not mean to discourse with those of
your sex but only this ; you do adhere unto them, and
do endeavor to set forward this faction, and so you do
dishonor us.

Mrs. H. I do acknowledge no such thing, neither
do I think that I ever put any dishonor upon you.

And, on the whole, the chief justice broke down
so hopelessly in his examination, that the deputy
governor, or his senior associate upon the bench,
thought it necessary to interfere.

De'p. Gov. I would go a little higher with Mrs.
Hutchinson. Now ... if she in particular hath dis-
paraged all our ministers in the land that they have
preached a covenant of works, and only Mr. Cotton a
covenant of grace, why this is not to be suffered. . .

238 THE ANTINOMIANS.

Mrs. H. I pray, sir, prove it, that I said they
preached nothing but a covenant of works. . . .

Dej). Gov. If they do not preach a covenant of
grace, clearly, then, they preach a covenant of works.

Mrs. II. No, sir, one may preach a covenant of
grace more clearly than another, so I said.

Dudley was faring worse than Winthrop, and the
divines, who had been bursting with impatience, could
hold no longer. The Rev. Hugh Peters broke in :
" That which concerns us to speak unto, as yet we are
sparing in, unless the court command us to speak,
then we shall answer to Mrs. Hutchinson, notwith-
standing our brethren are very unwilling to answer."
And without further urging, that meek servant of
Christ went on to tell how he and others had heard
that the prisoner said they taught a covenant of works,
how they had sent for her, and though she was
" very tender " at first, yet upon being begged to speak
plainly, she had explained that there " was a broad
difference between our Brother Mr. Cotton and our-
selves. I desired to know the difference. She an-
swered ' that he preaches the covenant of grace and
you the covenant of works, and that you are not able
' ministers of the New Testament, and know no more
than the apostles did before the resurrection.' "...

Mrs. H. If our pastor would shew his writings
you should see what I said, and that many things are
not so as is reported.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 239

Mr. Wilson. Sister Hutchinson, for the writings
you speak of I have them not. . . .

Five more divines followed, who, though they were
" loth to speak in that assembly concerning that gentle-
woman," yet to ease their consciences in " the relation
wherein " they stood " to the Commonwealth and . . .
unto God," felt constrained to state that the prisoner
had said they were not able ministers of the New
Testament, and that the whole of the evidence of
Hugh Peters was true, and in so doing they came to
an issue of veracity with Cotton.

An adjournment soon followed till next day, and
the presiding justice seems to have considered his case
against his prisoner as closed.

In the morning Mrs. Hutchinson opened her defence
by calling three witnesses, Leverett, CoggeshaU, and
John Cotton.

Gov. Mr. CoggeshaU was not present.

Mr. C. Yes, but I was, only I desired to be silent
till I should be called.

Gov. Will you . . . say that she did not say so ?

Mr. C. Yes, I dare say that she did not say all
that which they lay against her.

Mr. Peters. How dare you look into the court to
say such a word ?

Mr. C. Mr. Peters takes upon him to forbid me.
I shall be silent. . . .

Gov. Well, Mr. Leverett, what were the words?
I pray speak.

240 THE ANTINOMIANS.

Mr. L. To my best remembrance . . . Mr. Peters
did with much vehemency and entreaty urge her to
tell what difference there was between Mr. Cotton and
them, and upon his urging of her she said : " The fear
of man is a snare, but they that trust upon the Lord
shall be safe." And . . . that they did not preach
a covenant of grace so clearly as Mr. Cotton did, and
she gave this reason of it, because that as the apostles
were for a time without the Spirit so until they had
received the witness of the Spirit they could not preach
a covenant of grace so clearly.

The Rev. John Cotton was then called. He was
much embarrassed in giving his evidence, but, if he is
to be believed, his brethren, in their anxiety to make
out a case, had colored material facts. He closed his
account of the interview in these words : " I must say
that I did not find her saying they were under a cov-
enant of works, nor that she said they did preach
a covenant of works."

Gov. You say you do not remember, but can you
say she did not speak so?

Mr. C. I do remember that she looked at them as
the apostles before the ascension. . . .

Dep. Gov. They affirm that Mrs. Hutchinson did
say they were not able ministers of the New Testa-
ment.

Mr. C. I do not remember it.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 241

Mrs. Hutchinson had shattered the case of the gov-
ernment in a style worthy of a leader of the bar, but
she now ventured on a step for which she has been
generally condemned. She herself approached the
subject of her revelations. To criticise the introduc-
tion of evidence is always simpler than to conduct a
cause, but an analysis of her position tends to show
not only that her course was the result of mature
reflection, but that her judgment was in this instance
correct. She probably assumed that when the more
easily proved charges had broken down she would be
attacked here ; and in this assumption she was un-
doubtedly right. The alternative presented to her,
therefore, was to go on herself, or wait for Winthrop
to move. If she waited she knew she should give the
government the advantage of choosing the ground,
and she would thus be subjected to the danger of hav-
ing fatal charges proved against her by hearsay or
distorted evidence. If she took the bolder course, she
could explain her revelations as monitions coming to
her through texts in Scripture, and here she was cer-
tain of Cotton's support. Before that tribunal she
could hardly have hoped for an acquittal ; but if any-
thing could have saved her it would have been the
sanction given to her doctrines by the approval of
John Cotton. At all events, she saw the danger, for
she closed her little speech in these touching words :
"Now if you do condemn me for speaking what in
my conscience I know to be truth, I must commit my-
self unto the Lord."

242 THE ANTINOMIANS.

Mr. Nowell. How do you know that that was the
Spirit ?

Mrs. H. How did Abraham know that it was
God? . . .

De'p. Gov. By an immediate voice.

Mrs. H. So to me by an immediate revelation.

Then she proceeded to state how, through various
texts which she cited, the Lord showed her what He
would do; and she particularly dwelt on one from
Daniel. So far all was well ; she had planted herself
on ground upon which orthodox opinion was at least
divided ; but she now committed the one grave error
of her long and able defence. As she went on her
excitement gained upon her, and she ended by some-
thing like a defiance and denunciation : " You have
power over my body, but the Lord Jesus hath power
over my body and soul ; and assure yourselves thus
much, you do as much as in you lies to put the Lord
Jesus Christ from you, and if you go on in this course
you begin, you will bring a curse upon you and your
posterity, and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

Gov. Daniel was delivered by miracle. Do you
think to be delivered so too ?

Mrs. H. I do here speak it before the court. I
look that the Lord should deliver me by his provi-
dence. . . .

Dej). Gov. I desire Mr. Cotton to tell us whether
you do approve of Mrs. Hutchinson's revelations as
she hath laid them down.

THE ANTINOMIANS. 243

Mr. C. I know not whether I do understand her,
but this I say, if she doth expect a deliverance in a
way of providence, then I cannot deny it.

Gov. ... I see a marvellous providence of God
to bring things to this pass. . . . God by a providence
hath answered our desires, and made her to lay open
herself and the around of all these disturbances to be
by revelations. . . .

Court. We all consent with you.

Gov. Ey, it is the most desperate enthusiasm in
the world. . . .

Mr. Endicott. I speak in reference to Mr. Cotton.
. . . Whether do you witness for her or against her.

Mr. C. This is that I said, sir, and my answer is
plain, that if she doth look for deliverance from the
hand of God by his providence, and the revelation be
. . . according to a word [of Scripture] that I cannot
deny.

Mr. Endicott. You give me satisfaction.

Dep. Gov. No, no, he gives me none at all. . . .

Mr. C. I pray, sir, give me leave to express my-
self. In that sense that she speaks I dare not bear
witness against it.

31r. Nowell. I think it is a devilish delusion.

Gov. Of all the revelations that ever I read of I
never read the like ground laid as is for this. The
enthusiasts and Anabaptists had never the like. . . .

Mr. Peters. I can say the same . . . and I think
that is very disputable which our brother Cotton hath
spoken. . . .

244 THE ANTINOMIANS.

Gov. I am persuaded that the revelation she brings
forth is delusion.

All the court but some two or three ministers cry
out, We all believe it, we all believe it. . . .

And then Coddington stood up before that angry-
meeting like the brave man he was, and said, " I be-
seech you do not speak so to force things along, for
I do not for my own part see any equity in the court
in all your proceedings. Here is no law of God that
she hath broken, nor any law of the country that she
hath broke, and therefore deserves no censure ; and if
she say that the elders preach as the apostles did, why
they preached a covenant of grace and what wrong is
that to them, . . . therefore I pray consider, what you
do, for here is no law of God or man broken."

Mr. Peters. I profess I thought Mr. Cotton would
never have took her part.

Gov. The court hath already declared themselves
satisfied . . . concerning the troublesomeness of her
spirit and the danger of her course amongst us which
is not to be suffered. Therefore if it be the mind of
the court that Mrs. Hutchinson . . . shall be banished
out of our liberties and imprisoned till she be sent
away let them hold up their hands.

All but three consented.

Those contrary minded hold up yours. Mr. Cod-
dington and Colburn only.

1/

THE ANTINOMIANS. 245

Gov. Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court
you hear is that you are banished from out of our
jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our society,
and are to be imprisoned till the court shall send
you away.

Mrs. H. I desire to know wherefore I am ban-
ished.

Gov. Say no more, the court knows wherefore and
is satisfied.^

With refined malice she was committed to the cus-
tody of Joseph Welde of Roxbury, the brother of the
Rev. Thomas Welde who thought her a Jezebel.
Here " divers of the elders resorted to her," and un-
der this daily torment rapid progress was made.
Probably during that terrible interval her reason was
tottering, for her talk came to resemble ravings.^
When this point was reached the divines saw their
object attained, and that " with sad hearts " they could
give her up to Satan. ^ Accordingly they " wrote to
the church at Boston, offering to make proof of the
same," whereupon she was summoned and the lecture
appointed to begin at ten o'clock.^

''When she was come one of the ruling elders
called her forth before the assembly," and read to
her the twenty-nine errors of which she was accused,
all of which she admitted she had maintained. " Then
she asked by what rule such an elder would come to

1 Hutch. Hist. vol. ii. App. 2. ^ Brief Apologie, p. 59.

* Winthrop, i. 254.

246 THE ANTINOMIANS.

her pretending to desire light and indeede to entrappe
her." He answered that he came not to " entrap her
but in compassion to her soule. . . ."

" Then presently she grew into passion . . . pro-
fessing withall that she held none of these things
. . . before her imprisonment." ^

The court sat till eight at night, when " Mr. Cot-
ton pronounced the sentence of admonition . . . with
much zeal and detestation of her errors and pride of
spirit." 2 An adjournment was then agreed on for a
week and she was ordered to return to Roxbury ; but
this was more than she could bear, and her distress
was such that the congregation seem to have felt some
touch of compassion, for she was committed to the
charge of Cotton till the next lecture day, when the
trial was to be resumed.^ At his house her mind re-
covered its tone and when she again appeared she not
only retracted the wild opinions she had broached
while at Joseph Welde's, but admitted " that what she
had spoken against the magistrates at the court (by
way of revelation) was rash and ungrounded." *

But nothing could avail her. She was in the hands
o:' men determined to make her expiation of her
crimes a by-word of terror ; her fate was sealed. The
doctrines she now professed were less objectionable,
so she was examined as to former errors, among others
" that she had denied inherent righteousness ; " she
" affirmed that it was never her judgment ; and though

1 Brief Apol. pp. 59-61. ^ Winthrop, i. 256.

8 Brief Apol. p. 62. * Winthrop, i. 258.

\"

THE ANTINOMIANS. 247

it was proved by many testimonies . . . yet she im-
pudently persisted in her affirmation to the astonish-
ment of all the assembly. So that . . . the church
with one consent cast her out. . . . After she was ex-
communicated her spirit, which seemed before to be
somewhat dejected, revived again and she gloried in
her sufferings." ^ And all this time she had been
alone ; her friends were far away.

That no circumstances of horror might be lost, she
and one of her most devoted followers, Mary Dyer,
were nearing their confinements during this time of
misery. Both cases ended in misfortunes over whose
sickening details Thomas Welde and his reverend
brethren gloated with a savage joy, declaring that
" God himselfe was pleased to step in with his casting
vote ... as clearly as if he had pointed with his
finger." ^ Let posterity draw a veil over the shocking
scene.

Two or three days after her condemnation " the gov-
ernor sent [her] a warrant ... to depart . . . she
went by water to her farm at the Mount . . . and so
to the island in the Narragansett Bay which her hus-
)and and the rest of that sect had purchased of the
Indians." ^

This pure and noble but most unhappy woman had
sinned against the clergy, past forgiveness here or here-
after. They gibbeted her as Jezebel, and her name
became a reproach in Massachusetts through two

1 Winthrop, i. 258. 2 Short Story, Preface, § 5.

8 Wiuthrop, i. 259.

248 THE ANTINOMIANS.

hundred years. But her crimes and the awful end-
ing of her life are best read in the Christian words
of the Rev. Thomas Welde, whose gentle spirit so
adorned his holy office.

" For the servants of God who came over into New
England . . . seeing their ministery was a most pre-
cious sweete savour to all the saints before she came
hither, it is easie to discerne from what sinke that ill
vapour hath risen which hath made so many of her
seduced party to loath now the smell of those flowers
which they were wont to find sweetnesse in.^ . . .
The Indians set upon them, and slew her and all the
family.^ . . . Some write that the Indians did burne
her to death with fire, her house and all the rest
named that belonged to her ; but I am not able to
affirme by what kind of death they slew her, but slaine
it seemes she is, according to all reports. I never heard
that the Indians in those parts did ever before this,
commit the like outrage . . . ; and therefore God's
hand is the more apparently scene herein, to pick out
this wofull woman, to make her and those belonging
to her, an unheard of heavie example of their cruelty
above al others." ^

/i

^ Short Story, p. 40.

2 Mrs. Hutchinson and her family were killed in a general
massacre of the Dutch and English by the Indians on Long Isl-
and. Winthrop, ii. 136.

8 Short Story, Preface.

CHAPTER III.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

With the ruin of the Antinomians, opposition to
the clergy ceased within the church itself, but many-
causes combined to prevent the bulk of the people
from participating in the communion. Of those who
were excluded, perhaps even the majority might have
found it impossible to have secured their pastor's ap-
probation, but numbers who would have been gladly
received were restrained by conscientious scruples ;
and more shrank from undergoing the ordeal to which
they would have been obliged to submit. It was no
light matter for a pious but a sincerely honest man to
profess his conversion, and how God had been pleased
to work " in the inward parts of his soul," when he
was not absolutely certain that he had indeed been
^^sited by the Spirit. And it is no exaggeration to say
r^git to sensitive natures the initiation was appalling.
The applicant had first to convince the minister of his
worthiness, then his name was openly propounded, and
those who knew of any objection to his character,
either moral or religious, were asked to give notice to
the presbytery of elders. If the candidate succeeded
in passing this private examination as to his fitness
the following scene took place in church : —

250 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

" The party appearing in the midst of the assembly
. . . the ruling elder speaketh in this manner : Breth-
ren of this congregation, this man or woman . . . hath
beene heretofore propounded to you, desiring to enter
into church fellowship with us, and we have not since
that heard anything from any of you to the contrary
of the parties admittance but that we may goe on to
receive him : therefore now, if any of you know any-
thing against him, why he may not be admitted, you
may yet speak. . . . Whereupon, sometimes men do
speak to the contrary . . . and so stay the party for
that time also till this new offence be heard before
the elders, so that sometimes there is a space of divers
moneths between a parties first propounding and re-
ceiving, and some are so bashfuU as that they choose
rather to goe without the communion than undergoe
such publique confessions and tryals, but that is held
their fault." ^

Those who were thus disfranchised, Lechford, who
knew what he was talking about, goes on to say, soon
began to complain that they were " ruled like slaves ; "
and there can be no doubt that they had to submit to
very substantial grievances. The administration of
justice especially seems to have been defective. " Now
the most of the persons at New England are not ad-
mitted of their church, and therefore are not freemen,
and when they come to be tryed there, be it for life or
limb, name or estate, or whatsoever, they must bee tryed
and judged too by those of the church, who are in a
^ Lechford, Plain Dealing, pp. 6, 7.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 251

sort their adversaries : how equall that hath been, or
may be, some by experience doe know, others may
judge." 1

The government was in fact in the hands of a small
oligarchy of saints,^ who were, in their turn, ruled by
their priests, and as the repression of thought inevita-
ble under such a system had roused the Antinomians,
who were voters, to demand a larger intellectual free-
dom, so the denial of ordinary political rights to the
majority led to discontent.

Since under the theocracy there was no department
of human affairs in which the clergy did not meddle,
they undertook as a matter of course to interfere with
the militia, and the following curious letter written to
the magistrates by the ministers of Rowley shows how
far they carried their supervision even so late as 1689.

Rowley, July 24th, 1689.
May it iilease your honors^

The occasion of these lines is to inform you that
whereas our military company have nominated Abel
Platts, for ensign, we conceive that it is our duty to
declare that we cannot approve of their choice in that
he is corrupt in his judgment with reference to the
Lord's Supper, declaring against Christ's words of
justification, and hereupon hath withdrawn himself
from communion with the church in that holy ordi-
nance some years, besides some other things wherein

^ Plain Dealing, p. 23.

^ " Three parts of the people of the country remaiue out of
the church." Plain Dealing, p. 73. A. d. 1642.

252 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

he hath shown no little vanity in his conversation and
hath demeaned himself unbecomingly toward the
word and toward the dispensers of it. . . .

Samuel Phillips.

Edward Paison.^

A somewhat similar difficulty, which happened in
Hingham in 1645, produced very serious consequences.
A new captain had been chosen for their company ;
but a dispute having arisen, the magistrates, on the
question being submitted to them, set the election aside
and directed the old officers to keep their places until
the General Court should meet. Notwithstanding
this order the commotion continued to increase, and
the pastor, Mr. Peter Hubbert, " was very forward to
have excommunicated the lieutenant," who was the
candidate the magistrates favored.^ Winthrop hap-
pened to be deputy governor that year, and the ag-
grieved officer applied to him for protection ; where-
upon, as the defendants seemed inclined to be recal-
citrant, several were committed in open court, among
whom were three of Mr. Hubbert's brothers.

Forthwith the clergyman in great wrath headed a
petition to which he obtained a large number of sig-
natures, in which he prayed the General Court to take
cognizance of the cause, since it concerned the public
liberty and the liberty of the church.

At its next session, the legislature proceeded to ex-
amine the whole case, and Winthrop was brought to

1 History of Newbury, p. 80. 2 Winthrop, ii. 222, 223.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 253

trial for exceeding his jurisdiction as a magistrate. A
contest ensued between the deputies and assistants,
which was finally decided by the influence of the
elders. The result was that Winthrop was acquit-
ted and Mr. Hubbert and the chief petitioners were
fined.^

In March the constable went to Hingham to collect
the money ,^ but he found the minister indisposed to
submit in silence. About thirty people had collected,
and before them all Mr. Hubbert demanded the war-
rant ; when it was produced he declared it worthless
because not in the king's name, and then went on to
add that the government " was not more then a cor-
poration in England, and . . . had not power to put
men to death . . . that for himself he had neither horn
nor hoofe of his own, nor anything wherewith to buy
his children cloaths ... if he must pay the fine he
would pay it in books, but that he knew not for what
they were fined, unlesse it were for petitioning : and
if they were so waspish they might not be petitioned,
then he could not tell what to say." ^

Unluckily for Mr. Hubbert he had taken the popu-
lar side in this dispute and had thus been sundered
from his brethren, who sustained Winthrop, and in the
end carried him through in triumph ; and not only
this, but he was suspected of Presbyterian tendencies,
and a committee of the elders who had visited Hing-
ham to reconcile some differences in the congregation

1 Winthrop, ii. 227. 2 1645-46, 18 March.

* New Eng. Jonas, Marvin's ed. p. 5.

254 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

had found him in grave fault. The government waB
not sorry, therefore, to make him a public example,
as appeared not only by these proceedings, but by the
way he was treated in the General Court the next
autumn. He was accordingly indicted for sedition,
tried and convicted in June, fined twenty pounds, and
bound over to good behavior in forty pounds more.^
Such a disturbance as this seems to have been all that
was needed to bring the latent discontent to a focus.

William Vassal had been an original patentee and
was a member of the first Board of Assistants, who
were appointed by the king. Being, however, a man
of liberal views he had not found Massachusetts con-
genial ; he had returned to England after a stay of
only a month, and when he came again to America in
1635, he had settled at Scituate, the town adjoining
Hingham, but in the Plymouth jurisdiction. Having
both wealth and social position he possessed great influ-
ence, and he now determined to lead an agitation for
equal rights and liberty of conscience in both colonies
at once, by petitioning the legislatures, and in case of
failure there, presenting similar petitions to Parlia-
ment.

Bradford was this year ^ governor of Plymouth,
and Edward Win slow was an assistant. Winslow
himself had been governor repeatedly, was a thor-
ough-going churchman, and deep in all the coun-
cils of the conservative party. There was, however,
no religious qualification for the suffrage in the old
i New Eng. Jonas, p. 6. 2 June, 1646. ^ 1^45.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 255

colony, and the complexion of its politics was there-
fore far more liberal than in Massachusetts ; so Vas-
sal was able to command a strong support when he
brought forward his proposition. Winslow, writing to
his friend Winthrop at Boston, gives an amusing ac-
count of his own and Bradford's consternation, and the
expedients to which they were forced to resort in the
legislature to stave off a vote upon the petition, when
Vassal made his motion in October, 1645.

" After this, the first excepter [Vassal] having been
observed to tender the view of a scroule from man to
man, it came at length to be tendered to myself, and
withall, said he, it may be you will not like this.
Having read it, I told him I utterly abhorred it as
such as would make us odious to all Christian com.
monweales : But at length he told the governor
[Bradford] he had a written proposition to be pro-
pounded to the court, which he desired the court to
take into consideration, and according to order, if
thought meet, to be allowed : To this the deputies
were most made beforehand, and the other three as-
sistants, who applauded it as their Diana ; and the
sum of it was, to allow and maintaine full and free
tollerance of religion to all men that would preserve
the civill peace and submit unto government ; and
there was no limitation or exception against Turke,
Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, Nicholaytan, Familist,
or any other, &c. But our governor and divers of us
having expressed the sad consequences would follow,
especially myselfe and Mr. Prence, yet notwithstand-

256 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

ing it was required, according to order, to be voted :
But tlie governor would not suffer it to come to vote,
as being that indeed would eate out the power of God-
lines, &c. . . . You would have admired to have seen
how sweet this carrion relished to the pallate of most
of the deputies ! What will be the issue of these
things, our all ordering God onely knows. . . . But if
he have such a judgment for this place, I trust we
shall finde (I speake for many of us that groane un-
der these things) a resting place among you for the
soales of our feet." ^

As just then nothing more could be done in Plym-
outh, proceedings were transferred to Massachusetts.
Samuel Maverick is a bright patch of color on the sad
Puritan background. He had a dwelling at Winnisime,
that "in the yeare 1625 I fortified with a pillizado
and fflankers and gunnes both belowe and above in
them which awed the Indians who at that time had a
mind to cutt off the English." ^ When Winthrop
landed, he found him keeping open house, so kindly
and freehanded that even the grim Johnson relaxes
when he speaks of him : " a man of very loving and
curteous behaviour, very ready to entertaine stran-
gers, yet an enemy to the reformation in hand, being
strong for the lordly prelatical power." ^

This genial English churchman entertained every
one at his home on Noddle's Island, which is now

1 Hutch. Colli Prince Soc. ed. i. 174.

2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, Oct. 1884, p. 236.
8 Wonder -Working Providence, Poole's ed. p. 37.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 257

East Boston : Vane and Lord Ley, and La Tour when
he came to Boston ruined, and even Owen when he
ran off with another man's wife, and so brought a fine
of £100 on his host. Josselyn says with much feeling:
" I went a shore upon Noddles Island to Mr. Samuel
Maverick, . . . the only hospitable man in the whole
countrey.'' He was charitable also, and Winthrop re-
lates how, when the Indians were dying of the small-
pox, he, "his wife and servants, went daily to them,
ministered to their necessities, and buried their dead,
and took home many of their children." He was
generous, too, with his wealth; and when the town
had to rebuild the fort on Castle Island much of the
money came from him.

But, as Endicott told the Browns, when he shipped
them to England, because their practice in adhering
to their Episcopal orders tended to " mutiny," " New
England was no place for such as they." One by one
they had gone, — the Browns first, and afterward
William Blackstone, who had found it best to leave
Boston because he could not join the church ; and now
the pressure on Maverick began to make him restive.
Though he had been admitted a freeman in the early
days, he was excluded from all offices of importance ;
he was taxed to support a church of which he disap-
proved, yet was forced to attend, though it would not
baptize his children ; and he was so suspected that, in
March, 1635, he had been ordered to remove to Boston,
and was forbidden to lodge strangers for more than
one night without leave from a magistrate. Under

258 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

such circumstances he could not but sympathize with
Vassal in his effort to win for all men equal rights be-
fore the law. Next after him in consequence was Dr.
Robert Childe, who had taken a degree at Padua, and
who, though not a freeman, had considerable interests
in the country, — a man of property and standing.
There were five more signers of the petition : Thomas
Burton, John Smith, David Yale, Thomas Fowle, and
John Dand, but they do not require particular notice.
They prayed that " civil liberty and freedome be
forthwith granted to all truly English, equall to the
rest of their countrymen, as in all plantations is ac-
customed to be done, and as all free-borne enjoy in
our native country. . . . Further that none of the
English nation ... be banished unlesse they break
the known lawes of England. . . . We therefore
humbly intreat you, in whose hands it is to help . . .
for the glory of God ... to give liberty to the mem-
bers of the churches of England not scandalous in
their lives . . . to be taken into your congregations,
and to enjoy with you all those liberties and ordi-
nances Christ hath purchased for them, and into
whose name they are baptized ... or otherwise to
grant liberty to settle themselves here in a church
way according to the best reformations of England
and Scotland. If not, we and they shall be neces-
sitated to apply our humble desires to the Hoftorable
Houses of Parliament." ^

This petition was presented to the court on May
1 New Eng. Jonas, Marvin's ed. pp. 13-15.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 259

19, 1646 ; but the session was near its close, and it
was thought best to take no immediate steps. The
elders, however, became satisfied that the moment had
come for a thorough organization of the church, and
they therefore caused the legislature to issue a general
invitation to all the congregations to send representa-
tives to a synod to be held at Cambridge. But not-
withstanding the inaction of the authorities, the clergy-
were perfectly aware of the danger, and they passed
the summer in creating the necessary indignation
among the voters : they bitterly denounced from their
pulpits " the sons of Belial, Judasses, sons of Corah,"
"with sundry appellations of that nature . . . which
seemed not to arise from a gospel spirit." Some-
times they devoted " a whole sermon, and that not very
short," to describing the impending ruin and exhort-
ing the magistrates " to lay hold upon " the offenders.^
Winthrop had been chosen governor in May, and,
when the legislature met in October, he was made
chairman of a committee to draft an answer to Childe.
This document may be found in Hutchinson's Collec-
tion. As a state paper devoted to the discussion of
questions of constitutional law it has little merit, but
it may have been effective as a party manifesto. A
short adjournment followed till November, when, on
reassembling, the elders were asked for their advice
upon this absorbing topic.

" Mr. Hubbard of Hingham came with the rest, but
the court being informed that he had an hand in a pe-
^ New Eng. Jonas, Marvin's ed. p. 19.

2G0 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

tition, which Mr. Vassall carried into England against
tlie country in general, th(; governour propounded, that
if any elder present had any such hand, &c., he would
withdraw himself." Mr. Hubbert sitting still a good
space, one of the deputies stated that he was suspected,
whereupon he rose and said he knew nothing of such
a petition.

Then Winthrop replied that he "must needs deliver
his mind about him," and though he had no proof
about the pc^tition, " yet in regard he had so much
opposed authority and offered such contempt to it,
... he thought he would (in discretion) withdraw
himself, &c., whereupon he went out." ^

The ministers who remained then proceeded to de-
fine the relations of Massachusetts toward England,
and the position they assumed was very simple.

" I. We depend upon the state of England for pro-
tection and immunities of Englishmen. ... II. We
conceive ... we have granted by patent such full and
ample power ... of making all laws and rules of our
obedience, and of a full and final determination of all
cases in the administration of justice, that no appeals
or other ways of interrupting our proceedings do lie
against us." ^

In other words, they were to enjoy the privileges
and safeguards of British subjects without yielding
obedience to British law.

Under popular governments the remedy for discon-
tent is free discussion ; under despotisms it is repres-
1 Winthrop, ii. 278. ^ Winthrop, ii. 282.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 261

sion. In Massachusetts energetic steps were promptly
taken to punish the ring-leaders in what the court
now dechired to be a conspiracy. The petitioners
were summoned, and on being questioned refused to
answer until some charge was made. A hot alterca-
tion followed, which ended in the defendants tender-
ing an ap[)cal, which was refused ; and they were com-
mitted for trial.' A species of in(li(;tment was then
prepared in which they were charged with puldishing
seditious libels against the Church of Christ and the
civil government. The gravamen of the offence was
the attempt to persuade the people " that the liberties
and privileges in our charter belong t^> all freeborn
Englishmen inhabitants here, whereas they are granted
only to such as the governour and company shall think
fit to receive into that fellowsliip." ^ The appeal was
held criminal because a denial of the jurisdiction of
the government. The trial resembled Wheelwright's.
Like him the defendants refused to make submission,
but persisted " obstinately and proudly in their evil
practice ; " that is to say, they maintained the right of
petition and the legality of their course. They were
therefore fined : Childe £50 ; Smith X40 ; Maverick,
because he had not yet appeahMl, XIO ; and the others
<£30 each ; three magistrates dissented.

Childe at once began hasty preparations to sail.
To prevent him Winthrop (;alled the assistants to-
gether, without, however, giving the dissenting magis-
trates notice, and arranged to have him arrested and
searched.

1 Winthrop, ii. 28.j. * Idem.

262 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

One striking characteristic of the theocracy was its
love for inflicting mental suffering upon its victims.
The same malicious vindictiveness which sent Morton
to sea in sight of his blazing home, and which impris-
oned Anne Hutchinson in the house of her bitterest
enemy, now suggested a scheme for making Childe
endure the pangs of disappointment, by allowing him
to embark, and then seizing him as the ship was set-
ting sail. And though the plan miscarried, and the
arrest had to be made the night before, yet even as it
was the prisoner took his confinement very " griev-
ously, but he could not help it." ^

Nothing criminating was found in his possession,
but in Dand's study, which was ransacked, copies of
two petitions were discovered, with a number of que-
ries relating to certain legal aspects of the charter, and
intended to be submitted to the Commissioners for the
Plantations at London.

These petitions were substantially those already
presented, except that, by way of preamble, the story
of the trial was told ; and how the ministers " did re-
vile them, &c., as far as the wit or malice of man
could, and that they meddled in civil affaires beyond
their calling, and were masters rather than ministers,
and ofttimes judges, and that they had stirred up the
magistrates against them, and that a day of humilia-
tion was appointed, wherein they were to pray against
them." 2

Such words had never been heard in Massachusetts.

1 Winthrop, ii. 294. ^ Winthrop, ii. 293.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 263

The saints were aghast. Winthrop speaks of the of-
fence as " being in nature capital," and Johnson
thought the Lord's gracious goodness alone quelled
this malice against his people.

Of course no mercy was shown. It is true that the
writings were lawful petitions by English subjects to
Parliament ; that, moreover, they had never been pub-
lished, 'but were found in a private room by means of
a despotic search. Several of the signers were im-
prisoned for six months and then were punished in
May: —

Doctor Childe, (imprisonment till paid,) £200

John Smith, " " " 100

John Dand, « " " 200

Tho. Burton, " " " 100

Samuel Maverick, for his offence in being pty
to y* conspiracy, (imprison-
ment till paid,) 100
Samuel Maverick, ffor his offence in breaking his
oath and in appealing ag°^' y^
intent of his oath of a freeman, 50 ^

The conspirators of the poorer class were treated
with scant ceremony. A carpenter named Joy was in
Dand's study when the officers entered. He asked if
the warrant was in the king's name. " He was laid
hold on, and kept in irons about four or five days, and
then he humbled himself . . . for meddling in matters
belonging not to him, and blessed God for these irons

1 Masts. Rec. iii. 113. May 26, 1647. £200 was the equivalent
of about 85,000.

264 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

upon his legs, hoping they should do him good while
he lived." ^

But though the government could oppress the men,
they could not make their principles unpopular, and
the next December after Vassal and his friends had
left the colony, the orthodox Samuel Symonds of Ips-
wich wrote mournfully to Winthrop : " I am informed
that coppies of the petition are spreading here, and
divers (specially young men and women) are taken
with it, and are apt to wonder why such men should
be troubled that speake as they doe : not being able
suddenly to discerne the poyson in the sweet wine, nor
the fire wrapped up in the straw." ^ The petitioners,
however, never found redress. Edward Win slow had
been sent to London as agent, and in 1648 he was
able to write that their " hopes and endeavours . . .
had been blasted by the special providence of the
Lord who still wrought for us." And Winthrop pi-
ously adds : " As for those who went over to pro-
cure us trouble, God met with them all. Mr. Vas-
sall, finding no entertainment for his petitions, went
to Barbadoes," ^ . . . " God had brought " Thomas
Fowle " very low, both in his estate and in his rep-
utation, since he joined in the first petition." And
" God had so blasted " Childe's " estate as he was
quite broken." ^

Maverick remained some years in Boston, being
probably unable to abandon his property ; during this

1 Winthrop, ii. 294. 2 Felt's Ecd. Hist. i. 593.

8 Winthrop, ii. 321. * Winthrop, ii. 322.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 265

interval he made several efforts to have his fine re-
mitted, and he did finally secure an abatement of one
half. He then went to England and long aftervard
came back as a royal commissioner to try his fortune
once again in a contest with the theocracy.

Dr. Palfrey has described this movement as a plot
to introduce a direct government by England by in-
ducing Parliament to establish Presbyterianism. By
other than theological reasoning this inference cannot
be deduced from the evidence. All that is certainly
known about the leaders is that they were not of any
one denomination. Maverick was an Episcopalian ;
Vassal was probably an Independent like Cromwell
or Milton ; and though the elders accused Childe of
being a Jesuit, there is some ground to suppose that
he inclined toward Geneva. So far as the testimony
goes, everything tends to prove that the petitioners
were perfectly sincere in their effort to gain some
small measure of civil and religious liberty for them-
selves and for the disfranchised majority.

Viewed from the standpoint of history and not of
prejudice, the events of these early years present them-
selves in a striking and unmistakable sequence.

They are the phenomena that regularly attend a cer-
tain stage of human development, — the absorption of
power by an aristocracy. The clergy's rule was rigid,
and met with resistance, which was crushed with an
iron hand. Was it defection from their own ranks,
the deserters met the fate of Wheelwright, of Wil-
liams, of Cotton, or of Hubbert ; were politicians con-

266 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

tumacious, they were defeated or exiled, like Vane,
or Aspinwall, or Coddington ; were citizens discon-
tented, ttey were coerced like Maverick and Childe.
The process had been uninterrupted alike in church
and state. The congregations, which in theory should
have included all the inhabitants of the towns, had
shrunk until they contained only a third or a quar-
ter of the people ; while the churches themselves,
which were supposed to be independent of external
interference and to regulate their affairs by the will
of the majority, had become little more than the chat-
tels of the priests, and subject to the control of the
magistrates who were their representatives. This
system has generally prevailed ; in like manner the
Inquisition made use of the secular arm. The condi-
tion of ecclesiastical affairs is thus described by the
highest living authority on Congregationalism : —

" Our fathers laid it down — and with perfect
truth — that the will of Christ, and not the will of
the major or minor part of a church, ought to gov-
ern that church. But somebody must interpret that
will. And they quietly assumed that Christ would
reveal his will to the elders, but would not reveal it
to the church-members ; so that when there arose a
difference of opinion as to what the Master's will
might be touching any particular matter, the judg-
ment of the elders, rather than the judgment even of
a majority of the membership, must be taken as con-
clusive. To all intents and purposes, then, this was
precisely the aristocracy which they affirmed that it

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 267

was not. For the elders were to order business in the
assurance that every truly humble and sincere mem-
ber would consent thereto. If any did not consent,
and after patient debate remained of another judg-
ment, he was ' partial ' and ' factious,' and continu-
ing ' obstinate,' he was ' admonished ' and his vote
' nullified ; ' so that the elders could have their way
in the end by merely adding the insult of the ap-
parent but illusive offer of cooperation to the injury
of their absolute control. As Samuel Stone of Hart-
ford no more tersely than truly put it, this kind of
Congregationalism was simply a ' speaking Aristoc-
racy in the face of a silent Democracy.' " ^

It is true that Vassal's petition was the event which
made the ministers decide to call a synod ^ by means
of an invitation of the General Court ; but it is also
certain that under no circumstances would the meet-
ing of some such council have been long delayed.
For sixteen years the well-known process had been
going on, of the creation of institutions by custom,
having the force of law ; the stage of development
had now been reached when it was necessary that
those usages should take the shape of formal enact-
ments. The Cambridge platform therefore marks the
completion of an organization, and as such is the cen-
tral point in the history of the Puritan Common-
wealth. The work was done in August, 1648 : the

^ Early New England Congregationalism, as seen in its Litera-
ture, p. 429. Dr. Dexter.
2 Winthrop, ii. 264.

y

268

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

Westminster Confession was promulgated as the
creed ; the powers of the clergy were minutely de-
fined, and the duty of the laity stated to be " obeying
their elders and submitting themselves unto them in
the Lord." ^ The magistrate was enjoined to punish
" idolatry, blasphemy, heresy," and to coerce any
church becoming " schismatical."

In October, 1649, the court commended the plat-
form to the consideration of the congregations ; in
October, 1651, it was adopted ; and when church and
state were thus united by statute the theocracy was
complete.

The close of the era of construction is also marked
by the death of those two remarkable men whose in-
fluence has left the deepest imprint upon the institu-
tions they helped to mould : John Winthrop, who died
in 1649, and John Cotton in 1652.

Winthrop's letters to his wife show him to have
been tender and gentle, and that his disposition was
one to inspire love is proved by the affection those
bore him who had suffered most at his hands. Wil-
liams and Vane and Coddington kept their friendship
for him to the end. But these very qualities, so ami-
able in themselves, made him subject to the influence
of men of inflexible will. His dream was to create on
' earth a commonwealth of saints whose joy would be to
\ walk in the ways of God. But in practice he had to
deal with the strongest of human passions. In 1634,
though supported by Cotton, he was defeated by Dud-
1 Cambridge Platform, ch. x. section 7.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 269

ley, and there can be no doubt that this was caused
by the defection of the body of the clergy. The ev-
idence seems conclusive, for the next year Vane
brought about an interview between the two at which
Haynes was present, and there Haynes upbraided him
with remissness in administering justice.^ Winthrop
agreed to leave the question to the ministers, who the
next morning gave an emphatic opinion in favor of
strict discipline. Thenceforward he was pliant in
their hands, and with that day opened the dark epoch
of his life. By leading the crusade against the Anti-
nomians he regained the confidence of the elders and
they never again failed him ; but in return they ex-
acted obedience to their will ; and the rancor with
which he pursued Anne Hutchinson, Gorton, and
Childe cannot be extenuated, and must ever be a
stain upon his fame.

As Hutchinson points out, in early life his tenden-
cies were liberal, but in America he steadily grew \
narrow. The reason is obvious. The leader of an
intolerant party has himself to be intolerant. His /
claim to eminence as a statesman must rest upon the
purity of his moral character, his calm temper, and
his good judgment ; for his mind was not original or
brilliant, nor was his thought in advance of his age.
Herein he differed from his celebrated contemporary,
for among the long list of famous men, who are the
pride of Massachusetts, there are few who in mere
intellectual capacity outrank Cotton. He was not
1 Winthrop, i. 178.

270 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

only a profound scholar, an eloquent preacher, and a
famous controversialist, but a great organizer, and a
natural politician. He it was who constructed the
Congregational hierarchy; his publications were the
accepted authority both abroad and at home ; and
the system which he developed in his books was that
which was made law by the Cambridge Platform.

Of medium height, florid complexion, and as he
grew old some tendency to be stout, but with snowy
hair and much personal dignity, he seems to have had
an irresistible charm of manner toward those whom
he wished to attract.

Comprehending thoroughly the feelings and preju-
dices of the clergy, he influenced them even more by
his exquisite tact than by his commanding ability ; and
of easy fortune and hospitable alike from inclination
and from interest, he entertained every elder who went
to Boston. He understood the art of flattery to per-
fection ; or, as Norton expressed it, " he was a man of
ingenuous and pious candor, rejoicing (as opportunity
served) to take notice of and testifie unto the gifts of
God in his brethren, thereby drawing the hearts of
them to him. . . ." ^ No other clergyman has ever been
1 able to reach the position he held with apparent ease,
' which amounted to a sort of primacy of New England.
His dangers lay in the very fecundity of his mind.
Though hampered by his education and profession, he
was naturally liberal ; and his first miscalculation was
when, almost immediately on landing, he supported
^ Norton's Funeral Sermon, p. 37.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 271

Winthrop, who was in disgrace for the mildness of his
administration, against the austerer Dudley.

The consciousness of his intellectual superiority
seems to have given him an almost overweening confi-
dence in his ability to induce his brethren to accept
the broader theology he loved to preach ; nor did he
apparently realize that comprehension was incompati-
ble with a theocratic government, and that his success
would have undermined the organization he was labor-
ing to perfect. He thus committed the error of his j
life in undertaking to preach a religious reformation,
without having the resolution to face a martyrdom.
But when he saw his mistake, the way in which he re-
trieved himself showed a consummate knowledge of
human nature and of the men with whom he had to
deal. Nor did he ever forget the lesson. From that
time forward he took care that no one should be able
to pick a flaw in his orthodoxy ; and whatever he may
have thought of much of the policy of his party, he
was always ready to defend it without flinching.

Neither he nor Winthrop died too soon, for with the
completion of the task of organization the work that
suited them was finished, and they were unfit for that \
which remained to be done. An oligarchy, whose
power rests on faith and not on force, can only exist
by extii'pating all who openly question their preten-
sions to preeminent sanctity ; and neither of these men
belonged to the class of natural persecutors, — the one
was too gentle, the other too liberal. An example will
show better than much argument how little in accord

272

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

either really was with that spirit which, in the regular
course o£ social development, had thenceforward to
dominate over Massachusetts.

Captain Partridge had fought for the Parliament,
and reached Boston at the beginning of the winter of
1645. He was arrested and examined as a heretica
The magistrates referred the case to Cotton, who re-
ported that " he found him corrupt in judgment," but
"had good hope to reclaim him." ^ An instant recan-
tation was demanded ; it was of course refused, and, in
spite of all remonstrance, the family was banished in
the snow. Winthrop's sad words were : " But sure,
the rule of hospitality to strangers, and of seeking to
pluck out of the fire such as there may be hope of,
... do seem to require more moderation and indul-
gence of human infirmity where there appears not ob-
stinacy against the clear truth." ^

But in the savage and bloody struggle that was now
at hand there was no place for leaders capable of pity
or remorse, and the theocracy found supremely gifted
chieftains in John Norton and John Endicott.

Norton approaches the ideal of the sterner orders of
the priesthood. A gentleman by birth and breeding,
a ripe scholar, with a keen though polished wit, his
sombre temper was deeply tinged with fanaticism.
Unlike so many of his brethren, temporal concerns
were to him of but little moment, for every passion of
his gloomy soul was intensely concentrated on the war-
fare he believed himself waging with the fiend. Doubt
1 Winthrop, ii. 251. » Winthrop, ii. 251.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. 21 S

or compassion was impossible, for he was commis-"^
sioned by the Lord. He was Christ's elected minister,
and misbelievers were children of the devil whom it
was his sacred duty to destroy. He knew by the Word
of God that all save the orthodox were lost, and that
heretics not only perished, but were the hirelings of
Satan, who tempted the innocent to their doom ; he
therefore hated and feared them more than robbers or
murderers. Words seemed to fail him when he tried to
express his horror : " The face of death, the King of
Terrours, the living man by instinct turneth his face
from. An unusual shape, a satanical phantasm, a
ghost, or apparition, affrights the disciples. But the
face of heresie is of a more horrid aspect than all . . .
put together, as arguing some signal inlargement of
the power of darkness as being diabolical, prodigeous,
portentous." ^ By nature, moreover, he had in their
fullest measure the three attributes of a preacher of a
persecution, — eloquence, resolution, and a heart cal-
lous to human suffering. To this formidable church-
man was joined a no less formidable magistrate.

No figure in our early history looms out of the past
like Endicott's. The harsh face still looks down from
under the black skull-cap, the gray moustache and
pointed beard shading the determined mouth, but
throwing into relief the lines of the massive jaw. He
is almost heroic in his ferocious bigotry and daring, —
a perfect champion of the church.

The grim Puritan soldier is almost visible as, stand-
1 Heart of New Eng. Rent, p. 46.

274

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM.

ing at the head of his men, he tears the red cross from
the flag, and defies the power of England ; or, in that
tremendous moment, when the people were hanging
breathless on the fate of Christison, when insurrection
seemed bursting out beneath his feet, and his judges
shrunk aghast before the peril, we yet hear the savage
old man furiously strike the table, and, thanking God
that he at least dares to do his duty, we see him rise
alone before that threatening multitude to condemn
the heretic to death.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ANABAPTISTS.

The Rev. Thomas Shepard, pastor of Ciarlestown,
was such an example, " in word, m conversation, in
civility, in spirit, in faith, in. purity, that he did let no
man despise his youth ; " ^ and yet, preaching an elec-
tion sermon before the governor and magistrates, he
told them that " anabaptisme . . . hath ever been lookt
at by the godly leaders of this people as a scab."^
While the Rev. Samuel Willard, president of Har-
vard, declared that " such a rough thing as a New Eng-
land Anabaptist is not to be handled over tenderly." ^

So early as 1644, therefore, the General Court
" Ordered and agreed, y* if any pson or psons w*^in
y® iurisdiction shall eith"" openly condemne or oppose
y® baptiz^ of infants, or go about secretly to seduce
oth''* fro™ y® app'bation or use thereof, or shall pur-
posely depart y® congregation at y® administration of
y® ordinance, . . . and shall appear to y® Co't will-
fully and obstinately to continue therein after due
time and nieanes of conviction, every such pson or
psons shallbe sentenced to banishm*." *

The legislation, however, was unpopular, for Win-

^ Magnolia, bk. 4, ch. ix. § 6. ^ Eye Salve, p. 24.

