The Puritan 
 
 as a 
 
 Colonist and Reformer 
 
By the Same Author 
 
 THE PURITAN IN ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND 
 i vol. 8vo. Cloth. #2.00 
 
 THE CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER 
 i vol. izrno. Cloth. #1.0 
 

THE PURITAN 
 
 AS A 
 
 COLONIST AND REFORMER 
 
 BY 
 
 EZRA HOYT BYINGTON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE PURITAN IN ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND" 
 AND "THE CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, * 
 AND FOREVER" 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 . 1899 
 
Copyright, 1899, 
 BY EZRA HOYT BYINGTON 
 
 A II rights reserved 
 
 SJntoersttg \3ress 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 
 
TO MY SISTER 
 
 iEIUn, 
 
 WHOSE THOUGHTFUL AND EARNEST LIFE 
 
 AS TEACHER, WIFE, AND MOTHER 
 
 ILLUSTRATES THE STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF THE PURITAN 
 DISCIPLINE OF OUR EARLY HOME, 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS BOOK. 
 
 226450 
 
Preface 
 
 THIS book is a companion volume to "The 
 Puritan in England and New England," 
 which was published three years ago. The favor- 
 able reception of the earlier volume has encour- 
 aged the author to present a fuller and more 
 connected account of the Pilgrims and Puritans 
 as Colonists, and as Missionaries and Reformers 
 in New England. The other book contains an 
 account of the origin and growth of Puritanism 
 in England, and of the religious opinions, the 
 family and social life, and the personal traits of 
 the Pilgrims and Puritans in this country. The 
 two volumes are quite distinct, and yet each 
 supplements the other. 
 
 We shall do well to observe the increasing 
 interest in the Puritans in our time. This in- 
 terest has been recently illustrated in the cele- 
 bration of the three hundredth anniversary of the 
 birth of Oliver Cromwell, who was in some re- 
 spects the most notable representative of the 
 Puritan party. It would not have been possible, 
 a generation ago, to unite the English-speaking 
 people of England and America and Australia in 
 
Vlll PREFACE 
 
 paying honor to his name, and to the principle ; 
 which he defended. The number of Englishmen 
 who have been remembered so long is very small. 
 The fact is, there is a higher appreciation of the 
 Puritan spirit, and of the results of Puritanism, 
 than ever before. The political and social reforms 
 which they secured are quite as noteworthy as 
 the religious reforms. The world appreciates 
 them now, because the spirit of this age is so 
 free and progressive. We have been moving for- 
 ward to the position which they occupied, and 
 beyond it. 
 
 It is true, the Puritans were not in all respects 
 consistent with their own principles. They were 
 not as tolerant as they should have been. Yet 
 they were the leaders, in the seventeenth century, 
 in securing freedom for the people, in the Church 
 and in the State. We owe much of the pro- 
 gressive spirit of our time to their foresight, and 
 to their strenuous endeavors. 
 
 It is very doubtful whether the Puritans could 
 have secured the triumph of their principles if 
 they had not planted colonies on this side of the 
 Atlantic. The conservative spirit in England 
 was very strong in their time, as it was in France 
 and Spain. Hampden, and Eliot, and Pym, and 
 Coke, and the other champions of freedom against 
 the arbitrary claims of the Stuarts, were not cer- 
 tain of final victory. The Restoration of Charles 
 
PREFA CE IX 
 
 the Second came too soon, and it seemed to have 
 blotted out from the English Constitution the 
 new sections which had been written into it by 
 Cromwell and the Long Parliament. There was 
 a time when the Church of England itself seemed 
 to be going back from the principles of the Refor- 
 mation. Charles seems to have imagined that 
 he could even extinguish the light that had been 
 kindled in New England. But the sea was too 
 broad. The new ideas of the right of the people 
 to make their own laws, and to elect their own 
 rulers, and to worship according to their own con- 
 sciences, had a fair field in the New World. 
 
 The time came when the influence of America 
 began to be felt in the Mother Country. One 
 reform bill has succeeded another in the English 
 Parliament, until the people have gained the 
 rights for which the Puritans struggled. The 
 Free Churches have been multiplied in the Home 
 Land. The Established Church has gained quite 
 as much as the churches of the Dissenters. So 
 that it has come to pass that the Anglo-Saxon 
 people in all parts of the world now stand for the 
 principles of the Puritans. It is no wonder that 
 the political tracts of John Milton are appreciated 
 as never before. Shakespeare has a much higher 
 place than he had before the Revolution of 1688, 
 yet we miss in his dramas the democratic spirit 
 which we find in Spenser and in Milton. We 
 
' 
 
 PREP A CE 
 
 are reading English literature in the new light 
 that is shining all about us. 
 