8 Ne Sutor, p. 10.

* Mass. Rec. ii. 85. 13 November, 1644.

276 THE ANABAPTISTS.

throp relates that in October, 1645, divers mercliaiits
and others petitioned to have the act repealed, because
of the offense taken thereat by the godly in England,
and the court seemed inclined to accede, " but many
of the elders . . . entreated that the law might con-
tinue still in force, and the execution of it not sus-
pended, though they disliked not that all lenity and pa-
tience should be used for convincing and reclaiming
such erroneous persons. Whereupon the court refused
to make any further order." ^ And Edward Wins-
low assured Parliament in 1646, when sent to Eng-
land to represent the colony, that, some mitigation
being desired, " it was answered in my hearing. 'T is
true we have a severe law, but wee never did or will
execute the rigor of it upon any. . . . But the rea-
son wherefore wee are loath either to repeale or alter
the law is, because wee would have it ... to beare wit-
nesse against their judgment, . . . which we conceive
... to bee erroneous." ^

Unquestionably, at that time no one had been ban-
ished ; but in 1644 " one Painter, for refusing to let
his child be baptized, . . . was brought before the
court, where he declared their baptism to be anti-
Christian. He was sentenced to be whipped, which
he bore without flinching, and boasted that God had
assisted him." ^ Nor was his a solitary instance of
severity. Yet, notwithstanding the scorn and hatred
which the orthodox divines felt for these sectaries,

1 Winthrop, ii. 251. 2 Hypocrisie Unmasked, 101.

8 Hutch. Hist. i. 208, note.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 277

many very eminent Puritans fell into tlie errors of
that persuasion. Roger Williams was a Baptist, and
Henry Dunster, for the same heresy, was removed
from the presidency of Harvard, and found it pru-
dent to end his days within the Pl3anouth jurisdic-
tion. Even that great champion of infant baptism,
Jonathan Mitchell, when thrown into intimate rela-
tions with Dunster, had doubts.

" That day . . . after I came from him I had a
strange experience ; I found hurrying and pressing
suggestions against Psedobaptism, and injected scru-
ples and thoughts whether the other way might not
be right, and infant baptism an invention of men ;
and whether I might with good conscience baptize
children and the like. And these thoughts were
darted in with some impression, and left a strange
confusion and sickliness upon my spirit. Yet, me-
thought, it was not hard to discern that they were
from the £Jvil One ; . . • And it made me fearful to
go needlessly to Mr. D. ; for methought I found a
venom and poison in his insinuations and discourses
against Pgedobaptism." ^

Henry Dunster was an uncommon man. Famed for
piety in an age of fanaticism, learned, modest, and
brave, by the unremitting toil of thirteen years he
raised Harvard from a school to the position which
it has since held ; and though very poor, and starving
on a wretched and ill-paid pittance, he gave his be-
loved college one hundred acres of land at the mo-
1 Magnalia, bk. 4, ch. iv. § 10.

278 THE ANABAPTISTS.

ment of its sorest need.^ Yet he was a criminal, for
he would not baptize infants, and he met with the
" lenity and patience " which the elders were not un-
willing should be used toward the erring.

He was indicted and convicted of disturbing church
ordinances, and deprived of his office in October, 1654.
He asked for leave to stay in the house he had built
for a few months, and his petition in November ought
to be read to understand how heretics were made to
suffer : —

" 1st. The time of the year is unseasonable, being
now very near the shortest day, and the depth of win-
ter.

" 2d. The place unto which I go is unknown to me
and my family, and the ways and means of subsist-
ance. . . .

" 3d. The place from which I go hath fire, fuel, and
all provisions for man and beast, laid in for the win-
ter. . . . The house I have builded upon very damage-
f ul conditions to myself, out of love for the college,
taking country pay in lieu of bills of exchange on
England, or the house would not have been built. . . .

"4th. The persons, all beside mj'^self, are women
and children, on whom little help, now their minds lie
under the actual stroke of affliction and grief. My
wife is sick, and my youngest child extremely so, and
hath been for months, so that we dare not carry him
out of doors, yet much worse now than before. . . .
Myself will willingly bow my neck to any yoke of per-
^ Quincy's History of Harvard, i. 15.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 279

sonal denial, for I know for what and for whom, by
grace I suffer." ^

He had before asked Winthrop to cause the gov-
ernment to pay him what it owed, and he ended his
prayer in these words : " Considering the poverty of
the country, I am willing to descend to the lowest
step ; and if nothing can comfortably be allowed, I sit
still appeased ; desiring nothing more than to supply
me and mine with food and raiment." ^ He received
that mercy which the church has ever shown to those
who wander from her fold ; he was given till March,
and then, with dues unpaid, was driven forth a broken
man, to die in poverty and neglect.

But Jonathan Mitchell, pondering deeply upon the
wages he saw paid at his very hearthstone, to the sin
of his miserable old friend, snatched his own soul from
Satan's jaws. And thenceforward his path lay in
pleasant places, and he prospered exceedingly in the
world, so that " of extreara lean he grew extream fat ;
and at last, in an extream hot season, a fever arrested
him, just after he had been preaching. . . . Wonder-
ful were the lamentations which this deplorable death
fill'd the churches of New England withal. . . . Yea
... all New England shook when that pillar fell to
the ground." ^

Notwithstanding, therefore, clerical promises of gen-
tleness, Massachusetts was not a comfortable place of
residence for Baptists, who, for the most part, went to

1 History of Harvard, i. 18. 2 idem, i. 20.

3 Magnolia, bk. 4, ch. iv. § 16.

280 THE ANABAPTISTS.

Rhode Island ; and John Clark ^ became the pastor of
the church which they formed at Newport about 1644.
He had been born about 1610, and had been educated
in London as a physician. In 1637 he landed at Bos-
ton, where he seems to have become embroiled in the
Antinomian controversy ; at all events, he fared so ill
that, with several others, he left Massachusetts 're-
solving, through the help of Christ, to get clear of all
[chartered companies] and be of ourselves.' In the
course of their wanderings they fell in with Williams,
and settled near him.

Clark was perhaps the most prominent man in the
Plantations, filled many public offices, and was the
commissioner who afterward secured for the colony
the famous charter that served as the State Constitu-
tion till 1842.

Obediah Holmes, who succeeded him as Baptist
minister of Newport, is less well known. He was ed-
ucated at Oxford, and when he emigrated he settled
at Salem ; from thence he went to Seaconk, where he
joined the church under Mr. Newman. Here he soon
fell into trouble for resisting what he maintained was
an " unrighteous act " of his pastor's ; in consequence
he and several more renounced the communion, and
began to worship by themselves ; they were baptized
and thereafter they were excommunicated ; the inev-
itable indictment followed, and they, too, took refuge
in Rhode Island.^

1 For sketch of Clark's life see Allen's Biographical Dictionary.
* Holmes's Narrative, Backus, i. 213.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 281

William Witter^ of Lynn was an aged Baptist,
who had already been prosecuted, but, in 1651, being
blind and infirm, lie asked the Newport cliureh to send
some of the brethren to him, to administer the com-
munion, for he found himself alone in Massachusetts.^
Accordingly Clark undertook the mission, with Obe-
diah Holmes and John Crandall.

They reached Lynn on Saturday, July 19, 1C51,
and on Sunday stayed within doors in order not to
disturb the congregation. A few friends were pres-
ent, and Clark was in the midst of a sermon, when the
house was entered by two constables with a warrant
signed by Robert Bridges, commanding them to arrest
certain " erroneous persons being strangers." The
travellers were at once seized and carried to the tav-
ern, and after dinner they were told that they must
go to church.

Gorton, like many another, had to go through this
ordeal, and he speaks of his Sundays with much feel-
ing : " Only some part of those dayes they brought us
forth into their congregations, to hear their sermons
. . . which was meat to be digested, but only by the
heart or stomacke of an ostrich." ^

The unfortunate Baptists remonstrated, saying that
were they forced into the meeting-house, they should
be obliged to dissent from the service, but this, the
constable said, was nothing to him, and so he carried

1 For the following events, see "III Newesfrom New Eng-
land," Mass. Hist. Coll. fourth series, vol. ii.
3 Backus, i. 215.
* Simplicilie's Defence, p. 57.

282 THE ANABAPTISTS.

them away. On entering, during the prayer, the pris-
oners took off their hats, but presently put them on
again and began reading in their seats. Whereupon
Bridges ordered the officers to uncover their heads,
which was done, and the service was then quietly
finished. When all was over, Clark asked leave to
speak, which, after some hesitation, was granted, on
condition he would not discuss what he had heard.
He began to explain how he had put on his hat be-
cause he could not judge that they were gathered ac-
cording to the visible order of the Lord ; but here he
was silenced, and the three were committed to custody
for the night. On Tuesday they were taken to Bos-
ton, and on the 31st were brought before Governor
Endicott. Their trial was of the kind reserved by
priests for heretics. No jury was impanelled, no in-
dictment was read, no evidence was heard, but the
prisoners were reviled by the bench as Anabaptists,
and when they repudiated the name were asked if
they did not deny infant baptism. The theological
argument which followed was cut short by a recommit-
ment to await sentence.

That afternoon John Cotton exhorted the judges
from the pulpit. He expounded the law, and com-
manded them to do their duty ; he told them that
the rejection of infant baptism would overthrow the
church ; that this was a capital crime, and therefore
the captives were " foul murtherers." ^ Thus inspired,
the court came in toward evening.
^ III Newes, p. 56.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 283

The record recites a number of misdemeanors, such
as wearing the hat in church, administering the com-
munion to the excommunicated, and the like, but no
attempt was made to prove a single charge.^ The
reason is obvious : the only penalty provided by stat-
ute for the offence of being a Baptist was banishment,
hence the only legal course would have been to dis-
miss the accused. Endicott condemned them to fines
of twenty, thirty, and five pounds, respectively, or to
be whipped. Clark understood his position perfectly,
and from the first had demanded to be shown the law
imder which he was being tried. He now, after sen-
tence, renewed the request. Endicott well knew that
in acting as the mouthpiece of the clergy he was vio-
lating alike justice, his oath of office, and his honor
as a judge; and, being goaded to fury, he broke
out : You have deserved death ; I will not have such
trash brought into our jurisdiction. ^ Holmes tells the
rest : "As I went from the bar, I exprest myself in
these words, — I blesse God I am counted worthy to
suffer for the name of Jesus ; whereupon John Wilson
(their pastor, as they call him) strook me before the
judgement seat, and cursed me, saying, The curse of
God . . . goe with thee ; so we were carried to the
prison." ^

All the convicts maintained that their liberty as
English subjects had been violated, and they refused
to pay their fines. Clark's friends, however, alarmed
for his safety, settled his for him, and he was dis-
charged.

1 111 Newes, pp. 31-44. s Idem, p. 33. s jclem, p. 47.

284 THE ANABAPTISTS.

Crandall was admitted to bail, but being mis-
informed as to the time o£ surrender, he did not ap-
pear, his bond was forfeited, and on his return to
Boston he found himself free.

Thus Holmes was left to face his punishment alone.
Actuated apparently by a deep sense of duty toward
himself and his God, he refused the help of friends,
and steadfastly awaited his fate. As he lay in prison
he suffered keenly as he thought of his birth and breed-
ing, his name, his worldly credit, and the humiliation
which must come to his wife and children from his
public shame ; then, too, he began to fear lest he
might not be able to bear the lash, might flinch or shed
tears, and bring contempt on himself and his religion.
Yet when the morning came he was calm and reso-
hite ; refusing food and drink, that he might not be
said to be sustained by liquor, he betook himself to
prayer, and when his keeper called him, with his Bi-
ble in his hand, he walked cheerfully to the post. He
would have spoken a few words, but the magistrate or-
dered the executioner to do his office quickly, for this
fellow would delude the people ; then he was seized
and stripped, and as he cried, " Lord, lay not this sin
unto their chai'ge," he received the first blow.^

They gave him thirty lashes with a three-thonged
whip, of such horrible severity that it was many days
before he could endure to have his lacerated bod}'
touch the bed, and he rested propped upon his hands
and knees.^ Yet, in spite of his torture, he stood firm

1 111 Neims, pp. 48, 56.

2 Backus, i. 237, note. MS. of Gov. Jos. Jencks.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 285

and calm, showing neither pain nor fear, breaking out
at intervals into praise to God ; and his dignity and
courage so impressed the people that, in spite of the
danger, numbers flocked about him when he was set
free, in sympathy and admiration. John Spur, being
inwardly affected by what he saw and heard, took
him by the hand, and, with a joyful countenance,
said : " Praised be the Lord," and so went back with
him. That same day Spur was arrested, charged
with the crime of succoring a heretic. Then said the
undaunted Spur : " Obediah Holmes I do look upon
as a godly man : and do affirm that he carried himself
as did become a Christian, under so sad an affliction."
"AV^e will deal with you as we have dealt with him,"
said Endicott. " I am in the hands of God," answered
Spur ; and then his keeper took him to his prison.^

Perhaps no persecutor ever lived who was actuated
by a single motive : Saint Dominic probably had some
trace of worldliness ; Henry VIII. some touch of
bigotry ; and this was preeminently true of the Mas-
sachusetts elders. Doubtless there were anions them
men like Norton, whose fanaticism was so fierce that
they would have destroyed the heretic like the wild
beast, as a child of the devil, and an abomination to
God. But with the majority worldly motives predom-
inated : they were always protesting that they did not
constrain men's consciences, but only enforced orderly
living. Increase Mather declared : in " the same church
there have been Presbyterians, Independents, Epis-
1 111 Newes, p. 57.

286 THE ANABAPTISTS.

copallans, and Antipaedobaptists, all welcome to the
same table of the Lord when they have manifested to
the judgment of Christian charity a work of regener-
ation in their souls." ^ And Winslow solemnly assured
Parliament, " Nay, some in our churches " are " of
that judgment, and as long as they [Baptists] carry
themselves peaceably as hitherto they doe, wee will
\/ leave them to God." ^

Such statements, although intended to convey a
false impression, contained this much truth : provided
a man conformed to all the regidations of the church,
paid his taxes, and held his tongue, he would not, in
f ordinary circumstances, have been molested under the
Puritan Commonwealth. But the moment he refused
implicit obedience, or, above all, if he withdrew from
his congregation, he was shown no mercy, because
such acts tended to shake the temporal power. John
Wilson, pastor of Boston, was a good example of the
average of his order. On his death-bed he was asked
to declare what he thought to be the worst sins of the
country. "'I have long feared several sins, whereof
one,' he said, ' was Corahism : that is, when people
rise up as Corah against their ministers, as if they took
too much upon them, when indeed they do but rule
for Christ, and according to Christ.' " ^ Permeated
with this love of power, and possessed of a superb
organization, the clergy never failed to act on public

1 Vindication of New Eng. p. 19.

2 Hypocrisie Unmasked, p. 101. A. D. 1646.
* Magnalia, bk. 3, ch. iii. § 17.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 287

opinion with decisive effect whenever they saw their
worldly interests endangered. Childe has described ^
the attack which overwhelmed him, and Gorton gives
a striking account of their process of inciting a cru-
sade : —

" These things concluded to be heresies and blas-
phemies. . . . The ministers did zealously preach unto
the people the great danger of such things, and the
guilt such lay under that held them, stirring the people
up to labour to find such persons out and to execute
death upon them, making persons so execrable in the
eyes of the people, whom they intimated aliould hold
such things, yea some of them naming some of us in
their pulpits, that the people that had not seen us
thought us to be worse by far in any respect then those
barbarous Indians are in the country. . . . Where-
upon we heard a rumor that the Massachusets was
sending out an army of men to cut us off." ^

The persecution of the Baptists lays bare this self-
ish clerical policy. The theory of the suppression of ,
heresy as a sacred duty breaks down when it is con-
ceded that the heretic may be admitted to the ortho-
dox communion without sin ; therefore the motives '■''
for cruelty were sordid. The ministers felt instinct-
ively that an open toleration would impair their power ; /
not only because the congregations would divide, but
because these sectaries listened to " John Russell the
shoemaker." ^ Obviously, were cobblers to usurp the ,
sacerdotal functions, the superstitious reverence of the ^
1 Simplicitie's Defence, p. 32. ^ jsfg Sutor, p. 26.

288 THE ANABAPTISTS.

v

people for the priestly office would not long endure :

' and it was his crime in upholding this sacrilegious

I/practice which made the Rev. Thomas Cobbett cry

out in his pulpit " against Gorton, that arch-heretick,

V who would have al men to be preachers." ^

Therefore, though Winslow solemnly protested be-
fore the Commissioners at London that Baptists who
lived peaceably would be left unmolested, yet such of
them as listened to " f oul-murtherers " ^ were de-
nounced by the divines as dangerous fanatics who
threatened to overthrow the government, and were
hunted through the country like wolves.

Thomas Gould was an esteemed citizen of Charles-
town, but, unfortunately for himself, he had long felt
doubt concerning infant baptism ; so when, in 1655,
a child was born to him, he '' durst not " have it
christened. " The elder pressed the church to lay me
under admonition, which the church was backward
to do. Afterward I went out at the sprinkling of
children, which was a great trouble to some honest
hearts, and they told me of it. But I told them I
could not stay, for I lookt upon it as no ordinance of
Christ. They told me that now I had made known
my judgment I might stay. . . . So I stayed and sat
down in my seat when they were at prayer and ad-
ministring the service to infants. Then they dealt
with me for my unreverent carriage." ^ That is to

^ Simplicitie's Defence, p. 32. See Ne Sutor, p. 26.

2 "III Newes," Mass. Hist. Coll. fourth series, vol. ii. p. 56,

8 Gould's Narrative, Backus, i. 364-366.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 289

say, his pastor, Mr. Symmes, caused him to be admon-
ished and excluded from the communion. In Octo-
ber, 1656, he was presented to the county court for
" denying baptism to his chikl," convicted, admon-
ished, and given till the next term to consider of his
error ; and gradually his position at Charlestown be-
came so unpleasant that he went to church at Cam-
bridge, which was a cause of fresh offence to Mr.
Symmes.^

From this time forward for several years, though
no actual punishment seems to have been inflicted,
Gould was subjected to perpetual annoyance, and was
repeatedly summoned and admonished, both by the
courts and the church, until at length he brought mat-
ters to a crisis by withdrawing, and with eight others
forming a church, on May 28, 1665.

He thus tells his story : " We sought the Lord
to direct us, and taking counsel of other friends who
dwelt among us, who were able and godly, they gave
us counsel to congregate ourselves together ; and so
we did, ... to walk in the order of the gospel ac-
cording to the rule of Christ, yet knowing it was a
breach of the law of this country. . . . After we had
been called into one or two courts, the church under-
standing that we were gathered into church order, they
sent three messengers from the church to me, telling
me the church required me to come before them the
next Lord's day." ^ That Sunday he could not go,

^ History of Charlestoim, Frothinfjham, p. 164.
' Gould's Nanntive, Backus, i. 369.

290

THE ANABAPTISTS.

but he promised to attend on the one following ; ^ and
his wife relates what was then done : " The word was
carried to the elder, that if they were alive and well
they would come the next day, yet they were so hot
upon it that they could not stay, but master Sims,
when he was laying out the sins of these men, before
he had propounded it to the church, to know their
mind, the church having no liberty to speak, he
wound it up in his discourse, and delivered them up
to Satan, to the amazement of the people, that ever
such an ordinance of Christ should be so abused, that
many of the people went out ; and these were the
excommunicated persons." ^ The sequence is com-
plete: so long as Gould confined his heresy to pure
speculation upon dogma he was little heeded; when
he withheld his child from baptism and went out
during the ceremony he was admonished, denied the
sacrament, and treated as a social outcast ; but when
he separated, he was excommunicated and given to
the magistrate to be crushed.

Passing from one tribunal to another the sectaries
came before the General Court in October, 1665 :
such as were freemen were disfranchised, and all were
sentenced, upon conviction before a single magistrate
of continued schism, to be imprisoned until further
order.^ The following April they were fined four
pounds and put in confinement, where they lay til]

1 Gould's Narrative, Backus, i. 371.

2 Mrs. Gould's Answer, Backus, i. 384.
8 Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 291.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 291

the 11th of September, when the legislature, after a
hearing, ordered them to be discharged upon payment
of fines and costs. ^

How many Baptists were prosecuted, and what they
suffered, is not known, as only an imperfect record
remains of the fortunes of even the leaders of the
movement; this much, however, is certain, they not
only continued contumacious, but persecution added to
their numbers. So at length the clergy decided to try
what effect a public refutation of these heretics woidd
have on popular opinion. Accordingly the governor
and council, actuated by " Christian candor," ordered
the Baptists to appear at the meeting-house, at nine
o'clock in the morning, on the 14th of April, 1668 ;
and six ministers were deputed to conduct the dispu-
tation.^

During the immolation of Dunster the Rev. Mr.
Mitchell had made up his mind that he " would have
an argument able to remove a mountain " before he
would swerve from his orthodoxy ; he had since con-
firmed his faith by preaching " more than half a score
ungainsayable sermons " " in defence of this comfort-
able truth," and he was now prepared to maintain it
against all comers. Accordingly this " worthy man
was he who did most service in this disputation ;
whereof the effect was, that although the erring breth-
ren, as is usual in such cases, made this their last
answer to the argrmients which had cast them into
much confusion : ' Say what you will we will hold our

1 Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 316. 2 Backus, i. 375.

292 THE ANABAPTISTS.

mind.' Yet others were happily established in the
right ways of the Lord." ^

Such is the account of Cotton Mather : but the
story of the Baptists presents a somewhat different
view of the proceedings. " It is true there were
seven elders appointed to discourse with them . . .
and when they were met, there was a long speech made
by one of them of what vile persons they were, and
how they acted against the churches and government
here, and stood condemned by the court. The others
desiring liberty to speak, they would not suffer them,
but told them they stood there as delinquents and
ought not to have liberty to speak, . . . Two days
were spent to little purpose ; in the close, master
Jonathan Mitchel pronounced that dreadful sentence
against them in Deut. xvii. 8, to the end of the 12th,
and this was the way they took to convince them, and
you may see what a good effect it had." ^

The sentence pronounced by Mitchell was this :
" And the man that will do presumptuously, and will
not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister
there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge,
even that man shall die : and thou shalt put away the
evil from Israel." ^

On the 27th of May, 1668, Gould, Turner, and Far-
num, " obstinate & turbulent Annabaptists," were ban-
ished under pain of perpetual imprisonment.^ They

1 Magnolia, bk. 4, ch. iv. § 10.

2 Mrs. Gould's Answer, Backus, i. 384, 385.

8 Deut. xvii. 12. * Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. ii, pp. 373-375.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 293

determined to stay and face their fate : afterward they
wrote to the masfistrates : —

Honoured Sirs : . . . After the tenders of our
service according to Christ, his command to your
selves and the country, wee thought it our duty and
concernment to present your honours with these few
lines to put you in remembrance of our bonds : and
this being the twelfth week of our imprisonment, wee
should be glad if it might be thought to stand with
the honour and safety of the country, and the present
government thereof, to be now at liberty. For wee
doe hereby seriously profess, that as farre as wee are
sensible or know anything of our own hearts, wee do
prefer their peace and safety above our own, however
wee have been resented otherwise : and wherein wee
differ in point of judgment wee humbly beeseech you,
let there be a bearing with us, till god shal reveale
otherwise to us ; for there is a spirit in man and the
inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understand-
ing, therefore if wee are in the dark, wee dare not
say that wee doe see or understand, till the Lord shall
cleare things up to us. And to him wee can appeale
to cleare up our innocency as touching the govern-
ment, both in your civil and church affaires. That it
never was in our hearts to thinke of doing the least
wrong to either : but have and wee hope, by your as-
sistance, shal alwaies indeavour to keepe a conscience
void of offence towards god and men. And if it shal
be thought meete to afforde us our liberty, that wee

294

THE ANABAPTISTS.

may take that care, as becomes us, for our families,
wee shal engage ourselves to be alwayes in a readi-
nes to resigne up our persons to your pleasure. Hop-
ing your honours will be pleased seriously to consider
our condition, wee shall commend both you and it to
the wise disposing and blessing of the Almighty, and
remaine your honours faithful servants in what we
may.

Tho : Gold
Will : Turner
John Farnum.^

Such were the men whom the clergy daily warned
their congregations " would certainly undermine the
churches, mine order, destroy piety, and introduce pro-
phaneness." ^ And when they appealed to their spot-
less lives and their patience under affliction, they were
told " that the vilest hereticks and grossest blasphem-
ers have resolutely and cheerfully (at least sullenly
and boastingly) suffered as well as the people of
God." '

The feeling of indignation and of sympathy was,
notwithstanding, strong ; and in spite of the danger of
succoring heretics, sixty-six inhabitants, among whom
were some of the most respected citizens of Charles-
town, petitioned the legislature for mercy : " They be-
ing aged and weakly men ; . . . the sense of this their
. . . most deplorable and afflicted condition hath
1 Mass. Archives^ x. 220. ^ jVe Sutor, p. 11.

« Ne Sutor, p. 9.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 295

Badly affected the hearts of many . . . Christians, and
Bueh as neither approve of their judgment or prac-
tice ; especially considering that the men are reputed
godly, and of a blameless conversation. . . . We
therefore most humbly beseech this honored court, in
their Christian mercy and bowels of compassion, to
pity and relieve these poor prisoners." ^ On Novem-
ber 7, 1668, the petition was voted " scandalous & re-
proachful," the two chief promoters were censured,
admonished, and fined ten and five pounds respec-
tively ; the others were made, under their own hands,
to express their sorrow, " for giving the court such
just ground of offence." ^

The shock was felt even in England. In March,
1669, thirteen of the most influential dissenting min-
isters wrote from London earnestly begging for mod-
eration lest they should be made to suffer from re-
taliation ; but their remonstrance was disregarded.^
What followed is not exactly known ; the convicts
would seem to have lain in jail about a year, and they
are next mentioned in a letter to Clark written in No-
vember, 1670, in which he was told that Turner had
been again arrested, but that Gould had eluded the
officers, who were waiting for him in Boston ; and was
on Noddle's Island. Subsequently all were taken and
treated with the extremest rigor ; for in June, 1672,
Russell was so reduced that it was supposed he could
not live, and he was reported to have died in prison.

1 Backus, i. 380, 381. 2 Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 4ia

8 Backus, i. 395.

296

THE ANABAPTISTS.

V

Six months before Gould and Turner had been thought
/ past hope ; their sufferings had brought them all to
the brink of the grave. ^ But relief was at hand : the
"victory for freedom had been won by the blood of
^ heretics, as devoted, as fearless, but even unhappier
l^than they ; and the election of Leverett, in 1673, who
^r/as opposed to persecution, marks the moment when
^/the hierarchy admitted their defeat. During his ad-
ministration the sectaries usually met in private un-
^disturbed ; and soon every energy of the theocracy
became concentrated on the effort to repulse the ever
contracting circle of enemies who encompassed it.

During the next few years events moved fast. In
1678 the ecclesiastical power was so shattered that the
Baptists felt strong enough to build a church ; but the
old despotic spirit lived even in the throes of death,
and the legislature passed an act forbidding the erec-
tion of unlicensed meeting-houses under penalty of
confiscation. Nevertheless it was finished, but on the
Sunday on which it was to have been opened the mar-
shal nailed the doors fast and posted notices forbid-
ding all persons to enter, by order of the coui^t. After
a time the doors were broken open, and services were
held ; a number of the congregation were summoned
before the court, admonished, and forbidden to meet
in any public place ; ^ but the handwriting was now
glowing on the wall, priestly threats had lost their
terror ; the order was disregarded ; and now for al-

1 Backus, i. 398-404, 405.

2 June 11, 1680. Mass. Rec. v. 271.

THE ANABAPTISTS. 297

most two hundred years Massachusetts has been fore-
most in defending the equal rights of men before the
law.

The old world was passing away, a new era was
opening, and a few words are due to that singular
aristocracy which so long ruled New England. For
two centuries Increase Mather has been extolled as an
eminent example of the abilities and virtues which then
adorned his order. In 1681, when all was over, he
published a solemn statement of the attitude the clergy
had held toward the Baptists, and from his words pos-
terity may judge of their standard of morality and of
truth.

" The Annabaptists in New England have in their
narrative lately published, endeavoured to . . . make
themselves the innocent persons and the Lord's ser-
vants here no better than persecutors. ... I have
been a poor labourer in the Lord's Vineyard in this
place upward of twenty years ; and it is more than I
know, if in all that time, any of those that scruple
infant baptism, have met with molestation from the
magistrate merely on account of their opinion." ^
1 Preface to Ne Sutor.

y

CHAPTER V.

THE QUAKERS.

v/

The lower the organism, the less would seem to be
^ the capacity for physical adaptation to changed con-
ditions of life ; the jelly-fish dit > in the aquarium, the
dog has wandered throughout the world with his mas-
ter. The same principle apparently holds true in
the evolution of the intellect ; for while the oyster
lacks consciousness, the bee modifies the structure of
its comb, and the swallow of her nest, to suit unforeseen
contingencies, while the dog, the horse, and the ele-
phant are capable of a high degree of education.^

Applying this law to man, it will be found to be a

fact that, whereas the barbarian is most tenacious of

custom, the European can adopt new fashions with

comparative ease. The obvious inference is, that in

proportion as the brain is feeble it is incapable of the

effort of origination ; therefore, savages are the slaves

of routine. Probably a stronger nervous system, or a

\y peculiarity of environment, or both combined, served

to excite impatience with their surroundings among

the more favored races, from whence came a desire for

innovation. And the mental flexibility thus slowly

y developed has passed by inheritance, and has been

^ Menial Evolution in Animals, Romanes, Am. ed. pp. 203-210.

THE QUAKERS. 299

strengtheued by use, until the tendency to vary, or
think independently, has become an irrepressible in-
stinct among some modern nations. Conservatism is
the converse of variation, and as it springs from men-
tal inejjtia it is always a progressively salient charac-

> teristic of each group in the descending scale. The
Spaniard is less mutable than the Englishman, the
Hindoo than the Spaniard, the Hottentot than the
Hindoo, and the ape than the Hottentot. Therefore,
i a power whose existence depends upon the fixity of
custom must be inimical to progress, but the authority
of a sacred caste is altogether based upon an unreason-
ing reverence for tradition, — in short, on superstition ;
and as free inquiry is fatal to a belief in those fables
which awed the childhood of the race, it has followed
that established priesthoods have been almost uni-
formly the most conservative of social forces, and that

^' clergymen have seldom failed to slay their variable

1 brethren when opportunity has offered. History teems

with such slaughters, some of the most instructive of

which are related in the Old Testament, whose code of

' morals is purely theological.

Though there may be some question as to the strict
veracity of the author of the Book of Kings, yet, as he
was evidently a thorough churchman, there can be no
doubt that he has faithfully preserved the traditions
of the hierarchy ; his chronicle therefore presents, as
it were, a perfect mirror, wherein are reflected the
workings of the ecclesiastical mind through many gen-
erations. According to his account, the theocracy only

800

THE QUAKERS.

triumphed after a long and doubtful striiggle. Sam-
uel must have been an exceptionally able man, for,
though he failed to control Saul, it was through his in-
trigues that David was enthroned, who was profoundly
orthodox ; yet Solomon lapsed again into heresy, and
Jeroboam added to schism the even blacker crime of
making " priests of the lowest of the people, which
were not of the sons of Levi," ^ and in consequence he
has come down to posterity as the man who made
Israel to sin. Ahab married Jezebel, who introduced
the worship of Baal, and gave the support of govern-
ment to a rival church. She therefore roused a hate
which has made her immortal ; but it was not until
the reign of her son Jehoram that Elisha apparently
felt strong enough to execute a plot he had made with
one of the generals to precipitate a revolution, in which
the whole of the house of Ahab should be murdered
and the heretics exterminated. The awful story is
told with wonderful power in the Bible.

" And Elisha the prophet called one of the children
of the prophets, and said unto him. Gird up thy
loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go
to Ramoth-gilead : and when thou comest thither,
look out there Jehu, . . . and make him arise up
. . . and carry him to an inner chamber ; then take
the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say.
Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over
Israel. . . .

"So the young man . . . went to Ramoth-gilead.
^ 1 Kings xii. 31.

THE QUAKERS. 301

. . . And he said, I have an errand to thee, O cap^
tain. . . .

" And he arose, and went into the house ; and he
poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee
king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel.

" And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy mas
ter, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the
prophets. . . .

" For the whole house of Ahab shall perish : . . .
and I will make the house of Ahab like the house of
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, . . . and the dogs shall
eat Jezebel. . . .

" Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord :
. . . And he said. Thus spake he to me, saying.
Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over
Israel.

"Then they hasted, . . . and blew with trumpets,
saying, Jehu is king. So Jehu . . . conspired against
Joram. . . .

" But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jez-
reel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him,
when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. . . .

" So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel ;
for Joram lay there. . . .

" And Joram . . . went out ... in his chariot, . . .
against Jehu. . . . And it came to pass, when Joram
saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu ? And he
answered. What peace, so long as the whoredoms of
thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many ?

302 THE QUAKERS.

" And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to
Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah.

" And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and
smote Jehorani between his arms, and the arrow went
out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. . . .

" But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he
fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu fol-
lowed after him, and said. Smite him also in the
chariot. And they did so. . . .

" And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel
heard of it ; and she painted her face, and tired her
head, and looked out at a window.

" And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had
Zimri peace, who slew his master? . . .

" And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her
down : and some of her blood was sprinkled on the
wall, and on the horses : and he trod her under
foot. . . .

" And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And
Jehu wrote letters, ... to the elders, and to them
that brought up Ahab's children, saying, ... If ye
be mine, . . . take ye the heads of . . . your mas-
ter's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to-morrow
this time. . . . And it came to pass, when the letter
came to them, that they took the king's sons, and
slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets,
and sent him them to Jezreel. . . .

" And he said. Lay ye them in two heaps at the en-
tering in of the gate until the morning. . . .

" So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of

THE QUAKERS. 303

Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kins-
folks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.

" And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria.
And as he was at the shearing house in the way, Jehu
met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah. . . .

" And he said, Take them alive. And they took
them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing
house, even two and forty men ; neither left he any of
them. . . .

" And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that re-
mained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed
him, according to the saying of the Lord, which he
spake to Elijah.

" And Jehu gathered all the people together, and
said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little ; but Jehu
shall serve him much. Now therefore call unto me
all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his
priests ; let none be wanting : for I have a great sac-
rifice to do to Baal ; whosoever shall be wanting,
he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to
the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of
Baal. . . .

" And Jehu sent through all Israel : and all the wor-
shippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man
left that came not. And they came into the house of
Baal ; and the house of Baal was full from one end to
another. . . .

"And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an
end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to
the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay them;

304 THE QUAKERS.

let none come forth. And they smote them with the
edge of the sword ; and the guard and the captains
cast them out. . . .

" Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel." ^
Viewed from the standpoint of comparative history,
the policy of theocratic Massachusetts toward the
Quakers was the necessary consequence of antecedent
causes, and is exactly parallel with the massacre of
the house of Ahab by Elisha and Jehu. The power
of a dominant priesthood depended on conformity,
and the Quakers absolutely refused to conform ; nor
was this the blackest of their crimes : they believed
that the Deity communicated directly with men, and
that these revelations were the highest rule of con-
duct. Manifestly such a doctrine was revolutionary.
The influence of all ecclesiastics must ultimately rest
upon the popular belief that they are endowed with
attributes which are denied to common men. The syl-
logism of the New England elders was this : all rev-
elation is contained in the Bible ; we alone, from our
peculiar education, are capable of interpreting the
meaning of the Scriptures : therefore we only can de-
clare the will of God. But it was evident that, were
the dogma of " the inner light " once accepted, this
reasoning must fall to the ground, and the authority
of the ministry be overthrown. Necessarily those who
held so subversive a doctrine would be pursued with
greater hate than less harmful heretics, and thus con-
templating the situation there is no difficulty in un-
derstanding why the Rev. John Wilson, pastor of
^ 2 Kings ix., x.

MM

THE QUAKERS. 305

Boston, should have vociferated in his pulpit, that "he
would carry fire in one hand and faggots in the other,
to burn all the Quakers in the world ; " ^ why the Rev.
John Higginson should have denounced the " inner
light " as "a stinking vapour from hell ; " ^ why the
astute Norton should have taught that "the justice of
God was the devil's armour ; " ^ and why Endicott
sternly warned the first comers, " Take heed you
break not our ecclesiastical laws, for then ye are sure
to stretch by a halter." *

Nevertheless, this view has not commended itself to
those learned clergymen who have been the chief his-
torians of the Puritan commonwealth. They have, on
the contrary, steadily maintained that the sectaries
were the persecutors, since the company had exclusive
ownership of the soil, and acted in self-defence.

The case of Roger Williams is thus summed up by
Dr. Dexter : " In all strictness and honesty he per-
secuted them — not they him ; just as the modern
' Come-outer,' who persistently intrudes his bad man-
ners and pestering presence upon some private com-
pany, making himself, upon pretence of conscience, a
nuisance there ; is — if sane — the persecutor, rather
than the man who forcibly assists, as well as courte-
ously requires, his desired departure." ^

1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 124.

* Truth and Innocency Defended, ed. 1703, p. 80.
8 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 9.

* Idem, p. 9.

5 As to Roger Williams, p. 90.

306 THE QUAKERS.

Dr. Ellis makes a similar argument regarding the
Quakers : " It might appear as if good manners, and
generosity and magnanimity of spirit, would have
kept the Quakers away. Certainly, by every rule of
right and reason, they ought to have kept away. They
had no rights or business here. . . . Most clearly they
courted persecution, suffering, and death ; and, as the
magistrates affirmed, 'they rushed upon the sword.'
Those magistrates never intended them harm, . . . ex-
cept as they believed that all their successive measures
and sharper penalties were positively necessary to se-
cure their jurisdiction from the wildest lawlessness
and absolute anarchy." ^ His conclusion is : " It is to
be as frankly and positively affirmed that their Qua-
ker tormentors were the aggressive party ; that they
wantonly initiated the strife, and with a dogged per-
tinacity persisted in outrages which drove the author-
ities almost to frenzy. . . ." ^
*^ The proposition that the Congregationalists owned
the territory granted by the charter of Charles I. as
though it were a private estate, has been considered
in an earlier chapter ; and if the legal views there ad-
vanced are sound, it is incontrovertible, that all j^eace-
ful British subjects had a right to dwell in Massa-
chusetts, provided they did not infringe the monopoly
in trade. The only remaining question, therefore, is
whether the Quakers were peaceful. Dr. Ellis, Dr.
Palfrey, and Dr. Dexter have carefully collected a
certain number of cases of misconduct, with the view

1 Mass. and its Early History, p. 110.

2 Idem, p. 104.

THE QUAKERS. 307

of proving that the Friends were turbulent, and the
government had reasonable grounds for apprehending
such another outbreak as one which occurred a cen-
tury before in Germany and is known as the Peas-
ants' War, Before, however, it is possible to enter
upon a consideration of the evidence intelligently, it
is necessary to fix the chronological order of the lead-
ing events of the persecution.

The twenty-one years over which it extended may
be conveniently divided into three periods, of which
the first began in July, 1656, when Mary Fisher and
Anne Austin came to Boston, and lasted till Decem-
ber, 1661, when Charles II. interfered by command-
ing Endicott to send those under arrest to England
for trial. Hitherto John Norton had been preeminent,
but in that same December he was appointed on a
mission to London, and as he died soon after his re-
turn, his direct influence on affairs then probably
ceased. He had been chiefly responsible for the hang-
ings of 1659 and 1660, but under no circumstances
could they have been continued, for after four heretics
had perished, it was found impossible to execute
Wenlock Christison, who had been condemned, be-
cause of popular indignation.

Nevertheless, the respite was brief. In June, 1662,
the king, in a letter confirming the charter, excluded
the Quakers from the general toleration which he
demanded for other sects, and the old legislation was
forthwith revived ; only as it was found impossible to
kill the schismatics openly, the inference, from what

/

308 THE QUAKERS.

occurred subsequently, is unavoidable, that the elders
sought to attain their purpose by what their reverend
historians call " a humaner policy," ^ or, in plain Eng-
lish, by murdering them by flogging and starvation.
Nor was the device new, for the same stratagem had
already been resorted to by the East India Company,
in Hindostan, before they were granted full criminal
jurisdiction.^

The Vagabond Act was too well contrived for com-
passing such an end, to have been an accident, and
portions of it strongly suggest the hand of Norton.
It was passed in May, 1661, when it was becoming
evident that hanging must be abandoned, and its pro-
visions can only be explained on the supposition that
it was the intention to make the infliction of death
discretionary with each magistrate. It provided that
any foreign Quaker, or any native upon a second con-
viction, might be ordered to receive an unlimited
number of stripes. It is important also to observe
that the whip was a two-handed implement, armed
with lashes made of twisted and knotted cord or cat-
gut.^ There can be no doubt, moreover, that sundry
of the judgments afterward pronounced would have
resulted fatally had the people permitted their execu-
tion. During the autumn following its enactment
this statute was suspended, but it was revived in about
ten months.

^ As to Roger Williams, p. 134.

2 Mill's British India, i. 48, note.

' New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 357, note.

THE QUAKERS. 309

Endicott's death in 1665 marks the close of the
second epoch, and ten comparatively tranquil years
followed. Bellingham's moderation may have been in
part due to the interference of the royal commission-
ers, but a more potent reason was the popular dis-
gust, which had become so strong that the penal laws
could not be enforced.

A last effort was made to rekindle the dying flame
in 1675, by fining constables who failed in their duty
to break up Quaker meetings, and offering one third
of the penalty to the informer. Magistrates were re-
quired to sentence those apprehended to the House of
Correction, where they were to be kept three days on
bread and water, and whipped.^ Several suffered
during this revival, the last of whom was Margaret
Brewster. At the end of twenty-one years the policy
of cruelty had become thoroughly discredited and a
general toleration could no longer be postponed ; but
this great liberal triumph was only won by heroic
courage and by the endurance of excruciating tor-
ments. Marmaduke Stevenson, William Robinson,
Mary Dyer, and William Leddra were hanged, sev-
eral were mutilated or branded, two at least are known
to have died from starvation and whipping, and it is
probable that others were killed whose fate cannot be
traced. The number tortured under the Vagabond
Act is unknown, nor can any estimate be made of the
misery inflicted upon children by the ruin and exile
of parents.

1 Mass. Rec. v. 60.

310 THE QUAKERS.

The early Quakers were enthusiasts, and therefore
occasionally spoke and acted extravagantly ; they also
adopted some offensive customs, the most objectionable
of which was wearing the hat ; all this is immaterial.
The question at issue is not their social attractiveness,
but the cause whose consequence was a virulent perse-
cution. This can only be determined by an analysis
of the evidence. If, upon an impartial review of the
cases of outrage which have been collected, it shall
appear probable that the conduct of the Friends was
sufficiently violent to make it credible that the legis-
lature spoke the truth, when it declared that " the
prudence of this court was exercised onely in making
provission to secure the peace & order heere estab-
lished against theire attempts, whose designe (wee were
well assured by our oune experjence, as well as by the
example of theire predecessors in Munster) was to
vndermine & ruine the same ; " ^ then the reverend
historians of the theocracy must be considered to
have established their proposition. But if, on the other
hand, it shall seem apparent that the intense vindic-
tiveness of this onslaught was due to the bigotry and
greed of power of a despotic priesthood, who saw in
the spread of independent thought a menace to the
ascendency of their order, then it must be held to be
demonstrated that the clergy of New England acted
in obedience to those natural laws, which have always
regulated the conduct of mankind.

1 Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 385.

J

THE QUAKERS. 311

CHRONOLOGY.

1656, July. First Quakers came to Boston.

1656, 14 Oct. First act against Quakers passed.
Providing that ship-masters bringing Quakers should
be fined XIOO. Quakers to be whipped and impris-
oned till expelled. Importers of Quaker books to be
fined. Any defending Quaker opinions to be fined,
first offence, 406'. ; second, £4 ; third, banishment,

1657, 14 Oct. By a supplementary act ; Quakers
returning after one conviction for first offence, for men,
loss of one ear ; imprisonment till exile. Second of-
fence, loss other ear, like imprisonment. For females ;
first offence, whipping, imprisonment. Second offence,
idem. Third offence, men and women alike ; tongue
to be bored with a hot iron, imprisonment, exile. ^

1658, In this year Rev. John Norton actively ex-
erted himself to secure more stringent legislation ;
procured petition to that effect to be presented to
court.

1658, 19 Oct. Enacted that undomiciled Quakers
returning from banishment should be hanged. Dom-
iciled Quakers upon conviction, refusing to apostatize,
to be banished, under pain of death on return.^

Under this act the following persons -were hanged :

1659, 27 Oct. Robinson and Stevenson hanged.

1660, 1 June. Mary Dyer hanged. (Previously
condemned, reprieved, and executed for returning.)

1660-1661, 14 Mar. William Leddra hanged.
1 Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 309. '^ Idem, p. 346.

312 THE QUAKERS,

1661, June. Wenlock Christison condemned to
death ; released.

1661, 22 May. Vagabond Act. Any person con-
victed before a county magistrate of being an undomi-
ciled or vagabond Quaker to be stripped naked to the
middle, tied to the cart's tail, and flogged from town
to town to the border. Domiciled Quakers to be pro-
ceeded against under Act of 1658 to banishment, and
then treated as vagabond Quakers. The death pen-
alty was still preserved but not enforced.^ *

1661, 9 Sept. King Charles II. wrote to Governor
Endicott directing the cessation of corporal punish-
ment in regard to Quakers, and ordering the accused
to be sent to England for trial.

1661, 27 Nov. Vagabond Act suspended.

1662, 28 June. The company's agents, Bradstreet
and Norton, received from the king his letter of par-
don, etc., wherein, however, Quakers are excepted from
the demand made for religious toleration.

1662, 8 Oct. Encouraged by the above letter the
Vagabond law revived.

1664-5, 15 March. Death of John Endicott. Bel-
lingham governor. Commissioners interfere on be-
half of Quakers in May. The persecution subsides.

1672, 3 Nov. Persecution revived by passage of
law punishing persons found at Quaker meeting by
fine or imprisonment and flogging. Also fining con-
stables for neglect in making arrests and giving one
third the fine to informers.^

^ Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 3. " Mass. Rec. v. 60.

1

THE QUAKERS. 313

1677, Aug. 9. Margaret Brewster whipped for en-
tering the Old South in sackcloth.

TURBULENT QUAKERS.

1656, Mary Prince. 1662, Deborah Wilson.

1658, Sarah Gibbons. 1663, Thomas Newhouse.

" Dorothy Waugh. " Edward Wharton.

1660, John Smith. 1664, Hannah Wriglit.^

1661, Katherine Chatham. " Mary Tomkins.

" George Wilson. 1665, Lydia Wardwell.

1662, Elizabeth Hooton. 1677, Margaret Brewster.

" It was in the month called July, of this present
year [1656] when Mary Fisher and Ann Austin
arrived in the road before Boston, before ever a law
"^?was made there against the Quakers ; and yet they
•^ were very ill treated ; for before they came ashore, the
deputy governor, Richard Bellingham (the governor
himself being out of town) sent officers aboard, who
searched their trunks and chests, and took away the
books they found there, which were about one hun-
dred, and carried them ashore, after having com-
manded the said women to be kept prisoners aboard ;
and the said books were, by an order of the council,
burnt in the market-place by the hangman. . . . And
then they were shut up close prisoners, and command
was given that none should come to them without
leave ; a fine of five pounds being laid on any that
should otherwise come at, or speak with them, tho' but
at the window. Their pens, ink, and paper were
^ Uncertain.

O

314 THE QUAKERS.

taken from them, and they not suffered to have any
candle-light in the night season ; nay, what is more,
they were stript naked, under pretence to know
whether they were witches [a true touch of sacerdo-
tal malignity] tho' in searching no token was found
upon them but of innocence. And in this search they
were so barbarously misused that modesty forbids to
mention it : And that none might have communica-
tion with them a board was nailed up before the win-
dow of the jail. And seeing they were not provided
with victuals, Nicholas Upshal, one who had lived
long in Boston, and was a member of the church
there, was so concerned about it, (liberty being denied
to send them provision) that he purchas'd it of the
jailor at the rate of five shillings a week, lest they
should have starved. And after having been about
five weeks prisoners, William Chichester, master of a
vessel, was bound in one hundred pound bond to
carry them back, and not suffer any to speak with
them, after they were put on board ; and the jailor
kept their beds . . . and their Bible, for his fees." ^

Endicott was much dissatisfied with the forbearance
of Bellingham, and declared that had he " been there
. . . he would have had them well whipp'd." ^ No ex-
ertion was spared, nevertheless, to get some hold upon
them, the elders examining them as to matters of faith,
with a view to ensnare them as heretics. In this, how-
ever, they were foiled.

1 Sewel, p. 160.

2 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 10.

THE QUAKERS. 315

. On the authority of Hutchinson, Dr. Dexter ^ and
Dr. Palfrey complain ^ that Mary Prince reviled two
of the ministers, who " with much moderation and ten-
derness endeavored to convince her of her errors," ^
A visitation of the clergy was a form of torment from
which even the boldest recoiled ; Vane, Gorton, Childe,
and Anne Hutchinson quailed under it, and though
the Quakers abundantly proved that they could bear
stripes with patience, they could not endure this.
She called them " Baal's priests, the seed of the ser-
pent." Dr. Ellis also speaks of " stinging objurga-
tions screamed out . . . from between the bars of
their prisons." * He cites no cases, but he probably
refers to the same woman who called to Endicott one
Sunday on his way from church : " Woe unto thee,
thou art an oppressor." ^ If she said so she spoke the
truth, for she was illegally imprisoned, was deprived
of her property, and subjected to great hardship.

In October, 1656, the first of the repressive acts
was passed, by which the " cursed " and " blasphe-
mous " intruders were condemned to be " comitted to
the house of correction, and at theire entrance to
be seuerely whipt and by the master thereof to be
kept constantly to worke, and none suffered to con-
verse or speak w*^^ them ; " ^ and any captain know-
ingly bringing them within the jurisdiction to be fined
one hundred pounds, with imprisonment till payment.

1 As to Roger Williams, p. 127. 2 Palfrey, ii. 464.

» Hutch. Hist. i. 181. ^ Mem. Hist, of Boston, i. 182.

6 Hutch. Hist. i. 181. « ^^ss. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 278.

316 THE QUAKERS.

" When this law was published at the door of
the aforenamed Nicholas Upshall, the good old man,
grieved in spirit, publickly testified against it ; for
which he was the next morning sent for to the Gen-
eral Court, where he told them that : ' The execution
of that law would be a forerunner of a judgment upon
their country, and therefore in love and tenderness
which he bare to the people and place, desired them
to take heed, lest they were found fighters against
God.' For this, he, though one of their church-
members, and of a blameless conversation, was fined
=£20 and £2> more for not coming to church, whence
the sense of their wickedness had induced him to ab-
sent himself. They also banished him out of their
jurisdiction, allowing him but one month for his de-
parture, though in the winter season, and he a weakly
ancient man : Endicott the governor, when applied to
on his behalf for a mitigation of his fine, churlishly
answered, ' I will not bate him a groat.' " ^

Although, after the autumn of 1656, whippings,
fines, and banishments became frequent, no case of
misconduct is alleged until the 13th of the second
month, 1658, when Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy
Waugh broke two bottles in Mr. Norton's church,
after lecture, to testify to his emptiness ;2 both had
previously been imprisoned and banished, but the
ferocity with which Norton at that moment was for-
cing on the persecution was the probable incentive to
the trespass. " They were sent to the house of cor-
rection, where, after being kept three days without
1 Besse, ii. 181. ^ This charge is unproved.

THE QUAKERS. 317

any food, they were cruelly whipt, and kept three clays
longer without victuals, though they had offered to
buy some, but were not suffered." ^

In 1661 Katharine Chatham walked through Bos-
ton, in sackcloth. This was during the trial of Chris-
tison for his life, when the terror culmmatcd, and
hardly needs comment.

George Wilson is charged with having " rushed
through the streets of Boston, shouting : ' The Lord
is coming with fire and sword I ' " ^ The facts appear
to be these : in 1661, just before Christison's trial, he
was arrested, without any apparent reason, and, as
he was led to prison, he cried, that the Lord was
coming with fire and sword to plead with Boston.^
At the general jail delivery * in anticipation of the
king's order, he was liberated, but soon rearrested,
" sentenced to be tied to the cart's tail," and flogged
with so severe a whip that the Quakers wanted to buy
it " to send to England for the novelty of the cruelty,
but that was not permitted." ^

Elizabeth Hooton coming from England in 1661,
with Joan Brooksup, " they were soon clapt up in
prison, and, upon their discharge thence, being driven
with the rest two days' journey into the vast, hov. 1-
ing wilderness, and there left . . . without necessary
provisions."^ They escaped to Barbadoes. "Uj3on

1 Besse, ii. 184. 2 ^g to Roger Williams, p. 133.

' New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 351.
* Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 19. Order passed 28 May, 166L
8 Besse, ii. 224. ^ Besse, ii. 228, 229.

318 THE QUAKERS.

their coming again to Boston, they were presently ap-
prehended by a constable, an ignorant and furious
zealot, who declared, ' It was his delight, and he could
rejoice in following the Quakers to their execution
as much as ever.' " Wishing to return once more,
she obtained a license from the king to buy a house in
any plantation. Though about sixty, she was seized
at Dover, where the Rev. Mr. Rayner was settled, put
into the stocks, and imprisoned four days in the dead
of winter, where she nearly perished from cold.^ Af-
terward, at Cambridge, she exhorted the people to
repentance in the streets,^ and for this crime, which
is cited as an outrage to Puritan decorum,^ she was
once more apprehended and " imprisoned in a close,
stinking dungeon, where there was nothing either to
lie down or sit on, where she was kept two days and
two nights without bread or water," and then sen-
tenced to be whipped through three towns. " At
Cambridge she was tied to the whipping-post, and
lashed with ten stripes with a three-stringed whip,
with three knots at the end : At Watertown she was
laid on with ten stripes more with rods of willow : At
Dedham, in a cold frosty morning, they tortured her
aged body with ten stripes more at a cart's tail."
The peculiar atrocity of flogging from town to town
lay in this : that the victim's wounds became cold

1 Besse, ii. 229.

2 " Repentance ! Repentance ! A day of howling and sad
lamentation is coming upon you all from the Lord."

3 As to Roger Williamsy p. 133.

THE QUAKERS. 319

between the times of punishment, and in winter some-
times frozen, which made the torture intolerably-
agonizing. Then, as hanging was impossible, other
means were tried to make an end of her : " Thus
miserably torn and beaten, they carried her a weary
journey on horseback many miles into the wilder-
ness, and toward night left her there among wolves,
bears, and other wild beasts, who, though they did
sometimes seize on living persons, were yet to her less
cruel than the savage - professors of that country.
When those who conveyed her thither left her, they
said, ' They thought they should never see her
more.' " ^

The intent to kill is obvious, and yet Elizabeth
Hooton suffered less than many of those convicted
and sentenced after public indignation had forced the
theocracy to adopt what their reverend successors are
pleased to call the " humaner policy " of the Vaga-
bond Act.2

Any want of deference to a clergyman is sure to be
given a prominent place in the annals of Massachu-
setts ; and, accordingly, the breaking of bottles in
church, which happened twice in twenty-one years, is
never omitted.

In 1663 " John Liddal, and Thomas Newhouse,
ha^dng been at meeting " (at Salem), " were appre-
hended and . . . sentenced to be whipt through three
towns as vagabonds," which was accordingly done.

1 Besse, ii. 229. See New England Judged, p. 413.
"^ As to Roger Williams, p. 134.

320 THE QUAKERS.

" Not long after this, the aforesaid Thomas New-
house was again whipt through the jurisdiction of
Boston for testifying against the persecutors in their
meeting-house there ; at which time he, in a prophetick
manner, having two glass bottles in his hands, threw
them down, saying, ' so shall you be dashed in
pieces.' " ^

The next turbulent Quaker is mentioned in this
way by Dr. Dexter : " Edward Wharton was ' pressed
in spirit ' to repair to Dover and proclaim ' Wo, ven-
geance, and the indignation of the Lord ' upon the
court in session there." ^ This happened in the sum-
mer of 1663, and long ere then he had seen and
suffered the oppression that makes men mad. He
was a peaceable and industrious inhabitant of Salem ;
in 1659 he had seen Robinson and Stevenson done to
death, and, being deeply moved, he said, " the guilt
of [their] blood was so great that he could not bear
it ; " ^ he was taken from his home, given twenty lashes
and fined twenty pounds ; the next year, just at the
time of Christison's trial, he was again seized, led
through the country like a notorious offender, and
thrown into prison, " where he was kept close, night
and day, with William Leddra, sometimes in a very
little room, little bigger than a saw-pit, having no lib-
erty granted them."

" Being brought before their court, he again asked,
' What is the cause, and wherefore have I been

1 Besse, ii. 232. 2 j,, ^^ Roger Williams, p. 133.

« Besse, ii. 205.

THE QUAKERS. 321

fetcht from my habitation, where I was following my
honest calling, and here laid up as an evil-doer?'
They told him, that ' his hair was too long, and that
he had disobeyed that commandment which saith,
Honour thy father and mother.' He asked, ' Where-
in ? ' ' In that you will not,' said they, ' put off your
hat to magistrates.' Edward replied, ' I love and
own all magistrates and rulers, who are for the pun-
ishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that
do well.' " 1

Then Rawson pronounced the sentence : " You are
upon pain of death to depart this jurisdiction, it being
the 11th of this instant March, by the one and twen-
tieth of the same, on the pain of death. . . . ' Nay
[said Wharton], I shall not go away; therefore be
careful what you do.' " ^

And he did not go, but was with Leddra when he
died upon the tree. On the day Leddra suffered,
Christison was brought before Endicott, and com-
manded to renounce his religion ; but he answered :
"Nay, I shall not change my religion, nor seek to
save my life ; . . . but if I lose my life for Christ's
sake and the preaching of the gospel, I shall save
it." They then sent him back to prison to await his
doom. At the next court he was brought to the bar,
where he demanded an appeal to England ; but in the
midst a letter was brought in from Wharton, signify-
ing, " That whereas they had banished him on pain of
death, yet he was at home in his own house at Salem,

1 Besse, ii. 220. 2 Besse, ii. 221.

322 THE QUAKERS.

and therefore proposing, ' That they would take off
their wicked sentence from him, that he might go
about his occasions out of their jurisdiction.' " ^

Endicott was exasperated to frenzy, for he felt the
ground crumbling beneath him ; he put the fate of
Christison to the vote, and failed to carry a condem-
nation. " The governor seeing this division, said, ' I
could find it in my heart to go home ; ' being in such
a rage, that he flung something furiously on the table.
. . . Then the governor put the court to vote again ;
but this was done confusedly, which so incensed the
governor that he stood up and said, ' You that will
not consent record it : I thank God I am not afraid
to give judgment. . . . Wenlock Christison, hearken
to your sentence : You must return unto the place
from whence you came, and from thence to the place
of execution, and there you must be hang'd until
you are dead, dead, dead.' " ^ Thereafter Wharton
invoked the wrath of God against the theocracy.

To none of the enormities committed durinof these
years are the divines more keenly alive than to the
crime of disturbing what they call "public Sabbath
worship ; " ^ and since their language conveys the im-
pression that such acts were not only very common,
but also unprovoked, whereas the truth is that they
were rare, it cannot fail to be instructive to relate the
causes which led to the interruption of the ordination

1 Besse, ii. 222, 223.

2 Sewel, p. 279.

8 As to Roger Williams, p. 139.

THE QUAKERS. 323

of that Mr. Higginson, who called the " inner light "
"a stinking vapour from hell." ^

John and Margaret Smith were members of the Sa-
lem church, and John was a freeman. In 1658, Marga-
ret became a Quaker, and though in feeble health, she
was cast into prison, and endured the extremities of
privation ; her sufferings and her patience so wTought
upon her husband that he too became a convert, and
a few weeks before the ceremony wrote to Endicott :

" O governour, governour, do not think that my love
to my wife is at all abated, because I sit still silent,
and do not seek her . . . freedom, which if I did would
not avail. . . . Upon examination of her, there being
nothing justly laid to her charge, yet to fulfil your
wills, it was determined, that she must have ten stripes
in the open market place, it being very cold, the snow
lying by the walls, and the wind blowing cold. . . .
My love is much more increased to her, because I see
your cruelty so much enlarged to her." ^

Yet, though laboring under such intense excite-
ment, the only act of insubordination wherewith this
man is charged was saying in a loud voice during the
service, " AVhat you are going about to set up, our
God is pulling down." ^

Dr. Dexter also speaks with pathos of the youth of
some of the criminals.

" Hannah Wright, a mere girl of less than fifteen
summers, toiled . . . from Oyster Bay ... to Boston,

* Ordained July 8, 1660. Annals of Salem.

« Besse, ii. 208, 209. « Hutch. Hist. i. 187.

324 THE QUAKERS.

that she might pipe in the ears of the court ' a warn-
ing in the name of the Lord.' " ^ This appears to
have happened in 1664,^ yet the name of Hannah
AVright is recorded among those who were released in
the general jail delivery in 1661,^ when she was only
twelve ; and her sister had been banished.^

But of all the scandals which have been dwelt on
for two centuries with such unction, none have been
made more notorious than certain extravagances com-
mitted by three women ; and regarding them, the
reasoning of Dr. Dexter should be read in full.

" The Quaker of the seventeenth century . . . was
essentially a coarse, blustering, conceited, disagree-
able, impudent fanatic ; whose religion gained subjec-
tive comfort in exact proportion to the objective com-
fort of which It was able to deprive others ; and which
broke out into its choicest exhibitions in acts which
were not only at that time in the nature of a public
scandal and nuisance, but which even in the brightest
light of this nineteenth century . . . would subject
those who should be guilty of them to the immediate
and stringent attention of the police court. The
disturbance of public Sabbath worship, and the inde-
cent exposure of the person — whether conscience be
pleaded for them or not — are punished, and rightly
punished, as crimes by every civilized governmento" ^

^ As to Roger Williams, p. 133.

2 Besse, ii. 234. New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 461.

8 Besse, ii. 224. * jVew England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 461.

• As to Roger Williams, pp. 138, 139.

THE QUAKERS. 325

This paragraph undoubtedly refers to Mary Tom-
kins, who " on the First Day of the week at Oyster
River, broke up the service of God's house . . . the
scene ending in deplorable confusion ; " ^ and to Lydia
AVardwell and Deborah Wilson, who appeared in
public naked.

Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose came to Massa-
chusetts in 1662 ; landing at Dover, they began preach-
ing at the inn, to which a number of people resorted.
Mr. Rayner, hearing the news, hurried to the spot,
and in much irritation asked them what they were
doing there ? This led to an argument about the
Trinity, and the authority of ministers, and at last
the clergyman " in a rage flung away, calling to his
people, at the window, to go from amongst them," ^
Nothing was done at the moment, but toward winter
the two came back from Maine, whither they had
gone, and then Mr. Rayner saw his opportunity. He
caused Richard Walden to prosecute them, and as the
magistrate was ignorant of the technicalities of the
law, the elder acted as clerk, and drew up for him
the following warrant : —

To the Constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisbury,
Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Wenham, Linn, Bos-
ton, Roxbury, Dedham, and until these vagabond
Quakers are carried out of this jurisdiction.
You and every of you are required, in the King's

^ As to Roger Williams, p. 133.

2 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 362.

326 THE QUAKERS.

Majesty's name, to take these vagabond Quakers,
Anne Coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose,
and make them fast to the cart's tail, and driving
the cart through your several towns, to whip them on
their backs, not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each
of them in each town, and so to convey them from
constable to constable, till they come out of this
jurisdiction, as you will answer it at your peril : and
this shall be your warrant.

Per me Kichard Walden.

At Dover, dated December the 22d, 1662.1

The Rev. John Rayner pronounced judgment of
death by flogging, for the weather was bitter, the dis-
tance to be walked was eighty miles, and the lashes
were given with a whip, whose three twisted, knotted
thongs cut to the bone.

" So, in a very cold day, your deputy, Walden, caused
these women to be stripp'd naked from the middle up-
ward, and tyed to a cart, and after a while cruelly
whipp'd them, whilst the priest stood and looked, and
laughed at it. . . . They went with the executioner to
Hampton, and through dirt and snow at Salisbury,
half way the leg deep, the constable forced them after
the cart's tayl at which he whipp'd them." ^

Had the Reverend John Rayner but followed the
cart, to see that his three hundred and thirty lashes
were all given with the same ferocity which warmed
his heart to mirth at Dover, before his journey's end

1 Besse, u. 227. « New England Judged, pp. 366, 367.

THE QUAKERS. 327

he would certainly have joyed in giving thanks to
God over the women's gory corpses, freezing amid the
snow. His negligence saved their lives, for when the
ghastly pilgrims passed through Salisbury, the people
to their eternal honor set the captives free.

Soon after, on Sunday, — " Whilst Alice Ambrose
was at prayer, two constables . . . came . . . and
taking her . . . dragged her out of doors, and then
with her face toward the snow, which was knee deep,
over stumps and old trees near a mile ; when they had
wearied themselves they . . . left the prisoner in an
house . . . and fetched Mary Tomkins, whom in like
manner they dragged with her face toward the snow.
. . . On the next morning, which was excessive cold,
they got a canoe . . . and so carried them to the har-
bour's mouth, threatning, that ' They would now so do
with them, as that they would be troubled with them no
more.' The women being unwilling to go, they forced
them down a very steep place in the snow, dragging
Mary Tomkins over the stumps of trees to the water
side, so that she was much bruised, and fainted under
their hands : They plucked Alice Ambrose into the
water, and kept her swimming by the canoe in great
danger of drowning, or being frozen to death. They
would in all j^robability have proceeded in their wicked
purpose to the murthering of those three women, had
they not been prevented by a sudden storm, which
drove them back to the house again. They kejst the
women there till near midnight, and then cruelly
turned them out of doors in the frost and snow, Alice

328 THE QUAKERS.

Ambrose's clothes being frozen hard as boards. . . ,
It was observable that those constables, though wicked
enough of themselves, were animated by a ruling elder
of their church, whose name corresponded not with his
actions, for he was called Hate-evil Nutter, he put
those men forward, and by his presence encouraged
them." 1

Subsequently, Mary Tomkins committed the breach
of the peace complained of, which was an interruption
of a sermon against Quaker preaching.^

Deborah Wilson, one of the women who went
abroad naked, was insane, the fact appearing of rec-
ord subsequently as the judgment of the court.^ She
was flogged.

Lydia Wardwell was the daughter of Isaac Per-
kins, a freeman. She married Eliakim Wardwell,
son of Thomas Wardwell, who was also a citizen.
They became Quakers ; and the story begins when
the poor young woman had been a wife just three
years. " At Hampton, Priest Seaborn Cotton, un-
derstanding that one Eliakim Wardel had entertained
Wenlock Christison, went with some of his herd to
Eliakim's house, having like a sturdy herdsman put
himself at the head of his followers, with a truncheon
in his hand." ^ Eliakim was fined for harboring
Christison, and " a pretty beast for the saddle, worth
about fourteen pound, was taken . . . the overplus of

1 Besse, ii. 228.

2 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 386.

^ Quaker Invasion, p. 104. * Sewel, p. 340.

THE QUAKERS. 329

\fhich to make up to him, your officers plundred old
William Marston of a vessel of green ginger, which
for some fine was taken from him, and forc'd it into
Eliakim's house, where he let it lie and touched it
not ; . . . and notwithstanding he came not to your
invented worship, but was fined ten shillings a day's
absence, for him and his wife, yet was he often rated
for priest's hire ; and the priest (Seaborn Cotton, old
John Cotton's son) to obtain his end and to cover
himself, sold his rate to a man almost as bad as him-
self, . . . who coming in pretence of borrowing a little
corn for himself, which the harmless honest man
willingly lent him ; and he finding thereby that he
had corn, which was his design, Judas-like, he went
. . . and measured it away as he pleased."

" Another time, the said Eliakim being rated to the
said priest. Seaborn Cotton, the said Seaborn having
a mind to a pied heifer Eliakim had, as Ahab had to
Naboth's vineyard, sent his servant nigh two miles to
fetch her ; who having robb'd Eliakim of her, brought
her to his master." . . .

" Again the said Eliakim was had to your court,
and being by them fined, they took almost all his
marsh and meadow-ground from him to satisfie it,
which was for the keeping his cattle alive in winter
. . . and [so] seized and took his estate, that they
plucked from him most of that he had." ^

Lydia Wardwell, thus reduced to penury, and
Bhaken by the daily scenes of unutterable horror
1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, pp. 374-376.

330 THE QUAKERS.

through which she had to pass, was totally unequal
to endure the strain under which the masculine intel-
lect of Anne Hutchinson had reeled. She was pur-
sued by her pastor, who repeatedly commanded her
to come to church and explain her absence from com-
munion.^ The miserable creature, brooding over her
blighted life and the torments of her friends, became
possessed with the delusion that it was her duty to
testify against the barbarity of flogging naked women ;
so she herself went in among them naked for a sign.
There could be no clearer proof of insanity, for it is
admitted that in every other respect her conduct was
exemplary.

Her judges at Ipswich had her bound to a rough
post of the tavern, in which they sat, and then, while
the splinters tore her bare breasts, they had her flesh
cut from her back with the lash.'^

" Thus they served the wife, and the husband
escaped not free ; ... he taxing Simon Broadstreet,
... for upbraiding his wife . . . and telling Simon
of his malitious reproaching of his wife who was an
honest woman . . , and of that report that went
abroad of the known dishonesty of Simon's daughter.
Seaborn Cotton's wife ; Simon in a fierce rage, told the
court, ' That if such fellows should be suffered to
speak so in the court, he would sit there no more : ' So
to please Simon, Eliakim was sentenc'd to be strijjp'd
from his waste upward, and to be bound to an oak-

1 Besse, ii. 235.

2 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 377.

THE QUAKERS. 331

tree that stood by their worship-house, and to be
whipped fifteen lashes ; ... as they were having him
out ... he called to Seaborn Cotton ... to come
and see the work done (so far was he from being
daunted by their cruelty), who hastned out and fol-
lowed him thither, and so did old Wiggins, one of the
magistrates, who when Eliakim was tyed to the tree
and stripp'd, said ... to the whipper . . . ' Whip him
a good ; ' which the executioner cruelly performed with
cords near as big as a man's little finger ; . . . Priest
Cotton standing near him . . . Eliakim . . . when he was
loosed from the tree, said to him, amongst the people,
' Seaborn, hath my py'd heifer calv'd yet ? ' Which
Seaborn, the priest, hearing stole away like a thief." ^

As Margaret Brewster was the last who is known to
have been whipped, so is she one of the most famous,
for she has been immortalized by Samuel Sewall, an
honest, though a dull man.

"July 8, 1677. New Meeting House Mane: In
sermon time there came in a female Quaker, in a
canvas frock, her hair disshevelled and loose like a
Periwigg, her face as black as ink, led by two other
Quakers, and two other followed. It occasioned the
greatest and most amazing uproar that I ever saw.
Isaiah 1. 12, 14." 2

In 1675 the persecution had been revived, and the
stories the woman heard of the cruelties that were
perpetrated on those of her own faith inspired her

1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, pp. 377-379.
^ Mass. Hist. Coll. fifth series, v. 43.

332

THE QUAKERS.

with the craving to go to New England to protest
against the wrong ; so she journeyed thither, and en-
tered the Old South one Sunday morning clothed in
sackcloth, with ashes on her head.

At her trial she asked for leave to speak : " Gov-
ernour, I desire thee to hear me a little, for I have
something to say in behalf of my friends in this place :
. . . Oh governour ! I cannot but press thee again
and again, to put an end to these cruel laws that you
have made to fetch my friends from their peaceable
meetings, and keep them three days in the house of
correction, and then whip them for worshipping the
true and living God : Governour ! Let me entreat
thee to put an end to these laws, for the desire of my
soul is, that you may act for God, and then would you
prosper, but if you act against the Lord and his
blessed truth, you will assuredly come to nothing, the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." . . .

" Margaret Brewster, You are to have your clothes
stript off to the middle, and to be tied to a cart's
tail at the South Meeting House, and to be drawn
through the town, and to receive twenty stripes upon
your naked body."

" The will of the Lord be done : I am content-
ed." . . .

Governour. " Take her away." ^

So ends the sacerdotal list of Quaker outrages, for,
after Margaret Brewster had expiated her crime of
protesting against the repression of free thought, there

1 Besse, ii. 263, 264.

THE QUAKERS. 333

came a toleration, and with toleration a deep tran-
quillity, so that the very name of Quaker has become
synonymous with quietude. The issue between them
and the Congregationalists must be left to be decided
upon the legal question of their right as English sub-
jects to inhabit Massachusetts ; and secondarily upon
the opinion which shall be formed of their conduct as
citizens, upon the testimony of those witnesses whom
the church herself has called. But regarding the
great fundamental struggle for liberty of individual
opinion, no presentation of the evidence could be his-
torically correct which did not include at least one
example of the fate that awaited peaceful families, un-
der this ecclesiastical government, who roused the ire
of the priests.

Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick were an aged
couple, members of the Salem church, and Lawrence
was a freeman. Josiah, their eldest son, was a man ;
but they had beside a younger boy and girl named
Daniel and Provided.

The father and mother were first arrested in 1657
for harboring two Quakers ; Lawrence was soon re-
leased, but a Quaker tract was found upon Cassan-
dra.^ Although no attempt seems to have been made
to prove heresy to bring the case within the letter of
the law, the paper was treated as a heretical writing,
and she was imprisoned for seven weeks and fined
forty shillings.

Persecution made converts fast, and in Salem par-

1 Besse. ii. 183.

334 THE QUAKERS.

ticularly a number withdrew from the church and be-
gan to worship by themselves. All were soon arrested,
and the three Southwicks were again sent to Boston,
this time to serve as an example. They arrived on
the 3d of February, 1657 ; without form of trial they
were whipped in the extreme cold weather and im-
prisoned eleven days. Their cattle were also seized
and sold to pay a fine of X4 13s. for six weeks' ab-
sence from worship on the Lord's day.

The next summer, Leddra, who was afterwards
hanged, and William Brend went to Salem, and sev-
eral persons were seized for meeting with them,
among whom were the Southwicks. A room was pre-
pared for the criminals in the Boston prison by board-
ing up the windows and stopping ventilation.^ They
were refused food unless they worked to pay for it ;
but to work when wrongfully confined was against
the Quaker's conscience, so tliey did not eat for five
days. On the second day of fasting they were flogged,
and then, with wounds imdressed, the men and women
together were once more locked in the dark, close
room, to lie upon the bare boards, in the stifling July
heat; for they were not given beds. On the fourth
day they were told they might go if they would pay
the jail fees and the constables ; but they refused, and
so were kept in prison. On the morrow the jailer,
thinking to bring them to terms, put Brend in irons,
neck and heels, and he lay without food for sixteen
hours upon his back lacerated with flogging.
1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 64-

THE QUAKERS. 335

The next day the miserable man was ordered to
work, but he lacked the strength, had he been willing,
for he was weak from starvation and pain, and stiff-
ened by the irons. And now the climax came. The
jailer seized a tarred rope and beat him till it broke ;
then, foaming with fury, he dragged the old man down
stairs, and, with a new rope, gave him ninety-seven
blows, when his strength failed ; and Brend, his flesh
black and beaten to jelly, and his bruised skin hang-
ing in bags full of clotted blood, was thrust into his
cell. There, upon the floor of that dark and fetid
den, the victim fainted. But help was at hand ; an
outcry was raised, the people could bear no more, the
doors were opened, and he was rescued.^

The indignation was deep, and the government was
afraid. Endicott sent his own doctor, but the surgeon
said that Brend's flesh would " rot from off his bones,"
and he must die. And now the mob grew fierce and
demanded justice on the ruffian who had done this
deed, and the magistrates nailed a paper on the
church door promising to bring him to trial.

Then it was that the true spirit of his order blazed
forth in Norton, for the jailer was fashioned in his
own image, and he threw over him the mantle of the
holy church. He made the magistrates take the paper
down, rebuking them for their faintness of heart, say-
ing to them : —

William " Brend endeavoured to beat our gospel
ordinances black and blue, if he then be beaten black
1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. QQ.

336 THE QUAKERS.

and blue, it is but just upon him, and I will appear in
his behalf that did so." ^ And the man was justified,
and commanded to whip " the Quakers in prison . . .
twice a week, if they refused to work, and the first
time to add five stripes to the former ten, and each
time to add three to them. . . . Which order ye sent
to the jaylor, to strengthen his hands to do yet more
cruelly ; being somewhat weakened by the fright of
his former doings." ^

After this the Southwicks, being still unable to ob-
tain their freedom, sent the following letter to the
magistrates, which is a good example of the writings
of these " coarse, blustering, . . . impudent fanat-
ics : " 3 —

J7iis to the Magistrates at Court in Salem.
Friends,

Whereas it was your pleasures to commit us, whose
names are under-written, to the house of correction
in Boston, altho' the Lord, the righteous Judge of
heaven and earth, is our witness, that we had done
nothing worthy of stripes or of bonds ; and we being
committed by your court, to be dealt withal as the
law provides for foreign Quakers, as ye please to term
us ; and having some of us, suffered your law and
pleasures, now that which we do expect, is, that where-
as we have suffei-ed your law, so now to be set free by

1 Besse, ii. 186.

2 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 67.
* As to Roger Williams, p. 138.

THE QUAKERS. 337

the same law, as your manner is with strangers, and
not to put us in upon the account of one law, and
execute another law upon us, of which, according to
your own manner, we were never convicted as the law
expresses. If you had sent us upon the account of
your new law, we should have expected the jaylor's
order to have been on that account, which that it was
not, appears by the warrant which we have, and the
punishment which we bare, as four of us were whipp'd,
among whom was one that had formerly been whipp'd,
so now also according to your former law. Friends,
let it not be a small thing in your eyes, the exposing
as much as in you lies, our families to mine. It 's
not unknown to you the season, and the time of the
year, for those that live of husbandry, and what their
cattle and families may be exposed unto ; and also
such as live on trade ; we know if the spirit of Christ
did dwell and rule in you, these things would take
impression on your spirits. What our lives and
conversations have been in that place, is well known ;
and what we now suffer for, is much for false reports,
and ungrounded jealousies of heresie and sedition.
These thing lie upon us to lay before you. As for our
parts, we have true peace and rest in the Lord in all
our sufferings, and are made willing in the power and
strength of God, freely to offer up our lives in this
cause of God, for which we suffer; Yea and we do
find (through grace) the enlargements of God in our
imprisoned state, to whom alone we commit ourselves
and families, for the disposing of us according to his

338 THE QUAKERS.

infinite wisdom and pleasure, in whose love is our
rest and life.

From the House of Bondage in Boston wherein
we are made captives by the wills of men, al-
though made free by the Son, John 8, 36. In
which we quietly rest, this 16th of the 5th
month, 1658.

Lawrence \
Cassandra v Southwick

JOSIAH j

Samuel Shattock
Joshua Buffum.^

What the prisoners apprehended was being kept in
prison and punished under an ex post facto law, and this
was precisely what was done. When brought into court
they demanded to be told the crime wherewith they
were charged. They were answered : "It was ' En-
tertaining the Quakers who were their enemies ; not
coming to their meetings ; and meeting by themselves.'
They adjoyned, ' That as to those things they had al-
ready fastned their law upon them.' ... So ye had
nothing left but the hat, for which (then) ye had no
law. They answered — that they intended no offence
to ye in coming thither . . . for it was not their man-
ner to have to do with courts. And as for withdraw-
ing from their meetings, or keeping on their hats, or
doing anything in contempt of them, or their laws,
1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 74.

II

THE QUAKERS. 339

they said, the Lord was their witness . . . that they
did it not. So ye rose up, and bid the jay lor take
them away." ^

An acquittal seemed certain ; yet it was intoler-
able to the clergy that these accursed blasphemers
should elude them when they held them in their
grasp ; wherefore, the next day, the Rev. Charles
Chauncy, preaching at Thursday lecture, thus taught
Christ's love for men : " Suppose ye should catch six
wolves in a trap . . . [there were six Salem Quakers]
and ye cannot prove that they killed either sheep or
lambs ; and now ye have them they will neither bark
nor bite : yet they have the plain marks of wolves.
Now I leave it to your consideration whether ye will
let them go alive, yea or nay." ^

Then the divines had a consultation, " and your
priests were put to it, how to prove them as your law
had said : and ye had them before you again, and
your priests were with you, every one by his side (so
came ye to your court) and John Norton must ask
them questions, on purpose to ensnare them, that by
your standing law for hereticks, ye might condemn
them (as your priests before consulted) and when this
would not do (for the Lord was with them, and made
them wiser than your teachers) ye made a law to ban-
ish them, upon pain of death. . . ." ^

After a violent struggle, the ministers, under Nor-
ton's lead, succeeded, on the 19th of October, 1658,

^ New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 85.

2 Idem, pp. 85, 86. 3 i^i^jn^ p. 87.

340 THE QUAKERS.

in forcing the capital act through the legislature,
which contained a clause making the denial of rever-
ence to superiors, or in other words, the wearing the
hat, evidence of Quakerism.^

On that very day the bench ordered the prisoners
at Ipswich to be brought to the bar, and the South-
wicks were bidden to depart before the spring elec-
tions.^ They did not go, and in May were once more
in the felon's dock. They asked what wrong they
had done. The judges told them they were rebellious
for not going as they had been commanded. The old
man and woman piteously pleaded " that they had no
otherwhere to go," nor had they done anything to
deserve banishment or death, though <£100 (all they
had in the world) had been taken from them for
meeting together.^

" Major-General Dennison replied, that ' they stood
against the authority of the country, in not submitting
to their laws : that he should not go about to speak
much concerning the error of their judgments : but,'
added he, ' you and we are not able well to live to-
gether, and at present the power is in our hand, and
therefore the stronger must send off.' " *

The father, mother, and son were banished under
pain of death. The aged couple were sent to Shelter
Island, but their misery was well-nigh done ; they

^ New England Judged, ed. 1703, pp. 100, 101 ; Mass, Rec.
vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 346.

2 Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 349.

8 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 106. * Besse, ii. 198.

THE QUAKERS. 341

perished within a few days of each other, tortured to
death by flogging and starvation.

Josiah was shipped to England, but afterward re-
turned, was seized, and in the " seventh month, 16G1,
you had him before you, and at which according to
your former law, he should have been tried for his
life."

" But the great occasion you took against him, was
his hat, which you commanded him to pull off : ' He
told your governour he could not.' You said, ' He
would not.' He told you, ' It was a cross to his will
to keep it on ; . . . and that he could not do it for
conscience sake.' . . . But your governour told him,
' That he was to have been tryed for his life, but that
you had made your late law to save his life, which,
you said, was mercy to him.' Then he asked you,
' Whether you were not as good to take his life now,
as to whip him after your manner, twelve or fourteen
times at the cart's tail, through your towns, and then
put him to death afterward ? ' " He was condenmed
to be flogged through Boston, Roxbury, and Ded-
ham ; but he, when he heard the judgment, " with
arms stretched out, and hands spread before you, said,
' Here is my body, if you want a further testimony of
the truth I profess, take it and tear it in pieces . . .
it is freely given up, and as for your sentence I matter
it not.' " 1

This coarse, blustering, impudent fanatic had, in-
deed, " with a dogged pertinacity persisted in out-
^ New England Judged, ed. 1703, pp. 354:-356.

342 THE QUAKERS.

rasres which " had driven " the authorities almost to
f reiizy ; " therefore they tied him to a cart and lashed
him for fifteen miles, and while he " sang to the
praise of God," his tormentor swung with all his
might a tremendous two-handed whip, whose knotted
thongs were made of twisted cat-gut ; ^ " thence he was
carried fifteen miles from any town into the wilder-
ness. -^

An end had been made of the grown members of
the family, but the two children were still left. To
reach them, the device was conceived of enforcing
the penalty for not attending church, since " it was
well known they had no estate, their parents being al-
ready brought to poverty by their rapacious persecu-
tors." ^

Accordingly, they were summoned and asked to ac-
count for their absence from worship. Daniel an-
swered " that if they had not so persecuted his father
and mother perhaps he might have come." * They
were fined ; and on the day on which they lost their
parents forever, the sale as slaves of this helpless boy
and girl was authorized to satisfy the debt.^

Edmund Batter, treasurer of Salem, brought the
children to the town, and went to a shipmaster who
was about to sail, to engage a passage to Barbadoes.

1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 357, note.

2 Besse, ii. 225.
8 Sewel, p. 223.

4 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 381.
* Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 366.

THE QUAKERS. 343

The captain made the excuse that they would cor-
rupt his ship's company. " Oh, no," said Batter,
" you need not fear that, for they are poor harmless
creatures, and will not hurt any body." ..." Will
they not so ? " broke out the sailor, " and will ye offer
to make slaves of so harmless creatures ? " ^

Thus were free-born English subjects and citizens
of Massachusetts dealt with by the priesthood that
ruled the Puritan Commonwealth.

None but ecclesiastical partisans can doubt the bear-
ing of such evidence. It was the mortal struggle be-
tween conservatism and liberality, between repression
and free thought. The elders felt it in the marrow of
their bones, and so declared it in their laws, denoun-
cing banishment under pain of death against those
" adhering to or approoving of any knoune Quaker, or
the tenetts & practices of the Quakers, . . . manifest-
ing thereby theire compljance w*^ those whose designe
it is to ouerthrow the order established in church and
comonwealth." ^

Dennison spoke with an unerring instinct when he
said they could not live together, for the faith of the
Friends was subversive of a theocracy. Their belief
that God revealed himself directly to man led with
logical certainty to the substitution of individual judg-
ment for the rules of conduct dictated by a sacred
class, whether they claimed to derive their authority
from their skill in interpreting the Scriptures, or from

1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 112.
* Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 346.

344 THE QUAKERS.

traditions preserved by Apostolic Succession. Each
man, therefore, became, as it were, a priest unto him-
self, and they rejoudiated an ordained ministry. Hence,
their crime resembled that of Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat, who " made priests of the lowest of the people,
which were not of the sons of Levi ; " ^ and it was for
this reason that John Norton and John Endicott re-
solved upon their extermination, even as Elisha and
Jehu conspired to exterminate the house of Ahab.

That they failed was due to no mercy for their vic-
tims, nor remorse for the blood they made to flow, but
to their inability to control the people. Nothing is
plainer upon the evidence, than that popular sym-
pathy was never with the ecclesiastics in their fero-
cious policy ; and nowhere does the contrast of feeling
shine out more clearly than in the story of the hanging
of Kobinson and Stevenson.

The figure of Norton towers above his contempora-
ries. He held the administration in the hollow of his
hand, for Endicott was his mouthpiece ; yet even he,
backed by the whole power of the clergy, barely suc-
ceeded in forcing through the Chamber of Deputies the
statute inflicting death.

" The priests and rulers were all for blood, and they
pursued it. . . . This the deputies withstood, and it
could not pass, and the opposition grew strong, for the
thing came near. Deacon Wozel was a man much af-
fected therewith ; and being not well at that time that

^ Jeroboam's sin is discussed in Ne Sutor, p. 25 ; Divine Right
yf Infant Baptism, p. 26.

THE QUAKERS. 345

he supposed the vote might pass, he earnestly desired
the speaker ... to send for him when it was to be,
lest by his absence it might miscarry. The deputies
that were against the . . . law, thinking themselves
strong enough to cast it out, forbore to send for him.
The vote was put and carried in the affirmative, —
the speaker and eleven being in the negative and thir-
teen in the affirmative : so one vote carried it ; which
troubled Wozel so . . . that he got to the court, . . .
and wept for grief, . . . and said ' If he had not been
able to go, he would have crept upon his hands and
knees, rather than it should have been.' " ^

After the accused had been condemned, the people,
being strongly moved, flocked about the prison, so
that the magistrates feared a rescue, and a guard was
set.

As the day approached the murmurs grew, and on
the morning of the execution the troops were under
arms and the streets patrolled. Stevenson and Robin-
son were loosed from their fetters, and Mary Dyer,
who also was to die, walked between them; and so
they went bravely hand in hand to the scaffold. The
prisoners were put behind the drums, and their voices
drowned when they tried to speak ; for a great multi-
tude was about them, and at a word, in theii* deep ex-
citement, would have risen.^

As the solemn procession moved along, they came to
where the Reverend John Wilson, the Boston pastor,

1 New England Judged, ed. 1703, pp. 101, 102.

2 Idem, pp. 122, 123.

346 THE QUAKERS.

stood with others of the clergy. Then Wilson " fell a
taunting at Robinson, and, shaking his hand in a light,
scoffing manner, said, ' Shall such Jacks as you come
in before authority with your hats on ? ' with many
other taunting words." Then Robinson replied, " Mind
you, mind you, it is for the not putting off the hat we
are put to death." ^

When they reached the gallows, Robinson calmly
climbed the ladder and spoke a few words. He told
the people they did not suffer as evil-doers, but as
those who manifested the truth. He besought them to
mind the light of Christ within them, of which he tes-
tified and was to seal with his blood.

He had said so much when Wilson broke in upon
him : " Hold thy tongue, be silent ; thou art going tq
dye with a lye in thy mouth." ^ Then they seized him
and bound him, and so he died ; and his body was
" cast into a hole of the earth," where it lay uncovered.

Even the voters, the picked retainers of the church,
were almost equally divided, and beyond that narrow
circle the tide of sympathy ran strong.

The Rev. John Rayner stood laughing with joy to
see Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose flogged through
Dover, on that bitter winter day ; but the men of
Salisbury cut those naked, bleeding women from the
cart, and saved them from their awful death.

The Rev. John Norton sneered at the tortures of
Brend, and brazenly defended his tormentor ; but the

^ New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 124.
3 Idem, p. 125.

THE QUAKERS. 347

Boston mob succored the victim as he lay fainting on
the boards of his dark cell.

The Rev. Charles Chauncy, preaching the word of
God, told his hearers to kill the Southwicks like
wolves, since he could not have their blood by law ;
but the honest sailor broke out in wrath when asked
to traffic in the flesh of our New England children.

The Rev. John Wilson jeered at Robinsan on his
way to meet his death, and reviled him as he stood
beneath the gibbet, over the hole that was his grave ;
but even the savage Endicott knew well that all the
trainbands of the colony could not have guarded
Christison to the gallows from the dungeon where he
lay condemned.

Yet awful as is this Massachusetts tragedy, it is
but a little fragment of the sternest struggle of the
modern world. The power of the priesthood lies in
submission to a creed. In their onslaughts on rebel-
lion they have exhausted human torments ; nor, in
their lust for earthly dominion, have they felt remorse,
but rather joy, when slaying Christ's enemies and
their own. The horrors of the Inquisition, the Mas-
sacre of St. Bartholomew, the atrocities of Laud, the
abominations of the Scotch Kirk, the persecution of
the Quakers, had one object, — the enslavement of
the mind.

Freedom of thought is the greatest triumph over -
tyranny that brave men have ever won ; for this they
fought the wars of the Reformation ; for this they
have left their bones to whiten upon unnumbered

348 THE QUAKERS.

fields of battle ; for this they have gone by thousands
to the dungeon, the scaffold, and the stake. We owe
to their heroic devotion the most priceless of our
treasures, our perfect liberty of thought and speech ;
and all who love our country's freedom may well rev-
erence the memory of those martyred Quakers by
whose death and agony the battle in New England
has been won.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SCIKE FACIAS.

Had tlie Puritan Commonwealth been in reality
the thin": which its historians have described : had it
been a society guided by men devoted to civil liberty,
and as liberal in religion as was consistent with the
temper of their age, the early relations of Massachu-
setts toward Great Britain might now be a pleasanter
study for her children. Cordiality toward Charles I.
would indeed have been impossible, for the Puritans
well knew the fate in store for them should the court
triumph. Gorges was the representative of the des-
potic policy toward America, and so early as 1634,
probably at his instigation. Laud became the head of
a commission, with absolute control over the planta-
tions, while the next year a writ of quo warranto was
brought against the patent.^ With Naseby, however,
these dangers vanished, and thenceforward there would
have been nothing to mar an affectionate confidence
in both Parliament and the Protector.

In fact, however, Massachusetts was a petty state,
too feeble for independence, yet ruled by an autocratic
priesthood whose power rested upon legislation antag-
onistic to English law ; therefore the ecclesiastics
^ See introduction to New Canaan, Prince Sec. ed.