 It is a good time to make a fresh study of the 
 Puritans. We have still much to learn from 
 them in respect to the social and political and 
 religious questions of our time. In many ways 
 we are following their example. The Consti- 
 tution of the Republic is only a development of 
 the teachings of Thomas Hooker in Connecticut. 
 Our Home and Foreign missions are the expan- 
 sion of the missions of Eliot and the Mayhews. 
 Our schools and colleges for the people follow 
 Puritan examples. Tennyson has told us that 
 
 " thro* the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
 And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the 
 process of the suns." 
 
 Much of what has been the best in the nineteenth 
 century has come from our New England ances- 
 tors, and the twentieth century is likely to follow 
 the same line of development. 
 
 EZRA HOYT BYINGTON. 
 
 FRANKLIN STREET, NEWTON, MASS. 
 September I, 1899. 
 
.-' 
 
 xiii 
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LIST OF AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO xxiii-xxvi 
 
 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 North America known to Europeans a century before 
 New England was settled. Fisheries. Early Colo- 
 nies 1-3 
 
 I. The Reformation in the sixteenth century led to emi- 
 gration to New England. Pilgrims driven from 
 England. In Holland. Reasons for going to Amer- 
 ica ; a refuge, and a mission to the Indians. Their 
 poverty. Agreement with the Company in England. 
 Reasons why they succeeded. Voyage of the May- 
 flower. The compact in the Mayflower. Election 
 of Governor. Party of exploration. Plymouth 
 Rock. Building the common house. Severity of 
 the winter. Large number of deaths. The Indians. 
 
 Re-election of Governor Carver 4-18 
 
 II. The first spring at Plymouth. Planting. The first 
 marriage. Exploring parties sent out. Trade in 
 Boston Bay. The first harvest. Thanksgiving. 
 Arrival of reinforcements 19-27 
 
 III. The second winter. Danger from the Indians. 
 
 Preparations for defence. The first Christmas. 
 Sports forbidden 27-29 
 
 IV. The Pilgrim Republic. Treatment of the Indians. 
 
 Visit to Massasoit. Trouble with the Indians . 29-33 
 V. Scarcity of food. Building the fort. Allotment of land 
 
 to the families. Arrival of ships from England. 33-38 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 
 f/VliE. 
 
 ' VI. The year 1624. Prosperity. A more generous di- 
 tJ vision of land. Plentiful harvests. Visit from the 
 
 Dutch secretary. The end of seven years. Settle- 
 ment of the debts of the Colony. The Undertakers. 
 A new allotment of land to the Colonists. End of 
 
 communism. The debts paid 38-42 
 
 Democratic spirit in Plymouth. Simple manner of 
 life. Dwellings. Furniture. Schools. Dress. 
 Death of John Robinson. The Pilgrim Church. 
 Ministers. Service of song. Dr. Samuel Fuller. 42-48 
 VIII. Extension of the Colony. Duxbury. Domestic ani- 
 mals. Laws of the Colony. Legislature. Witch- 
 craft 49-52 
 
 IX. Small number of the Forefathers. Settlers from Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay. The New England Confederation. 52-54 
 X. Conclusion. Spirit of the Pilgrims. Fortitude. 
 Gentleness. Good fellowship with Massachusetts. 
 Governor Bradford's History of the Colony. Old 
 Colony and Massachusetts united 55~59 
 
 II 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 The Pilgrim prepared the way for the Puritan in New 
 England. The influence of Puritans in England. 
 The advanced Protestants of their time. King 
 James and the Puritans. Charles the First. The 
 crisis. The Church of England. Bishop Laud. 
 