350 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

^ were jealous of Parliament, and had little love for
Cromwell, whom they found wanting in " a thorough
testimony against the blasphemers of our days." ^
The result was that the elders clung obstinately to

v every privilege which served their ends, and repudi-

V ated every obligation which conflicted with their am-
bition. Clerical political morality seldom fails to be
instructive, and the following example is typical of that
peculiar mode of reasoning. The terms of admission
to ordinary corporations were fixed by each organiza-
tion for itself, but in case of injustice the courts could
give relief by setting aside unreasonable ordinances,
and sometimes Parliament itself would interfere, as it
did upon the petition against the exactions of the Mer-
chant Adventurers. Now there was nothing upon
which the theocracy more strongly insisted than that

^ " our charter doeth expresly give vs an absolute &
free choyce of our oune members ; " ^ because by means

V of a religious test the ministers could pack the con-
, stituencies with their tools ; but on the other hand

they as strenuously argued " that no appeals or other
ways of interrupting our proceedings do lie against
us," ^ because they well knew that any bench of judges
before whom such questions might come would annul
the most vital of their statutes as repugnant to the
British Constitution.

Unfortunately for these churchmen, their objects,

1 Diary of Hull, Palfrey, ii. 400, 401, and note.
'"■ Mass. Rec. v. 287.
« Winthrop, ii. 283.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 351

as ecclesiastical politicians, could seldom be reconciled
with their duty as English subjects. At the outset,
though made a corporation within the realm, they felt
constrained to organize in America to escape judicial
supervision. They were then obliged to incorporate
towns and counties, to form a representative assembly,
and to levy general taxes and duties, none of which
things they had jDower to do. Still, such irregularities
as these, had they been all, most English statesmen
would have overlooked as unavoidable. But when it
came to adopting a criminal code based on the Penta-
teuch, and, in support of a dissenting form of worship,
fining and imprisoning, whipping, mutilating, and
hanging English subjects without the sanction of
English law ; when, finally, the Episcopal Church it-
self was suppressed, and peaceful subjects were ex-
cluded from the corporation for no reason but because
they partook of her communion, and were forbidden
to seek redress by appealing to the courts of their
king, it seems impossible that any self-respecting gov-
ernment could have long been passive.

At the Restoration Massachusetts had orrown arro-
gant from long impunity. She thought the time of
reckoning would never come, and even in trivial mat-
ters seemed to take a pride in slighting Great Britain
and in vaunting her independence. Laws were en-
acted in the name of the Commonwealth, the king's
name was not in the writs, nor were the royal arms
upon the public buildings ; even the oath of allegiance
was rejected, though it was unobjectionable in form.

352 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

She had grown to believe that were offence taken she
had only to invent pretexts for delay, to have her
fault forgotten in some new revolution. General
Denison, at the Quaker trials, put the popular belief
in a nut-shell : " This year ye will go to complain to
the Parliament, and the next year they will send to
see how it is ; and the third year the government is
changed." ^

But, beside these irritating domestic questions, the
corporation was bitterly embroiled with its neighbors.
Samuel Gorton and his friends were inhabitants of
Rhode Island, and were, no doubt, troublesome to deal
with; but their particular offence was ecclesiastical.
An armed force was sent over the border and they
were seized. They were brought to Boston and tried
on the charge of being " blasphemous enemies of the
true religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of all his
holy ordinances, and likewise of all civil government
among his people, and particularly within this juris-
diction." ^ All the magistrates but three thought that
Gorton ought to die, but he was finally sentenced to
an imprisonment of barbarous cruelty. The invasion
of Rhode Island was a violation of an independent
jurisdiction, the arrest was illegal, the sentence an
arbitrary outrage.*^

Massachusetts was also at feud in the north, and
none of her quarrels brought more serious results than

1 Sewel, p. 280. 2 Winthrop, ii. 146.

3 See paper of Mr. Charles Deane, New Eng. Historical and
Genealogical Register^ vol. iv.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 353

this with the proprietors of New Hampshire and
Maine. The grant in the charter was of all lands
between the Charles and Merrimack, and also all
lands within the space of three miles to the northward
of the said Merrimack, or to the northward of any
part thereof, and all lands lying within the limits
aforesaid from the Atlantic to the South Sea.

Clearly the intention was to give a margin of three
miles beyond a river which was then supposed to flow
from west to east, and accordingly the territory to the
north, being unoccupied, was granted to Mason and
Gorges. Nor was this construction questioned before
1639 — the General Court having at an early day
measured off the three miles and marked the boun-
dary by what was called the Bound House.

Gradually, however, as it became known that the
Merrimack rose to the north, larger claims were made.
In 1641 the four New Hampshire towns were ab-
sorbed with the consent of their inhabitants, who thus
gained a regular government ; another happy con-
sequence was the settlement of sundry eminent di-
vines, by whose ministrations the people " were very-
much civilized and reformed."^

In 1652 a survey was made of the whole river, and
43° 40' 12" was fixed as the latitude of its source. A
line extended east from three miles north of this point
came out near Portland, and the intervening space
was forthwith annexed. The result of such a policy
was that Charles had hardly been crowned before
1 ^Jeal's New England, i. 210.

354 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

complaints poured in from every side. Quakers, Bap-
tists, Episcopalians, all who had suffered persecution,
flocked to the foot of the throne; and beside these
came those who had been injured in their estates, fore-
most of whom were the heirs of Mason and Gorges.
The pressure was so great and the outcry so loud that,
in September, 1660, it was thought in London a gov-
ernor-general would be sent to Boston ; ^ and, in point
of fact, almost the first communication between the
king and his colony was his order to spare the Qua-
kers.

The outlook was gloomy, and there was hesitation
as to the course to pursue. At length it was decided
to send Norton and Bradstreet to England to present
an address and protect the public interests. The mis-
sion was not agreeable ; Norton especially was reluct-
ant, and with reason, for he had been foremost in the
Quaker persecutions, and was probably aware that in
the eye of English law the executions were homicide.

However, after long vacillation, " the Lord so en-
couraged and strengthened " his heart that he ven-
tured to sail.^ So far as the crown was concerned
apprehension was needless, for Lord Clarendon was
prime minister, whose policy toward New England
was throughout wise and moderate, and the agents
were well received. Still they were restless in Lon-
don, and Sewel tells an anecdote which may partly
account for their impatience to be gone.

^ Leverett to Endicott. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 40.
2 Feb. 11, 16G1-2. Palfrey, ii. 524.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 355

" Now the deputies of New England came to Lon-
don, and endeavored to clear themselves as much as
possible, but especially priest Norton, who bowed no
less reverently before the archbishop, than before the
king. . . .

'■'' They would fain have altogether excused them-
selves ; and priest Norton thought it sufficient to say
that he did not assist in the bloody trial, nor had ad-
vised to it. But John Copeland, whose ear was cut
off at Boston, charged the contrary upon him : and G.
Fox, the elder, got occasion to speak with them in
the presence of some of his friends, and asked Simon
Broadstreet, one of the New England magistrates,
' whether he had not a hand in putting to death those
they nicknamed Quakers ? ' He not being able to
deny this confessed he had. Then G. Fox asked him
and his associates that were present, ' whether they
would acknowledge themselves to be subjects to the
laws of England ? and if they did by what law they
had put his friends to death ? ' They answered,
'They were subjects to the laws of England ; and they
had put his friends to death by the same law, as the
Jesuits were put to death in England.' Hereupon
G. Fox asked, ' whether they did believe that those
his friends, whom they had put to death, were Jesuits,
or jesuitically affected ? ' They said ' Nay.' ' Then,'
replied G. Fox, ' ye have murdered them ; for since ye
put them to death by the law that Jesuits are put to
death here in England, it plainly appears, you have
put them to death arbitrarily, without any law.' Thus

356 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

Broadstreet, finding himself and his company ensnai''d
by their own words, ask'd, ' Are you come to catch
us ? ' But he told them ' They had catch'd them-
selves, and they might justly be questioned for their
lives ; and if the father of William Robinson (one of
those that were put to death) were in town, it was
probable he would question them, and bring their lives
into jeopardy. For he not being of the Quakers per-
suasion, would perhaps not have so much regard to
the point of forbearance, as they had.' Broadstreet
seeing himself thus in danger began to flinch and to
sculk ; for some of the old royalists were earnest with
the Quakers to prosecute the New England perse-
cutors. But G. Fox and his friends said, ' They left
them to the Lord, to whom vengeance belonged, and
he would repay it.' Broadstreet however, not think-
ing it safe to stay in England, left the city, and with
his companions went back again to New England." ^

The following June the agents were given the king's
answer ^ to their address and then sailed for home.
It is certainly a most creditable state paper. The
people of Massachusetts were thanked for their good
will, they were promised oblivion for the past, and
were assured that they should have their charter con-
firmed to them and be safe in all their privileges and
liberties, provided they would make certain reforms in
their government. They were required to repeal such
statutes as were contrary to the laws of England, to

1 Sewel, p. 288.

2 1662, June 28.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 357

take the oath of allegiance, and to administer justice
in the king's name. And then followed two proposi-
tions that were crucial : " And since the principle
and foundation of that charter was and is the freedom
of liberty of conscience, wee do hereby charge and
require you that that freedom and liberty be duely
admitted," especially in favor of those " that desire to
use the Book of Common Prayer." And secondly,
" that all the freeholders of competent estates, not
vicious in conversations, orthodox in religion (though
of different perswasions concerning church govern-
ment) may have their vote in the election of all offi-
cers civill or millitary." *

However judicious these reforms may have been, or
howsoever strictly they conformed with the spirit of
English law, was immaterial. They struck at the
root of the secular power of the clergy, and they
roused deep indignation. The agents had braved no
little danger, and had shown no little skill in behalf
of the commonwealth ; and the fate of John Norton
enables us to realize the rancor of theological feeling.
The successor of Cotton, by general consent the lead-
ing minister, in some respects the most eminent man
in Massachusetts, he had undertaken a difficult mis-
sion against his will, in which he had acquitted him-
self well ; yet on his return he was so treated by his
brethren and friends that he died in the spring of a
broken heart.^

1 Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 101-103.

2 April 5, 1663.

858 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

The General Court took no notice of the king's de-
mands except to order the writs to run in the royal
name.^ And it is a sign of the boldness, or else of
the indiscretion, of those in power, that this crisis was
chosen for striking a new coin,^ — an act confessedly
illegal and certain to give offence in England, both as
an assumption of sovereignty and an interference with
the currency.

From the first Lord Clarendon paid some attention
to colonial affairs, and he appears to have been much
dissatisfied with the condition in which he found
them. At length, in 1664, he decided to send a com-
mission to New England to act upon the spot.

Great pressure must have been brought by some
who had suffered, for Samuel Maverick, the Epis-
copalian, who had been fined and imprisoned in
1646 for petitioning with Childe, was made a mem-
ber. Colonel Richard Nichols, the head of the board,
was a man of ability and judgment ; the choice of Sir
Robert Carr and Colonel George Cartwriglit was less
judicious.

The commissioners were given a public and private
set of instructions,^ and both were admirable. They
were to examine the condition of the country and its
laws, and, if possible, to make some arrangement by
which the crown might have a negative at least upon
the choice of the governor ; they were to urge the re.

1 Oct. 8, 1662. Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 58.

2 1662, May 7.

8 Public Instructions, Hutch. Hist. i. 459.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 359

forms already demanded by the king, especially a
larger toleration, for " they doe in truth deny that
liberty of conscience to each other, which is equally
provided for and granted to every one of them by
their charter." ^ They were directed to be concilia-
tory toward the people, and under no circumstances
to meddle with public worship, nor were they to press
for any sudden enforcement of the revenue acts. On
one point alone they were to insist : they were in-
structed to sit to hear appeals in causes in which
the parties alleged they had been wronged by colo-
nial decisions.

Unquestionably the chancellor was right in prin-
ciple. The only way whereby such powerful corpora-
tions as the trade -guilds or the East India Company
could be kept from acts of oppression was through the
appellate jurisdiction, by which means their enact-
ments could be brought before the courts, and those
annulled which in the opinion of the judges tran-
scended the charters. The Comjiany of Massachu-
setts Bay was a corporation having jurisdiction over
many thousand English subjects, only a minority of
whom were freemen and voters. So long, therefore,
as she remained within the empire, the crown was
bound to see that the privileges of the English Consti-
tution were not denied within her territory. Yet,
though this is true, it is equally certain that the erec-
tion of a commission of appeal without an act of Par-
liament was irregular. The stretch of prerogative,
1 Private Instructions, G'Callaghnn Documents, iii. 58.

860 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

nevertheless, cannot be considered oppressive when it
is remembered that Massachusetts was a corporation
which had escaped from the realm to avoid judicial
process, and which refused to appear and plead ; hence
Lord Clarendon had but this alternative : he could
send judges to sit upon the spot, or he could proceed
against the charter in London. The course he chose
may have been illegal, but it was the milder of the two.

The commissioners landed on July 23, 1664, but
they did not stay in Boston. Their first business was
to subdue the Dutch at New York, and they soon left
to make the attack. The General Court now re-
curred, for the first time, to the dispatch which their
agents had brought home, and proceeded to amend
the law relating to the franchise. They extended
the qualification by enacting that Englishmen who
presented a certificate under the hands of the minis-
ter of the town that they were orthodox' in religion
and not vicious in life, and who paid, beside, 10s. at
a single rate, might become freemen, as well as those
who were church -members.^ The effect of such a
change could hardly have been toward liberality,
rather, probably, toward concentration of power in
the church. However slight, there was some popular
control over the rejection of an applicant to join a
congregation ; but giving a certificate was an act that
must have depended on the pastor's will alone.

The court then drew up an address to the king :
" If your poore subjects, . . . doe . . . prostrate
* Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 117.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 361

tbemselues at your royal feet 3, & ^Q^g yo'' favor, wee
hope it will be graciously accepted by your majestje,
and that as the high place you sustejne on earth
doeth number you here among the gods, [priests can
cringe as well as torture] so you will jmitate the
God of heaven, in being ready ... to receive their
crjes. . . ." ^ And he was implored to reflect on the
affliction of heart it was to them, that their sins had
provoked God to permit their adversaries to procure
a commission, under the great seal, to four persons to
hear appeals. When this address reached London it
caused surprise. The chancellor was annoyed. He
wrote to America, pointing out that His Majesty would
hardly think himself well used at complaints before
a beginning had been made, and a demand that his
commission should be revoked before his commission-
ers had been able to deliver their instructions. " I
know," he said, " they are expressly inhibited from
intermedling with, or instructing the administration
of justice, according to the formes observed there ; but
if in truth, in any extraordinary case, the proceedings
there have been irregular, and against the rules of
justice, as some particular cases, particularly recom-
mended to them by His Majesty, seeme to be, it can-
not be presumed that His Majesty hath or will leave
his subjects of New England, without hope of re-
dresse by an appeale to him, which his subjects of all
his other kingdomes have free liberty to make." ^
The campaign against New York was short and
1 Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 129. ^ Hutch. Hist. i. 465.

362 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

successful, and the commissioners were soon at lei-
sure. As they had reason to believe that Massachu-
setts would prove stubborn, they judged it wiser to
begin with the more tractable colonies first. They
therefore went to Plymouth,' and, on their arrival, ac-
cording to their instructions, submitted the four fol-
lowing propositions : —

First. That all householders should take the oath
of allegiance, and that justice should be administered
in the king's name.

Second. That all men of competent estates and civil
conversation, though of different judgments, might be
admitted to be freemen, and have liberty to choose
and be chosen officers, both civil and militai-y.

Third. That all men and women of orthodox opin-
ions, competent knowledge, and civil lives not scan-
dalous, should be admitted to the Lord's Supper [and
have baptism for their children, either in existing
churches or their own].

Fourth. That all laws . . . derogatory to his maj-
esty should be repealed.^

Substantially the same proposals were made sub-
sequently in Rhode Island and Connecticut. They
were accepted without a murmur. A few appeal
cases were heard, and the work was done.

The commissioners reported their entire satisfaction
to the government, the colonies sent loyal addresses,
and Charles returned affectionate answers.

Massachusetts alone remained to be dealt with, but

1 Feb. 1G64-5. 2 Palfrey, ii. GOl.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 363

her temper was in striking contrast to that of the rest
of New England. The reason is obvious. Nowhere
else was there a fusion of church and state. The
people had, therefore, no oppressive statutes to up-
hold, nor anything to conceal. Provided the liberty
of English subjects was secured to them they were
content to obey the English Constitution. On the
other hand, Massachusetts was a theocracy, the power
of whose priesthood rested on enactments contrary to
British institutions, and which, therefore, would have
been annulled upon appeal. Hence the clerical party
were wild with fear and rage, and nerved themselves
to desperate resistance.

" But alasse, sir, the commission impowering those
commisioners to heare and determine all cases what-
ever, . . . should it take place, what would become
of our civill government which hath binn, under God,
the heade of that libertie for our consciences for which
the first adventurers . . . bore all . . . discourage-
ments that encountered them ... in this wildernes."
Rather than submit, they protested they had " sooner
leave our place and all our pleasant outward injoy-
ments." ^

Under such conditions a direct issue was soon
reached. The General Court, in answer to the com-
missioners' proposals, maintained that the observance
of their charter was inconsistent with appeals ; that
they had already provided an oath of allegiance ; that
they had conformed to his majesty's requirements in
1 Court to Boyle. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 113.

364 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

regard to the franchise ; and lastly, in relation to tol-
eration, there was no equivocation. " Concerning the
vse of the Comon Prayer Booke "... we had not
become " voluntary exiles from our deare native coun-
try, . . . could wee haue scene the word of God,
warranting us to performe our devotions in that way,
& to haue the same set vp here ; wee conceive it is
apparent that it will disturbe our peace in our present
enjoyments." ^

Argument was useless. The so-called oath of alle-
giance was not that required by Parliament ; the al-
teration in the franchise was a sham ; while the two
most important points, appeals to England and tolera-
tion in religion, were rejected. The commissioners,
therefore, asked for a direct answer to this question :
" Whither doe yow acknowledge his majestjes comis-
sion ... to be of full force ? " ^ They were met by
evasion. On the 23d of May they gave notice that
they should sit the next morning to hear the case of
Thos. Deane et al. vs. The Gov. & Co. of Mass. Bay,
a revenue appeal. Forthwith the General Court pro-
claimed by trumpet that the hearing would not be
permitted.

Coercion was impossible, as no troops were at
hand. The commissioners accordingly withdrew and
went to Maine, which they proceeded to sever from
Massachusetts.^ In this they followed the king's in-
structions, who himself acted upon the advice of the

1 1665. Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 200.

a Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 204. « June, 1665.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 365

law officers of the crown, who had given an opinion
sustaining the claim of Gorges.^

The triumph was complete. All that the English
government was then able to do was to recall the
commissioners, direct that agents should be sent to
London at once, and forbid interference with Maine.
No notice was taken of the order to send agents ; and
in 1668 possession was again taken of the province,
and the courts of the company once more sat in the
county of York.^

This was the culmination of the Puritan Common-
wealth. The clergy were exultant, and the Rev. Mr.
Davenport of New Haven wrote in delight to Lev-
erett : —

" Their claiming power to sit authoritatively as a
court for appeales, and that to be managed in an ar-
bitrary way, was a manifest laying of a groundworke
to undermine your whole government established by
your charter. If you had consented thereunto, you
had plucked downe with your owne hands that house
which wisdom had built for you and your posterity.
... As for the solemnity of publishing it, in three
places, by sounding a trumpet, I believe you did it
upon good advice, . . . for declaring the courage and
resolution of the whole countrey to defend their char-
ter liberties and priviledges, and not to yeeld up
theire right voluntarily, so long as they can hold it,

^ Charles II.'s letter to Inhabitants of Maine. Hutch. Coll.,
Prince Soc. ed. ii. 110 ; Palf. ii. 622.

* July, 1668. Report of Com. Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 401.

366 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

in dependence upon God in Christ, whose interest is
in it, for his protection and blessing, who will be with
you while you are with him." ^

Although the colonists were alarmed at their own
success, there was nothing to fear. At no time before
or since could England have been so safely defied.
In 1664 war was begun against Holland ; 1665 was
the year of the plague ; 1666 of the fire. In June,
1667, the Dutch, having dispersed the British fleets,
sailed up the Medway, and their guns were heard in
London. Peace became necessary, and in August
Clarendon was dismissed from office. The discord
between the crown and Parliament paralyzed the na-
tion, and the wastefulness of Charles kept him always
poor. By the treaty of Dover in 1670 he became a
pensioner of Louis XIV. The Cabal followed, prob-
ably the worst ministry England ever saw ; and in
1672, at Clifford's suggestion, the exchequer was
closed and the debt repudia.ted to provide funds for
the second Dutch war. In March fighting began, and
the tremendous battles with De Ruyter kept the navy
in the Channel. At length, in 1673, the Cabal fell,
and Danby became prime minister.

Although during these years of disaster and dis-
grace Massachusetts was not molested by Great Britain,
they were not all years during which the theocracy
could tranquilly enjoy its victory.

So early as 1671 the movements of the Indians
began to give anxiety; and in 1675 Philip's War

^ Davenport to Leverett. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 119,

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 367

broke out, which brought the colony to the brink of
ruin, and in which the clergy saw the judgment of
God against the Commonwealth, for tenderness toward
the Quakers.^

With the rise of Danby a more regular administra-
tion opened, and, as usual, the attention of the gov-
ernment was fixed upon Massachusetts by the clamors
of those who demanded redress for injuries alleged to
have been received at her hands. In 1674 the heirs
of Mason and Gorges, in despair at the reoccupation
of Maine, proposed to surrender their claim to the
king, reserving one third of the product of the cus-
toms for themselves. The Loudon merchants also
had become restive under the systematic violation of
the Navigation Acts. The breach in the revenue
laws had, indeed, been long a subject of complaint,
and the commissioners had received instructions relat-
ing thereto ; but it was not till this year that these
questions became serious.

The first statute had been passed by the Long Par-
liament, but the one that most concerned the colo-
nies was not enacted till 1663. The object was not
only to protect English shipping, but to give her the
entire trade of her dependencies. To that end it was
made illegal to import European produce into any
plantation except through England ; and, conversely,
colonial goods could only be exported by being landed
in England.

The theory upon which this legislation was based is
1 Reforming Synod, Magnolia, bk. 5, pt. 4.

368 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

exploded ; enforced, it would have crippled commerce ;
but it was then, and always had been, a dead letter at
Boston. New England was fast getting its share of
the carrying trade. London merchants already began
to feel the competition of its cheap and untaxed ships,
and manufacturers to complain that they were under-
sold in the American market, by goods brought direct
fiom the Continental ports. A petition, therefore,
was presented to the king, to carry the law into effect.
No colonial office then existed ; the affairs of the de-
pendencies were assigned to a committee of the Privy
Council, called the Lords of Committee of Trade and
Plantations ; and on these questions being referred
by them to the proper officers, the commissioners of
customs sustained the merchants ; the attorney-gen-
eral, the heirs of Mason and Gorges.^ The famous
Edward Randolph now appears. The government
was still too deeply embarrassed to act with energy.
A temporizing policy was therefore adopted ; and as
the experiment of a commission had failed, Randolph
was chosen as a messenger to carry the petitions and
opinions to Massachusetts ; together with a letter from
the king, directing that agents should be sent in an-
swer thereto. After delivering them, he was ordered
to devote himself to preparing a report upon the
country. He reached Boston June 10, 1676. Al-
though it was a time of terrible suffering from the
ravages of the Indian war, the temper of the magis-
trates was harsher than ever.

1 Palfrey, iii. 281 ; Chalmers's Political Annals of the United
Colonies, p. 262.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 369

The repulse of the commissioners had convinced
them that Charles was not only lazy and ignorant, but
too poor to use force; and they also believed him
to be so embroiled with Parliament as to make his
overthrow probable. Filled with such feelings, their
reception of Randolph was almost brutal. Jolin Lev-
erett was governor, who seems to have taken pains
to mark his contempt in every way in his power.
Randolph was an able, but an unscrupulous man, and
probably it would not have been difficult to have se-
cured his good-will. Far however from bribing, or
even flattering him, they so treated him as to make
him the bitterest enemy the Puritan Commonwealth
ever knew.

Being admitted into the council chamber, he deliv-
ered the letter.^ The governor opened it, glanced at
the signature, and, pretending never to have heard of
Henry Coventry, asked who he might be. He was
told he was his majesty's principal secretary of state.
He then read it aloud to the magistrates. Even the
fierce Endicott, when he received the famous " mis-
sive " from the Quaker Shattock, "laid off his hat . . .
[when] he look'd upon the papers," ^ as a mark of
respect to his king ; but Leverett and his council re-
mained covered. Then the governor said " that the
matters therein contained were very inconsiderable
things and easily answered, and it did no way concern
that government to take any notice thereof ; " and so

^ Randolph's Narrative. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 240.

2 Sewel, p. 282.

370 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

Randolph was dismissed. Five days after be was
again sent for, and asked whether he " intended for
London by that ship that was ready to saile?" If so,
he coukl have a duplicate of the answer to the king,
as the original was to go by other hands. He replied
that he had other business in charge, and inquired
whether they had well considered the petitions, and
fixed upon their agents so soon. Leverett did not
deign to answer, but told him " he looked upon me
as Mr. Mason's agent, and that I might withdraw."
The next day he saw the governor at his own house,
who took occasion, when Randolph referred to the
Navigation Acts, to expound the legal views of the
theocracy. " He freely declared to me that the
lawes made by your majestic and your Parliament
obligeth them in nothing but what consists with the
interest of that colony, that the legislative power is
and abides in them solely . . . and that all matters in
difference are to be concluded by their finall deter-
mination, without any appeal to your majestic, and
that your majestic ought not to retrench their liber-
ties, but may enlarge them." ^ One last interview took
place when Randolph went for dispatches for Eng-
land, after his return from New Hampshire ; then he
" was entertained by " Leverett " with a sharp reproof
for publishing the substance of my errand into those
parts, contained in your majestie's letters, . . . tell-
ing me that I designed to make a mutiny. ... I
told him, if I had done anything amisse, upon com.
1 Randolph's Narrative. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 243.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 371

plaint made to your majestie he would certainly have
justice done him." . . .

"At my departure . . . he . . . intreated me to
give a favourable report of the country and the mag-
istrates thereof, adding that those that blessed them
God would blesse, and those that cursed them God
would curse." And that " they were a people truely
fearing the Lord and very obedient to your majes-
tie." ^ And so the royal messenger was dismissed in
wrath, to tell his story to the king.

The legislature met in August, 1676, and a decision
had to be made concerning agents. On the whole,
the clergy concluded it would be wiser to obey the
crown, " provided they be, with vtmost care & cau-
tion, qualified as to their instructions." ^ Accord-
ingly, after a short adjournment, the General Court
chose William Stoughton and Peter Bulkely ; and
having strictly limited their power to a settlement of
the territorial controversy, they sent them on their

mission

Almost invariably public affairs were seen by the
envoys of the Company in a different light from that
in which they were viewed by the clerical party at
home, and these particularly had not been long in
London before they became profoundly alarmed.
There was, indeed, reason for grave apprehension.
The selfish and cruel policy of the theocracy had
borne its natural fruit : without an ally in the world,

1 Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 248.

2 Mass. Rec. v. 99. ^ Mass. Rec. v. 114.

372 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

Massachusetts was beset by enemies. Quakers, Bap-
tists, and Episcopalians whom she had persecuted and
exiled ; the heirs of Mason and Gorges, whom she
had wronged ; Andros, whom she had maligned ; ^ and
Randolph, whom she had insulted, wrought against
her with a government whose sovereign she had of-
fended and whose laws she had defied. Even her
English friends had been much alienated.^

The controversy concerning the boundary was re-
ferred to the two chief justices, who promptly decided
against the Company ; ^ and the easy acquiescence of
the General Court must raise a doubt as to their
faith in the soundness of their claims. And now
again the fatality which seemed to pursue the the-
ocracy in all its dealings with England led it to give
fresh provocation to the king by secretly buying the
title of Gorges for twelve hundred and fifty pounds.^

Charles had intended to settle Maine on the Duke
of Monmouth. It was a worthless possession, whose
revenue never paid for its defence ; yet so stubborn
was the colony that it made haste to anticipate the
crown and thus become " Lord Proprietary " of a
burdensome province at the cost of a slight which
was never forgiven. Almost immediately the Privy

* He had been accused of countenancing aid to Philip when
governor of New York. O'Callaghan Documents, iii. 258.

2 Palfrey, iii. 278, 279.

^ See Opinion ; Chalmers's Annals, p. 504.

4 May, 1677. Chalmers's Annals, pp. 396, 397. See notes,
Palfrey, iii. 312.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 373

Council had begun to open other matters, such as
coining and illicit trade ; and the attorney-general
drew up a list of statutes which, in his opinion, were
contrary to the laws of England. The agents protested
that they were limited by their instructions, but were
sharply told that his majesty did not think of treating
with his own subjects as with foreigners, and it would
be well to intimate the same to their principals.^ In
December, 1677, Stoughton wrote in great alarm that
something must be done concerning the Navigation
Acts or a breach would be inevitable.^ And the Gen-
eral Court saw reason in this emergency to increase
the tension by reviving the obnoxious oath of fidelity
to the country,^ — the substitute for the oath of alle-
giance, — and thus gave Randolph a new and potent
weapon. In the spring'* the law officers gave an
opinion that the misdemeanors alleged against Massa-
chusetts were sufficient to avoid her patent ; and the
Privy Council, in view of the encroachments and in-
juries which she had continually practised on her
neighbors, and her contempt of his majesty's com-
mands, advised that a quo warranto shoidd be brought
against the charter. Randolph was appointed col-
lector at Boston.^

Even Leverett now saw that some concessions must
be made, and the General Court ordered the oath of

1 Palfrey, iii. 309. - Hutch. Hist. i. 288.

« Maifs. Rec. v. 154.

< Palfrey, iii. 316, 317 ; Chalmers's Annals, p. 439.
6 1678, May 31.

374 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

allegiance to be takeu ; nothing but perversity seems
to have caused the long delay.' The royal arms were
also carved in the court-house ; and this was all, for
the clergy were determined upon those matters touch-
ing their authority. The agents were told, "that
which is f arr more considerable then all these is the
interest of the Lord Jesus & of his churches . . .
w<=^ ought to be f arr dearer to us than our Hues ; and
. . . wee would not that by any concessions of ours,
or of yo'^s . . . the least stone should be put out of
the wall." 2

Both agents and magistrates were, nevertheless,
thoroughly frightened, and being determined not to
yield, in fact, they resorted to a policy of misrepre-
sentation, with the hope of deceiving the English
government.^ Stoughton and Bulkely had already
assured the Lords of Committee that the " rest of
the inhabitants were very inconsiderable as to num-
ber, compared with those that were acknowledged
church-members." * They were in fact probably as
five to one. The General Court had been censured
for using the word Commonwealth in official docu-
ments, as intimating independence. They hastened to
assure the crown that it had not of late been used,
and should not be thereafter;^ yet in November, 1675,

1 Oct. 2, 1678. Mass. Rec. v. 193. See Palfrey, iii. 320,
note 2. 2 j^ass. Rec. v. 202.

* See Answers of Agents, Chalmers's Annals, p. 450.

* Palfrey, iii. 318.

^ Mass. Rec. v. 198. And see, in general, the official corre-
spondence, pp. 197-203.

I

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 375

commissions were thus issued.^ But the breaking out
of the Popish plot began to absorb the whole atten-
tion of the government at London ; and the agents,
after receiving a last rebuke for the presumption of
the colony in buying Maine, were at length allowed
to depart.^

Nearly half a century had elapsed since the emi-
gration, and with the growth of wealth and popula-
tion changes had come. In March, John Leverett,
who had long been the head of the high-church party,
died, and the election of Simon Bradstreet as his suc-
cessor was a triumph for the opposition. Great as
the clerical influence still was, it had lost much of its
old despotic power, and the congregations were no
longer united in support of the policy of their pastors.
This policy was singularly desperate. Casting aside
all but ecclesiastical considerations, the clergy consist-
ently rejected any compromise with the crown which
threatened to touch the church. Almost from the
first they had recognized that substantial independ-
ence was necessary in order to maintain the theoc-
racy. Had the colony been strong, they would doubt-
less have renounced their allegiance ; but its weakness
was such that, without the protection of England, it
would have been seized by France. Hence they re-
sorted to expedients which could only end in disaster,
for it was impossible for Massachusetts, while part of
the British Empire, to refuse obedience at her pleas-
ure to laws which other colonies cheerfully obeyed.
1 Palfrey, Ui. 322. * Nov. 1679.

376 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

Without an ally, no resistance could be made to Eng-
land, when at length her sovereignty should be as-
serted ; and an armed occupation and military govern-
ment were inevitable upon a breach.

Though such considerations are little apt to induce
a priesthood to surrender their temporal power, they
usually control commercial communities. Accord-
ingly, Boston and the larger towns favored conces-
sion, while the country was the ministers' stronghold.
The result of this divergence of opinion was that the
moderate party, to which Bradstreet and Dudley be-
longed, predominated in the Board of Assistants, while
the deputies remained immovable. The branches of
the legislature thus became opposed ; no course of ac-
tion could be agreed on, and the theocracy drifted to
its destruction.

The duplicity characteristic of theological politics
grew daily more marked. In May, 1679, a law had
been passed forbidding the building of churches with-
out leave from the freemen of the town or the Gen-
eral Court.^ On the 11th of June, 1680, three per-
sons representing the society of Baptists were sum-
moned before the legislature, charged with the crime
of erecting a meeting-house. They were admon-
ished and forbidden to meet for worship except with
the established congregations ; and their church was
closed.^ That very day an address was voted to the
king, one passage of which is as follows : " Concern-

1 Mass. Rec. v. 213.
« Mass. Rec. v. 271.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 377

ing liberty of conscience, . . . that after all, a mul-
titude of notorious errors ... be openly broached,
. . . amongst us, as by the Quakers, &c., wee pre-
sume his majesty doeth not intend ; and as for other
Prottestant dissenters, that carry it peaceably & so-
berly, wee trust there shallbe no cause of just com-
plaint against us on their behalfe." ^

Meanwhile Randolph had renewed his attack. He
declared that in spite of promises and excuses the
revenue laws were not enforced ; that his men were
beaten, and that he hourly expected to be thrown into
prison ; whereas in other colonies, he asserted, he was
treated with great respect.^ There can be no doubt
ingenuity was used to devise means of annoyance, and
certainly the life he was made to lead was hard. In
March ^ he sailed for home, and while in London he
made a series of reports to the government which
seem to have produced the conviction that the mo-
ment for action had come. In December he returned,
commissioned as deputy - surveyor and auditor -gen-
eral for all New England, except New Hampshire.
When Stoughton and Bulkely were dismissed, the
colony had been commanded to send new agents with-
in six months. In September, 1680, another royal
letter had been written, in which the king dwelt upon
the misconduct of his subjects, " when ... we sig-
nified unto you our gracious inclination to have all
past deeds forgotten . . . wee then little thought that

1 Mass. Rec. v. 287.

2 June, 1680. Palfrey, iii. 340. « March 15, 1680-1.

378 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

those markes of our grace and favour should have
found no better acceptance amoung you. . . . We
doe therefore by these our letters, strictly command
and require you, as you tender your allegiance unto
us, and will deserve the effects of our grace and favour
(which wee are enclyned to afford you) seriously to
reflect upon our commands ; . . . and particularly wee
doe hereby command you to send over, within three
months after the receipt hereof, such . . . persons
as you shall think fitt to choose, and that you give
them sufficient instructions to attend the regulation
and settlement of that our government." ^

The General Court had not thought fit to regard
these communications, and now Randolph came charged
with a long and stern dispatch, in which agents were
demanded forthwith, " in default whereof, we are
fully resolved, in Trinity Term next ensuing, to direct
our attorney-general to bring a quo warranto in our
court of kings-bench, whereby our charter granted
unto you, with all the powers thereof, may be legally
evicted and made void ; and so we bid you fare-
wel."2

Hitherto the clerical party had procrastinated,
buoyed up by the hope that in the fierce struggle with
the commons Charles might be overthrown ; but this
dream ended with the dissolution of the Oxford Par,
liament, and further inaction became impossible. Jo.
seph Dudley and John Richards were chosen agents,

1 Sept. 30. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 261.
^ Chalmers's Annals, p. 449.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 379

and provided with instructions bearing the peculiar
tinge of ecclesiastical statesmanship.

They were directed to represent that appeals would
be intolerable ; and, for their private guidance, the
legislature used these words : " We therefore doe not
vnderstand by the regulation of the gouernment, that
any alteration of the patent is intended ; yow shall
therefore neither doe nor consent to any thing that
may violate or infringe the libertjes & priuiledges
granted to us by his maj*^®^ royall charter, or the gou-
ernment established thereby ; but if any thing be pro-
pounded that may tend therevnto, yow shall say, yow
haue received no instruction in that matter." ^ With
reference to the complaints made against the colony,
they were to inform the king " that wee haue no law
prohibbiting any such as are of the perswasion of the
church of England, nor haue any euer desired to wor-
ship God accordingly that haue been denyed." ^

Such a statement cannot be reconciled with the
answer made the commissioners; and the laws com-
pelled Episcopalians to attend the Congregational
worship, and denied them the right to build churches
of their own.

" As for the Annabaptlsts, they are now subject to
no other poenal statutes then those of the Congrega-
tional way." This sophistry is typical. The law
under which the Baptist church was closed applied
in terms to all inhabitants, it is true ; but it was con-
trived to suppress schism, it was used to coerce here-
» Mass. Rec. v. 349. « Mass. Rec. v. 347. March 23.

380 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

tics, and it was unrepealed. Moreover, it would seem
as though the statute inflicting banishment must then
have still been in force.

The assurances given in regard to the reform of
the suffrage were precisely parallel : —

" For admission of ffreemen, wee humbly conceive
it is our liberty, by charter, to chuse whom wee will
admitt into our oune company, w*'^ yet hath not binn
restrayned to Congregational men, but others haue
been admitted, who were also provided for according
to his maj*^*^® direction." ^

Such insincerity gave weight to Randolph's words
when he wrote : " My lord, I have but one thing to
reminde your lordship, that nothing their agents can
say or doe in England can be any ground for his maj-
estic to depend upon." ^

With these documents and one thousand pounds
for bribery, soon after increased to three,^ Dudley and
Richards sailed. Their powers were at once rejected
at London as insufficient, and the decisive moment
came.* The churchmen of Massachusetts had to de-
termine whether to accept the secularization of their
government or abandon every guaranty of popular
liberty. The clergy did not hesitate before the mo-
mentous alternative : they exerted themselves to the
utmost, and turned the scale for the last time.^ In

1 1681-2, March 23.

2 Randolph to Clarendon. Hutch. Coll., Prince Soc. ed. ii. 277

3 Chalmers's Annals, p. 461.

* Idein, p. 413. ^ Hutch. Hist. i. 303, note.

I

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 381

fresh instructions the agents were urged to do what
was possible to avert, or at least delay, the stroke ;
but they were forbidden to consent to appeals, or to
alterations in the qualifications required for the ad-
mission of freemen.^ They had previously been di-
rected to pacify the king by a present of two thousand
pounds; and this ill-judged attempt at bribery had
covered them with ridicule.^

Further negotiation would have been futile. Pro-
ceedings were begun at once, and Randolph was sent
to Boston to serve the writ of quo warranto ; ^ he was
also charged with a royal declaration promising that,
even then, were submission made, the charter should
be restored with only such changes as the public wel-
fare demanded.^ Dudley, who was a man of much
political sagacity, had returned and strongly urged
moderation. The magistrates were not without the
instincts of statesmanship : they saw that a breach
with England must destroy all safeguards of the
common freedom, and they voted an address to the
crown accepting the proffered terms.^ But the clergy
strove against them : the privileges of their order
were at stake ; they felt that the loss of their impor-
tance would be " destructive to the interest of religion
and of Christ's kingdom in the colony," ^ and they
roused their congregations to resist. The deputies did

1 1683, March 30. Mass. Rec. v. 390.

2 Hutch. Hist. i. 303, note. » 1683, July 20.
* Mass. Rec. v. 422, 423.

6 1683, 15 Nov. Hutch. Hist. i. 304 « PaHrej, iii. 381.

382 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

not represent the people, but the church. They were
men who had been trained from infancy by the priests,
who had been admitted to the communion and the
franchise on account of their religious fervor, and who
had been brought into public life because the eccle-
siastics found them pliable in their hands. The in-
fluence which had moulded their minds and guided
their actions controlled them still, and they rejected
the address.^ Increase Mather took the lead. He
stood up at a great meeting in the Old South, and
exhorted the people, "telling them how their fore-
fathers did purchase it [the charter], and would
they deliver it up, even as Ahab required Naboth's
vineyard. Oh ! their children would be bound to curse
them." 2

All that could be resolved on was to retain Robert
Humphrys of the Middle Temple to interpose such
delays as the law permitted ; but no attempt was made
at defence upon the merits of their cause, probably
because all knew well that no such defence was
possible.

Meanwhile, for technical reasons, the quo warranto
had been abandoned, and a writ of scire facias had
been issued out of chancery. On June 18, 1684, the
lord keeper ordered the defendant to appear and
plead on the first day of the next Michaelmas Term.
The time allowed was too short for an answer from
America, and judgment was entered by default.^ The

1 Nov. 30. Palfrey, iii. 385. ^ Palfrey, iii. 388, note 1.

8 Decree entered June 21, 1684 ; confirmed, Oct. 23. Palfrey,
iii. 393, note.

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 383

decree was arbitrary, but no effort was made to obtain
relief. The story, however, is best told by Humphrys
himself : —

" It is matter of astonishment to me, to think of
the returnes I haue had from you in the affaire of yo"^
charter ; that a prudent people should think soe little,
in a thing of the greatest moment to them.

" Which chai'ge I humbly justify in the foll^ par-
ticulars, and yet at the same time confess that all
you could haue done would but haue gained more time,
and spent more money, since the breaches assigned
ag* you, were as obvious as vnanswerable, soe as all
the service yo' councill and friends could haue done
you here, would haue onely served to deplore, not pre-
vent the inevitable loss.

" When I sent you the lord keeper's order of the
18th of June 1684 requireing yo' appeareing peromp-
torily the first day of Michas Tearme then next, and
pleading to yssue . . . you may remember I sent with
it such drafts of Ires of attorney, to pass vnder your
comon scale as were essentially necessary to empower
and justify such appearance, and pleading for you
here, which you could not imagine but that you must
haue had due time to returne them in, noe law com-
pelling impossibilities.

" When the first day of that Michas Tearme came,
and yo' Ires of attorney neither were, nor indeed could
be return'd ... 1 applyd by councill to the Court of
Chancery to enlarge that time urgeing the impossibil-
ity of hauing a returne from you in the time allotted.

384 THE SCIRE FACIAS.

. . . But it is true my lord keeper cutt the ground
from under us which wee stood upon, by telling us the
order of the 18th of June was a surprize upon his
lo^ and that he ought not to haue granted it, for
that every corporacon ought to haue an attorney in
every court to appeare to his ma'* suite, and that
London had such, . . . However certainely you ought
when my ires were come to you, nunc pro tunc, to
haue past the Ires of attorney I sent you under your
comon scale and sent them me, and not to haue stopt
them upon any private surmises from other hands
then his you had entrusted in that matter ; and the
rather for that the judgm** of law, espetially those
taken by defaults for non appearances, are not like
the laws of the Medes and Persians irrevocable, but
are often on just grounds sett aside by the court
here, and the defendants admitted to plead as if noe
such judgm*® had been entred vp, and the very order
it selfe of the 18th of June guies you a home instance
of it.

" And indeed I did therefore forbeare giueing you
an acco* of a further time being denyd, and the entry
of judgm* ag* you, expecting you would before such
ire could haue reacht you haue sent me the tres of
attorney vnder your corporacon seale that the court
might haue been moved to ad mitt yo*" appearance
and plea and waiued the judgm*.

" But instead of those Ires of attorney under your
seale you sent me an address to his late ma*^, I con-
fess judiciously drawne. But it is my wonder in which

THE SCIRE FACIAS. 385

of yo' capacityes you could imagine it should be pre-
sented to his ma*y, for if as a corporacon, a body poli-
tique, it should have been putt under your corporacon
scale if as a private comunity it should haue been
signed by your order. But the paper has neither
private hand nor publique scale to it and soe must
be lost. . . .

" In this condicon what could a man doe for you,
nothing publiquely for he had noe warrant from you
to justify the accon." ^

So perished the Puritan Commonwealth. The
child of the Reformation, its life sprang from the
assertion of the freedom of the mind ; but this great
and noble principle is fatal to the temporal power of
a priesthood, and during the supremacy of the clergy
the government was doomed to be both persecuting
and repressive. Under no circumstance could the
theocracy have endured : it must have fallen by revolt
from within if not by attack from without. That
Charles II. did in fact cause its overthrow gives him
a claim to our common gratitude, for he then struck a
decisive blow for the emancipation of Massachusetts ;
and thus his successor was enabled to open before her
that splendid career of democratic constitutional lib-
erty which was destined to become the basis of the
jurisprudence of the American Union.

^ Mass. Archives, cvi. 343.

1

CHAPTER VII.

THE WITCHCRAFT.

The history of the years between the dissolution of
the Company of Massachusetts Bay and the reorgani-
zation of the country by William III. in 1692 has
little bearing upon the development of the people ;
for the presidency of Dudley and the administration
of Andros were followed by a revolution that paralyzed
all movement. During the latter portion of this in-
terval the colony was represented at London by three
agents, of whom Increase Mather was the most influ-
ential, who used every effort to obtain the reestab-
lishment of the old government ; they met, however,
with insupera,ble obstacles. Quietly to resume was
impossible ; for the obstinacy of the clergy, in refus-
ing all compromise with Charles II., had caused the
patent to be cancelled ; and thus a new grant had be-
come necessary. Nor was this all, for the attorney
and solicitor general, with whom the two chief justices
concurred,^ gave it as their opinion that, supposing no
decree had been rendered, and the same powers were
exercised as before, a writ of scire facias would cer-
tainly be issued, upon which a similar judgment would
inevitably be entered. These considerations, however,
1 Parentator, p. 139.

THE WITCHCRAFT. 387

became immaterial, as the king was a statesman, and
had already decided upon his policy. His views had
little in common with those held by the Massachusetts
ecclesiastics, and when the Rev. Mr. Mather first read
the instrument in which they had been embodied, he
declared he " would sooner part with his life than con-
sent unto such minutes." ^ He grew calmer, however,
when told that his "consent was not expected nor de-
sired ; " and with that energy and decision for which
he was remarkable, at once secured the patronage.