 Outlook for freedom 63-68 
 
 I. John White of Dorchester. Dorchester adventurers. 
 Settlement of Salem. New charter. The first ex- 
 pedition. Salem. State of the Colony . . . 68-76 
 II. Higginson. Endicott. Plans for a Reformed Church. 
 The Church in Salem. Not a Separatist Church. 
 Influence of Plymouth. The Browns sent back to 
 England 76-85 
 
CONTENTS. xii'l 
 
 III. The Charter transferred to New England. Conference 
 at Cambridge. Winthrop chosen Governor. A 
 great company of Colonists. Their characteristics. 
 Their arrival in Massachusetts. Condition of the 
 Colony. Settlements at Charlestown, Boston, Water- 
 town, Roxbury. The first buildings. Sufferings 
 from the cold. Mortality. Scarcity of food. Pro- 
 visions received from England 85-93 
 
 J^7. The early Churches. Support of ministers by the 
 Colony. Salaries. Dorchester Church organized 
 before the voyage. The covenant. Views of the 
 Non-Conformists. Churches in Charlestown and 
 Watertown. Removal of Mr. Wilson to Boston. 
 / Essential things in a Puritan Church .... 93-98 
 
 W. Variety among the pioneers. University men, phy- 
 sicians, lawyers, ministers, merchants, farmers, and 
 servants. Ownership of land. No hereditary 
 privileges. The Colonial government gradually 
 leavened with democratic principles. Session of 
 General Court in 1630. Applicants for admission 
 as freemen. The Court lessens the power of free 
 men, and makes the office of Assistant permanent. 
 This an assumption of power. In 1632 the General 
 Court admits freemen, and concedes rights under 
 the Charter. Question as to taxes. Deputies chosen 
 by the people 99~ I0 5 
 
 VI. Dealings with the Indians. White men punished for 
 injustice to Indians. The lands purchased. Care 
 of the sick. Winthrop 's courtesy to the chiefs. 105-108 
 VII. Settlement of Newtown. John Eliot. The capital 
 fixed at Boston. Large immigration in 1633. John 
 Cotton and Thomas Hooker. The Commons 
 examine the Charter. Claim their rights in the 
 assessment of taxes. Governor Winthrop fails of 
 
 a re-election 108-111 
 
 VIII. The towns and plantations. Town meetings. The 
 germ of a republic. Jefferson quoted. The town 
 system. Voters. Powers of the town. The public 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 schools. Schools in Boston and Roxbury. General 
 law for schools. Boys and girls. Harvard College : 
 location, endowment, and name. The ministers 
 called by the towns. The early voluntary system. 
 Union of Church and State. Taxes for support of 
 ministers and for building meeting-houses. Effects 
 
 of this system iil-n8 
 
 IX. Growth of the Colony. Number of freemen. Trial 
 by jury. Taxes. Opposition in England. Arch- 
 bishop Laud. Demand for the Charter. Reports 
 of the sending of a Royal Governor. Preparations 
 to resist. Fortifications. Arming and drilling the 
 militia. Military commission. Friends of the 
 Colony in England. Weakness of the King . 119-124 
 X. Development of the Colonies. Roger Williams. 
 Preacher in Salem and in Plymouth. Returns to 
 Salem. Summoned before the Court. Banished. 
 His banishment one of the mistakes of the Puri- 
 tans. Settles at Providence. Colony of Rhode 
 
 Island 125-130 
 
 v XI. The Colony of Connecticut. Application of the peo- 
 ple of Newtown. Reasons for the request. Demo- 
 cratic ideas of Hooker. Permission to remove. 
 Journey through the wilderness. Windsor. Hart- 
 ford. Wethersfield. Springfield. Written Con- 
 stitution of Connecticut. General Court. Laws of 
 the Word of God. Settlement at Quinnipiack. 
 Eaton. Davenport. Milford and Guilford. Gen- 
 eral Court of the Colony. 1634. Mrs. Anne 
 Hutchinson described by Winthrop. Meetings for 
 women. Inner light. Inspiration. Prophecy. The 
 German mystics. Her opposition to the pastors. 
 Covenant of works. Covenant of grace. Denun- 
 ciation of the ministers. The. Synod ; its mod- 
 erator; its decisions. Action of the General Court. 
 Trial of Mrs. Hutchinson. Her banishment. 
 Settles in Rhode Island. Settlements in New 
 Hampshire 130-140 
 
. 
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 XII. The Pequot War. Indians in Massachusetts peace- 
 ful. Fewness of Indians. Settlements in Connecti- 
 cut. Murder of John Oldham. Expedition of 
 Endicott. Murder of settlers in Connecticut. 
 Attack upon Wethersfield. Captain Mason's cam- 
 paign. Attack upon the Indian fort. Defeat of 
 the Indians. Lessons of the War .... 141-144 
 