The constitutional aspect of the Provincial Charter
is profoundly interesting, and it will be considered in
its legal bearings hereafter. Its political tendencies,
however, first demand attention, for it wrought a com-
plete social revolution, since it overthrew the temporal
power of the church. Massachusetts, Maine, and
Plymouth were consolidated, and within them toler-
ation was established, except in regard to Papists ; v
the religious qualification was swept away, and in
its stead freeholders of forty shillings per annum, or *
owners of personal property to the value of forty
pounds sterling, were admitted to the franchise ; the
towns continued to elect the house of representatives,
and the whole Assembly chose the council, subject to
the approval of the executive.^ The governor, lieuten-
ant-governor, and secretary were appointed by the
crown ; the governor had a veto, and the king re-
served the right to disallow legislation within three /
years of the date of its enactment. Thus the theoc-
1 Parentator, p. 134. 2 Hutch. Hist. ii. 15, 16c

388 THE WITCHCRAFT.

racy fell at a single blow ; and it is worthy of remark
that thenceforward prosecutions for sedition became
unknown among the people of the Province of Massa-
chusetts Bay. Yet, though the clerical oligarchy was
no longer absolute, the ministers still exerted a pro-
digious influence upon opinion. Not only did they
speak with all the authority inherited with the tradi-
tions of the past ; not only had they or their prede-
cessors trained the vast majority of the people from
their cradles to reverence them more than anything
on earth, but their compact organization was as yet
unimpaired, and at its head stood the two Mathers,
the pastors of the Old North Church. Thus vener-
ated and thus led, the elders were still able to appeal
to the popular superstition and fanaticism with terrible
effect.

Widely differing judgments have been formed of
these two celebrated divines ; the ecclesiastical view is
perhaps well summed up by the Rev. John Eliot, who
thus describes the President of Harvard : " He was
the father of the New England clergy, and his name
and character were held in veneration, not only by
those, who knew him, but by succeeding generations." ^
All must admit his ability and learning, while in sanc-
timoniousness of deportment he was unrivalled. His
son Cotton says he had such a " gravity as made all
sorts of persons, wherever he came, to be struck with
a sensible awe of his presence, . . . yea, if he laughed
on them, they believed it not." " His very counte^

1 Biographical Dictionary, p. 312.

THE WITCHCRAFT. 389

nance carried the force of a sermon with it." ^ He
kept a strict account of his mental condition, and al-
ways was pleased when able to enter in his diary at
the end of the day, "heart serious." He was unctuous
in his preaching, and wept much in the pulpit ; he
often mentions being " quickened at the Lord's table
[during which] tears gushed from me before the
Lord," 2 but of his self-sacrifice, his mercy, and his
truth, his own acts and words are the best evidence
that remain.

When the new government was about to be put in
operation, an extraordinary amount of patronage lay
at the disposal of the crown ; for, beside the regular
executive officers, the entire council had to be named,
since they could not be elected until a legislature had
been organized to choose them. Increase Mather,
Elisha Cooke, and Thomas Oakes were acting as
agents, and all had been bitterly opposed to the new
charter ; but of the three, the English ministers
thought Mather the most important to secure. And
now an odd coincidence happened in the life of this
singular man. He suddenly one day announced him-
self convinced that the king's project was not so in-
tolerable as to be unworthy of support ; and then it
very shortly transpired that he had been given all the
spoil before the patent had passed the seals.^ The
proximity of these events is interesting as bearing on
the methods of ecclesiastical statesmen, and it is also

1 Parentator, p. 40. ^ Parentaior, p. 48.

8 Palfrey, iv. 85.

390 THE WITCHCRAFT.

instructive to observe how thorough a master of the
situation this eminent divine proved himself to be.
He not only appointed all his favorite henchmen to
office, but he rigidly excluded his colleagues at Lon-
don, who had continued their opposition, and every
one else who had any disposition to be independent.
His creature. Sir William Phips, was made governor;
William Stoughton, who was bred for the church,
and whose savage bigotry endeared him to the clergy,
was lieutenant-governor; and the council was so
packed that his excellent son broke into a shout of
triumph when he heard the news : —

" The time has come ! the set time has come ! I
am now to receive an answer of so many prayers. All
the councellors of the province are of my own father's
nomination ; and my father-in-law, with several related
unto me, and several brethren of my own church are
among them. The governor of the province is not
my enemy, but one whom I baptized ; namely. Sir
William Phips, one of my own flock, and one of my
dearest friends." ^ Such was the government the
theocracy left the country as its legacy when its own
power had passed away, and dearly did Massachu-
setts rue that fatal gift in her paroxysms of agony
and blood.

At the close of the seventeenth century the belief in
witchcraft was widespread, and among the more igno-
rant well-nigh universal. The superstition was, more-
over, fostered by the clergy, who, in adopting this
1 Cotton Mather's Diary ; Quincy's History of Harvard, i. 60.

THE WITCHCRAFT. 391

policy, were undoubtedly actuated by mixed motives.
Their credulity probably made them for the most part
sincere in the unbounded confidence they professed in
the possibility of compacts between the devil and man-
kind ; but, nevertheless, there is abundant evidence in
their writings of their having been keenly alive to the
fact that men horror-stricken at the sight of the de-
struction of their wives and children by magic would
grovel in the submission of abject terror at the feet of
the priest who promised to deliver them.

The elders began the agitation by sending out a
paper of proposals for collecting stories of appari-
tions and witchcrafts, and in obedience to their wish
Increase Mather published his " Illustrious Provi-
dences " in 1683-4. Two chapters of this book were
devoted to sorceries, and the reverend author took
occasion to intimate his opinion that those who might
doubt the truth of his relations were probably them-
selves either heretics or wizards. This movement of
the clergy seems to have highly inflamed the popular
imagination,^ yet no immediate disaster followed ; and
the nervous exaltation did not become deadly until
1G88. In the autumn of that year four children of a
Boston mason named Goodwin began to mimic the
symptoms they had so often heard described ; the fa-
ther, who was a pious man, called in the ministers of
Boston and Charlestown, who fasted and prayed, and
succeeded in delivering the youngest, who was five.
Meanwhile, one of the daughters had " cried out
1 Hutch. Hist. ii. 24.

392 THE WITCHCRAFT.

upon " an unfortunate Irish washerwoman, with whom
she had quarrelled. Cotton Mather was now in his
element. He took the eldest girl home with him and
tried a great number of interesting experiments as to
the relative power of Satan and the Lord ; among
others he gravely relates how when the sufferer was
tormented elsewhere he would carry her struggling
to his own study, into which entering, she stood im-
mediately upon her feet, and cried out, " They are

gone ! They are gone ! They say they cannot

God won't let 'em come here." ^

It is not credible that an educated and a sane man
could ever have honestly believed in the absurd stuff
which he produced as evidence of the supernatural ;
his description of the impudence of the children is
amazing.

" They were divers times very near burning or
drowning of themselves, but ... by their own pitti-
ful and seasonable cries for help still procured their
deliverance : which made me consider, whether the
little ones had not their angels, in the plain sense of
our Saviour's intimation. . . . And sometimes, tho'
but seldome, they were kept from eating their meals,
by having their teeth sett when they carried any thing
to their mouthes." ^

And it was upon such evidence that the washer-
woman was hanged. There is an instant in the bat-
tle as the ranks are wavering, when the calmness of

^ Memorable Providences, pp. 27, 28.
2 Idem, pp. 15-17.

THE WITCHCRAFT. 393

the officers will avert the rout ; and as to have held
their soldiers then is deemed their highest honoi*, so
to have been found wanting is their indelible disgrace ;
the people stood poised upon the panic's brink, their
pastors lashed them in.

Cotton Mather forthwith published a terrific ac-
count of the ghostly crisis, mixed with denunciations
of the Sadducee or Atheist who disbelieved ; and to the
book was added a preface, written by the four other
clergymen who had assisted with their prayers, the
character of wliich may be judged by a single extract.
" The following account will afford to him that shall
read with observation, a further clear confirmation,
that, there is both a God, and a devil, and witchcraft :
that there is no outward affliction, but what God may,
(and sometimes doth) permit Satan to trouble his peo-
ple withal." ^ Not content with this, Mather goaded
his congregation into frenzy from the pulpit. " Con-
sider also, the misery of them whom witchcraft may be
let loose upon. What is it to fall into the hands of
devils? . . . O what a direful thing is it, to be prickt
with pins, and stab'd with knives all over, and to be
fill'd all over with broken bones ? 'T is impossible to
reckon up the varieties of miseries which those mon-
sters inflict where they can have a blow. No less
than death, and that a languishing and a terrible
death will satisfie the rage of those formidable drag-
ons." 2 The pest was sure to spread in a credulous

* Memorable Providences, Preface.

* Discourse on Witchcraftf p. 19.

394 THE WITCHCRAFT.

community, fed by their natural leaders with this
morbid poison, and it next broke out in Salem village
in February, 1691-2. A number of girls had become
intensely excited by the stories they had heard, and
two of them, who belonged to the family of the clergy-
man, were seized with the usual symptoms. Of Mr.
Parris it is enough to say that he began the investi-
gation with a frightful relish. Other ministers were
called in, and prayer-meetings lasting all day were
held, with the result of throwing the patients into con-
vulsions.^ Then the name of the witch was asked,
and the girls were importuned to make her known.
They refused at first, but soon the pressure became
too strong, and the accusations began. Among the
earliest to be arrested and examined was Goodwife
Cory. Mr. Noyes, teacher of Salem, began with
prayer, and when she was brought in the sufferers
"did vehemently accuse her of afflicting them, by
biting, pinching, strangling, &c., and they said, they
did in their fits see her likeness coming to them, and
bringing a book for them to sign." ^ By April the
number of informers and of the suspected had greatly
increased and the prisons began to fill. Mr. Parris
behaved like a madman ; not only did he preach in-
flammatory sei'mons, but he conducted the examina-
tions, and his questions were such that the evidence
was in truth nothing but what he put in the mouths
of the witnesses ; yet he seems to have been guilty of

1 Calef's More Wonders, p. 90 et seq.

2 Idem, p. 92. .

THE WITCHCRAFT. 395

a darker crime, for there is reason to suppose he gar-
bled the testimony it was his sacred duty to truly
record.^ And in all this he appears to have had the
approval and the aid of Mr. Noyes. Such was the
crisis when Sir William Phips landed on the 14th
of May, 1692 ; he was the Mathers' tool, and the re-
sult could have been foretold. Uneducated and cred-
ulous, he was as clay in the hands of his creators;
and his first executive act was to cause the mis-
erable prisoners to be fettered. Jonathan Gary has
described what befell his wife: "Next morning the
jaylor put irons on her legs (having received such a
command) the weight of them was about eight pounds ;
these irons and her other afflictions, soon brought her
into convulsion fits, so that I thought she would have
died that night." ^

At the beginning of June the governor, by an arbi-
trary act, created a court to try the witches, and at
its head put William Stoughton. Even now it is im-
possible to read the proceedings of this sanguinary
tribunal without a shudder, and it has left a stain
upon the judiciary of Massachusetts that can never be
effaced.

Two weeks later the opinion of the elders was
asked, as it had been of old, and they recommended
the " speedy and vigorous prosecutions of such as
have rendered themselves obnoxious," ^ nor did their

* Grounds of Complaint against Parris, § 6 ; More Wonders,
p. 96 (i. e. 56).
2 More Wonders, p. 97. * Hutch. Hist. ii. 53.

396 THE WITCHCRAFT.

advice fall upon unwilling ears. Stoughton was al-
ready at work, and certain death awaited all who
were dragged before that cruel and bloodthirsty bigot ;
even when the jury acquitted, the court refused to re-
ceive the verdict. The accounts given of the legal
proceedings seem monstrous. The preliminary exam-
inations were conducted amid such " hideous clamours
and screechings," that frequently the voice of the de-
fendant was drowned, and if a defence was attempted
at a trial, the victim was browbeaten and mocked by
the bench. ^

The ghastly climax was reached in the case of
George Burroughs, who had been the clergyman at
Wells. At his trial the evidence could hardly be
heard by reason of the fits of the sufferers. " The
chief judge asked the prisoner, who he thought hin-
dered these witnesses from giving their testimonies?
and he answered, he supposed it was the devil. That
honourable person then replied. How comes the devil
so loath to have any testimony born against you?
Which cast him into very great confusion." Pres-
ently the informers saw the ghosts of his two dead
wives, whom they charged him with having murdered,
stand before him " crying for vengeance ; " yet though
much appalled, he steadily denied that they were
there. He also roused his judges' ire by asserting
that " there neither are, nor ever were, witches." ^

He and those to die with him were carried through

1 More Wonders, p. 102.

2 Idem. pp. 115-119.

y

THE WITCHCRAFT. 397

the streets of Salem in a cart. As he climbed the
ladder he called God to witness he was innocent, and
his words were so pathetic that the people sobbed
aloud, and it seemed as though he might be rescued
even as he stood beneath the tree. Then when at last
he swung above them. Cotton Mather rode among the
throng and told them of his guilt, and how the fiend
could come to them as an angel of light, and so the
work went on. They cut him down and dragged him
by his halter to a shallow hole among the rocks, and
threw him in, and there they lay together with the
rigid hand of the wizard Burroughs still pointing up-
ward through his thin shroud of earth. ^

By October it seemed as though the bonds of society
were dissolving; nineteen persons had been hanged,
one had been pressed to death, and eight lay con-
demned ; a number had fled, but their property had
been seized and they were beggars ; the prisons were
choked, while more than two hundred were accused
and in momentary fear of arrest ; ^ even two dogs had
been killed. The plague propagated itself; for the
only hope for those cried out upon was to confess their
guilt and turn informers. Thus no one was safe.
Mr. Willard, pastor of the Old South, who began to
falter, was threatened ; the wife of Mr. Hale, pastor
of Beverly, who had been one of the great leaders of
the prosecutions, was denounced; Lady Phips her-
self was named. But the race who peopled New Eng-

1 More Wonders, pp. 103, 104.
a Idem, p. 110.

398 THE WITCHCRAFT.

land had a mental vigor which even the theocracy
could not subdue, and Massachusetts had among her
sons liberal and enlightened men, whose voice was
heard, even in the madness of the terror. Of these,
the two Brattles, Robert Calef, and John Leverett
were the foremost ; and they served their mother well,
though the debt of gratitude and honor which she
owes them she has never yet repaid.

On the 8th, four days before the meeting of the
legislature, and probably at the first moment it could
be done with safety, Thomas Brattle wrote an admir-
able letter,^ in which he exposed the folly and wicked-
ness of the delusion with all the enei'gy the temper of
the time would bear ; had he miscalculated, his error
of judgment would probably have cost him his life.
At the meeting of the General Court the illegal and
blood-stained commission came to an end, and as the
reaction slowly and surely set in, Phips began to feel
alarm lest he should he called to account in England ;
accordingly, he tried to throw the blame on Stough-
ton : " When I returned, I found people much dissat-
isfied at the proceedings of the court; . . . The
deputy -governor, [Stoughton] notwithstanding, per-
sisted vigorously in the same method. . . . When I
put an end to the court, there was at least fifty per-
sons in prison, in great misery by reason of the ex-
treme cold and their poverty. ... I permitted a
special superior court to be held at Salem, ... on
the third day of January, the lieutenant-governor being
^ Mass. Hist. Coll. first series, v. 61.

THE WITCHCRAFT. 399

chief judge. . . . All . . . were cleared, saving three.
. . . The deputy-governor signed a warrant for their
speedy execution, and also of five others who were
condemned at the former court. . . . But ... I sent
a reprieve ; . . . the lieutenant-governor upon this
occasion was enraged and filled with passionate anger,
and refused to sit upon the bench at a superior court,
at that time held at Charlestown ; and, indeed, hath
from the beginning hurried on these matters with
great precipitancy, and by his warrant hath caused
the estates, goods, and chattels of the executed to be
seized and disposed of without my knowledge or con-
sent." ^ Some months earlier, also, just before the
meeting of the legislature, he had called on Cotton
Mather to defend him against the condemnation he
had even then begun to feel, and the elder had re-
sponded with a volume which remains as a memo-
rial of him and his compeers.^ He gave thanks for
the blood that had already flowed, and prayed to God
for more. " They were some of the gracious words,
inserted in the advice, which many of the neighbouring
ministers, did this summer humbly lay before our hon-
ourable judges : ' We cannot but with all thankful-
ness, acknowledge the success which the merciful God
has given unto the sedulous and assiduous endeav-
ours of our honourable rulers, to detect the abom-
inable witchcrafts which have been committed in the

1 Phips to the Earl of Nottingham, Feb. 21, 1693. Palfrey,
iv. 112, note 2.

^ Wonders of the Invisible World.

400 THE WITCHCRAFT.

country ; humbly praying that the discovery of those
mysterious and mischievous wickednesses, may be per-
fected.' If in the midst of the many dissatisfactions
among us, the publication of these trials, may promote
such a pious thankfulness unto God, for justice being
so far, executed among us, I shall rejoyce that God is
glorified ; and pray that no wrong steps of ours may
ever sully any of his glorious works." ^

" These witches . . . have met in hellish randez-
vouszes. ... In these hellish meetings, these mon-
sters have associated themselves to do no less a thing
than to destroy the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ,
in these parts of the world. . . . We are truly come
into a day, which by being well managed might be
very glorious, for the exterminating of those, accursed
things, . . . But if we make this day quarrelsome, . . .
Alas, O Lord, my flesh trembles for fear of thee, and
I am afraid of thy judgments." ^

While reading such words the streets of Salem rise
before the eyes, with the cart dragging Martha Cory
to the gallows while she protests her innocence, and
there, at her journey's end, at the gibbet's foot, stands
the Rev. Nicholas Noyes, pointing to the dangling
corpses, and saying : " What a sad thing it is to see
eight firebrands of hell hanging there." ^

The sequence of cause and effect is sufficiently ob-
vious. Although at a moment when the panic had

^ Wonders of the Invisible Worlds pp. 82, 83.

2 Idem, pp. 49-60.

8 More Wonders, p. 108.

TEE WITCHCRAFT. 401

got beyond control, even the most ultra of the clergy
had been forced by their own danger to counsel mod-
eration, the conservatives were by no means ready to
abandon their potent allies from the lower world ;
the power they gave was too alluring. " 'T is a strange
passage recorded by Mr. Clark, in the life of his fa-
ther. That the peojile of his parish refusing to be re-
claimed from their Sabbath breaking, by all the zeal-
ous testimonies which that good man bore against it ;
at last [one night] . . . there was heard a great noise,
with rattling of chains, up and down the town, and an
horrid scent of brimstone. . . . Upon which the guilty
consciences of the wretches, told them, the devil was
come to fetch them away; and it so terrify'd them,
that an eminent reformation foUow'd the germons
which that man of God preached thereupon." ^ They
therefore saw the constant acquittals, the abandon-
ment of prosecutions, and the growth of incredu-
lity with regret. The next year Cotton Mather laid
bare the workings of their minds with cynical frank-
ness. " The devils have with most horrendous opera-
tions broke in upon our neighbourhood, and God has
at such a rate overruled all the fury and malice of
those devils, that . . . the souls of many, especially
of the rising generation, have been thereby waken'd
unto some acquaintance with religion ; our young peo-
ple who belonged unto the praying meetings, of both
sexes, apart would ordinarily spend whole nights by
the whole weeks together in prayers and psalms upon
^ Wonders of the Invisible World, p. 65.

402 THE WITCHCRAFT.

these occasions ; . . . and some scores of other young
people, who were strangers to real piety, were now
struck with the lively demonstrations of hell . . . be-
fore their eyes. ... In the whole — the devil got just
nothing, but God got praises, Christ got subjects, the
Holy Spirit got temples, the church got addition, and
the souls of men got everlasting benefits." ^

Mather prided himself on what he had done. " I
am not so vain as to say that any wisdom or virtue of
mine did contribute unto this good order of things ;
but I am so just as to say, I did not hinder this
good." 2 Men with such beliefs, and lured onward
by such temptations, were incapable of letting the tre-
mendous power superstition gave them slip from their
grasp without an effort on their own behalf ; and ac-
cordingly it was not long before the Mathers were
once more at work. On the 10th of September,
1693, or about nine months after the last spasms at
Salem, and when the belief in enchantments was fast
falling into disrepute, a girl named Margaret Rule
was taken with the accustomed symptoms in Boston.
Forthwith these two godly divines repaired to her
bedside, and this is what took place : —

Then Mr. M father and son came up, and oth-
ers with them, in the whole were about thirty or forty
persons, they being sat, the father on a stool, and the
son upon the bedside by her, the son began to ques.
tion her :

1 More Wonders, p. 12. " Idem, p. 12.

THE WITCHCRAFT. 403

Margaret Rule, how do you do ? Then a pause
without any answer.

Question. What. Do there a gi'eat many witches
sit upon you? Answer. Yes.

Question. Do you not know that there is a hard
master ?

Then she was in a fit. He laid his hand upon
her face and nose, but, as he said, without perceiving
breath; then he brush'd her on the face with his
glove, and rubb'd her stomach (her breast not being
covered with the bed clothes) and bid others do so
too, and said it eased her, then she revived.

Q. Don't you know there is a hard master ? A.
Yes.

' Reply. Don't serve that hard master, you know
who.

Q. Do you believe ? Then again she was in a fit,
and he again rub'd her breast &c. . . . He wrought
his fingers before her eyes and asked her if she saw
the witches? A. No. . . .

Q. Who is it that afflicts you ? A. 1 know not,
there is a great many of them. . . .

Q. You have seen the black man, hant you? A.
No.

Reply. I hope you never shall.

Q. You have had a book offered you, hant you ?
A. No.

Q. The brushing of you gives you ease, don't it?
A. Yes. She turn'd herselfe, and a little groan'd.

Q. Now the witches scratch you, and pinch you,

404 THE WITCHCRAFT.

and bite you, don't they ? A. Yes. Then he put his
hand upon her breast and belly, viz. on the clothes
over her, and felt a living thing, as he said; which
moved the father also to feel, and some others.

Q. Don't you feel the live thing in the bed?
A. No. . . .

Q. Shall we go to pray . . . spelling the word.
A. Yes. The father went to prayer for perhaps half
an hour, chiefly against the power of the devil and
witchcraft, and that God would bring out the afflict-
ers. . . . After prayer he [the son] proceeded.

Q. You did not hear when we were at prayer did
you? A. Yes.

Q. You don't hear always ? you don't hear some-
times past a word or two, do you ? A. No. Then
turning him about said, this is just another Mercy
Short. . . .

Q. What does she eat or drink? A. Not eat at
all ; but drink rum.^

To sanctify to the godly the ravings of this drunken
and abandoned wench was a solemn joy to the heart
of this servant of Christ, who gave his life to " un-
wearied cares and pains, to rescue the miserable from
the lions and bears of hell," ^ therefore he prepared
another tract. But his hour was well-nigh come.
Though it was impossible that retribution should be
meted out to him for his crimes, at least he did not

1 More Wonders, pp. 13, 14.

2 Idem, p. 10.

THE WITCHCRAFT. 405

escape unscathed, for Calef and the Brattles, who had
long been on his father's track and his, now seized
him by the throat. He knew well they had been
with him in the chamber of Margaret Rule, that they
had gathered all the evidence ; and so when Calef
sent him a challenge to stand forth and defend him-
self, he shuffled and equivocated.

At length a rumor spread abroad that a volume was
to be published exposing the whole black history, and
then the priest began to cower. His Diary is full of
his prayers and lamentations. " The book is printed,
and the impression is this week arrived here. ... I
set myself to humble myself before the Lord under
these humbling and wondrous dispensations, and ob-
tain the pardon of my sins, that have rendered me
worthy of such dispensations. . . .

" 28d. 10m. Saturday. — The Lord has permitted
Satan to raise an extraordinary storm upon my father
and myself. All the rage of Satan against the holy
churches of the Lord falls upon us. First Calf's book,
and then Coleman's, do set the people in a mighty
ferment. All the adversaries of the churches lay their
heads together, as if, by blasting of us, they hoped
utterly to blow up all. The Lord fills my soul with
consolations, inexpressible consolations, when I think
on my conformity to my Lord Jesus Christ in the
injuries and reproaches that are cast upon me. . . .

" 5d. 2m. Saturday [1701]. — I find the enemies of
the churches are set with an implacable enmity against
myself ; and one vile fool, namely, R. Calf, is employed

406 THE WITCHCRAFT.

by them to go on with more of his filthy scribbles to
hurt my precious opportunities of glorifying my Lord
Jesus Christ. I had need be much in prayer unto my
glorious Lord that he would preserve his poor servant
from the malice of this evil generation, and of that
vile man particularly." ^

" More Wonders of the Invisible World " appeared
in 1700, and such was the terror the clergy still in-
spired it is said it had to be sent to London to be
printed, and when it was published no bookseller in
Boston dared to offer it in his shop.^ Yet though
it was burnt in the college yard by the order of In-
crease Mather, it was widely read, and dealt the death-
blow to the witchcraft superstition of New England.
It did more than this : it may be said to mark an era
in the intellectual development of Massachusetts, for
it shook to its centre that moral despotism which the
pastors still kept almost unimpaired over the minds
of their congregations, by demonstrating to the people
the necessity of thinking for themselves. But what
the fate of its authors would have been had the priests
still ruled may be guessed by the onslaught made on
them by those who sat at the Mathers' feet. " Spit
on. Calf ; thou shalt be but like the viper on Pauls
hand, easily shaken off, and without any damage to
the servant of the Lord." ^

1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. 1855-^8, pp. 290-293.
^ Some Few Remarks, p. 9.
8 Idem, p. 22.

CHAPTER VIII.

BRATTLE CHURCH.

If the working of the human mind is mechanical,
the quality of its action must largely depend upon the
training it receives. Viewed as civilizing agents,
therefore, systems of education might be tested by
their tendency to accelerate or retard the intellectual
development of the race. The proposition is capable
of being presented with almost mathematical preci-
sion ; the receptive faculty begins to fail at a compar-
atively early age ; thereafter new opinions are assimi-
lated with increasing difficulty until the power is lost.
This progressive period of life, which is at best brief,
may, however, be indefinitely shortened by the inter-
position of artificial obstacles, which have to be over-
come by a waste of time and energy, before the rea-
son can act with freedom ; and when these obstacles
are sufficiently formidable, the whole time is con-
sumed and men are stationary. The most effectual
impediments are those prejudices which are so easily
implanted in youth, and which acquire tremendous
power when based on superstitious terrors. Herein,
then, lies the radical divergence between theological
and scientific training : the one, by inculcating that
tradition is sacred, that accurate investigation is sac-

408 BRATTLE CHURCH.

rilege, certain to be visited with terrific punishment,
and that the highest moral virtue is submission to au-
thority, seeks to paralyze exact thought, and to pro-
duce a condition in which dogmatic statements of
fact, and despotic rules of conduct, will be received
with abject resignation ; the other, by stimulating
the curiosity, endeavors to provoke inquiry, and, by
encouraging a scrutiny of what is obscure, tries to
put the mind in an impartial and questioning attitude
toward all the phenomena of the universe.

The two methods are irreconcilable, and spring from
the great primary instincts which are called conserva-
tism and liberality. Necessarily the movement of any
community must correspond exactly with the prepon-
derance of liberalism. Where the theological incu-
bus is unresisted it takes the form of a sacred caste,
as among the Hindoos ; appreciable advance then
ceases, except from some external pressure, such as
conquest. The same tendencies in a mitigated form
are seen in Spain, whereas Germany is scientific.

Such being the ceaseless conflict between these nat-
ural forces, the vantage-points for which the oppos-
ing parties have always struggled in western Europe
are the pulpits and the universities. Through women
the church can reach children at their most impres-
sionable age, while at the universities the teachers are
taught. Obviously, if a priesthood can control both
positions their influence must be immense. At the
beginning of any movement the conservatives are al-
most necessarily in possession, and their worst reverses

BRATTLE CHURCH. 409

have come from defection from within ; for unless
their organization is so perfect as not only to be ani-
mated by a single purpose, but capable of being con-
trolled by a single will, liberals will penetrate within
the fold, and if they can maintain their footing and
preach with the authority of the ancient tradition it
leads to revolution. It was thus the Reformation was
accomplished.

The clergy of Massachusetts, with the true priestly
instinct, took in the bearings of their situation from
the instant they recognized that their political suprem-
acy was passing away, and in order to keep their
organization in full vigor they addressed themselves
with unabated energy to enforcing the discipline which
had been established ; at the same time they set the
ablest of their number on guard at Harvard. But
the task was beyond their strength ; they might as
well have tried to dam the rising tide with sand.

There is a limit to the capacity of even the most
gifted man, and Increase Mather committed a fatal
error when he tried to be professor, clergyman, and
statesman at once. He was, it is true, made presi-
dent in 1685, but the next year John Leverett and
William Brattle were chosen tutors and fellows, who
soon developed into ardent liberals ; so it happened
that when the reverend rector went abroad in 1688,
in his character of politician, he left the college in
the complete control of his adversaries. He was ab-
sent four years, and during this interval the man
was educated who was destined to overthrow the Cam-

410 BRATTLE CHURCH.

bridge Platform, the corner-stone of the conservative
power.

Benjamin Colman was one of Leverett's favorite
pupils and the intimate friend of Pemberton. As he
was to be a minister, he stayed at Cambridge until he
took his master's degree in 1695 ; he then sailed at
once for England in the Swan. When she had been
some weeks at sea she was attacked by a French pri-
vateer, who took her after a sharp action. During
the fight Colman attracted attention by his coolness ;
but he declared that though he fired like the rest,
" he was sensible of no courage but of a great deal of
fear ; and when they had received two or three broad-
sides he wondered when his courage would come, as
he had heard others talk." ^

After the capture the Frenchmen stripped him and
put him in the hold, and had it not been for a Ma-
dame Allaire, who kept his money for him, he might
very possibly have perished from the exposure of an
imprisonment in France, for his lungs were delicate.
Moreover, at this time of his life he was always a
pauper, for he was not only naturally generous, but
so innocent and confiding as to fall a victim to any
clumsy sharper. Of course he reached London pen-
niless and in great depression of spirits ; but he soon
became known among the dissenting clergy, and at
length settled at Bath, where he preached two years.
He seems to have formed singularly strong friend-
ships while in England, one of which was with Mr.
^ Life of B. Colman, p. 6.

i

BRATTLE CHURCH. 411

Walter Singer, at whose house he passed much time,
and who wrote him at parting, " Methinks there is
one place vacant in my affections, which nobody can
fill beside you. But this blessing was too great for
me, and God has reserved it for those that more de-
served it. — I cannot but hope sometimes that Prov-
idence has yet in store so much happiness for me,
that I shall yet see you." ^

Meanwhile opinion was maturing fast at home ; the
passions of the witchcraft convulsion had gone deep,
and in 1697 a movement began under the guidance
of Leverett and the Brattles to form a liberal Con-
gregational church. The close on which the meeting-
house was to stand was conveyed by Thomas Brattle
to trustees on January 10, 1698, and from the outset
there seems to have been no doubt as to whom the
pastor should be. On the 10th of May, 1699, a for-
mal invitation was dispatched to Colman by a com-
mittee, of which Thomas Brattle was chairman, and
it was accompanied by letters from many prominent
liberals. Leverett wrote, " I shall exceedingly re-
joice at your return to your country. We want per-
sons of your character. The affair offered to your
consideration is of the greatest moment." William
Brattle was even more emphatic, while Pemberton
assured him that " the gentlemen who solicit your re-
turn are mostly known to you — men of repute and
figure, from whom you may expect generous treat-
ment ; . . . I believe your return will be pleasing to
^ Life of B. Colman, p. 48.

412 BRATTLE CHURCH.

all that know you, I am sure it will be inexpressi-
bly so to your unfeigned friend and servant." ^ It
was, however, thought prudent to have him ordained
in London, since there was no probability that the
clergy of Massachusetts would perform the rite.
When he landed in November, after an absence of
four years, he was in the flush of early manhood,
highly trained for theological warfare, having seen
the world, and by no means in awe of his old pastor,
the reverend president of Harvard.

The first step after his arrival was to declare the
liberal policy, and this was done in a manifesto which
was published almost at once.^ The efficiency of the
Congregational organization depended upon the per-
fection of the guard which the ministers and the con-
gregations mutually kept over each other. On the
one hand no dangerous element could creep in among
the people through the laxness of the elder, since all
candidates for the communion had to pass through
the ordeal of a public examination ; on the other the
orthodoxy of the ministers was provided for, not only
by restricting the elective body to the communicants,
but by the power of the ordained clergy to " except
against any election of a pastor who . . . may be
. . . unfit for the common service of the gospel." ^

The declaration of the Brattle Street " undertakers "

^ Life of B. Colman, pp. 43, 44.
* History of Brattle St. Church, p. 20.

' Propositions determined by the Assembly of Ministers. Mag-
nalia, bk. 5, Hist. Remarks, § 8.

BRATTLE CHURCH. 413

cut this system at the root, for they announced their
intention to dispense with the relation of experiences,
thus practically throwing their communion open to all
respectable persons who would confess the Westmin-
ster Creed ; and more fatal still, they absolutely de-
stroyed the homogeneousness of the ecclesiastical con-
stituency : " We cannot confine the right of chusing
a minister to the male communicants alone, but we
think that every baptized adult person who contrib-
utes to the maintenance, should have a vote in elect-

mff.

" 1

They also proposed several innovations of minor
importance, such as relaxing the baptismal regula-
tions, and somewhat changing the established service
by having the Bible read without comment.

Their temporal power was gone, toleration was the
law of the land they had once possessed, and now an
onslaught was to be made upon the intellectual asceu-
denc}"^ which the clergy felt certain of maintaining
over their people, if only they could enforce obedience
in their own ranks. The danger, too, was the more
alarming because so insidious ; for, though their prop-
ositions seemed reasonable, it was perfectly obvious
that should the liberals succeed in forcing their church
within the pale of the orthodox communion, discipline
must end, and the pulpits might at any time be filled
with men capable of teaching the most subversive doc-
trines. Although such might be the inexorable des-
tiny of the Massachusetts hierarchy, it was not in
1 History of Brattle St. Church, p. 25, Prop. 16.

414 BRATTLE CHURCH.

ecclesiastical human nature to accept the dispensation
with meekness, and the utterances of the conservative
divines seem hardly to breathe the spirit of that gos-
pel they preached at such interminable length.

Yet it was very difficult to devise a scheme of re-
sistance. They were powerless to coerce ; for, al-
though Increase Mather had taken care, when at the
summit of his power, to have a statute passed which
had the effect of reenacting the Cambridge Platform,
it had been disapproved by the king ; therefore, moral
intimidation was the only weapon which could be em-
ployed. Now, aside from the fact that men like
Thomas Brattle and Leverett were not timorous, their
position was at this moment very strong from the
stand they had taken in the witchcraft troubles, and
worst of all, they were openly supported by William
Brattle, who was already a minister, and by Pember-
ton, who was a fellow of Harvard, and soon to be
ordained.

The attack was, however, begun by Mr. Higginson,
and Mr. Noyes, of witchcraft memory, in a long re-
buke, whose temper may be imagined from such a
sentence as this : " We cannot but think you might
have entered upon your declaration with more rev-
erence and humility than so solemnly to appeal to
God, your judge, that you do it with all the sincerity
and seriousness the nature of your engagement com-
mands from you ; seeing you were most of you much
unstudied in the controversial points of church order
and discipline, and yet did not advise with the neigh-

BRATTLE CHURCH. 415

boring churches . . . but with a great deal of con-
fidence and freedom, set up by yourselves." The
letter then goes on to adjure them to revoke the man-
ifesto, and adjust matters with the "neighbouring
elders," " that so the right hand of fellowshijD may
be given to your pastor by other pastors, . . . and
that you may not be the beginning of a schism that
will dishonour God, . . . and be a matter of triumph
to the bad." ^

Cotton Mather's Diary, however, gives the most
pleasing view of the high churchmen : —

" 1G99. 7th, 10th m. (Dec.) I see another day of
temptation begun upon the town and land. A com-
pany of headstrong men in the town, the chief of
whom are full of malignity to the holy ways of our
churches, have built in the town another meeting-
house. To delude many better meaning men in their
own company, and the churches in the neighbourhood,
they passed a vote in the foundation of the proceed-
ings that they would not vary from the practice of
these churches, except in one little particular.

" But a young man born and bred here, and hence
gone for England, is now returned hither at their in-
vitation, equipped with an ordination to qualify him
for all that is intended on his returning and arriving
here ; these fallacious people desert their vote, and
without the advice or knowledge of the ministers in
the vicinity, they have published, under the title of a
manifesto, certain articles that utterly subvert our
» History of Brattle St. Church, pp. 29-37.

416 BRATTLE CHURCH.

churches, and invite an ill party, through all the coun-
try, to throw all into confusion on the first opportuni-
ties. This drives the ministers that would be faithful
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and his interests in the
churches, unto a necessity of appearing for their de-
fence. No little part of these actions must unavoid-
ably fall to my share. I have already written a large
monitory letter to these innovators, which, though most
lovingly penned, yet enrages their violent and imperi-
ous lusts to carry on the apostacy."

"1699. 5th d. 11th m. (Saturday.) I see Satan be-
ginning a terrible shake in the churches of New Eng-
land, and the innovators that had set up a new church
in Boston (a new one indeed !) have made a day of
temptation among us. The men are ignorant, arro-
gant, obstinate, and full of malice and slander, and
they fill the land with lies, in the misrepresentations
whereof I am a very singular sufferer. Wherefore I
set apart this day again for prayer in my study, to cry
mightily unto God." ^

" 21st d. 11th m. The people of the new church
in Boston, who, by their late manifesto, went on in an
ill way, and in a worse frame, and the town was filled
with sin, and especially with slanders, wherein espe-
cially my father and myself were sufferers. We two,
with many prayers and studies, and with humble res-
ignation of our names unto the Lord, prepared a
faithful antidote for our churches against the infec-
tion of the example, which we feared this company
* History of Harvard, Quincy, L 486, 487, App. x.

BRATTLE CHURCH. 417

had given them, and we put it into the press. But
when the first sheet was near composed at the press,
I stopped it, with a desire to make one attempt more
for the bringing of this people to reason. I drew
up a proposal, and, with another minister, carried it
unto them, who at first rejected it, but afterward so
far embraced it, as to promise that they will the next
week publicly recognize their covenant with God and
one another, and therewithall declare their adherence
to the Heads of Agreement of the United Brethren
in England, and request the communion of our
churches in that foundation." ^

This last statement is marked by the exuberance
of imagination for which the Mathers are so famed.
In truth. Dr. Mather had nothing to do with the set-
tlement. The facts were these : after Brattle Street
Church was organized, the congregation voted that
Mr. Colman should ask the ministers of the town to
keep a day of prayer with them. On the 28th of
December, 1699, they received the following sugges-
tive answer : —

Mr. Colman :

Whereas you have signified to us that your so-
ciety have desired us to join with them in a public
fast, in order to your intended communion, our an-
swer is, that as we have formerly once and again in-
sinuated unto you, that if you would in due manner lay
aside what you call your manifesto, and resolve and

1 History of Harvard, i. 487, App. x.

y

418 BRATTLE CHURCH.

declare that you will keep to the heads of agreement
on which the United Brethren in London have made
their union, and then publicly proceed with the pres-
ence, countenance, and concurrence of the New Eng-
land churches, we should be free to give you our fel-
lowship and our best assistance, which things you
have altogether declined and neglected to do ; thus we
must now answer, that, if you will give us the satisfac-
tion which the law of Christ requires for your disor-
derly proceedings, we shall be happy to gratify your
desires ; otherwise, we may not do it, lest ... we be-
come partakers of the guilt of those irregularities by
which you have given just cause of offence. . . .

Increase Mather.

James Allen.^

Under the theocracy a subservient legislature would
have voted the association " a seditious conspiracy,"
and the country would have been cleared of Leverett,
Colman, the Brattles, and their abettors ; but in 1700
the priests no longer manipulated the constituencies,
and there was actual danger to the conservative cause
from their violence ; therefore Stoughton exerted him-
self to muzzle the Mathers, and he did succeed in qui-
eting them for the moment, though Sewall seems to
intimate that they submitted with no very good grace :
[l-fS§-] " Jan^ 24^\ The L* Gov' [Stoughton] calls
me with him to Mr. Willards, where out of two pa.
pers Mr. W*" Brattle drew up a third for an accomo-

^ History of Brattle St. Church, p. 55.

BRATTLE CHURCH. 419

datlon to bring on an agreement between the new-
church and our ministers ; Mr. Colman got his breth-
ren to subscribe it. . . . Jan^ 25**'. Mr. I. Mather, Mr.
C. Mather, Mr. Willard, Mr. Wadsworth, and S. S.
wait on the L* Gov*^ at Mr. Coopers : to confer about
the writing drawn up the evening before. Was some
heat ; but grew cahuer, and after lecture agreed to be
present at the fast which is to be observed Jan'' 31." *

Humility has sometimes been extolled as the crown-
ing grace of Christian clergymen, but Cotton Mather's
Diary shows the intolerable arrogance of the early
Congregational divines.

" A wonderful joy filled the hearts of our good
people far and near, that we had obtained thus much
from them. Our strife seemed now at an end ; there
was much relenting in some of their spirits, when they
saw our condescension, our charity, our compassion.
We overlooked all past offences. We kept the public
fast with them . . . and my father preached with
them on following peace with holiness, and I concluded
with prayer." ^

Yet, although there had been this ostensible recon-
ciliation, those who have appreciated the sensitiveness
to sin, of him whom Dr. Eliot calls the patriarch and
his son, must already feel certain they were incapable
of letting Colman's impiety pass unrebuked ; indeed,
the Diary says the " faithful antidote " was at that
moment in the press, and it was not long before it was

^ Mass. Hist. Coll. fifth series, vi. 2.
2 History of Harvard, i. 487, App. x.

420 BRATTLE CHURCH.

published, sanctified by their prayers. The patriarch
began by telling how he was defending the "cause
of Christ and of his churches in New England,"
and " if we espouse such principles ... we then give
away the whole Congregational cause at once." ^ He
assured his hearers that a " wandering Levite " like
Colman was no more a pastor than he who " has no
children is a father," ^ he was shocked at the aban-
donment of the relation of experiences, and was so
scandalized at reading the Bible without comment he
could only describe it as " dumb." In a word, there
was nothing the new congregation had done which
was not displeasing to the Lord ; but if they had of-
fended in one particular more than another it was in
establishing a man in " the pastoral office without the
approbation of neighbouring churches or elders." ^ To
this solemn admonition Colman and William Brattle
had the irreverence to prepare a reply smacking of
levity ; nevertheless, they began with a grave and no-
ble definition of their principles. " The liberties and
privileges which our Lord Jesus Christ has given to
his church . . . consist . . . in . . . that our con-
sciences be not imposed on by men or their tradi-
tions." " We are reflected on as casting dishonour
on our parents, & their pious design in the first settle-
ment of this land. . . . Some have made this the great
design, to be freed from the impositions of men in

1 Order of the Gospel, pp. 8, 9.

2 Idem, p. 102;
' Idem, p. 8.

BRATTLE CHURCH. 421

the worship of God. ... In this we are risen up to
make good their grounds." ^

They then went on to expose the abuse of public
relations of experiences : " But this is the misery, the
more meek and fearful are hereby kept out of God's
house, while the more conceited and presumptuous
never boggle at this, or anything else. But it seems
there is a gross corruption of this laudable practice
which the author does well to censure ; and that is,
when some, who have no good intention of their own,
get others to devise a relation for them." ^ They even
dared to intimate that it did not savor of modesty for
the patriarch " to think any one of his sermons, or
short comments, can edifie more than the reading of
twenty chapters." ^ And then they added some sen-
tences, which were afterward declared by the vener-
able victim to be as scurrilous as other portions of the
pamphlet were profane.

" We are assured, the author is esteemed more a
Presbyterian than a Congregational man, by scores
of his friends in London. He is lov'd and reverenced
for a moderate spirit, a peaceable disposition, and a
temper so widely different from his late brothers in
London. . . . Did our reverend author appear the
same here, we should be his easie proselites too. But
we are loath to say how he forfeits that venerable
character, which might have consecrated his name to

1 Gospel Order Revived, Epistle Dedicatory.

2 Idem, p. 9.
' Idem, p. 15.

422 BRATTLE CHURCH.

posterity, more than his learning, or other honorary
titles can." ^

No printer in Boston dared to be responsible for
this ribaldry, and when it came home from New York
and was actually cast before the people, words fail to
convey the condition into which the patriarch was
thrown. At last his emotions found a vent in a tract
which he prepared jointly with his son.

" A moral heathen would not have done as he has
done.^ . . . There is no one thing, which does more
threaten or disgrace New-England, than want of due
respect unto superiors.^ ... It is a disgrace to the
name of Presbyterian, that such as he is should pre-
tend unto it * . . . and if our children should learn from
them, ... we may tremble to think, what a flood of
profaneness and atheism would break in upon us, and
ripen us for the dreadfullest judgments of God.^ . . .
They assault him [the aged president] with a volley of
rude jeers and taunts, as if they were so many children
of Bethel." ^ Among these taunts some struck deep,
for they are quoted at length. " 'Abundance of people
have long obstinately believed, that the contest on his
part, is more for lordship and dominion, than for
truth.' But there are many more such passages, which
laid altogether, would make a considerable dung-
hil."" They dwelt with pathos upon those sacred rites

^ Gospel Order Revived, pp. 34, 35.

2 Collection of Some of the More Offensive Matterc, Preface.

8 Idem, p. 10. * Idem, p. 13. « Idem, p. 7.

^ Idem, p. 8. ' Idem, p. 9.

BRATTLE CHURCH. 423

desecrated by these " unsanctified " " young men " in
their " miserable pamphlet." " The Lord is exceed-
ingly glorified, and his people are edified, by the ac-
counts, which the candidates, of the communion in our
churches give of that self-examination which is by plain
institution ... a qualification, of the communicants.
Now these think it not enough to charge the churches,
which require & expect such accounts, with exceed-
ingly provoking the Lord. But of the tears dropt
by holy souls on those occasions, they say with a scoff,
' whether they be for joy or grief, we are left in the
dark.' " ^ But the suffering divines found peace in
knowing that Christ himself would inflict the punish-
ment upon these abandoned men which the priests
would have meted out with holy joy had they still
possessed the power.

" Considering that the things contained in their
pamphlet, are a deep apostasy, in conjunction with
such open impiety, and profane scurrility against the
holy wayes in which our fathers walked, in case it be-
come the sin of the land, (as it will do if not duely
testified against) we may fear that some heavy judg-
ment will come upon the whole land. And will not
the holy Lord Jesus Christ, who walks in the midst
of his golden candlesticks, make all the churches to
know . . . that these men have provoked the Lord I " ^

Yet, notwithstanding the Mathers' piteous prayers,
God heeded them not, and the rising tide that was

1 Collection of Some of the More Offensive Matters, p. 6.

2 Idetn, pp. 18, 19.

424 BRATTLE CHURCH.

sweeping over them soon drowned their cries. Brattle
Street congregation became an honored member of
the orthodox communion, the principles which ani-
mated its founders spread apace, and the name of
Benjamin Colman waxed great in the land. The
liberals had penetrated the stronghold of the church.

CHAPTER IX.

HARVARD COLLEGE.

For more than two centuries one ceaseless anthem
of adulation has been chanted in Massachusetts in
honor of the ecclesiastics who founded Harvard Uni-
versity, and this act has not infrequently been cited
as incontrovertible proof that they were both liberal
and progressive at heart. The laudation of ancestors
is a task as easy as it is popular ; but history deals
with the sequence of cause and effect, and an exam-
ination of facts, apart from sentiment, tends to show
that in building a college the clergy were actuated by
no loftier motive than intelligent self-interest, if, in-
deed, they were not constrained thereto by the inex-
orable exigencies of their position.

The truth of this proposition becomes apparent if
the soundness of the following analysis be conceded.

There would seem to be a point in the pathway of
civilization where every race passes more or less com-
pletely under the dominion of a sacred caste ; when
and how the more robust have emerged into freedom
is uncertain, but enough is known to make it possible
to trace the process by which this insidious power is
acquired, and the means by which it is perpetuated.
A flood of light has, moreover, been shed on this class

426 HARVARD COLLEGE.

of subjects by the recent remarkable investigations
among the Zunis.^

Most American Indians are in the matriarchal pe-
riod of development, which precedes the patriarchal;
and it is then, should they become sedentary, that
caste appears to be born. Some valuable secret, such
as a cure for the bite of the rattlesnake, is discovered,
and this gives the finder, and chosen members of his
clan with whom he shares it, a peculiar sanctity in
the eyes of the rest of the tribe. Like facts, however,
become known to other clans, and then coalitions are
made which take the form of esoteric societies, and
from these the stronger savages gradually exclude the
weaker and their descendants. Meanwhile an elabo-
rate ritual is developed, and so an hereditary priest-
hood comes into life, which always claims to have re-
ceived its knowledge by revelation, and which teaches
that resistance to its will is sacrilege. Nevertheless
the sacerdotal power is seldom firmly established
without a struggle, the memory whereof is carefully
preserved as a warning of the danger of incurring the
divine wrath. A good example of such a myth is the
fable of the rebellious Zuni fire-priest, who at the
prayer of his orthodox brethren was destroyed with
all his clan by a boiling torrent poured from the
burning mountain, sacred to their order, by the aveng-
ing gods. Compare this with the story of Korah;
and it is interesting to observe how the priestly chron-

1 Made by Mr. F. H. Gushing, of the Bureau of Ethnology,
Smithsonian Institution.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 427

icier, in order to throw the profounder awe about his
class, has made the great national prophet the author
of the exclusion of the body of the Levites from the
caste, in favor of his own brother. " And they gath-
ered themselves together against Moses and against
Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon
you, seeing all the congregation are holy, . . . where-
fore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation
of the Lord ?

" And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face."
Then he told Korah and his followers, who were de-
scendants of Levi and legally entitled to act as priests
by existing customs, to take censers and burn incense,
and it would appear whether the Lord would respect
their offering. So every man took his censer, and
Korah and two hundred and fifty more stood in the
door of the tabernacle.

Then Moses said, if " the earth open her mouth,
and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto
them, and they go down quick into the pit ; then
ye shall understand that these men have provoked
the Lord. . . .

" And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed
them up, and their houses, and all the men that ap-
pertained unto Korah, and all their goods.

" They, and all that appertained to them, went
dowTi alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon
them: . . . And all Israel that were round about
them fled at the cry of them : for they said, Lest the
earth swallow us up also." ^

1 Numbers xvi.

428 HARVARD COLLEGE.

Traces of a similar conflict are found in Hindoo
sacred literature, and probably the process has been
well-nigh universal. The caste, therefore, originates
in knowledge, real and pretended, kept by secret tra-
dition in certain families, and its power is maintained
by systematized terrorism. But to learn the myste-
ries and ritual requires a special education, hence
those destined for the pi-iesthood have careful provi-
sion made for their instruction. The youthful Zuni is
taught at the sacred college at the shrine of his order ;
the pious Hindoo lives for years with some famous
Brahmin ; as soon as the down came on the cheek, the
descendants of Aaron were taken into the Temple at
Jerusalem, and all have read how Hannah carried
the infant Samuel to the house of the Lord at Shiloh,
and how the child did minister unto the Lord before
Eli the priest.

These facts seem to lead to well-defined conclusions
when applied to New England history. In their pas-
'- sionate zeal the colonists conceived the idea of repro-
ducing, as far as they could, the society of the Penta-
teuch, or, in other words, of reverting to the archaic
, stage of caste ; and in point of fact they did succeed
»^/ in creating a theocratic despotism which lasted in full
force for more than forty years. Of course, in the
seventeenth century such a phase of feeling was ephem-
eral ; but the phenomena which attended it are excep-
tionally interesting, and possibly they are somewhat
similar to those which accompany the liberation of a
primitive people.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 429

The knowledge which divided the Massachusetts
clergy from other men was their supposed proficiency
in the interpretation of the ancient writings contain-
ing the revelations of God. For the perpetuation
of this lore a seminary was as essential to them as
an association of priests for the instruction of neo-
phytes is to the Zuni now, or as the training at the
Temple was to the Jews. In no other way could the
popular faith in their special sanctity be sustained.
It is also true that few priesthoods have made more
systematic use of terror. The slaughter of Anne
Hutchinson and her family was exultingiy declared to
be the judgment of God for defaming the elders. In-
crease Mather denounced the disobedient Colman in
the words of Moses to Korah; Cotton Mather rev-
elled in picturing the torments of the bewitched ; and,
even in the last century Jonathan Edwards frightened
people into convulsions by his preaching. On the
other hand, it is obvious that the reproduction of the
Mosaic law could not in the nature of things have
been complete ; and the two weak points in the other-
wise strong position of the clergy were that the spirit
of their age did not permit them to make their order
hereditary, nor, although their college was a true theo-
logical school, did they perceive the danger of allow-
ing any lay admixture. The tendency to weaken the
force of the discipline is obvious, yet they were led to
abandon the safe Biblical precedent, not only by their
own early associations, but by their hatred of anything
savoring: of Catholicism.

430 HARVARD COLLEGE.

Men to be great leaders must exalt their cause
above themselves ; and if so godly a man as the Rev.
Increase Mather can be said to have had a human
failing it was an inordinate love of money and of flat-
tery. The first of these peculiarities showed itself
early in life when, as his son says, he was reluctant
to settle at the North Church, because of " views he
had of greater service elsewhere." ^ In other words,
the parish was not liberal ; for it seems " the deacons
. . . were not spirited like some that have succeeded
them ; and the leaders of the more honest people
also, were men of a low, mean, sordid spirit. . . . For
one of his education, and erudition, and gentlemanly
spirit, and conversation, to be so creepled and kept in
such a depressing poverty ! — In these distresses, it
was to little purpose for him to make his complaint
unto man ! If he had, it would have been basely im-
proved unto his disadvantage."^ His diary teemed
with repinings. " Oh ! that the Lord Jesus, who
hears my complaints before him, would either give an
heart to my people to look after my comfortable sub-
sistance among them, or . . . remove me to another
people, who will take care of me, that so I may be in
a capacity to attend his work, and glorify his name in
my generation."^ However, matters mended with
him, for we are assured that " the Glorious One who
knew the works, and the service and the patience of
this tempted man, ordered it, that several gentlemen
of good estate, and of better spirit, were become the

1 Parentator, p. 25. 2 /^^g^^ p 30^ & idenij p. 33.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 431

members of his church ; " and from them he had
" such filial usages ... as took away from him all
room of repenting, that he had not under his temp-
tations prosecuted a removal from them." '

The presidency of Harvard, though nominally the
highest place a clergyman could hold in Massachu-
setts, had always been one of poverty and self-de-
nial ; for the salary was paid by the legislature, which,
as the unfortunate Dunster had found, was not dis-
posed to be generous. Therefore, although Mr, Ma-
ther was chosen president in 1685, and was after-
ward confirmed as rector by Andros, he was far too
pious to be led again into those temptations from
which he had been delivered by the interposition of
the Glorious One ; and the last thing he proposed
was to go into residence and give up his congrega-
tion. Besides, he was engrossed in politics and went
to England in 1688, where he stayed four years.
Meanwhile the real control of education was left in
the hands of Leverett, who was appointed tutor in
1686, and of William Brattle, who was in full sym-
pathy with his policy. Among the many powers
usurped by the old trading company was that of erect-
ing corporations ; hence the effect of the judgment
vacating the patent had been to annul the college
charter which had been granted by the General
Court ; 2 and although the institution had gone on
much as usual after the Revolution, its position was
felt to be precarious. Such being the situation when
1 Parentator, pp. 34, 35. 2 93 May, I60O. Mass. Rec. iii. 195.

432 HARVARD COLLEGE,

the patriarch came home in 1692 in the plenitude o£
power, he conceived the idea of making himself the
untrammelled master of the university, and he forth-
with caused a bill to be introduced into the le^slature
which would certainly have produced that result.^
Nor did he meet with any serious opposition in Mas-
sachusetts, where his power was, for the moment, well-
nigh supreme. His difficulty lay with the king, since
the fixed policy of Great Britain was to foster Episco-
palianism, and of course to obtain some recognition
for that sect at Cambridge. And so it came to pass
that all the advantage he reaped by the enactment of
this singular law was a degree of Doctor of Divinity ^
which he gave himself between the approval of the
bill by Phips and its rejection at London. The com-
pliment was the more flattering, however, as it was the
first ever granted in New England. But the clouds
were fast gathering over the head of this good man.
Like many another benefactor of his race, he was
doomed to experience the pangs inflicted by ingrati-
tude, and indeed his pain was so acute he seldom lost
an opportunity of giving it public expression ; to use
his own words of some years later, " these are the last
lecture sermons ... to be preached by me. . . . The
ill treatment which I have had from those from whom
I had reason to have expected better, have discour-
aged me from being any more concerned on such oc-
casions." ^

1 Province Latvs, 1692-93, c. 10.

3 Sept. 5, 1602. Quincy's Histan/ of Harvard, i. 71.

* Address to Sermon, The Righteous Alan a Blessing, 1702.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 433

Certainly he was in a false position ; he was neces-
sarily unappreciated by the liberals, and he had not
only alienated many staunch conservatives by his ac-
ceptance of the charter, but he had embittered them
by I'igorously excluding ail except his particular fac-
tion from Phips's council. To his deep chagrin, the
elections of 1698 went in favor of many of these
thankless men, and his discontent soon took the form
of an intense longing to go abroad in some official
position which would give him importance. The only
possible opening seemed to be to get himself made
agent to negotiate a charter for Harvard ; and there-
fore he soon had " angelical " suggestions that God
needed him in England to glorify his name.

" 1693. September 3d. As I was riding to preach
at Cambridge, I prayed to God, — begged that my
labors might be blessed to the souls of the students;
at the which I was much melted. Also saying to the
Lord, that some workings of his Providence seemed
to intimate, that I must be returned to England
again ; . . . I was inexpressibly melted, and that for
a considerable time, and a stirring suggestion, that to
England I must go. In this there was something ex-
traordinary, either divine or angelical."

" December 30th. Meltings before the Lord this
day when praying, desiring being returned to England
again, there to do service to his name, and persuasions
that the Lord will appear therein."

" 1694. January 27th. Prayers and supplications
that tidings may come from England, that may be

434 HARVARD COLLEGE.

some direction to me, as to my returning thither or
otherwise, as shall be most for his glory."

"March 13th. This morning with prayers and
tears I begged of God that I might hear from mj^
friends and acquaintance in England something that
should encourage and comfort me. Such tidings sure
coming, but I know not what it is. God has heard
me." 1

His craving to escape from the country was in-
creased by the nagging of the legislature ; for so early
as December, 1693, the representatives passed the first
of a long series of resolves, " that the president of
Harvard College for the time being shall reside there,
as hath been accustomed in time past." ^ Now this
was precisely what the Reverend Doctor was deter-
mined he would not do ; nor could he resign with-
out losing all hope of his agency ; so it is not sur-
prising that as time went on he wrestled with the
Deity.

1698. " September 25th. This day as I was wres-
tling with the Lord, he gave me glorious and heart-
melting persuasions, that he has work for me to do in
England, for the glory of his name. My soul re-
joiceth in the Lord." ^

Doubtless his trials were severe, but the effect upon
his temper was unfortunate. He brought forward
scheme after scheme, and the corporation was made

^ History of Harvard, i. 475, 476, App. ix.

2 Court Rec. vi. 316.

8 History of Harvard, i. 480, App. ix.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 435

to address the legislature, and then the legislature
was pestered to accede to the prayer of the corpora-
tion, until everybody was wrought to a pitch of ner-
vous irritation ; he himself was always jotting in his
Diary what he had on foot, mixed with his hopes and
prayers.

" 1696. December 11th. I was with the represen-
tatives in the General Court, and did acquaint them
with my purpose of undertaking a voyage for Eng-
land in the spring (if the Lord will), in order to the
attainment of a good settlement for the college."

" December 28th. The General Court have done
nothing for the poor college. . . . The corporation
are desirous that I should go to England on the col-
lege's account."

1696. " April 19th (Sabbath.) In the morning,
as I was praying in my closet, my heart was marvel-
lously melted with the persuasion, that I should glo-
rify Christ in England."

" 1697. June 7th. Discourse with ministers about
the college, and the corporation unanimously desired
me to take a voyage for England on the college's
account." ^

But of what the senior tutor was doing with the
rising generation he took no note at all. His attention
was probably first attracted by rumors of the Brattle
Church revolt, for not till 1697 was he able to divert
his thoughts from himself long enough to observe that
all was not as it should be at Cambridge. Then, at
^ History of Harvard, i. 476, App. ix.

436 HARVARD COLLEGE.

length, he made an effort to get rid of Leverett by
striking his name from the list of fellows when a bill
for incorporation was brought into the legislature ;
but this crafty politician had already become too
strong in the house of representatives, of which he
was soon after made speaker.

Two years later, however, the conservative clergy
made a determined effort and prepared a bill contain-
ing a religious test, which they supported with a peti-
tion praying " that, in the charter for the college, our
holy religion may be secured to us and unto our pos-
terity, by a provision, that no person shall be chosen
president, or fellow, of the college, but such as declare
their adherence unto the principles of reformation,
which were espoused and intended by those who first
settled the country . . . and have hitherto been the
general profession of New England." ^ This time
they narrowly missed success, for the bill passed the
houses, but was vetoed by Lord Bellomont.

Hitherto Cotton Mather had shown an unfilial lack
of interest in his father's ambition to serve the pub-
lic ; but this summer he also began to have assurances
from God. One cause for his fervor may have been
the death of the Rev. Mr. Morton, who was conceded
to stand next in succession to the presidency, and he
therefore supposed himself to be sure of the office
should a vacancy occur.^

1 History of Harvard, i. 87.

2 Idem, i. 99.

8 Idem, i. 102.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 4S7

" 1699. 7th d. 4th m. (June.) The General Court
has, divers times of late years, had under consider-
ation the matter of the settlement of the colleere,
which was like still to issue in a voyage of my father
to England, and the matter is now again considered.
I have made much prayer about it many and many
a time. Nevertheless, I never could have my mind
raised unto any particular faith about it, one way or
another. But this day, as I was (may I not say) in
the spirit, it was in a powerful manner assured me
from heaven, that my father should one day be car-
ried into England, and that he shall there glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ ; • . . And thou, O Mather the
younger, shalt live to see this accomplished ! " ^

" 16th d. 5tli m. (July.) Being full of distress
in my spirit, as I was at prayer in my study at noon,
it was told me from heaven, that my father shall be
carried from me unto England, and that my opportu-
nities to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ will, on that
occasion, be gloriously accommodated.'^

" 18th d. 5th m. . . . And now behold a most unin-
telligible dispensation ! At this very time, even about
noon, instead of having the bill for the college en-
acted, as was exjDected, the governor plainly rejected
it, because of a provision therein, made for the religion
of the country."

After the veto the patriarch seems to have got the
upper hand for a season, and to have made some
arrangement by which he evicted his adversary, as ap-
1 History of Harvard, i. 482, 483, App. x.

438 HARVARD COLLEGE.

pears by a very dissatisfied letter written by Leverett
in August, 1699 : "As soon as I got home I was in-
formed, that Rev. President (I. M.), held a corpora-
tion at the college the 7th inst., and the said cor-
poration, after the publication of the new settlement^
made choice of Mr. Flynt to be one of the tutors at
college. ... I have not the late act for incorjao-
rating the college at hand, nor have I seen the new
temporary settlement; but I perceive, that all the
members of the late corporation were not notified to
be at the meeting. I can't say how legal these late
proceedings are ; but it is wonderful, that an estab-
lishment for so short a time as till October next,
should be made use of so soon to introduce an un-
necessary addition to that society." ^

A long weary year passed, during which Dr. Mar
ther must have suffered keenly from the public in-
gratitude; still, at its end he was happy, since he
felt certain of being rewarded by the Lord ; for, just
as the earl's administration was closing, he had suc-
ceeded by unremitting toil in so adjusting the legis-
lature as to think the spoil his own ; when, alas,
suddenly, without warning, in the most distressing
manner, the prize slipped into Bellomont's pocket.
How severely his faith was tried appears from his
son's Diary.

" 1700. 16th d. 4th mo. (Lord's Day.) I am
going to relate one of the most astonishing things that
ever befell in all the time of my pilgrimage.
1 History of Harvard, i. 500, App. xvi.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 439

"A particular faith had been unaccountably pro-
duced in my father's heart, and in my own, that God
will carry him unto England, and there ^ve him a
short but great opportunity to glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ, before his entrance into the heavenly kingdom.
There appears no probability of my father's going
thither but in an agency to obtain a charter for the
college. This matter having been for several years
upon the very point of being carried in the General
Assembly, hath strangely miscarried when it hath
come to the birth. It is now again before the As-
sembly, in circumstances wherein if it succeed not, it
is never like to be revived and resumed any more. . . .

" But the matter in the Assembly being likely now
to come unto nothing, I was in this day in extreme
distress of spirit concerning it. . . . After I had fin-
ished all the other duties of this day, I did in ray dis-
tress cast myself prostrate on my study floor before
the Lord. ... I spread before him the consequences
of things, and the present posture and aspect of them,
and, having told the Lord, that I had always taken a
particular faith to be a work of heaven on the minds
of the faithful, but if it should prove a deceit in that
remarkable instance which was now the cause of my
agony, I should be cast into a most wonderful confu-
sion ; I then begged of the Lord, that, if ray particular
faith about my father's voyage to England were not
a delusion, he would be pleased to renew it upon me.
All this while my heart had the coldness of a stone
npon it, and the straitness that is to be expected from

440 HARVARD COLLEGE.

the lone exercise of reason. But now all on the sud-
den I felt an inexpressible force to fall on my mind,
an afflatus, which cannot be described in words ; nojie
knows it but he that has it. ... It was told me, that
the Lord Jesus Christ loved my father, and loved me,
and that he took delight in us, as in two of his faith-
ful servants, and that he had not permitted us to be
deceived in our particular faith, but that my father
should be carried into England, and there glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ before his passing into glory. . . .
" Having left a flood of tears from me, by these
rages from the invisible world, on my study floor, I
rose and went into my chair. There I took up my
Bible, and the first place that I opened was at Acts
xxvii. 23-25, ' There stood by me an angel of God,
whose I am, and whom I serve, saying. Fear not, thou
must be brought before Caesar.' ... A new flood of
tears gushed from my flowing eyes, and I broke out
into these expressions. ' What ! shall my father yet
appear before Caesar ! Has an angel from heaven told
me so ! And must I believe what has been told me !
Well then, it shall be so ! It shall be so ! ' "

" And now what shall I say ! When the affair of
my father's agency after this came to a turning point
in the court, it strangely miscarried ! All came to
nothing ! Some of the Tories had so wrought upon
the governor, that, though he had first moved this
matter, and had given us both directions and prom-
ises about it, yet he now (not without base unhand-
someness) deferred it. The lieutenant-governor, who

HARVARD COLLEGE. 441

had formerly been for it, now (not without great
ebullition of unaccountable prejudice and ingratitude)
appeared, with all the little tricks imaginable, to con-
found it. It had for all this been carried, had not
some of the council been inconveniently called off and
absent. But now the whole affair of the college was
left unto the management of the Earl of Bellamont,
so that all expectation of a voyage for my father
unto England, on any such occasion, is utterly at an
end." 1

During all these years the legislature had been
steadily passing resolutions requiring the president to
go into residence ; and in 1698 they went so far as to
vote him the liberal salary, for that age, of two hun-
dred pounds, and appointed a committee to wait upon
him. Judge Sewall describes the interview : —

" Mr. President expostulated with Mr. Speaker
. . . about the votes being alter 'd from 250 [£. ?]."
..." We urg'd his going all we could ; I told him
of his birth and education here ; that he look'd at
work rather than wages, all met in desiring him, . . .
Objected want of a house, bill for corporation not
pass'd . . . must needs preach once every week, which
he preferred before the gold and silver of the West-
Indies. I told him would preach twice aday to the
students. He said that [exposition] was nothing like
preaching." 2 And in this the patriarch spoke the
truth ; for if there was anything he loved more than

^ History of Harvard, i. 484-486, App. x.

* Sewall's Diary. Mass. Hist. CoL fifth series, v. 487.

442 HARVARD COLLEGE.

money it was the incense of adulation which steamed
up to his nostrils from a great congregation. Of
course he declined; and yet this importunity pained
the good man, not because there was any conflict in
his mind between his duty to a cause he held sacred
and his own interest, but because it was "a thing con-
trary to the faith marvellously wrought into my soul,
that God will give me an opportunity to serve and
glorify Christ in England, I set the day apart to cry
to heaven about it." ^

There were limits, however, even to the patience of
the Massachusetts Assembly with an orthodox divine ;
and no sooner was the question of the agency decided
by the appointment of Bellomont, than it addressed
itself resolutely to the seemingly hopeless task of for-
cing Dr. Mather to settle in Cambridge or resign his
office. On the 10th of July, 1700, they voted him
two hundred and twenty pounds a year, and they
appointed a committee to obtain from him a categori-
cal answer. This time he thought it prudent to feign
compliance ; and after a " suitable place . . . for the
reception and entertainment of the president " had
been prepared at the public expense, he moved out of
town and stayed till the 17th of October, when he
went back to Boston, and wrote to tell Stoughton his
health was suffering. His disingenuousness seems to
have given Leverett the opportunity for which he had
been waiting ; and his acting as chairman of a com-
mittee appointed by the representatives suggests his
1 History of Harvard, vi. 481, App. ix.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 443

having forced the issue ; it was resolved that, should
Mr. Mather be absent from the college, his duties
should devolve upon Samuel Willard, the vice-pres-
ident ; * and in March the committee apparently re-
ported the president's house to be in good condition.
Stimulated by this hint, the doctor went back to Cam-
bridge and stayed a little more than three months,
when he wrote a characteristic note to Stoughton, who
was acting governor. " I promised the last General
Court to take care of the college until the Commence-
ment. Accordingly I have been residing in Cam-
bridge these three months. I am determined (if the
Lord will) to return to Boston the next week, and no
more return to reside in Cambridge ; for it is not rea-
sonable to desire me to be (as, out of respect to the
public interest, I have been six months within this
twelve) any longer absent from my family. ... I
do therefore earnestly desire, that the General Court
would . . . think of another president. ... It would
be fatal to the interest of religion, if a person disaf-
fected to the order of the Gospel, professed and prac-
tised in these churches, should preside over this soci-
ety. I know the General Assembly, out of their
regard to the interest of Christ, will take care to pre-
vent it." - Yet though he himself begged the legisla-
ture to select his successor, in his inordinate vanity
he did not dream of being taken at his word ; so
when he was invited to meet both houses in the coun-

^ History of Harvard, i. Ill ; Court Rec. vii. 172, 175.
^ History of Harvard, i. 501, App. xvii.

444 HARVARD COLLEGE.

cil chamDer he explained with perfect cheerfulness
how " he was now removed from Cambridge to Bos-
ton, and . . . did not think fitt to continue his resi-
dence there, . . . but, if the court thought fit to
desire he should continue his care of the colledge as
formerly, he would do so." ^

Increase Mather delighted to blazon himself as
Christ's foremost champion in the land. He pre-
dicted, and with reason, that should those who had
been already designated succeed him at Harvard, it
would be fatal to that cause to which his life was
vowed. The alternative was presented of serving
himself or God, and to him it seemed unreasonable
of his friends to expect of him a choice. And yet
when, as was his wont, he would describe himself
from the pulpit, as a refulgent beacon blazing before
New England, he would use such words as these :
" Every . . . one of a publick spirit . . . will deny
himseK as to his worldly interests, provided he may
thereby promove the welfare of his people. . . . He
will not only deny himself, but if called thereto, will
encounter the greatest difficidties and dangers for the
publicks sake." ^

The man had presumed too far; the world was
wearying of him. On September 6, 1701, the gov-
ernment was transferred to Samuel Willard, the vice-
president, and Harvard was lost forever.^

^ Court Records, vii. 229.

2 Sermon, The Publick Spirited Man, pp. 7, 9.

* History of Harvard, i. 116.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 445

No education is so baleful as the ecclesiastical, be-
cause it breeds the belief in men that resistance to
their wiU is not only a wrong to their country and
themselves, but a sacrilege toward God. The Ma-
thers were now to give an illustration of the degree to
which the theocratic training debauched the mind ;
and it is only necessary to observe that Samuel Sew-
all, who tells the story, was educated for the ministry,
and was perhaps as staunch a conservative as there
was in the province.

1701, " Oct^ 20. Mr. Cotton Mather came to Mr.
Wilkius's shop, and there talked very sharply against
me as if I had used his father worse than a neger ;
spake so loud that people in the street might hear
him. ... I had read in the morn Mr. Dod's saying ;
Sanctified afflictions are good promotions. I found it
now a cordial."

" Oct^ 9. I sent Mr. Increase Mather a hanch of
very good venison ; I hope in that I did not treat him
as a negro."

"Octob' 22. 1701. I, with Major Walley and
Capt. Sam^ Checkly, speak with Mr. Cotton Mather
at Mr. Wilkins's. ... I told him of his book of the
Law of Kindness for the Tongue, whether this were
correspondent with that. Whether correspondent
with Christ's rule :

" He said, having spoken to me before there was no
need to speak to me again ; and so justified his revil-
ing me behind my back. Charg'd the council with
lying, hypocrisy, tricks, and I know not what all. I

446 HARVARD COLLEGE.

ask'd him if it were done with that meekness as it
should ; Answer'd, Yes. Charg'd the council in gen-
eral, and then shew'd my share, which was my speech
in council ; viz. If Mr. Mather should goe to Cam-
bridge again to reside there with a resolution not to
read the Scriptures, and expound in the Hall: I fear
the example of it will do more hurt than his going
thither will doe good. This speech I owned. ... I
ask'd him if I should supose he had done somthing
amiss in his church as an officer ; whether it would
be well for me to exclaim against him in the street
for it."

" Thorsday Oct- 23. Mr. Increase Mather said at
Mr. Wilkins's, If I am a servant of Jesus Christ,
some great judgment will fall on Capt. Sewall, or his
family.'' ^

Had the patriarch been capable of a disinterested
action, for the sake of those principles he professed to
love, he would have stopped Willard's presidency, no
matter at what personal cost, for he knew him to be
no better than a liberal in disguise, and he had al-
ready quarrelled bitterly with him in 1697 when he
was trying to eject Leverett. Sewall noted on " Nov!
20. . . . Mr. Willard told me of the falling out be-
tween the president and him about chusing fellows
last Monday. Mr. Mather has sent him word, he will
never come to his house more till he give him satisfac-
tion." 2 But they had in reality separated years be.

1 Sewall's Diary. Mass. Hist. Coll. fifth series, vi. 43-45.

2 Mass. Hist. Coll. fifth series, v. 464.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 447

fore ; for when, in the witchcraft terror, Willard was
cried out upon, and had to look a shameful death in
the face, he learned to feel that the men who were
willing to risk their lives to save him were by no
means public enemies. And so, as the vice-president
lived in Boston, the administration of the college was
left very much to Leverett and the Brattles, who were
presently reinstated.

Joseph Dudley was the son of that old governor
who wrote the verses about the cockatrice to be
hatched by toleration, yet he inherited very little of
his father's disposition. He was bred for the minis-
try, and as the career did not attract him, he turned to
politics, in which he made a brilliant opening. At first
he was the hope of the high churchmen, but they after-
ward learned to hate him with a rancor exceptional
even toward their enemies. And he gave them only
too good a handle against him, for he was gvnlty of
the error of selling himself without reserve to the An-
dros government. At the Revolution he suffered a
long imprisonment, and afterward went to England,
where he passed most of William's reign. There his
ability soon brought him forward, he was made lieu-
tenant-governor of the Isle of Wight, was returned to
Parliament, and at last appointed governor by Queen
Anne. Though Massachusetts owes a deeper debt to
few of her chief magistrates, there are few who have
found scantier praise at the hands of her historians.
He was, it is true, an unscrupulous politician and
courtier, but his mind was broad and vigorous, his

448 HARVARD COLLEGE.

policy wise and liberal, and at the moment of his
power his influence was of inestimable value.

Among his other gifts, he was endowed with infi-
nite tact, and when working for his office he managed
not only to conciliate the Mathers, but even to induce
the son to write a letter in his favor ; and so when he
arrived in 1702 they were both sedulous in their at-
tentions in the expectation of controlling him. A
month had not passed, however, before this ominous
entry was made in the younger' s diary : —

" June 16, 1T02. I received a visit from Govern-
our Dudley. ... I said to him . . . I should be con-
tent, I would approve it, . . . if any one should say
to your excellency, ' By no means let any people have
cause to say, that you take all your measures from the
two Mr. Mathers.' By the same rule I may say with-
out offence, ' By no means let any people say, that you
go by no measures in your conduct, but Mr. Byfield's
and Mr. Leverett's.' . . . The wretch went unto
those men and told them, that I had advised him to
be no ways advised by them ; and inflamed them into
an implacable rage against me." ^

Leverett, on the contrary, now reached his zenith ;
from the house he passed into the council and became
one of Dudley's most trusted advisers. The Mathers
were no match for these two men, and few routs have
been more disastrous than theirs. Lord Bellomont's
sudden death had put an end to all hope of obtaining
a charter by compromise with England, and no fur.
1 Mciss. Hist. Coll. first series, iii. 137.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 449

ther action had been taken, when, on September 12,
1707, Willard died. On the 28th of October the fel-
lows met and chose John Leverett president of Har-
vard College ; and then came a demonstration which
proved not only Increase Mather's prescience, when
he foretold how a liberal university would kill a dis-
ciplined church, but which shows the mighty influence
a devoted teacher can have upon his age. Thirty-
nine ministers addressed Governor Dudley thus : —

" We have lately, with great joy, understood the
great and early care that our brethren, who have the
present care and oversight of the college at Cam-
bridge, have taken, ... by their unanimous choice
of Mr. John Leverett, ... to be the president . . .
Your Excellency personally knows Mr. Leverett so
well, that we shall say the less of him. However, we
cannot but give this testimony of our great affection
to and esteem for him ; that we are abundantly satis-
fied ... of his religion, learning, and other excellent
accomplishments for that eminent service, a long ex-
perience of which we had while he was senior fellow
of that house ; for that, under the wise and faithful
government of him, and the Rev. Mr. Brattle, of
Cambridge, the greatest part of the now rising minis-
try in New England were happily educated ; and we
hope and promise ourselves, through the blessing of
the God of our fathers, to see religion and learning
thrive and flourish in that society, under Mr. Lever-
ett's wise conduct and influence, as much as ever yet
it hath done." ^

^ History of Harvard, i. 504, App. xx.

450 HARVARD COLLEGE.

His salary was only one hundred and fifty pounds
a year ; but the man worked for love of a great cause,
and did not stop to haggle. Nor were he and Dud-
ley of the temper to leave a task half done. Un-
doubtedly at the governor's instigation, a resolve was
introduced into the Assembly reviving the Act of 1650
by which the university had been incorporated, and it
is by the sanction of this lawless and masterly feat of
statesmanship that Harvard has been administered for
almost two hundred years.

Sewall tells how Dudley went out in state to inau-
gurate his friend. " The gov'' prepar'd a Latin speech
for instalment of the president. Then took the presi-
dent by the hand and led him down into the hall ; . . .
The gov'' sat with his back against a noble fire. . . .
Then the gov"" read his speech . . . and mov'd the
books in token of their delivery. Then president
made a short Latin speech, importing the difficulties
discouraging, and yet that he did accept : . . . Clos'd
with the hymn to the Trinity. Had a very good diner
upon 3 or 4 tables. . . . Got home very well. Lmts
Deor 1

Nor did Dudley fail to provide the new executive
with fit support. By the old law he had revived the
corporation was reduced to seven ; of this board Lev-
erett himself was one, and on the day he took his office
both the Brattles and Peraberton were also appointed.
And more than this, when, a few years later, Pem-
berton died, the arch-rebel, Benjamin Colman, was

1 Mass. Hist. Coll. fifth series, vi. 209.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 451

chosen in his place. The liberal triumph was complete,
and in looking back through the vista of the past,
there are few pages of our history more strongly
stamped with the native energy of the New Englan(?
mind than this brilliant capture of Harvard, by whict
the ancient cradle of bigotry and superstition wa&
made the home of American liberal thought. As foi
the Mathers, when they found themselves beaten in
fair fight, they conceived a revenge so dastardly that
Pemberton declared with much emotion he would hum-
ble them, were he governor, though it cost him his
head. Being unable longer to withstand Dudley by
honorable means, they tried to blast him by charging
him with felony. Their letters are too long to be
reproduced in full ; but their purport may be guessed
by the extracts given, and to this day they remain
choice gems of theocratic morality.

Sir, That I have had a singular respect for you, the
Lord knows ; but that since your arrival to the gov-
ernment, my charitable expectations have been greatly
disappointed, I may not deny. . . .

1st. I am afraid you cannot clear yourself from the
guilt of bribery and unrighteousness. . . .

2d. I am afraid that you have not been true to the
interest of your country, as God (considering his mar-
vellous dispensations towards you) and his people
have expected from you. . . .

3d. I am afraid that you cannot clear yourself from
the guilt of much hypocrisy and falseness in the affair
of the college. . . .

452 HARVARD COLLEGE.

4th. I am afraid that the guilt of innocent blood is
still crying in the ears of the Lord against you. I
mean the blood of Leister and Milburn. My Lord
Bellamont said to me, that he was one of the commit-
tee of Parliament who examined the matter ; and that
those men were not only murdered, but barbarously
murdered. . . .

5th. I am afraid that the Lord is offended with you,
in that you ordinarily forsake the worship of God in
the holy church to which you are related, in the after-
noon on the Lord's day, and after the publick exercise,
spend the whole time with some persons reputed very
ungodly men. I am sure your father did not so. . . .
Would you choose to be with them or such as they are
in another world, unto which you are hastening? . . .
I am under pressures of conscience to bear a publick
testimony without respect of persons. ... I trust in
Christ that when I am gone, I shall obtain a good
report of my having been faithful before him. To his
mercy I commend you, and remain in him,
Yours to serve,

I. Mather.1

Boston, January 20, 1707-8.
To the Govemour.

Boston, Jan. 20, 1707-8.

Sir, There have appeared such things in your

conduct, that a just concern for the welfare of your

excellency seems to render it necessary, that you

should be faithfully advised of them. . . . You will

1 Mass. Hist. Coll. first series, iii. 126.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 453

give me leave to write nothing, but in a style, whereof
an ignorant mob, to whom (as well as the General
Assembly) you think fit to communicate what frag-
ments you please of my letters, must be competent
judges. I must proceed accordingly. ... I weakly
believed that the wicked and horrid things done be-
fore the righteous Revolution, had been heartily re-
pented of ; and that the rueful business at New York,
which many illustrious persons . . . called a barbarous
murder, . . . had been considered with such a repent-
ance, as might save you and your family from any fur-
ther storms of heaven for the revenging of it. . . . Sir,
your snare has been that thing, the hatred whereof is
most expressly required of the ruler, namely COVET-
OUSNESS. When a jjovernour shall make his jjovern-
raent more an engine to enrich himself, than to he-
friend his country, and shall by the unhallowed hun-
ger of riches be prevailed withal to do many wrong,
base, dishonourable things ; it is a covetousness which
will shut out from the kingdom of heaven ; and some-
times the loss of a government on earth also is the
punishment of it. . . . The main channel of that cov-
etousness has been the reign of bribery, which you,
sir, have set up in the land, where it was hardly
known, till yon brought it in fashion. . . . And there
lie affidavits before the queen and council, which affirm
that you have been guilty of it in very many instances.
I do also know that you have, . . .

Sir, you are sensible that there is a judgment to
come, wherein the glorious Lord will demand, how far

454 HARVARD COLLEGE.

you aimed at serving him in your government ; . . . how
far you did in your government encourage those that
had most of his image upon them, or place your eyes
on the wicked of the land. Your age and health, as
well as other circumstances, greatly invite you, sir, to
entertain awful thoughts of this matter, and solicit
the divine mercy through the only sacrifice. . . . Yet
if the troubles you brought on yourself should pro-
cure your abdication and recess unto a more private
condition, and your present parasites forsake you, as
you may he sure they will, I should think it my duty
to do you all the good offices imaginable.

Finally, I can forgive and forget injuries ; and I
hope I am somewhat ready for sunset ; the more for
having discharged the duty of this letter. . . .
Your humble and faithful servant,

Cotton Mather.^

But these venomous priests had tried their fangs
upon a resolute and an able man. Dudley shook
them off like vermin.

Gentlemen, Yours of the 20th instant I received ;
and the contents, both as to the matter and manner,
astonish me to the last degree. I must think you
have extremely forgot your own station, as well as my
character ; otherwise it had been impossible to have
made such an open breach upon all the laws of de-
cency, honour, justice, and Christianity, as you have
^ Mass, Hist. Coll. first series, iii. 128.

HARVARD COLLEGE. 455

done in treating me with an air of superiority and
contempt, which would have been greatly culpable
towards a Christian of the lowest order, and is insuf-
ferably rude toward one whom divine Providence has
honoured with the character of your governour, . . .

Why, gentlemen, have you been so long silent? and
suffered sin to lie upon me years after years? You
cannot pretend any new information as to the main
of your charge ; for you have privately given your
tongues a loose upon these heads, I am well assured,
when you thought you could serve yourselves by ex-
posing me. Surely murder, robberies, and other such
flaming immoralities were as reprovable then as
now. . . .

Really, gentlemen, conscience and religion are
things too solemn, venerable, or sacred, to be played
w'ith, or made a covering for actions so disagreeable to
the gospel, as these your endeavours to expose me
and my most faithful services to contempt ; nay, to
unhinge the government. . . .

I desire you will keep your station, and let fifty or
sixty good ministers, your equals in the province, have
a share in the government of the college, and advise
thereabouts as well as yourselves, and I hope all will
be well. . . .

I am your humble servant,

J. Dudley.
To the Reverend Doctors Mathers.^

^ Mass. Hist. Coll. first series, iii. 135.

CHAPTER X.

THE LAWYERS.

In the age of sacred caste the priest is likewise the
law-maker and the judge, and as succeeding genera-
tions of ecclesiastics slowly spin the intricate web of
their ceremonial code, they fail not to teach the peo-
ple that their holy ordinances were received of yore
from divine lips by some great prophet. This process
is beautifully exemplified in the Old Testament :
though the complicated ritualism of Leviticus was
always reverently attributed to Moses, it was evi-
dently the work of a much later period ; for the pres-
ent purpose, however, its date is immaterial, it suf-
fices to follow the account the scribes thought fit to
give in Kings.

Long after the time of Solomon, Josiah one day
sent to inquire about some repairs then being made
at the Temple, when suddenly, " Hilkiah the high
priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the
book of the law in the house of the Lord." And he
gave the book to Shaphan.

" And it came to pass, when the king had heard the
words of the book ... he rent his clothes." And he
was greatly alarmed for fear of the wrath of the Lord,
because their fathers had not hearkened unto the

THE LAWYERS. 457

words of this book ; as indeed it was impossible they
should, since they knew nothing about it. So, to find
out what was best to be done, he sent Hilkiah and
others to Iluldah the prophetess, who told them that
the wrath of the Lord was indeed kindled, and he
would bring evil unto the land ; but, because Josiah's
heart had been tender, and he had humbled himself,
and rent his clothes, and wept when he had heard
what was spoken, he should be gathered into his grave
in peace, and his eyes should not see the evil.^

Such is an example of the process whereby a com-
pilation of canonical statutes is brought into practical
operation by adroitly working upon the superstitious
fears of the civil magistrate ; at an earlier period the
priests administer justice in person.

Eli judged Israel forty years, and Samuel went on
circuit all the days of his life ; "■ and he went from
year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and
Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places." ^ But,
sooner or later, the time must come when a soldier is
absolutely necessary, both to fight foreign enemies
and to enforce obedience at home ; and then some
chief is set up whom the clergy think they can con-
trol : thus Samuel anointed Saul to be captain over
the Lord's inheritance.^ So long as the king is sub-
missive to authority all goes well, but any insubordi-
nation is promptly punished ; and this was the fate of
Saul. On one occasion, when he was in difficulty and
Samuel happened to be away, he was so rash as to

* 2 Kings xxii. ^ 1 Samuel iv., vii. ^ 1 Samuel x.

458 THE LAWYERS.

sacrifice a burnt offering himself; his presumption
offended the prophet, who forthwith declared that his
kingdom should not continue.^ After this the rela-
tions between them went from bad to worse, and it
was not long before the priest began to intrigue with
David, whom he presently anointed.^ The end of it
was that Saul was defeated in battle, as Samuel's
ghost foretold, for not obeying " the voice of the
Lord ; " and after a struggle between the houses of
Saul and David, all the elders of Israel went to
Hebron, where David made a league with them, and
in return they anointed him king.^

Thenceforward, or from the moment when a layman
assumed control of the temporal power, the Jewish
chronicles teem with the sins and the disasters of those
rulers who did not walk in the way of their fathers,
or who, in other words, were restive under ecclesiasti-
cal dictation.

So long as this period lasts, during which the sov-
ereign is forced to obey the behests of the priesthood,
an arbitrary despotism is inevitable ; nor can the
foundation of equal justice and civil liberty be laid
until first the military, and then the legal profession,
has become distinct and emancipated from clerical
control, and jurisprudence has grown into the recog-
nized calling of a special class.

These phenomena tend to explain the peculiar and
original direction taken by legal thought in Massa-
chusetts, for they throw light upon the influences un-

^ 1 Samuel xiii. 2 l(iem, xvi. ^ 2 Samuel v.

THE LAWYERS. 459

der which her first generation of lawyers grew up,
whose destiny it was to impress upon her institutions
the form they have ever since retained.

The traditions inherited from the theocracy were
vicious in the extreme. For ten years after the settle-
ment the clergy and their aristocratic allies stubbornly
refused either to recognize the common law or to en-
act a code ; and when at length further resistance to
the demands of the freemen was impossible, the Rev.
Nathaniel Ward drew up " The Body of Liberties,"
which, though it perhaps sufficiently defined civil obli-
gations, contained this extraordinary provision con-
cerning crimes : —

" No mans life shall be taken away, no mans
honour or good name shall be stayned, no mans per-
son shall be arested, restrayned, banished, dismem-
bred, nor any wayes punished, . . . unlesse it be by
virtue or equitie of some expresse law of the country
waranting the same, ... or in case of the defect of
a law in any parteculer case by the word of God.
And in capitall cases, or in cases concerning dismem-
bring or banishment according to that word to be
judged by the Generall Court." ^

The whole of the subtle policy, whereof this legis-
lation forms a part, well repays attentive study. The
relation of the church to the state was not unlike that
of Samuel toward Saul, for no public man could with-
stand its attack, as was demonstrated by the fate of
Vane. Much of the story has been told already in
1 Mass. Hist. Coll. third series, viii. 216.

460 THE LA WYERS.

describing the process whereby the clergy acquired a
substantial ascendency over the executive and legisla-
ture, through their command of the constituencies,
which it was the labor of their lives to fill with loyal
retainers. Nothing therefore remains to be done but
to trace the means they employed to invest their order
with judicial attributes.

From the outset lawyers were excluded from prac-
tice, so the magistrates were nothing but common
politicians who were nominated by the priests ; thus
the bench was not only filled with trusty partisans
without professional training or instincts, but also,
as they were elected annually, they were practically
removable at pleasure should they by any chance
rebel. Upon these points there is abundant evidence :
" The government was first by way of charter, which
was chiefly managed by the preachers, who by their
power with the people made all the magistrates &
kept them so intirely under obedience, that they durst
not act without them. Soe that whensoever anything
strange or unusuall was brought before them, they
would not determine the matter without consulting
the preachers, for should any bee soe sturdy as to pre-
sume to act of himself without takeing advice & di-
rections, he might bee sure of it, his magistracy ended
with the year. He could bee noe magistrate for them,
that was not approved and recommended from the
pulpit, & he could expect little recommendation who
was not the preacher's most humble servant. Soe
they who treated, caressed & presented the preachers

THE LAWYERS. 461

most, were the rulers & magistrates among the peo-
ple." 1

From the decisions of such a judiciary the only
appeal lay to a popular assembly, which could always
be manipulated. Obviously, ecclesiastical supervision
over the ordinary course of litigation was amply pro-
vided for. The adjudication of the more important
controversies was reserved; for it was expressly en-
acted that doubtful questions and the higher crimes
should be judged according to the Word of God.
This master-stroke resembled Hilkiah's when he im-
posed his book on Josiah; for on no point of disci-
pline were the ministers so emphatic as on the sacred
and absolute nature of their prerogative to interpret
the Scriptures ; nor did they fail to impress upon the
people that it was a sin akin to sacrilege for the laity
to dispute their exposition of the Bible.

The deduction to be drawn from these premises is
plain. The assembled elders, acting in their advisory
capacity, constituted a supreme tribunal of last resort,
wholly superior to carnal precedent, and capable of
evolving whatsoever decrees they deemed expedient
from the depths of their consciousness.^ The result
exemplifies the precision with which a cause operating
upon the human mind is followed by its consequence ;
and the action of this resistless force is painfully
apparent in every state prosecution under the Puri-

1 An Account of the Colonies, etc., Lambeth MSS. Perry's
Historical Collections, iii. 48.

2 See Gorton's case, Winthrop, ii. 146.

462 THE LAWYERS.

tan Commonwealth, from Wheelwright's to Margaret
Brewster's. The absorption of sacerdotal, political,
and juridical functions by a single class produces an
arbitrary despotism ; and before judges greedy of
earthly dominion, flushed by the sense of power, unre-
strained by rules of law or evidence, and unopposed
by a resolute and courageous bar, ti-ials must become
little more than conventional forms, precursors of pre-
determined punishments.

After a period of about half a century these social
conditions underwent radical change, but traditions
remained that deeply affected the subsequent devel-
opment of the people, and produced a marked bent of
thought in the lawyers who afterward wrote the Con-
stitution.

At the accession of William III. great progress had
been made in the science of colonial government ;
charters had been granted to Connecticut and Rhode
Island in 1662 and 1663, which, except in the survival
of the ancient and meaningless jargon of incorpora-
tion, had a decidedly modern form. By these regidar
local representative governments were established with
full power of legislation, save in so far as limited by
clauses requiring conformity with the law of England ;
and they served their purpose well, for both were kept
in force many years after the Bevolution, Rhode Isl-
and's not having been superseded until 1843.

The stubborn selfishness of the theocracy led to the
adoption of a less liberal policy toward Massachusetts.
The nomination of the executive officers was retained

THE LAWYERS. 4G3

by the crown, and the governor was given very sub-
stantial means of maintaining his authority ; he coukl
reject the councillors elected hy the Assembly ; he ap-
pointed the judges and sheriffs with the advice of this
body, whose composition he could thus in a measure
control ; he had a veto, and was commander-in-chief.
Appeals to the king in council were also provided
for in personal actions where the matter in difference
exceeded three hundred pounds.

On the other hand, the legislature made all appro-
priations, including those for the salaries of the gov-
ernor and judges, and was only limited in its cajjacity
to enact statutes by the clause invariably inserted in
these patents.

This, therefore, is the precise moment when the
modern theory of constitutional limitations first ap-
pears defined ; distinct from the ancient corporate
precedents. By a combination of circumstances also,
a sufficient sanction for the written law happened to
be provided, thus making the conception complete,
for the tribunal of last resort was an English court
sustained by ample physical force ; nevertheless the
great principle of coordinate departments of govern-
ment was not yet understood, and substantial relief
against legislative usurpation had to be sought in a
foreign jurisdiction. To lawyers of our own time it
is self-evident that the restrictions of an organic code
must be futile unless they are upheld by a judiciary
not only secure in tenure and pay, but removed as far
as may be from partisan passions. This truth, how-

464 THE LAWYERS.

ever, remained to be discovered amid the abuses of
the eighteenth century, for the position of the pro-
vincial bench was unsatisfactory in the last degree.
The justices held their commissions at the king's
pleasure, but their salaries were at the mercy of the
deputies ; they were therefore subject to the caprice
of antagonistic masters. Nor was this the worst, for
the charter did not isolate the judicial office. Under
the theocracy the policy of the clergy had been to sup-
press the study of law in order to concentrate their
own power ; hence no training was thought necessary
for the magistrate, no politician was considered in-
competent to fill the judgment-seat because of igno-
rance of his duty, and the office-hunter, having got
his place by influence, was deemed at liberty to
use it as a point of vantage, from whence to prose-
cute his chosen career. For example, the first chief
justice was Stoughton, who was appointed by Phips,
probably at the instigation of Increase Mather. As
he was bred for the church, he could have had no
knowledge to recommend him, and his peculiar quali-
fications were doubtless family connections and a nar-
row and bigoted mind ; he was also lieutenant - gov-
ernor, a member of the council, and part of the time
commander-in-chief.

Thomas Danforth was the senior associate, who is
described by Sewall as " a very good husbandman,
and a very good Christian, and a good councillor ; "
but his reputation as a jurist rested upon a spotless
record, he having been the most uncompromising of
the high church managers.

THE LAWYERS. 465

Wait Winthrop was a soldier, and was not only in
the council, but so active in public life tbat years
afterward, while on the bench, he was set up as a can-
didate for governor in opposition to Dudley.

John Richards was a merchant, who had been sent
to England as agent in 1681, just when the troubles
came to a crisis ; but the labors by which he won the
ermine seem plain enough, for he was bail for Increase
Mather when sued by Randolph, and was appointed
by Phips. Samuel Sewall was brought up to preach,
took to politics on the conservative side, and was reg-
ularly chosen to the council.

This motley crew, who formed the first superior
court, had but one trait in common : they belonged to
the clique who controlled the patronage ; and as it be-
gan so it continued to the end, for Hutchinson, the
last chief justice but one, was a merchant ; yet he was
also probate judge, lieutenant-governor, councillor, and
leader of the Tories. In so intelligent a community
such prostitution of the judicial office would have been
impossible but for the pernicious tradition that the
civil magistrate needed no special training to perform
his duty, and was to take his law from those who ex-
pounded the Word of God.

And there was another inheritance, if possible, more
baleful still. The legislature, under the Puritan
Commonwealth, had been the court of last resort, and
it was by no means forward to abandon its preroga-
tive. It was consequently always ready to listen to
the complaints of suitors who thought themselves

466 THE LAWYERS.

aggrieved by the decisions of the regular tribunals,
and it was fond of altering the course of justice
to make it conform to what the members were
pleased to call equity. This abuse finally took such
proportions that Hutchinson remonstrated vigorously
in a speech to the houses in 1772.

" Much time is usually spent ... in considering
petitions for new trials at law, for leave to sell the
real estates of persons deceased, by their executors,
or administrators, and the real estates of minors, by
their guardians. All such private business is prop-
erly cognizable by the established judicatories. . . .
A legislative body ... is extremely improper for
such decisions. The polity of the English govern-
ment seldom admits of the exercise of this executive
and judiciary power by the legislature, and I know of
nothing special in the government of this province, to
give countenance to it." ^

The disposition to interfere in what did not con-
cern them was probably aggravated by the presence
of judicial politicians in the popular assemblies, who
seem to have been unable to resist the temptation of
intriguing to procure legislation to affect the litigation
before them. But the simplest way to illustrate the
working of the system in all its bearings will be to
give a history of a celebrated case finally taken on ap-
peal to the Privy Council. The cause arose in Con-
necticut, it is true, but the social condition of the two
colonies was so similar as to make this circumstance
immaterial.

1 Mass, State Papers, 1765-1775, p. 314.

THE LAWYERS. 467

Walt Winthrop,^ grandson of the first John Win-
throp, died intestate in 1717, leaving two children,
John, of New London, and Anne, wife of Thomas
Lechmere, of Boston. The father intended his son
should take the land according to the family tradi-
tion, and in pursuance of this purpose he put him in
actual possession of the Connecticut property in 1711 ;
but he neglected to make a will.

By the common law of England real estate de-
scended to the eldest son of him who was last seised ;
but in 1699 the Assembly had passed a statute of dis-
tribution, copied from a Massachusetts act, which
directed the probate court, after payment of debts,
to make a " distribution of . . . all the residue . . .
of the real and personal estate by equal portions to
and among the children . . . except the eldest son
. . . who shall have two shares."

Here, then, at the threshold, the constitutional
question had to be met, as to whether the colonial en-
actment was not in conflict with the restriction in the
charter, and therefore void. Winthrop took out let-
ters of administration, and Lechmere became one of
the sureties on his bond. There was no disagree-
ment about the personalty, but the son's claim to the
land was disputed, though suit was not brought against
him till 1723.

The litigation began in Boston, but was soon trans-
ferred to New London, where, in July, 1724, Lech-

1 This report of Winthrop v. Lechmere is taken from a MS.
brief in the possession of Hon. R. C. Winthrop.

468 THE LAWYERS.

mere petitioned for an account. Winthrop forthwith
exhibited an inventory of the chattels, and moved that
it should be accepted as final ; but the judge of pro-
bate declined so to rule. Then Lechmere prayed for
leave to sue on the bond in the name of the judge.
His prayer was granted, and he presently began no
less than six actions in different forms.

Much time was consumed in disposing of technical-
ities, but at length two test cases were brought before
the superior court. One, being in substance an action
on the bond, was tried on the general issue, and
the verdict was for the defendant. The other was a
writ of partition, wherein Anne was described as co-
heir with her brother. It was argued on demurrer to
the declaration, and the defendant again prevailed.

Thus, so far as judicial decision could determine
private rights to property, Winthrop had established
his title ; but he represented the unpopular side in the
controversy, and his troubles were just beginning.
Christopher Christophers was the judge of probate, he
was also a justice of the superior court, and a member
of the Assembly, of which body the plaintiff's counsel
was speaker. In April, 1725, when Lechmere had
finally exhausted his legal remedies, he addressed a
petition to the legislature, where he had this strong
support, and which was not to meet till May, stating
the impossibility of obtaining relief by ordinary means,
and asking to have one of the judgments set aside
and a new trial ordered, in such form as to enable him
to maintain his writ of partition, notwithstanding \hp

THE LAWYERS. 469

solemn decision against him by the court of last resort.
The defendant in vain protested that no error was
alleged, no new evidence produced, nor any matter of
equity advanced which might justify interference: the
Assembly had determined to sustain the statute of
distributions, and it accordingly resolved that in cases
of this description relief ought to be given in probate
by means of a new grant of administration, to be ex-
ecuted according to the terms of the act.

Winthrop was much alarmed, and with reason, for
he saw at once the intention of the legislature was to
induce the judges to assume an unprecedented juris-
diction; he therefore again offered his account, which
Christophers rejected, and he appealed from the de-
cision. Lechmere also applied for administration on
behalf of his wife ; and upon his prayer being denied,
pending a final disposition of Winthrop's cause, he too
went up. In March, 1725-6, final judgment was ren-
dered, the judges holding that both real and personal
property should be inventoried. Winthrop thereupon
entered his appeal to the Privy Council, whose juris-
diction was peremptorily denied.

From what afterward took place, the inference is
that Christophers shrank from assuming alone so great
a responsibility as now devolved upon him, and per-
suaded his brethren to share it with him ; for the
superior court proceeded to issue letters of administra-
tion to Lechmere, and took his bond, drawn to them-
selves personally, for the faithful performance of his
trust. This was a most high-handed usurpation, for

470 THE LAWYERS.

the function of the higher tribunal in these matters
was altogether appellate, it having nothing to do with
such executive business as taking bonds, which was
the province of the judge of probate.

However this may have been, progress was thence-
forward rapid. In April Lechmere produced a sched-
ule of debts, which have at this day a somewhat sus-
picious look, and when they were allowed, he peti-
tioned the legislature for leave to sell land to pay
them. Winthrop apjjeared and presented a remon-
strance, which " the Assembly, observing the common
course of justice, and the law of the colony being by
application to the said Assembly, when the judgments
of the superior courts are grievous to any person . . .
dismissed," and immediately passed an act authorizing
the sale, and making the administrators' deed good to
convey a title.

Then Winthrop was so incautious as to make a final
effort : he filed a protest and caution against any illegal
interference with his property pending his appeal, de-
claring the action already taken to be contrary to the
common and statute law of England, and to the tenor
of the charter.

The Assembly being of the opinion that this protest
" had in it a great show of contempt," caused Win-
throp to be arrested and brought to the bar ; there he
not only defended his representations as reasonable,
but avowed his determination to lay all these proceed-
ings before the king in council. " This was treated as
an insolent contemptuous and disorderly behaviour"

THE LAWYERS. 471

in the prisoner, " as declaring himself coram non ju-
dice, and putting himself on a par with them, and im-
peaching their authoritys and the charter ; and his said
protest was declared to be full of reflections, and to
terrific so far as in him lay all the authorities estab-
lished by the charter." So they imprisoned him three
dajs and fined him twenty pounds for his contemptu-
ous words.

This leading case was afterward elaborately argued
in London, and judgment was entered for Winthrop,
upon the ground that the statute of distribution was
in conflict with the charter and therefore void ; but
as Connecticut resolutely refused to abandon its own
policy, the utmost confusion prevailed for seventeen
years regarding the settlement of estates. During all
this time the local government made unremitting ef-
forts to obtain relief, and seems to have used pecuni-
ary as well as legal arguments to effect its purpose ; at
all events, it finally secured a majority in the Privy
Council, who reversed Winthrop v. Lechmere,in Clark
V. Tousey. The same question was raised in Massa-
chusetts in 1737, in Phillips v. Savage, but enough in-
fluence was brought to bear to prevent an adverse de-
cision.^ A possible distinction between the two cases
also lay in the fact that the Massachusetts act had re-
ceived the royal assent.

The history of this litigation is interesting, not only
as illustrating the defects in provincial justice, but as

1 Conn. Coll. Rec. vii. 191, note ; Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc.
18G0-62, pp. 64-80, 165-171.

^

472 THE LAWYERS.

showing the process by which the conception of con-
stitutional limitations became rooted in the minds of
the first generation of lawyers ; and in point of fact,
they were so thoroughly impregnated with the theory
as to incline to carry it to unwarrantable lengths.
For example, so justly eminent a counsel as James
Otis, in his great argument on the Writs of Assist-
ance in 1761, solemnly maintained the utterly unten-
able proposition that an act of Parliament " against
the Constitution is void : an act against natural equity
is void : and if an act of Parliament should be made,
in the very words of this petition, it would be void." ^
While so sound a man, otherwise, as John Adams wrote,
in 1776, to Mr. Justice Gushing : " You have my
hearty concurrence in telling the jury the nullity of
acts of Parliament. ... I am determined to die of
that opinion, let the jus gladii say what it will." ^

On looking back at Massachusetts as she was in the
year 1700, permeated with the evil theocratic tradi-
tions, without judges, teachers, or books, the mind
can hardly fail to be impressed with the unconquer-
able energy which produced great jurists from such a
soil ; and yet in 1725 Jeremiah Gridley graduated from
Harvard, who may fairly be said to have been the
progenitor of a famous race ; for long before the Rev-
olution, men like Prat, Otis, and John Adams could
well have held their own before any court of Common
Law that ever sat. Such powerful counsel naturally

^ Quincy's Reports, p. 474.
2 Works of J. Adams, ix. 390.

THE LAWYERS. 473

felt a contempt for the ignorant politicians who for
the most part presided over them, which they took
little pains to hide. Ruggles one day had an aged
female witness who could find no chair and com-
plained to him of exhaustion. He told her to go and
sit on the bench. His honor, in some irritation, call-
ing him to account, he replied : "I really thought
that place was made for old women." Hutchinson
says of himself : " It was an eyesore to some of the
bar to have a person at the head of the law who had
not been bred to it." But he explains with perfect
simplicity how his occupation as chief justice "en-
gaged his attention, and he applied his intervals to
reading the law." ^

The British supremacy closed with the evacuation
of Boston, and the colony then became an independ-
ent state; yet in that singularly homogeneous com-
munity, which had always been taught to regard their
royal patents as the bulwark of their liberties, no one
seems to have seriously thought it possible to dispense
with a written instrument to serve as the basis of the
social organization. Accordingly, in 1779, the legisla-
ture called a convention to draft a Constitution ; and it
was the good fortune of the lawyers, who were chosen
as delegates, to have an opportunity, not only to cor-
rect those abuses from which the administration of
justice had so long suffered, but to carry into practical
operation their favorite theory, of the limitation of
legislative power by the intervention of the courts.
^ Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson, p. 66.

474 THE LAWYERS.

The course pursued was precisely what might have
been predicted of the representatives of a progressive
yet sagacious people. Taking the old charter as the
foundation whereon to build, they made only such al-
terations as their past experience had shown them to
be necessary; they adopted no fanciful schemes, nor
did they lightly depart from a system with which they
were acquainted; and their almost servile fidelity to
their precedent, wherever it could be followed, is shown
by the following extracts relating to the legislative
and executive departments.

CHARTER.

And we doe further for vs our heires and successors
give and grant to the said governor and the Great and
Generall Court or Assembly of our said province or
territory for the time being full power and authority
from time to time to make ordaine and establish all
manner of wholsome and reasonable orders laws stat-
utes and ordinances directions and instructions either
with penalties or without (soe as the same be not re-
pugnant or contrary to the lawes of this our realme of
England) as they shall judge to be for the good and
welfare of our said province or territory and for the
gouernment and ordering thereof and of the people
inhabiting or who shall inhabit the same and for the
necessary support and defence of the government
thereof.

THE LAWYERS. 475

CONSTITUTION.

And further, full power and authority are hereby
given and granted to the said General Court, from
time to time, to make, ordain, and establish, all man-
ner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, statutes,
and ordinances, directions and instructions, either with
penalties or without ; so as the same be not repugnant
or contrary to this constitution, as they shall judge to
be for the good and welfare of this commonwealth,
and for the government and ordering thereof, and of
the subjects of the same, and for the necessary support
and defence of the government thereof.

CHARTER.

The governour of our said province for the time be-
ing shall have authority from time to time at his dis-
cretion to assemble and call together the councillors or
assistants of our said province for the time being and
that the said governour with the said assistants or
councillors or seaven of them at the least shall and
may from time to time hold and keep a councill for
the ordering and directing the affaires of our said

province.

CONSTITUTION.

The governour shall have authority, from time to
time at his discretion, to assemble and call together
the councillors of this commonwealth for the time be-
ing ; and the governour, with the said councillors, or
five of them at least, shall, and may, from time to

476 THE LAWYERS.

time, hold and keep a council, for the ordering and
directing the affairs of the commonwealth, agreeably
to the constitution and the laws of the land.

The clause concerning the council is curious as an
instance of the survival of an antiquated form. In
the province the body had a use, for it was a regular
upper chamber ; but when, in 1779, a senate was
added, it became an anomalous and meaningless third
house ; yet it is still regularly elected, though its in-
utility is obvious. So long ago as 1814 John Adams
had become very tired of it ; he then wrote : " This
constitution, which existed in my handwriting, made
the governor annually elective, gave him the executive
power, shackled with a council, that I now wish was
annihilated." ^

On the other hand, the changes made are even more
interesting, as an example of the evolution of institu-
tions. The antique document was simplified by an
orderly arrangement and division into sections ; the
obsolete jargon of incorporation was eliminated, which
had come down from the mediaeval guilds ; in the dis-
pute with England the want of a bill of rights had
been severely felt, so one was prefixed ; and then the
convention, probably out of regard to symmetry,
blotted their otherwise admirable work by creating
an unnecessary senate. But viewed as a whole, the
grand original conception contained in this instru-
ment, making it loom up a landmark in historj^ is the
1 Works of J. Adams, vi. 465.

THE LAWYERS. 477

theory of the three coordinate departments in the ad-
ministration of a democratic commonwealth, which has
ever since been received as the corner-stone of Amer-
ican constitutional jurisprudence.

Though this assertion may at first sight seem too
sweeping, it is borne out by the facts. During the
first sessions of the Continental Congress no question
was more pressing than the reorganization of the col-
onies should they renounce their allegiance to the
crown, nor was there one in regard to which the ma-
jority of the delegates were more at sea. From their
peculiar education the New Englanders were excep-
tions to the general rule, and John Adams in particu-
lar had thought out the problem in all its details.
His conversation so impressed some of his colleagues
that he was asked to put his views in a popular form.
His first attempt was a short letter to Richard Henry
Lee, in November, 1775, in which he starts with this
proposition as fundamental : " A legislative, an execu-
tive, and a judicial power comprehend the whole of
what is meant and understood by government. It is
by balancing each of these powers against the other
two, that the efforts in human nature towards tyranny
can alone be checked and restrained, and any degree
of freedom preserved in the constitution." ^

His next tract, written in 1776 at the request of
Wythe of Virginia, was printed and widely circulated,
and similar communications were sent in reply to ap-
plications from New Jersey, North Carolina, and pos-
^ Works of J. Adams, iv. 186.

478 THE LAWYERS.

sibly other States. The effect of this discussion is ap-
parent in all of the ten constitutions afterward drawn,
with the exception of Pennsylvania's, which was a fail-
ure ; but none of them passed beyond the tentative or
embryonic stage. It therefore remained for Massa-
chusetts to present the model, which in its main fea-
tures has not yet been superseded.

A first attempt was deservedly rejected by the peo-
ple, and the work was not done until 1779; but the
men who then met in convention at Cambridge knew
precisely what they meant to do. Though the execu-
tive and the legislature were a direct inheritance, need-
ing but little change, a deep line was drawn between
the three departments, and the theory of the coordi-
nate judiciary was first brought to its maturity within
the jurisdiction where it had been born. To attain
this cherished object was the chief labor of the dele-
gates, for to the supreme court was to be intrusted the
dangerous task of grappling with the representative
chambers and enforcing the popular charter. There-
fore they made the tenure of the judges permanent;
tRey secured their pay ; to obtain impartiality they ex-
cluded them from political office ; while on the other
hand they confined the legislature within its proper
sphere, to the end that the government they created
might be one of laws and not of men.

The experiment has proved one of those memorable
triumphs which mark an era. Not only has the great
conception of New England been accepted as the fun-
damental principle of the Federal Union, but it has

THE LAWYERS. 479

been adopted by every separate State ; and more than
this, during the one hundred and six years since the
people of our Commonwealth wrote their Constitution,
they have had as large a measure of liberty and safety
under the law as men have ever known on earth.
There is no jurisdiction in the world where justice has
been purer or more impartial; nor, probably, has there
ever been a community, of equal numbers, which has
produced more numerous or more splendid specimens
of juridical and forensic talent.

When freed from the incubus of the ecclesiastical V/
oligarchy the range of intellectual activity expanded,
and in 1780 Massachusetts may be said, without ex-
aggeration, to have led the liberal movement of the
world ; for not only had she won almost in perfection
the three chief prizes of modern civilization, liberty
of speech, toleration, and equality before the law ; but
she had succeeded in formulating those constitutional
doctrines by which, during the nineteenth century,
popular self-government has reached the highest ef-
ficiency it has ever yet attained.

A single example, however, must suffice to show
what the rise of the class of lawyers had done for in-
dividual security and liberty in that comparatively
short interval of ninety years.

Theocratic justice has been described ; the trials of
Wheelwright, and of Anne Hutchinson, of Childe, of
Holmes, and of Christison have been related ; and also
the horrors perpetrated before that ghastly tribunal
of untrained bigots, which condemned the miserable

480 THE LAWYERS.

witches undefended and unheard.^ For the honor of
our Commonwealth let the tale be told of a state pros-
ecution after her bar was formed.

In 1768 the British Ministry saw fit to occupy Bos-
ton with a couple of regiments, a force large enough
to irritate, but too small to overawe, the town. From
the outset bad feeling prevailed between the citizens
and the soldiers, but as the time went on the exasper-
ation increased, and early in 1770 that intense passion
began to glow which precedes the outbreak of civil
war. Yet though there were daily brawls, no blood
was shed until the night of the 5th of March, when a
rabble gathered about the sentry at the custom-house
in State Street. He became frightened and called
for help. Captain Preston turned out the guard, the
mob pelted them, and they fired on the people with-
out warning. A terrific outbreak was averted by a
species of miracle, but the troops had to be with-
drawn, and Preston and his men were surrendered
and indicted for murder.

John Adams, who was a liberal, heart and soul, had
just come into leading practice. His young friend

1 In England, throughout the eighteenth century, counsel were
allowed to speak in criminal trials, in cases of treason and misde-
- meanor only. Nor is the conduct of Massachusetts in regard to
witches peculiar. Parallel atrocities might probably be adduced
from the history of every European nation, even though the pro-
cedure of the courts were more regular than was that of the
Commission of Phips. The relation of the priest to the sorcerer
is a most interesting phenomenon of social development; but it
would require a treatise by itself.

THE LAWYERS. 481

Josiah Quincy was even more deeply pledged to the
popular cause. On the morning after the massacre,
Preston, doubtless at Hutchinson's suggestion, sent
Adams a guinea as a retaining fee, which, though it
seemed his utter ruin to accept, he did not dream of
refusing. What Quincy went through may be guessed
from his correspondence with his father.

Braintree, March 22, 1770.

My Dear Son, I am under great affliction at
hearing the bitterest reproaches uttered against you,
for having become an advocate for those criminals
who are charged with the murder of their fellow-citi-
zens. Good God ! Is it possible ? I will not be-
lieve it.

Just before I returned home from Boston, I knew,
indeed, that on the day those criminals were commit-
ted to prison, a sergeant had inquired for you at your
brother's house ; but I had no apprehension that it
was possible an application would be made to you to
undertake their defence. Since then I have been told
that you have actually engaged for Captain Preston ;
and I have heard the severest reflections made upon
the occasion, by men who had just before manifested
the highest esteem for you, as one destined to be a
saviour of your country. I must own to you, it has
filled the bosom of your aged and infirm parent with
anxiety and distress, lest it should not only prove
true, but destructive of your reputation and interest ;

482 THE LAWYERS.

and I repeat, I will not believe it, unless it be con-
firmed by your own mouth, or under your own hand.
Your anxious and distressed parent,

JosiAH QuiNCY.

Boston, March 26, 1770.

Honoured Sir, I have little leisure, and less in-
clination, either to know or to take notice of those
ignorant slanderers who have dared to utter their
"bitter reproaches" in your hearing against me, for
having become an advocate for criminals charged with
murder. . . . Before pouring their reproaches into
the ear of the aged and infirm, if they had been
friends, they would have surely spared a little reflec-
tion on the nature of an attorney's oath and duty. . . .

Let such be told, sir, that these criminals, charged
with murder, are not yet legally proved guilty, and
therefore, however criminal, are entitled, by the laws
of God and man, to all legal counsel and aid; that
my duty as a man obliged me to undertake ; that my
duty as a lawyer strengthened the obligation. . . .
This and much more might be told with great truth ;
and I dare affirm that you and this whole people will
one day rejoice that I became an advocate for the
aforesaid "criminals," charged with the murder of
our fellow-citizens.

I never harboured the expectation, nor any great de-
sire, that all men should speak well of me. To enquire
my duty, and to do it, is my aim. . . . When a plan
of conduct is formed with an honest deliberation,

THE LAWYERS. 483

neither murmuring, slander, nor reproaches move. . . .
There are honest men in all sects, — I wish their ap-
probation ; — there are wicked bigots in all parties, —
I abhor them.

I am, truly and affectionately, your son,

JOSIAH QUINCY, Jr.1

Many of the most respected citizens asserted and
believed that the soldiers had fired with premeditated
malice, for the purpose of revenge ; and jsopular in-
dignation was so deep and strong that even the judges
were inclined to shrink. As Hutchinson was acting
governor at the time, the chief responsibility fell on
Benjamin Lynde, the senior associate, who was by
good fortune tolerably competent. He was the son of
the elder Lynde, who, with the exception of Paul
Dudley, was the only provincial chief justice worthy
to be called a lawyer.

The juries were of course drawn from among those
men who afterward fought at Lexington and Bunker
Hill, and, like the presiding judge and the counsel,
they sympathized with the Revolutionary cause. Yet
the prisoners were patiently tried according to the law
and the evidence ; all that skill, learning, and courage
could do for them was done, the court charged impar-
tially, and the verdicts were. Not guilty.

^ Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jr. pp. 26, 27.

CHAPTER XI.

THE REVOLUTION.

Status appears to be that stage of civilization
whence advancing communities emerge into the era
of individual liberty. In its most perfect develop-
ment it takes the form of caste, and the presumption
is the movement toward caste begins upon the aban-
donment of a wandering life, and varies in intensity
with the environment and temperament of each race,
the feebler sinking into a state of equilibrium, when
change by spontaneous growth ceases to be percepti-
ble. So long as the brain remains too feeble for sus-
tained original thought, and man therefore lacks the
energy to rebel against routine, this condition of ex-
istence must continue, and its inevitable tendency is
toward rigid distinctions of rank, and as a necessary
consequence toward the limitation of the range of am-
bition, by the conventional lines dividing the occupa-
tions of the classes. Such at least in a general way
was the progression of the Jews, and in a less marked
degree of the barbarians who overran the Roman Em-
pire. Yet even these, when they acquired permanent
abodes, gravitated strongly enough toward caste to
produce a social system based on monopoly and privi-
lege which lasted through many centuries. On the

THE REVOLUTION. 485

other hand, the democratic formula of "equality be-
fore the law " best defines the modern conception of
human relations, and this maxim indicates a tone of
thought directly the converse of that which begot
status; for whereas the one strove to raise impass-
able barriers against free competition in the struggle
for existence, the ideal of the other is to offer the
fullest scope for the expansion of the faculties.

As in Western Europe church and state alike rested
upon the customs of the Middle Ages, a change so
fundamental must have wrought the overthrow, not
only of the vastest vested interests, but of the pro-
foundest religious prejudices, consequently, it could
not have been accomplished peaceably ; and in point
of fact the conservatives were routed in two ter-
rific outbreaks, whereof the second was the sequence
of the first, though following it after a considerable
interval of time. By the wars of the Reformation
freedom of thought was gained; by the revolutions
of the eighteenth century, which swept away the incu-
bus of feudalism, liberty of action was won ; and as
Massachusetts had been colonized by the radicals of
the first insurrection, it was not unnatural that their
children should have led the second. So much may
be readily conceded, and yet the inherited tendency
toward liberalism alone would have been insufficient
to have inspired the peculiar unanimity of sentiment
which animated her people in their resistance to Great
Britain, and which perhaps was stronger among her
clergy, whose instincts regarding domestic affairs were

486 THE REVOLUTION.

intensely conservative, than among any other portion
of her population. The reasons for this phenomenon
are worthy of investigation, for they are not only in-
teresting in themselves, but they furnish an admirable
illustration of the irresistible action of antecedent and
external causes on the human mind.

Under tlie Puritan Commonwealth the church gave
distinction and power, and therefore monoijolized the
ability which sought professional life ; but under the
provincial government new careers were opened, and
intellectual activity began to flow in broader chan-
nels. John Adams illustrates the effect produced by
the changed environment ; when only twenty he made
this suggestive entry in his Diary : " The following
questions may be answered some time or other,
namely, — Where do we find a precept in the Gos-
pel requiring Ecclesiastical Synods ? Convocations ?
Councils? Decrees? Creeds? Confessions? Oaths?
Subscriptions? and whole cart-loads of other trum-
pery that we find religion encumbered with in these
days ? " 1

Such men became lawyers, doctors, or merchants ;
theology ceased to occupy their minds ; and gradually
the secular thought of New England grew to be coin-
cident with that of the other colonies.

Throughout America the institutions favored indi-
viduality. No privileged class existed among the
whites. Under the careless rule of Great Britain
habits of personal liberty had taken root, which
^ Works of J, Adams, ii. 5.

THE REVOLUTION. 487

showed themselves in the tenacity wherewith the peo-
ple clung to their customs of self-government; and
so long as these usages were respected, under which
they had always lived, and which they believed to be
as well established as Magna Charta, there were not
in all the king's broad dominions more loyal subjects
than men like Washington, Jefferson, and Jay.

The generation now living can read the history of
the Revolution dispassionately, and to them it is grow- [
ing clear that our ancestors were technically in the
wrong. For centuries Parliament has been theoreti-
cally absolute ; therefore it might constitutionally tax
the colonies, or do whatsoever else with them it
pleased. Practically, however, it is self-evident that
the most perfect despotism must be limited by the
extent to which subjects will obey, and this is a mat-
ter of habit ; rebellions, therefore, are usually caused
by the conservative instinct, represented by the will
of the sovereign, attempting to enforce obedience to
customs which a people have outgrown.

In 177G, though the Middle Ages had passed, their
traditions still prevailed in Europe, and probably the
antaofonism between this survival of a dead civiliza-
tion and the modern democracy of America was too
deep for any arbitrament save trial by battle. Iden-
tically the same dispute had arisen in England the
century before, when the commons rebelled against
the prerogatives of the crown, and Cromwell fought,
like Washington, in the cause of individual emancipa-
tion; but the movement in Great Britain was too

488 THE REVOLUTION.

radical for the age, and was followed by a reaetiou
whose force was not spent when George III. came to
the throne.

Precedent is only inflexible among stationary races,
\ and advancing nations glory in their capacity for
change ; hence it is precisely those who have led revolt
successfully who have won the brightest fame. If,
therefore, it be admitted that they should rank among
^ mankind's noblest benefactors, who have risked their
lives to win the freedom we enjoy, and which seems
destined to endure, there are few to whom posterity
owes a deeper debt than to our early statesmen ; nor,
judging their handiwork by the test of time, have
many lived who in genius have surpassed them. In
the fourth article of their Declaration of Rights, the
Continental Congress resolved that the colonists " are
; entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation
in their several provincial legislatures, ... in all cases
of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the
negative of their sovereign, in such manner as has
been heretofore used and accustomed. But, . . . we
cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of
Parliament as are, hand fide, restrained to the regula-
tion of our external commerce."

In 1778 a statute was passed, of which an English
jurist wrote in 1885 : " One act, indeed, of the British
Parliament might, looked at in the light of history, claim
a peculiar sanctity. It is certainly an enactment of
which the terms, we may safely predict, will never be
repealed and the spirit never be violated. ... It pro-

THE REVOLUTION. 489

vides that Parliament ' will not impose any duty, tax
or assessment whatever, payable in any o£ his majes-
ty's colonies . . . except only such duties as it may
be expedient to impose for the regidation of com-
merce.' " ^

Thus is the memory of their grievance held sacred
by the descendants of their adversaries after the lapse
of a century, and the local self-government for which
they pleaded has become the immutable policy of the
empire. The principles they laid down have been
equally enduring, for they proclaimed the equality of
men before the law, the corner-stone of modern civil-
ization, and the Constitution they wrote still remains
the fundamental charter of the liberties of the repub-
lic of the United States.

Nevertheless it remains true that secular liberalism
alone could never have produced the pecidiarly acri-
monious hostility to Great Britain wherein Massachu-
setts stood preeminent, whose causes, if traced, will be
found imbedded at the very foundation of her social
organization, and to have been steadily in action ever
since the settlement. Too little study is given to ec-
clesiastical history, for probably nothing throws so
much light on certain phases of development; and
particularly in the case of this Commonwealth the im-
pulses which moulded her destiny cannot be under-
stood unless the events that stimulated the passions
of her clergy are steadily kept in view.

The early aggrandizement of her priests has been
^ The Law of the Constitution, Dicey, p. 62.

490 THE REVOLUTION.

described ; the inevitable conflict with the law into
which their ambition plunged them, and the over-
throw of the theocracy which resulted therefrom, have
been related ; but the causes that kept alive the old
exasperation with England throughout the eighteenth
century have not yet been told.

The influence of men like Leverett and Colman
tended to broaden the church, but necessarily the
process was slow ; and there is no lack of evidence
that the majority of the ministers had little relish for
the toleration forced upon them by the second char-
ter. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the sec-
taries soon again driven to invoke the protection of
the king,

Thoug-h doubtless some monastic orders have been
vowed to poverty, it will probably be generally con-
ceded that a life of privation has not found favor
with divines as a class ; and one of the earliest acts of
the provincial legislature bid each town choose an
able and orthodox minister to dispense the Word of
God, who should be " suitably encouraged " by an as-
sessment on all inhabitants without distinction. This
was for many years a bitter grievance to the dissent-
ing minority ; but there was worse to come ; for some-
times the majority were heterodox, when pastors were
elected who gave great scandal to their evangelical
brethren. Therefore, for the prevention of " atheism,
irreligion and prophaness," ^ it was enacted in 1775'
that the justices of the county should report any town
1 Province Laws, 1715, c. 17. --^-

THE REVOLUTION. 491

without an orthodox minister, and thereupon the Gen-
eral Court should settle a candidate recommended to
them by the ordained elders, and levy a special tax
for his support. Nor could men animated by the fer-
vent piety which raised the Mathers to eminence in
their profession be expected to sit by tamely while
blasphemers not only worshipped openly, but refused
to contribute to their incomes.

" We expect no other but Satan will show his rage
against us for our endeavors to lessen his kingdom of
darkness. He hath grievously afflicted me (by God's
permission) by infatuating or bewitching three or four
who live in a corner of my parish with Quaker no-
tions, [who] now hold a separate meeting by them-
selves." 1

The heretics, on their side, were filled with the
same stubborn spirit which had caused them " obsti-
nately and proudly " to " persecute " Norton and En-
dicott in earlier days. In 1722 godly preachers were
settled at Dartmouth and Tiverton, under the act, the
majority of whose people were Quakers and Baptists ;
and the Friends tell their own story in a petition they
presented to the crown in 1724: "That the said Jo-
seph Anthony and John Siffon were appointed asses-
sors of the taxes for the said town of Tiverton, and
the said John Akin and said Philip Tabor for the town
of Dartmouth, but some of the said assessors being of
the people called Quakers, and others of them also

1 Rev. S. Danforth, 1720. Mass. Hist. Coll. fourth series, i.
258.

f

^

492 THE REVOLUTION.

dissenting from the Presbyterians and Independents,
and greatest part of the inhabitants of the said towns
being also Quakers or Anabaptists ... the said asses-
sors duly assessed the other taxes . . . relating to the
support of government . . . yet they could not in con-
science assess any of the inhabitants of the said towns
anything for or towards the maintenance of any min-
isters.

" That the said Joseph Anthony, John Siffon, John
Akin and Philip Tabor, (on pretence of their non-
compliance with the said law) were on the 25th of
the month called May, 1723, committed to the jail
aforesaid, where they still continue prisoners under
great sufferings and hardships both to themselves and
families, and where they must remain and die, if not
relieved by the king's royal clemancy and favour." ^

A hearing was had upon this petition before the
Privy Council, and in June, 1724, an order was made
directing the remission of the special taxes and the
release of the prisoners, who were accordingly liber-
ated in obedience thereto, after they had been incar-
cerated for thirteen months.

The blow was felt to be so severe that the conven-
tion of ministers the next May decided to convene a
synod, and Dr. Cotton Mather was appointed to draw
up a petition to the legislature.

" Considering the great and visible decay of piety
in the country, and the growth of many miscarriages,
which we fear may have provoked the glorious Lord
1 Gough's Quakers, iv. 222, 223.

THE REVOLUTION. 493

in a series of various judgments wonderfully to distress
us. . . . It is humbly desired that . . . the . . .
churches . . . meet by their pastors ... in a synod,
and from thence offer their advice upon. . . . AVhat
are the miscarriages whereof we have reason to think
the judguients of heaven, ujDon us, call us to be more
generaUy sensible, and what may be the most evan-
gelical and effectual expedients to put a stop unto
those or the like miscarriages." ^

The " evangelical expedient "' was of course to re-
vive the Cambridge Platform ; nor was such a scheme
manifestly impossible, for the council voted " that the
synod . . . will be agreeable to this board, and the
reverend ministers are desired to take their own time,
for the said assembly; and it is earnestly wished the
issue thereof may be a happy reformation." ^ In the
house of representatives this resolution was read and
referred to the next session.

Meanwhile the Ejiiscopalian clergjonen of Boston,
in much alarm, presented a memorial to the General
Court, remonstrating against the proposed measure ;
but the council resolved " it contained an indecent
reflection on the proceedings of that board," ^ and
dismissed it. Nothing discouraged, the remonstrants
applied for protection to the Bishop of 'London, who
brought the matter to the attention of the law officers
of the crown. In their opinion to call a synod would
be " a contempt of his majesty's prerogative," and if

1 Hutch. HisU 3d ed. ii. 292, note.

* Chalmers's Opinions, i. 8. * Idem, p. 9.

494 THE REVOLUTION.

" notwithstanding, . . . they shall continue to hold
their assembly, . . . the principal actors therein
[should] be prosecuted . . . for a misdemeanour," ^

Steadily and surely the coil was tightening which
was destined to strangle the established church of
Massachusetts ; but the resistance of the ministers
was desperate, and lent a tinge of theological hate to
the outbreak of the Revolution. They believed it
would be impossible for them to remain a dominant
priesthood if Episcopalianism, supported by the pat-
ronage of the crown, should be allowed to take root in
the land ; yet the Episcopalians represented conser-
vatism, therefore they were forced to become radicals,
and the liberalism they taught was fated to destroy
their power.

Meanwhile their sacred vineyard lay open to at-
tack upon every side. At Boston the royal governors
went to King's Chapel and encouraged the use of the
liturgy, while an inroad was made into Connecticut
from New York. Early in the century a certain
Colonel Heathcote organized a regular system of in-
vasion. He was a man eminently fitted for the task,
being filled with zeal for the conversion of dissenters.
" I have the charity to believe that, after having heard
one of our ministers preach, they will not look upon
our church to be such a monster as she is represented ;
and being convinced of some of the cheats, many of
them may duly consider of the sin of schism." ^
* " They have abundance of odd kind of laws, to pre-

^ Chalmers's Opinions, p. 13.
* Conn. Cfiurch Documents, i. 12.

THE REVOLUTION. 495

vent any dissenting . . . and endeavour to keep the
people in as much blindness and unaequaintedness
with any other religion as possible, but in a more par-
ticular manner the church, looking upon her as the
most dangerous enemy they have to grapple withal,
and abundance of pains is taken to make the ignorant
think as bad as possible of her ; and I really believe
that more than half the peo^jle in that government
think our church to be little better than the Papist,
and they fail not to improve every little thing against
us." 1

He had little liking for the elders, whom he de-
scribed as being " as absolute in their respective par-
ishes as the Pope of Rome ; " but he felt kindly
toward " the passive, obedient people, who dare not do
otherwise than obey." ^ He explained the details of
his plan in his letters, and though he was aware of the
difficulties, he did not despair, his chief anxiety being
to get a suitable missionary. He finally chose the
Rev. Mr. Muirson, and in IT 06 began a series of
proselytizing tours. Nevertheless, the clergyman was
wroth at the treatment he received.

Honor' D Sir, I entreat your acceptance of my
most humble and hearty thanks for the kind and
Christian advice you were pleased to tender me in re-
lation to Connecticut. ... I know that meekness and
moderation is most agreeable to the mind of our
blessed Saviour, Christ, who himself was meek and
lowly, and would have all his followers to learn that
1 Conn. Church Documents, i. 9. ^ Idem, i. 10.

496 THE REVOLUTION.

lesson of him. ... I have duly considered all these
things, and have carried myself civilly and kindly to
the Independent party, but they have ungratefully re-
sented my love ; yet I will further consider the obli-
gations that my holy religion lays upon me, to forgive
injuries and wrongs, and to return good for their evil.
... I desired only a liberty of conscience might be
allowed to the members of the National Church of
England ; which, notwithstanding, they seemed un-
willing to grant, and left no means untried, both foul
and fair, to prevent the settling the church among
them ; for one of their justices came to my lodging
and forewarned me, at my peril, from preaching, tell-
ing me that I did an illegal thing in bringing in new
ways among them; the people were likewise threat-
ened with prison, and a forfeiture of ,£5 for coming
to hear me. It will require more time than you
will willingly bestow on these lines to express how
rigidly and severely they treat our people, by taking
their estates by distress, when they do not willingly
pay to support their ministers. . . . They tell our
people that they will not suffer the house of God to
be defiled with idolatrous worship and superstitious
ceremonies. . . . They say the sign of the cross is the
mark of the beast and the sign of the devil, and that
those who receive it are given to the devil. . . .
Honored sir, your most assured friend, . . .

Geo. Muirson.

Rye, ^th January, 1707-8.1

1 Conn. Church Documents, i. 29.

THE REVOLUTION. 497

However, in spite of his difficulties, he was able to
boast that " I have ... in one town, . . . baptized
about 32, young and old, and administered the Holy
Sacrament to 18, who never received it before. Each
time I had a numerous congregation." ^

The foregoing correspondence was with the secre-
tary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,
which had been incorporated in 1701, and had pi'es-
ently afterward appointed Colonel Heathcote as their
agent. They could have chosen no more energetic
representative, nor was it long before his exertions be-
gan to bear fruit. In 1707 nineteen inhabitants of
Stratford sent a memorial to the Bishop of London,
the forerunner of many to come. " Because by reason
of the said laws we are not able to support a minister,
we further pray your lordship may be pleased to
send one over with a missionary allowance from the
honourable corporation, invested with full power, so
as that he may preach and we hear the blessed Gospel
of Jesus Christ, without molestation and terror." ^
X, The Anglican prelates conceived it to be their
duty to meddle with the religious concerns of New
England ; therefore, by means of the organization of
the venerable society, they proceeded to plant a num-
ber of missions throughout the country, whose mis-
sionaries were paid from the corporate funds. What-
ever opinion may be formed of the wisdom of a pol-
icy certain to exasperate deeply so powerful and so

1 Conn. Church Documents, i. 23.
" Idem, i. 34.

498 THE REVOLUTION.

revengeful a class as the Congregational elders, there
can be no doubt the Episcopalians achieved a meas-
ure of success, in the last degree alarming, not only
among the laity, but among the clergy themselves.
Mr. Keed, pastor of Stratford, was the first to go over,
and was of course deprived of his parish ; his defec-
tion was followed in 1722 by that of the rector of
Yale and six other ministers ; and the Rev. Joseph
Webb, who thought the end was near, wrote in deep
affliction to break the news to his friends in Boston.

Fairfield, Oct. 2, 1722.

Eeverend and Honoured Sir, The occasion of
my now giving you the trouble of these few lines is
to me, and I presume to many others, melancholy
enough. You have perhaps heard before now, or will
hear before these come to hand, (I suppose) of the re-
volt of several persons of figure among vis unto the
Church of England. There 's the Rev. Mr. Cutler,
rector of our college, and Mr. Daniel Brown, the
tutor thereof. There are also of ordained ministers,
pastors of several churches among us, the Rev. Mes-
sieurs following, viz. John Hart of East Guilford,
Samuel Whittlesey of Wallingford, Jared Eliot of
Kennelworth, . . . Samuel Johnson of West-Haven,
and James Wetmore of North-Haven. They are the
most of them reputed men of considerable learning,
and all of them of a virtuous and blameless conver-
sation. I apprehend the axe is hereby laid to the
root of our civil and sacred enjoyments ; and a dole-

THE REVOLUTION. 499

ful gap opened for trouble and confusion in our
churches. . . . It is a very dark day ^vith us; and we
need pity, prayers and counsel.^

From the tone in which these tidings were received
it is plain that the charity and humility of the golden
age of Massachusetts were not yet altogether extinct
among her ecclesiastics. The ministers published
their " sentiments " in a document beginning as fol-
lows : —

'' These new Episcopalians have declared their de-
sire to introduce an usurpation and a superstition into
the church of God, clearly condemned in the sacred
Scriptures, which our loyalty and chastity to our
Saviour, obliges us to keep close unto ; and a tyranny,
from which the whole church, which desires to be re-
formed, has groaned that it may be delivered. . . .
The scandalous conjunction of these unhappy men
with the Papists is, perhaps, more than what they have
themselves duly considered."^ In "A Faithful Rela-
tion " of what had happened it was observed : "• It has
caused some indignation in them,'' (the people) "• to
see the vile indignity cast by these cudweeds upon
those excellent servants of God, who were the leaders
of the flock that followed our Saviour into this wilder-
ness : and upon the ministry of them, and their suc-

1 Rev. Joseph Webb to Dr. C. Mather. Maxs. Hist. Coll.
second series, ii. 131.

■■^ The Sentiments of the Several Ministers in Boston. Mass.
Hist. Coll. second series, ii. 133.

500 THE REVOLUTION.

cessours, in which there has been seen for more than
forescore years together, the power and blessing of
God for the salvation of many thousands in the suc-
cessive generations ; with a success beyond what any
of them which set such an high value on the Episco-
pal ordination could ever boast of ! . . . It is a sen-
sible addition, unto their horrour, to see the horrid
character of more than one or two, who have got
themselves qualified with Episcopal ordination, . . .
and come over as missionaries, perhaps to serve scarce
twenty families of such people, in a town of several
hundred families of Christians, better instructed than
the very missionaries : to think, that they must have
no other ministers, but such as are ordained, and
ordered by them, who have sent over such tippling
sots unto them : instead of those pious and painful
and faithful instructors which they are now blessed

withal : " 1

Only three of the converts had the fortitude to
withstand the pressure to which they were exposed :
Cutler, Johnson, and Brown went to England for or-
dination ; there Brown died of small-pox, but Cutler
returned to Boston as a missionary, and as he, too,
possessed a certain clerical aptitude for forcible ex-
pression, it is fitting he should relate his own ex-
periences : —

" I find that, in spite of malice and the basest arts
our godly enemies can easily stoop to, that the interest

1 " A Faithful Relation of a Late Occurrence." Mass. Hist.
Coll. second series, ii. 138, 139.

THE REVOLUTION. 501

of the church grows and penetrates into the very heart
of this country. . . . This great town swarms with
them " (churchmen), " and we are so confident of our
power and interest that, out of four Parliament-men
which this town sends to our General Assembly, the
church intends to put up for two, though I am not
very sanguine about our success in it. . . . My church
grows faster than I expected, and, while it doth so, I
will not be mortified by all the lies and affronts they
pelt me with. My greatest difficulty ariseth from
another quarter, and is owing to the covetous and
malicious spirit of a clergyman in this town, who, in
lying and villany, is a perfect overmatch for any dis-
senter that I know ; and, after all the odium that he
contracted heretofore among them, is fully recon-
ciled and endeared to them by his falsehood to the
church." 1

Time did not tend to pacify the feud. There was
no bishop in America, and candidates had to be sent
to England for ordination ; nor without such an offi-
cial was it found possible to enforce due discipline ;
hence the anxiety of Dr. Johnson, and, indeed, of all
the Episcopalian clergy, to have one appointed for the
colonies was not unreasonable. Nevertheless, the op-
position they met with was acrimonious in the extreme,
so much so as to make them hostile to the charters
themselves, which they thought sheltered their adver-
saries.

^ Dr. Timothy Cutler to Dr. Zachary Grey, April 2, 1725.
Perry's Collection, iii. 6G3.

A

>

602 THE REVOLUTION.

" The king, by his instructions to our governor, de-
mands a salary ; and if he punishes our obstinacy by
vacating our charter, I shall think it an eminent bless-
ing of his illustrious reign." ^ " As I said, infidelity
prevails also among us. Chubb's and Dr. Clarke's
works, etc., do much mischief among us. One Kent,
a dissenting teacher, is now suspended by a council
for Arianism and Arminianism, though the latter is
grown so venial that it would have been hushed had
it not been for the former." ^

Whitefield came in 1740, and the tumult of the
great revival roused fresh animosities.

" When Mr. Whitefield first arrived here the whole
town was alarmed. . . . The conventicles were crowded ;
but he chose rather our Common, where multitudes
might see him in all his awful postures ; besides that,
in one crowded conventicle, before he came in, six
were killed in a fright. The fellow treated the most
venerable with an air of superiority. But he forever
lashed and anathematized the Church of England ;
and that was enough.

" After him came one Tennent, a monster ! impu-
dent and noisy, and told them all they were damn'd,
damn'd, damn'd ! This charmed them, and in the
most dreadful winter that I ever saw, people wal-
lowed in the snow night and day for the benefit of his

1 Dr. Cutler to Dr. Grey, April 20, 1731. Perry's Coll. iii.
672.

2 Dr. Cutler to Dr. Grey, Jane 5, 1735. Perry's Coll. iii
674.

THE REVOLUTION. 503

beastly brayings ; and many ended their days under
these fatigues. Both of them carried more money out
of these parts than the poor could be thankful for." ^

The excitement was followed by its natural reaction
conversions became numerous, and the unevangelical
temper this bred between the rival clergymen is pain-
fully apparent in a correspondence wherein Dr. John-
son became involved. Mr. Gold, the Congregationalist
minister of Stratford, whom he called a dissenter, had
said of him "that he was a thief, and robber of
churches, and had no business in the place ; that his
church doors stood open to all mischief and wicked-
ness, and other words of like import." He there-
fore wrote to defend himself : " As to my having no
business here, I will only say that to me it appears
most evident that I have as much business here at
least as you have, — being appointed by a society in
England incorporated by royal charter to provide
ministers for the church people in America ; nor does
his majesty allow of any establishment here, exclusive
of the church, much less of anything that should pre-
clude the society he has incorporated from providing
and sending ministers to the church people in these
countries." ^ To which Mr. Gold replied : —

As for the pleas which you make for Col. Lewis, and
others that have broke away disorderly from our church,

1 Dr. Cutler to Dr. Grey. Sept. 24, 1743. Perry's Coll. iii
676.

* Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, p. 108.

604 THE REVOLUTION.

I think there 's neither weight nor truth in them ; nor
do I believe such poor shifts will stand them nor you
in any stead in the awful day of account ; and as for
your saying that as bad as you are yet you lie open to
conviction, — for my part I find no reason to think
you do, seeing you are so free and full in denying
plain matters of fact. ... I don't think it worth my
while to say anything further in the affair, and as you
began the controversy against rule or justice, so I hope
modesty will induce you to desist ; and do assure you
that if you see cause to make any more replies, my
purpose is, without reading of them, to put them un-
der the pot among my other thorns and there let one
flame quench the matter. . . . Hez. Gold.

Stratford, July 21, 1741.^

And so by an obvious sequence of cause and effect
it came to pass that the clergy were early ripe for
rebellion, and only awaited their opj^ortunity. Nor
could it have been otherwise. An autocratic priest-
hood had seen their order stripped of its privileges
one by one, until nothing remained but their moral
empire over their parishioners, and then at last not
only did an association of rival ecclesiastics send over
emissaries to steal away their people, but they pro-
posed to establish a bishop in the land. The thought
was wormwood. He would be rich, he would live in a
palace, he would be supported by the patronage and
pomp of the royal governors ; the imposing ceremo-

^ Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, p. 111.

THE REVOLUTION. 505

nial would become fashionable ; and in imagination
they already saw themselves reduced to the humble
position of dissenters in their own kingdom. Jona-
than Mayhew was called a heretic by his more conser-
vative brethren, but he was one of the ablest and the
most acrid of the Boston ministers. He took little
pains to disguise his feelings, and so early as 1750 he
preached a sermon, which was once famous, wherein
he told his hearers that it was their duty to oppose
the encroachment of the British prelates, if necessary,
by force.

" Suppose, then, it was allowed, in general, that the
clergy were a useful order of men ; that they ought
to be esteemed very highly in love for their work's
sake, and to be decently supported by those they
serve, ' the laborer being worthy of his reward.' Sup-
pose, further, that a number of reverend and right
reverend drones, who worked not ; who preached, per-
haps, but once a year, and then not the gospel of
Jesus Christ, but the divine right of tithes, the dignity
of their office as ambassadors of Christ, . . . suppose
such men as these, spending their lives in effeminacy,
luxury, and idleness ; . . . suppose this should be the
case, . . . would not everybody be astonished at such
insolence, injustice, and impiety ? " ^ " Civil tyranny
is usually small in its beginning, like ' the drop of a
bucket,' till at length, like a mighty torrent ... it
bears down all before it. . . . Thus it is as to eccle-

1 " Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission," Jonathan
Mayhew. Thornton's American Pulpit, pp. 71, 72.

506 THE REVOLUTION.

siastical tyranny also — the most cruel, intolerable,
and impious of any. From small beginnings, ' it ex-
alts itself above all that is called God and that is
worshipped.' People have no security against being
unmercifully priest-ridden but by keeping all imperi-
ous bishops, and other clergymen who love to 'lord
it over God's heritage,' from getting their foot into
the stirrup at all, . . . For which reason it becomes
every friend to truth and human kind, every lover of
God and the Christian religion, to bear a part in op-
posing this hateful monster." ^

Between these envenomed priests peace was impos-
sible ; each year brought with it some new aggression
which added fuel to the flame. In 1763, Mr. Apthorp,
missionary at Cambridge, published a pamphlet, in
answer, as he explained, to " some anonymous libels
which appeared in our newspapers . . . grossly re-
flecting on the society & their missionaries, & in par-
ticular on the mission at Cambridge." ^

By this time the passions of the Congregationalist
divines had reached a point when words seemed hardly
adequate to give them expression. The Rev. Ezra
Stiles wrote to Dr. Mayhew in these terms : —

" Shall we be hushed into silence, by those whose
tender mercies are cruelty ; and who, notwithstanding
their pretence of moderation, wish the subversion of

^ Preface to " A Discourse concerning Unlimited Submis-
sion," Jonathan Mayhew. Thornton's Amer. Pulpit, pp. 50, 51.

^ East Apthorp to the Secretary, June 25, 1763. Perry's
Coll iii. 500.

THE REVOLUTION. 507

our churches, and are combined, in united, steady
and vigorous effort, by all the arts of subtlety and
intreag'ue, for our ruin ? " ^

Mr. Stiles need have felt no anxiety, for, according
to Mr. Apthorp, " this occasion was greedily seized,
... by a dissenting minister of Boston, a man of a
singular character, of good abilities, but of a turbu-
lent & contentious disposition, at variance, not only
with the Church of England, but in the essential doc-
trines of religion, with most of his own party." ^ He
alluded to a tract written by Dr. Mayhew in answer
to his pamphlet, in which he reproduced the charge
made by Mr. Stiles : " The society have long had a
formal design to dissolve and root out all our New-
England churches ; or, in other words, to reduce them
all to the Episcopal form." ^ And withal he clothed
liis thoughts in language which angered Mr. Caner : —

" A few days after, MF Apthorpe published the en-
closed pamphlet, in vindication of the institution and
comhict of the society, which occasioned the ungenteel
i-eHcctions which your grace will find in DF Mayhew's
pamphlet, in which, not content with the personal
abuse of ]\lF Apthorpe, he has insulted the missions
in general, the society, the Church of England, in
short, the whole rational establishment, in so dirty a
manner, that it seems to be below the character of a
gentleman to enter into controversy with him. In

1 Dr. Ezra Stiles to Dr. Mayhew, 1763. Life of Mayhew, p. 246.
■^ East Apthorp to the Secretary. Perry's Coll. iii. 500.
8 Observations on the Charter, etc. of the Society, p. 107,

508 THE REVOLUTION.

most of his sermons, of which he published a great
number, he introduces some malicious invectives
against the society or the Church of England, and if
at any time the most candid and gentle remarks are
made upon such abuse, he breaks forth into such bit-
ter and scurrilous personal reflections, that in truth
no one cares to have anything to do with him. His
doctrinal principles, which seem chiefly copied from
L*^ Shaftsbury, Bolingbroke, &c., are so offensive to
the generalty of the dissenting ministers, that they
refuse to admit him a member of their association,
yet they appear to be pleased with his abusing the
Church of England." i

The Archbishop of Canterbury himself now inter-
fered, and tried to calm the tumult by a candid and
dignified reply to Dr. Mayhew, in which he labored to
show the harmlessness of the proposed bishopric.

" Therefore it is desired, that two or more bishops
may be appointed for them, to reside where his majesty
shall think most convenient [not in New England,
but in one of the Episcopalian colonies] ; that they
may have no concern in the least with any person who
do not profess themselves to be of the Church of Eng-
land, but may ordain ministers for such as do ; . . .
and take such oversight of the Episcopal clergy, as the
Bishop of London's commissaries in those parts have
been empowered to take, and have taken, without
offence. But it is not desired in the least that they

1 Rev. Mr. Caner to the Archbishop of Canterbury, June 8,
17C3. Perry's Coll. iii. 497, 498.

THE REVOLUTION. 509

should hold courts ... or be vested with any author-
ity, uovv exercised either by provincial governors or
subordinate magistrates, or infringe or diminish any
privileges and liberties enjoyed by any of the laity,
even of our own communion.*' ^

But the archbishop should hav^e known that the
passions of rival ecclesiastics are not to be allayed.
The Episcopalians had become so exasperated as to
want nothing less than the overthrow of popular gov-
ernment. Dr. Johnson wrote in 1763 : " Is there then
nothing more that can be done either for obtaining
bishops or demolishing these pernicious charter gov-
ernments, and reducing them all to one form in im-
mediate dependence on the king ? I cannot help call-
ing them pernicious, for they are indeed so as well for
the best good of the people themselves as for the in-
terests of true religion." ^

The Congregation alists, on the other hand, inflamed
with jealousy, were ripe for rebellion. On March 22,
1765, the Stamp Act became law, and the clergy
threw themselves into the combat with characteristic
violence. Oliver had been appointed distributor, but
liis house was attacked and he was forced to resign.
The next evening but one the rabble visited Hutch-
inson, who was lieutenant-governor, and broke his
windows ; and there was general fear of further riot-
ing. In the midst of this crisis, on the 25th of Au-

1 An Answer to Dr. Mayhew's Observations, etc. Dr. Seeker,
p. 51.

2 Life of Samuel Johnson, p. 279.

510 THE REVOLUTION.

gust, Dr. Mayhew preached a sermon in the West
Meeting-house from the text, " I would they were
even cut off which trouble you." ^ That this dis-
course was in fact an incendiary harangue is demon-
strated by what followed. At nightfall on the 26th
a fierce mob forced the cellars of the comptroller of
the customs, and got drunk on the spirits stored with-
in ; then they went on to Hutchinson's dwelling :
" The doors were immediately split to pieces with
broad axes, and a way made there, and at the win-
dows, for the entry of the mob ; which poured in, and
filled, in an instant, every room. . . . They continued
their possession until daylight ; destroyed . . . every-
thing . . . except the walls, . . . and had begun to
break away the brick- work." ^ His irreplaceable col-
lection of original papers was thrown into the street ;
and when a bystander interfered in the hojje of saving
some of them, " answer was made, that it had been
resolved to destroy everything in the house ; and such
resolve should be carried to effect." ^ Malice so bit-
ter bears the peculiar ecclesiastical tinge, and is ex-
plained by the confession of one of the ring-leaders,
who, when subsequently arrested, said he had been
excited by the sermon, "and that he thought he was
doing God service." ^

The outbreak met with general condemnation, and
Dr. Mayhew, who saw he had gone too far, tried to
excuse himself : —

1 Galatians v. 12. 2 Hutch. Hist. iii. 124.

8 Idem, p. 125, note. * Idem, p. 123.

THE REVOLUTION. 511

" Sir, — I take the freedom to write you a few
lines, by way of condolence, on account of the almost
unparalleled outrages committed at your house last
evening ; and the great damage which I understand
you have suffered thereby. God is my witness, that,
from the bottom of my heart, I detest these proceed-
ings ; that I am most sincerely grieved at them, and
have a deep sympathy with you and your distressed
family on this occasion." '

Nevertheless, the repeal of the Stamp Act, which
pacified the laity, left tlie clergy as hot as ever ; and
so early as 1768, when no one outside of the inmost
ecclesiastical circle yet dreamed of independence, but
when the Rev. Andrew Eliot thought the erection of
the bishopric was near, he frankly told Hollis he an-
ticipated war.

" You will see by this pamphlet, how we are ca-
joled. A colony bishop is to be a more innocent
creature than ever a bishop was, since diocesan bish-
ops were introduced to lord it over God's heritage.
. . . Can the A-b-p, and his tools, think to impose on
the colonists by these artful representations. . . . The
people of New England are greatly alarmed : the
arrival of a bishop would raise them as much as any
one thing. . . . Our General Court is now sitting.
I have hinted to some of the members, that it will be
proper for them to express their fears of the setting
up an hierarchy here. I am well assured a motion
will be made to this purpose. ... I may be mistaken,
^ Mayhew to Hutchinson. Life of Maykew, p. 420.

512 THE REVOLUTION.

but I am persuaded the dispute between Great Britain
and her colonies will never be amicably settled. . . .
I sent you a few hasty remarks on the A-b-p's sermon.
... I am more and more convinced of the meanness,
art — if he was not in so high a station, I should say,
falsehood — of that Arch-Pr-1-te." ^

An established priesthood is naturally the firmest
support of despotism ; but the course of events made
that of Massachusetts revolutionary. This was a social
factor whose importance it is hard to overestimate ; for
though the influence of the elders had much declined
during the eighteenth century, their political power
was still immense ; and it is impossible to measure
the degree in which the drift of feeling toward inde-
pendence would have been arrested had they been
thoroughly loyal. At all events, the evidence tends
to show that it is most improbable the first blood
would have been shed in the streets of Boston had it
been the policy of Great Britain to conciliate the
Congregational Church ; if, for example, the liberals
had been forced to meet the issue of taxation upon
a statute designed to raise a revenue for the mainte-
nance of the evangelical clergy. How potent an ally
King George lost by incurring their hatred may be
judged by the devotion of the Episcopalian pastors,
many of whom were of the same blood as their Cal-
vinistic brethren, often, like Cutler and Johnson, con-
verts. They all showed the same intensity of feeling ;

1 Thomas Seeker. Andrew Eliot to Thomas Hollis, Jan. 5^
1768. Mass. Hist. Coll. fourth series, iv. 422.

THE REVOLUTION. 513

all were Tories, not one wavered ; and they boasted
that they were long able to hold their parishioners in
check.

In September, 1765, those of Connecticut wrote to
the secretai'y, " although the commotions and disaf-
fection in this country are very great at present, rel-
ative to what they call the imposition of stamp duties,
yet . . . the people of the Church of England, in
general, in this colony, as we hear, . . . and those, in
particular, under our respective charges, are of a con-
trary temper and conduct ; esteeming it nothing short
of rebellion to speak evil of dignities, and to avow
opposition to this last act of Parliament. . . .

" We think it our incumbent duty to warn our
hearers, in particular, of the unreasonableness and
wickedness of their taking the least part in any tu-
mult or opposition to his majesty's acts, and we have
obvious reasons for the fullest persuasion, that they
will steadily behave themselves as true and faithful
subjects to his majesty's person and government." ^

Even so late as April, 1775, Mr, Caner, at Boston,
felt justified in making a very similar report to the
society : " Our clergy have in the midst of these con-
fusions behaved I think with remarkable prudence.
None of them have been hindered from exercising the
duties of their office since Mt Peters, tho' many of
them have been much threat'ned ; and as their people
have for the most part remained firm and steadfast in
their loyalty and attachment to goverment, the clergy
^ Conn. Church Doc. ii. 81.

514 THE REVOLUTION.

feel themselves supported by a conscious satisfaction
that their labors have not been in vain." ^

Nor did they shrink because of danger from setting
an example of passive obedience to their congrega-
tions. The Rev. Dr. Beach graduated at Yale in
1721 and became the Congregational pastor of New-
town. He was afterward converted, and during the
war was forbidden to read the prayers for the royal
family ; but he replied, " that he would do his duty,
preach and pray for the king, till the rebels cut out
his tongue." ^

In estimating the energy of a social force, such as
ecclesiasticism, the indirect are often more striking
than the direct manifestations of power, and this is
eminently true of Massachusetts ; for, notwithstand-
ing her ministers had always been astute and inde-
fatigable politicians, their greatest triumphs were in-
variably won by some layman whose mind they had
moulded and whom they put forward as their cham-
pion. From John Winthrop, who was the first, an
almost unbroken line of these redoubtable partisans
stretched down to the Revolution, where it ended with
him who is perhaps the most celebrated of all.

Samuel Adams has been called the last of the
Puritans. He was indeed the incarnation of those
qualities which led to eminence under the theocracy.
A rigid Calvinist, reticent, cool, and brave, matchless
in intrigue, and tireless in purpose, his cause was al-
ways holy, and therefore sanctified the means.

1 Perry's Coll. iii. 579.

* O'Callaghan Documents, iii. 1053, 8vo ed.

THE REVOLUTION. 515

Professor Hosmer thus describes him : " It was,
however, as a manager of men that Samuel Adams
was greatest. Such a master of the methods by which
a town-meeting may be swayed, the world has never
seen. On the best of terms with the people, the ship-
yard men, the distillers, the sailors, as well as the
merchants and ministers, he knew precisely what
springs to touch. He was the prince of canvassers,
the very king of the caucus, of which his father was
the inventor. ... As to his tact, was it ever sur-
passed ? " ^ A bigot in religion, he had the flexi-
bility of a Jesuit ; and though he abhorred Episco-
palians, he proposed that Mr. Duche should make the
opening prayer for Congress, in the hope of soothing
the southern members. Strict in all ceremonial ob-
servances, he was loose in money matters ; yet even
here he stood within the pale, for Dr. Cotton ISIather
was looser,^ who was the most orthodox of divines.

The clergy instinctively clave to him, and gave
him their fullest confidence. When there was any im-
portant work to do they went to him, and he never
failed them. On January 5, 1768, the Rev. Dr. Eliot
told PloUis he had suggested to some of the members
of the legislature to remonstrate against the bishops.'^
A week later the celebrated letter of instructions of
the house to the agent, De Berdt, was reported, which
was written by Adams ; and it is interesting to ob-

1 Hosmer's Samuel Adams, p. 363.

2 See Letter on behalf of Ur. Cotton Mather to Sewall, Mass.
Hist. Coll. fourth series, ii. 122.

' Mass. Hist. Coll. fourth series, iv. 422.

516 THE REVOLUTION.

serve liow, in the midst of a most vigorous protest on
the subject, he broke out : " We hope in God such an
establishment will never take place in America, and
we desire you would strenuously oppose it." ^

The subtle but unmistakable flavor of ecclesiasti-
cism pervades his whole long agitation. He handled
the newspapers with infinite skill, and the way in
which he used the toleration granted the Canadian
Catholics after the conquest, as a goad wherewith
to inflame the dying Puritan fanaticism, was worthy
of St. Ignatius. He moved for the committee who
reported the resolutions of the town of Boston in
1772 ; his spirit inspired them, and in these also the
grievance of Episcopacy plays a large part. How
strong his prejudices were may be gathered from a
few words : " We think therefore that every design
for establishing ... a bishop in this province, is a
design both against our civil and religious rights." ^

The liberals, as loyal subjects of Great Britain,
grieved over her policy as the direst of misfortunes,
which indeed they might be driven to resist, but which
they strove to modify.

Washington wrote in 1774 : " I am well satisfied,
. . . that it is the ardent wish of the warmest advo-
cates for liberty, that peace and tranquillity, upon con-
stitutional grounds, may be restored, and the horrors
of civil discord prevented." " Jefferson affirmed ;

1 Mass. State Papers, 1765-1775, p. 132.

2 Votes and Proceediiigs of Boston, Nov. 20, 1772, p. 28.

* Washington to Mackenzie. WashingtorCs Writings, ii. 402.

THE REVOLUTION. 517

" Before the commencement of hostilities ... I never
had heard a whisper of a disposition to separate from
Great Britain ; and after that, its possibility was con-
templated with affliction by all." While John Adams
solemnly declared : " For my own part, there was not
a moment during the Revolution, when I would not
have given everything I possessed for a restoration
to the state of things before the contest began, pro-
vided we could have had a sufficient security for its
continuance." ^

In such feelings Samuel Adams had no share. In
each renewed aggression he saw the error of his natu-
ral enemy, which brought ever nearer the realization
of the dream of independence he had inherited from
the past ; for the same fierce passion burned within
him that had made Endicott mutilate his flag, and
Leverett read his king's letter with his hat on ; and
the guns of Lexington were music in his ears.

He was not a lawyer, nor a statesman, in the true
meaning of the word, but he was a consummate agi-
tator ; and if this be remembered, his career becomes
clear. When he conceived the idea of the possibility
of independence is uncertain ; probably soon after the
passage of the Stamp Act, but the evidence is strong
that so early as 1768 he had deliberately resolved to
precipitate some catastrophe which would make recon-
ciliation impossible, and obviously an armed collision
would have suited his purpose best.

Troops were then first ordered to Boston, and at
^ Note of Sparks, Washington' s Writings, ii. 501.

618 THE REVOLUTION.

one moment he was tempted to cause theii* landing to
be resisted. An old affidavit is still extant, presum-
ably truthful enough, which brings him vividly be-
fore the mind as he went about the town lashing up
the people.

" Mr. Samuel Adams . . . happened to join the
same party . . . trembling and in great agitation. . . .
The informant heard the said Samuel Adams then
say . . . 'If you are men, behave like men. Let us
take up arms immediately, and be free, and seize all
the king's officers. We shall have thirty thousand
men to join us from the country.' . . . And before the
arrival of the troops ... at the house of the inform-
ant . . . the said Samuel Adams said : ' We will not
submit to any tax, nor become slaves. . . . The coun-
try was first settled by our ancestors, therefore we are
free and want no king.' . . . The informant further
sayeth, that about a fortnight before the troops ar-
rived, the aforesaid Samuel Adams, being at the house
of the informant, the informant asked him what he
thought of the times. The said Adams answered,
with great alertness, that, on lighting the beacon, we
should be joined with thirty thousand men from the
country with their knapsacks and bayonets fixed, and
added, ' We will destroy every soldier that dare put
his foot on shore. His majesty has no right to send
troops here to invade the country, and I look upon
them as foreign enemies ! ' " i

Maturer reflection must have convinced him his
1 Wells's Samuel Adams, i. 210, 211.

THE REVOLUTION. 519

design was impracticable, for he certainly abandoned
it, and the two regiments disembarked in peace ; but
their position was unfortunate. Together they were
barely a thousand strong, and were completely at the
mercy of the populous and hostile province they had
been sent to awe.

The temptation to a bold and unscrupulous revolu-
tionary leader must have been intense. Apparently it
needed but a spark to cause an explosion ; the rabble
of Boston could be fierce and dangerous when roused,
as had been proved by the sack of Hutchinson's house ;
and if the soldiers could be goaded into firing on the
citizens, the chances were they would be annihilated
in the rising which would follow, when a rupture
would be inevitable. But even supposing the militia
abstained from participating in the outbreak, and the
tumult were suppressed, the indignation at the slaugh-
ter would be deep enough to sustain him in mak-
ing demands which the government could not grant.

Hutchinson and the English officers understood the
danger, and for many months the discipline was ex-
emplary, but precautions were futile. Though he
knew full well how to be all things to all men, the nat-
ural affiliations of Sanmel Adams were with the clergy
and the mob, and in the sliip-yards and rope- walks he
reigned supreme. Nor was he of a temper to shrink
from using to the utmost the opportunity his adversa-
ries had put in his hands, and he forthwith began
a series of inflammatory appeals in the newspapers,
whereof this is a specimen : " And are the inhabitants

620 THE REVOLUTION.

of this town still to be affronted in the nio^ht as well
as the day by soldiers arm'd with muskets and fix'd
bayonets ? . . . Will the spirits of people, as yet
unsubdued by tyranny, unaw'd by the menaces of
arbitary power, submit to be govern'd by military
force?"!

In 1770 it was notorious that " endeavors had been
systematically pursued for many months, by certain
busy characters, to excite quarrels, rencounters, and
combats, single or compound, in the night, between
the inhabitants of the lower class and the soldiers,
and at all risks to enkindle an immortal hatred be-
tween them." 2 And it is curious to observe how the
British always quarrelled with the laborers about
the wharves ; and how these, the closest friends of
Adams, were all imbued with the theory he main-
tained, that the military could not use their weapons
without the order of a civil magistrate. Little by
little the animosity increased, until on the 2d of
March there was a very serious fray at Gray's rope-
walk, which was begun by one of the hands, who
knocked down two soldiers who spoke to him in the
street. Although Adams afterward labored to con-
vince the public that the tragedy which happened
three days later was the result of a deliberately ma-
tured conspiracy to murder the citizens for revenge,
there is nothing whereon to base such a charge ; on
the contrary, the evidence tends to exonerate the

1 Vindex, Boston Gazette, Dec. 5, 1768.

2 Autobiography of John Adams. Works of J. Adams, ii. 229.

THE REVOLUTION. 521

troops, and the verdicts show the opinion of the ju-
ries. There was exasperation on both sides, but the
rabble were not restrained by discipline, and on the
night of the 5th of March James Crawford swore he
he saw at Calf's corner " about a dozen with sticks, in
Quaker Lane and Green's Lane, met many going to-
ward King Street. Very great sticks, pretty large
cudgells, not common walking canes. . . . At Swing
bridge the people were walking from all quarters with
sticks. I was afraid to go home, . . . the streets in
such commotion as I hardly ever saw in my life. Un-
common sticks such as a man would pull out of an
hedge. . . . Thomas Knight at his own door, 8 or
10 passed with sticks or clubs and one of them said
'D — n their bloods, let us go and attack the main
guard first.'" ^ The crown witnesses testified that
the sentry was surrounded by a crowd of thirty or
forty, who pelted him with pieces of ice "hard and
large enough to hurt any man ; as big as one's fist."
And h« said "he was afraid, if the boys did not
disperse, there would be " trouble.^ A\ hen the guard
came to his help the mob grew still more violent,
yelling " bloody backs," " lobster scoundrels," " damn
you, fire ! why don't you fire ? " striking them with
sticks.

" Did you observe anybody strike Montgomery, or
was a club thrown? The stroke came from a stick
or club that was in somebody's hand, and the blow

1 Kidder's Massacre, p. 10.
a Idem, p. 138.

522 THE REVOLUTION.

struck his gun and his arm." " Was he knocked
down ? . . . He fell, I am sure. . . . His gun flew
out of hand, and as he stooped to take it up, he fell
himself. . . . Was any number of people standing
near the man that struck his gun? Yes, a whole
crowd, fifty or sixty." ^ When the volley came at last
the rabble fell back, and the 29th was rapidly formed
before the main guard, the front rank kneeling, that
the fire might sweep the street. And now when every
bell was tolling, and the town was called to arms,
and infuriated men came pouring in by thousands,
Hutchinson showed he had inherited the blood of his
great ancestress, who feared little upon earth ; but
then, indeed, their adversaries have seldom charged
the Puritans with cowardice in fight. Coming quickly
to the council chamber he passed into the balcony,
which overhung the kneeling regiment and the armed
and maddened crowd, and he spoke with such calm-
ness and courage that even then he was obeyed. He
promised that justice should be done and he com-
manded the people to disperse. Preston and his men
were at once surrendered to the authorities to await
their trial.

The next day Adams was in his glory. The meet-
ing in the morning was as wax between his fingers,
and his friend, the Rev. Dr. Cooper, opened it with
fervent prayer. A committee was at once appointed
to demand the withdrawal of the troops, but Hutchin-
son thought he had no power and that Gage alone
^ Kidder's Massacre, pp. 138, 139.

THE REVOLUTION. 523

could give the order. Nevertheless, after a conference
with Colonel Dalrymple he was induced to propose
that the 29th shoidd be sent to the Castle, and the
14th put under strict restraint.^ To the daring agita-
tor it seemed at last his hour was come, for the whole
people were behind him, and Hutchinson himself
says " their spirit " was " as high as was the spirit
of their ancestors when they imprisoned Andros."
As the committee descended the steps of the State
House to go to the Old South where they were to
report, the dense crowd made way for them, and
Samuel Adams as he walked bare-headed through
their lines continually bowed to right and left, repeat-
ing the catchword, " Both regiments or none." His
touch on human passions was unerring, for when the
lieutenant-governor's reply was read, the great assem-
bly answered with a mighty shout, " Both regiments
or none," and so instructed he returned. Then the
nature of the man shone out ; the handful of troops
were helpless, and he was as inflexible as steel. The
thin, strong, determined, gray-eyed Puritan stood be-
fore Hutchinson, inwardly exulting as he marked his
features change under the torture. "A multitude
highly incensed now wait the result of this applica-
tion. The voice of ten thousand freemen demands
that both regiments be forthwith removed. . . . Fail
not then at your peril to comply with this requisi-
tion ! " 2 It was the spirit of Norton and of Endicott

^ Kidder's Massacre, p. 43.

^ Hosmer's Samuel Adams, p. 173.

524 THE REVOLUTION.

alive again, and he was flushed with the same stern
triumph at the sight of his victim's pain : " It was
then, if fancy deceived me not, I observed his knees
to tremble. I thought I saw his face grow pale (and
I enjoyed the sight)." ^

Probably nothing prevented a complete rupture but
the hopeless weakness of the garrison, for Hutchinson,
feeling the decisive moment had come, was full of
fight. He saw that to yield would destroy his author-
ity, and he opposed concession, but he stood alone, the
officers knew their position was untenable, and the
council was unanimous against him. " The L* G. en-
deavoured to convince them of the ill consequence of
this advice, and kept them until late in the evening,
the people remaining assembled ; but the council were
resolute. Their advice, therefore, he communicated
to Co^ Dalrymple, accompanied with a declaration,
that he had no authority to order the removal of the
troops. This part Col. D. was dissatisfied with, and
urged the L* G. to withdraw it, but he refused, and
the regiments were removed. He was much dis-
tressed, but he brought it all upon himself by his offer
to remove one of the regiments. No censure, however,
was passed upon him." ^

Had the pacification of his country been the object
near his heart, Samuel Adams, after his victory, would
have abstained from any act however remotely tend-
ing to influence the course of justice ; for he must

1 Adams to Warren. Wells's Samuel Adams, i. 324.
^ Diary and Letters of T". Hutchinson, p. 80.

THE REVOLUTION. 525

have known that it was only by such conduct the col-
onists could inspire respect for the motives which
actuated them in their resistance. A capital sentence
would have been doubly unfortunate, for had it been
executed it would have roused all England ; while
had the king pardoned the soldiers, as assuredly he
would have done, a deep feeling of wrong would have
rankled in America.

A fanatical and revolutionary demagogue, on the
other hand, would have longed for a conviction, not
only to compass his ends as a politician, but to glut
his hate as a zealot.

Samuel Adams was a taciturn, secretive man, whose
tortuous course would have been hard to follow a cen-
tury ago ; now the attempt is hopeless. Yet there is
one inference it seems permissible to draw : his ad-
mirers have always boasted that he was the inspira-
tion of the town meetings, presumably, therefore, the
the votes passed at them may be attributed to his
manipulation. And starting from this point, with
the help of Hutchinson and his own writings, it is
still possible to discern the outlines of a policy well
worthy of a theocratic statesman.

The March meeting began on the 12th. On the
13th it was resolved : —

" That be and they hereby are appointed a com-
mittee for and in behalf of the town to find out who
those persons are that were the perpetrators of the
horred murders and massacres done and committed in
King Street on several of the inhabitants in the even-

526 THE REVOLUTION.

insf of the 5*- instant and take such examinations and
depositions as they can procure, and lay the whole
thereof before the grand inquest in order that such
perpetrators may be indicted and brought to tryal for
the same, and upon indictments being found, said com-
mittee are desired to prepare matters for the king's
attorney, to attend at their tryals in the superior
court, subpoena all the witnesses, and do everything
necessary for bringing those murtherers to that pun-
ishment for such crimes, as the laws of God and man
require." ^

A day or two afterward a number of Adams's
friends, among whom were some of the members of
this committee, dined together, and Hutchinson tells
what he persuaded them to do.

" The time for holding the superior court for the
county of Suffolk was the next week after the tragical
action in King Street. Although bills were found by
the grand jury, yet the court, considering the disor-
dered state of the town, had thought fit to continue
the trials over to the next term, when the minds of
people would be more free from prejudice." " A
considerable number of the most active persons in
all publick measures of the town, having dined to-
gether, went in a body from table to the superior
court then sitting, and Mr. Adams, at their head and
in behalf of the town, pressed the bringing on the
trial the same term with so much spirit, that the
judges did not think it advisable to abide by their own
1 Records of Boston, v. 232.

THE REVOLUTION. 527

order, but appointed a day for the trials, and ad-
journed the court for that purpose." ^

The justices must afterward have grown ashamed
of their cowardice, for Rex v. Preston did not come
on until the autumn, and altogether very little was ac-
complished by these attempts to interfere with the due
administration of the law. " A committee had been
appointed by the town to assist in the prosecution of
the soldiers . . . but this was irregular. The courts,
according to the practice in the province, required no
prosecutors but the officers of the crown ; much less
would they have thought it proper for the principal
town in the province to have brought all its weight,
which was very great, into court against the prison-
ers." 2

Nevertheless, Adams had by no means exhausted
his resources, for it was possible so to inflame the
public mind that dispassionate juries could hardly be
obtained.

At the same March meeting another committee
was named, who were to obtain a " particular account
of all proceedings relative to the massacre in King
Street on Monday night last, that a full and just rep-
resentation may be made thereof ? " ^ The reason as-
signed for so unwonted a proceeding as the taking of
ex parte testimony by a popular assembly concerning
alleged murders, for which men were to be pres-

1 Hutch. Hist. iii. 285, 286 and note.

2 Idem, iii. 286, note.

8 Kidder's Massacre, p. ~Z.

628 THE REVOLUTION.

ently tried for their lives, was the necessity for con-
troverting the aspersions of the British officials ; but
the probable truth of this explanation must be judged
by the course actually pursued. On the 19th the re-
port vi^as made, consisting of " A Short Narrative
of the Horrid Massacre in Boston," together with a
number of depositions ; and though perhaps it was
natural, under the circumstances, for such a pamphlet
to have been highly partisan, it was unnatural for its
authors to have assumed the burden of proving that a
deliberately planned conspiracy had existed between
the civilians and the military to murder the citizens ;
especially as this tremendous charge rested upon no
better foundation than the fantastic falsehoods of " a
French boy, whose evidence appeared to the justice
so improbable, and whose character was so infamous,
that the justice, who was one of the most zealous in
the cause of liberty, refused to issue a warrant to
apprehend his master, against whom he swore." ^
" Then I went up to the custom - house door and
knocked, ... I saw my master and Mr. Munroe come
down-stairs, and go into a room ; when four or five
men went up stairs, pulling and hauling me after
them. . . . When I was carried into the chamber, there
was but one light in the room, and that in the corner
of the chamber, when I saw a tall man loading a gun
(then I saw two guns in the room) . . . there was a
number of gentlemen in the room. After the gun was
loaded, the tall man gave it to me, and told me to fire,
1 Hutch. Hist. iii. 279, 280.

THE REVOLUTION. 529

and said he would kill me if I did not ; I told him
I would not. He drawing a sword out of his cane,
told me, if I did not fire it, he would run it through
my guts. The man putting the gun out of the win-
dow, it being a little open, I fired it sideway up the
street ; the tall man then loaded the gixn again. ... I
told him I would not fire again ; he told me again, he
would run me through the guts if I did not. Upon
which I fired the same way up the street. After I
fired the second gun, I saw my master in the room ;
he took a gun and pointed it out of the window ; I
heard the gun go off. Then a tall man came and
clapped me on the shoulders above and below stairs,
and said, that 's my good boy, I '11 give you some
money to-morrow. . . . And I ran home as fast as I
could, and sat up all night in my master's kitchen.
And further say, that my master licked me the next
night for telling Mrs. Waldron about his firing out
of the custom-house. And for fear that I should be
licked again, I did deny all that I said before Justice
Quincy, which I am very sorry for.^ . . .

his

"Charlotte + Bourgate."

mark.

While it is inconceivable that a cool and sagacious
politician, whose object was to convince Parliament of
the good faith of Massachusetts, should have relied
upon such incredible statements to sway the minds of
English statesmen and lawyers, it is equally incon-
8 Kidder's Massacre, p. 82. Deposition 58.

530 THE REVOLUTION.

ceivable he should not have known they were admi-
rably adapted to still further exasperate an already
excited people ; and that such was his purpose must
be inferred from the immediate publication of the
substance of this affidavit in the newspapers.^

Without doubt a vote was passed on the 26th of
March, a week after the committee had presented
their report, desiring them to reserve all the printed
copies not sent to Europe, as their distribution might
tend to bias the juries ; but even had this precaution
been observed, it came too late, for the damage was
done when the Narrative was read in Faneuil Hall;
in fact, however, the order was eluded, for " many
copies, notwithstanding, got abroad, and some of a
second edition were sent from England, long before
the trials of the officer and soldiers came on." ^ And
at this cheap rate a reputation for magnanimity was
earned.

How thoroughly the clergy sympathized with their
champion appears from their clamors for blood. As
the time drew near it was rumored Hutchinson would
reprieve the prisoners, should they be convicted, till
the king's pleasure could be known. Then Dr.
Chauncy, the senior minister of Boston, cried out in
his pulpit : " Surely he would not counteract the op-
eration of the law, both of God and of man! Surely
he would not suffer the town and land to lie under
the defilement of blood ! Surely he would not make

1 Boston Gazette, March 19, 1770.

2 Hutch. Hist. iii. 279.

THE REVOLUTION. 531

himself a partaker in the guilt of murder, by putting
a stop to the shedding of their blood, who have mur-
derously spilt the blood of others ! " ^

Adams attended when the causes were heard and
took notes of the evidence ; and one of the few occa^
sions in his long life on which his temper seems to
have got beyond control was when the accused were
acquitted. His writings betray unmistakable cha-
grin ; and nothing is more typical of the man, or of
the clerical atmosphere wherein he had been bred,
than his comments upon the testimony on which the
lives of his enemies hung. His piety caused him to
doubt those whose evidence was adverse to his wishes,
though they appeared to be trying to speak the truth.
" The credibility of a witness perhaps cannot be im-
peach'd in court, unless he has been convicted of per-
jury : but an immoral man, for instance one who will
commonly prophane the name of his maker, certainly
cannot be esteemed of equal credit by a jury, with one
who fears to take that sacred name in vain : It is im-
possible he should in the mind of any man." ^

And yet this rigid Calvinist, this incarnation of
ecclesiasticism, had no scruple in propagating the
palpable and infamous lies of Charlotte Bourgate,
when by so doing he thought it possible to further his
own ends. He was bitterly mortified, for he had
been foiled. Yet, though he had failed in precipitat-
ing war, he had struck a telling blow, and he had no

1 Hutch. Hist. iii. 329, note.

2 Boston Gazette, Jan. 21, 1771.

532 THE REVOLUTION.

reason to repine. Probably no single event, before
fighting actually began, left so deep a sear as the Bos-
ton massacre ; and many years later John Adams
gave it as his deliberate opinion that, on the night of
the 5th of March, 1770, " the foundation of American
independence was laid." Nor was the full realization
of his hopes long delayed. Gage occupied Boston in
1774. During the winter the tireless agitator, from
his place in the Provincial Congress, warned the peo-
ple to fight any force sent more than ten miles from
the town ; and so when Paul Revere galloped through
Middlesex on the night of the 18th of April he found
the farmers ready. Samuel Adams had slept at the
house of the Rev. Jonas Clark. Before sunrise the
detachment sent to seize him was close at hand. While
they advanced, he escaped ; and as he walked across
the fields toward Woburn, to the sound of the guns of
Lexington, he exclaimed, in a burst of passionate tri-
umph, " What a glorious morning is this ! "

Massachusetts became the hot-bed of rebellion be-
cause of this unwonted alliance between liberality and
sacerdotalism. Liberality was her birthright ; for lib-
eralism is the offspring of intellectual variation, which
makes mutual toleration of opinion a necessity ; but
that her church should have been radical at this crisis
was due to the action of a long chain of memorable
causes.

The exiles of the Reformation were enthusiasts, for
none would then have dared defy the pains of heresy,
in whom the instinct onward was feebler than the fear

THE REVOLUTION. 533

of death ; yet when the wanderers reached America
the mental growth of the majority had cuhuinated,
and they had passed into the age of routine ; and ex-
actly in proportion as their youthful inspiration had
been fervid was their later formalism intense. But
similar causes acting on the human mechanism pro-
duce like results ; hence bigotry and ambition fed by
power led to persecution. Then, as the despotism of
the preachers deepened, their victims groaning in
their dungeons, or furrowed by their lash, implored
the aid of England, who, in defence of freedom and
of law, crushed the theocracy at a blow. And the
clergy knew and hated their enemy from the earliest
days ; it was this bitter theological jealousy which
flamed within Endicott when he mutilated his flag,
and within Leverett when he insulted Randolph ; it
was a rapacious lust for power and a furious detesta-
tion of rival priests which maddened the Mathers in
their onslaught upon Dudley, which burned undimmed
in Mayhew and Cooper, and in their champion, Sam-
uel Adams, and which at last made the hierarchy cast
in its lot with an ally more dangerous far than those
prelates whom it deemed its foe. For no church can
preach liberality and not be liberalized. Of a truth
the momentary spasm may pass which made these
conservatives progressive, and they may once more
manifest their reactionary nature, but, nevertheless,
the impulsion shall have been given to that automatic,
yet resistless, machinery which produces innovation ;
wherefore, in the next generation, the great liberal

534 THE REVOLUTION.

secession from the Congregational communion broke
the ecclesiastical power forever. And so, through
toil and suffering, through martyrdoms and war, the
Puritans wrought out the ancient destiny which fated
them to wander as outcasts to the desolate New Eng-
land shore ; there, amidst hardship and apparent fail-
ure, they slowly achieved their civil and religious lib-
erty, and conceived that constitutional system which
is the root of our national life ; and there in another
century the liberal commonwealth they had builded
led the battle against the spread of human oppression ;
and when the war of slavery burst forth her soldiers
rightly were the first to fall ; for it is her children's
heritage that, wheresoever on this continent blood
shall flow in defence of personal freedom, there must
the sons of Massachusetts surely be.

CAMBRIUGK . AlASSACHUSETTS

U . S . A

V , *:

0 .'■'•* o

V .*

o V . 'V^T^^ • -^ 0

*1 cu

.^^ <it4m\ %.^^' -J

^ .-^ /^^^/k-^ 't- A^ »■!
\/> "^ rC\\ >)K //>i o •S' Vk » •

-s

V- ^'-m^ ^ ^ ^}^^^^^ -^ -^ \'

.^'

'^'^

f K^ " <^ .,

"^(

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

0 014 068 876 9