 XIII. The Long Parliament. End of the emigration from 
 
 England. Numbers who had come over. Cost of 
 transporting them. Pure blood of the Colonists. 
 The Confederation of four Colonies. Reasons for 
 union. Purpose of it. Its influence. Government 
 of the Colonies. The suffrage. Taxes. Courts. 
 Codes of laws. Churches. Officers. Public wor- 
 ship. Dwellings of the people. Improvements. 
 Food. Dress. Economy. The ministers' influence. 
 Dr. Northend's estimate of their logic . . . 144-153; 
 
 XIV. First meeting of the Commissioners. Their action. 
 
 New towns. The Indian question. Narragansetts 
 and Mohegans. Miantonomo. Military prepara- 
 tions. Dealings with the Dutch, Swedes, and 
 French. Second meeting of the Commissioners. 
 Maintenance of the clergy. Contributions to 
 Harvard College. Census. Road to the Con- 
 necticut 153-156 
 
 XV. Cambridge Synod. Practical topics before it. Cotton 
 and Hooker. Need of a standard of Church polity. 
 Members of the Synod. Time of its meetings. 
 Westminster Confession. The Cambridge Platform. 
 Statements of polity. Councils. Church and State. 
 Missions to the Indians. Roger Williams. May- 
 hew. John Eliot preaches and translates the Bible. 
 Towns of praying Indians. Churches. Contributions 
 from England. Claims of the English government, 
 and of the Colonies. Boston Harbor. Settlement 
 of Maine. Governed by Massachusetts. Proposals 
 of Oliver Cromwell. Rejected by the Colonists. 
 Commissioners for the Colonies. Pine tree shillings. 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Restoration of Charles II. Proclaimed in the 
 Colonies. Royal Charter for Connecticut. Union 
 with New Haven. Charter of Rhode Island 156-168 
 
 The Quakers in England. Origin of the sect. Their 
 missionaries. First Quakers in Massachusetts. 
 Their reception. Action of the Colonies against 
 them. Penalty of death. Enacted by a majority 
 of one. Opposition to it. Execution of four 
 Quakers in Boston. Public sentiment against the 
 persecution. Absurd acts of the Quakers. Roger 
 Williams on persecution. The Baptists in Mas- 
 sachusetts. Laws against them. A Baptist 
 Church in Boston. Belief in witchcraft. Sir 
 Matthew Hale. Early prosecutions for witchcraft. 
 Prosecutions at Salem. Numbers put to death. 
 End of the excitement 168-178 
 
 King Philip's War. Improvement of the Indians. 
 Their trade. Fire arms. Conspiracy. Losses of 
 the Colonists. Gifts from Ireland .... 179-181 
 
 Visit of the Royal Commissioners. Their demands. 
 Regicide judges. Plans of the Commissioners. 
 Ships and soldiers. Capture of New Amsterdam. 
 Visit to Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 
 Visit to Boston. Attempts to try appeals from 
 the Courts of the Colony. Recall of the Commis- 
 sioners. The Confederation. Repair of the forti- 
 fications. Claims of the Colonies. Claims of the 
 King. Writ of quo ivarranto. Refusal to give 
 up the Charter. It is declared void. Death of 
 Charles II. Reign of James II. The Charters 
 of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Governor 
 Andros. Rebellion in Boston. William and 
 Mary. The Provincial Charter 181-191 
 
 Condition of New England in 1692. Population. 
 Towns. The people. Education. Spirit of the 
 people. " The Wonder-Working Providence." 
 The Puritan ministers. Their learning. General 
 laws of the Colonies. Revenues .... 191-196 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XX. Expansion of the Puritan Colonies in two centu- 
 ries. Growth of settlements in Connecticut. In 
 Rhode Island. In Massachusetts. Settlement of 
 New Hampshire. Of Maine. Of Vermont. 
 Puritan exodus to the West. Wyoming Valley. 
 New York. Ohio. Michigan. The Northwest. 
 The Pacific Coast. Colleges. Greater New 
 England 196-201 
 
 \ 
 
 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 The missionary spirit of the Pilgrims. The Puritans. 
 
 The Charter of the Colony 205-206 
 
 I. Early missionary efforts. Kindness to their Indian 
 neighbors. Action of the General Court. Mis- 
 sions of the Mayhews 207-209 
 
 II. John Eliot. Birthplace. Family. His father. Church 
 of St. John Baptist. Youth of Eliot. Enters the 
 
 University. Rank as a scholar 209-212 
 
 III. Usher under Hooker. His friends going to New 
 
 England. Decides to go with them . . . 212-213 
 IV. Sails for Boston. Settles in Roxbury. Marriage. 
 Ministry in Roxbury. His first volume. His 
 
 characteristics 214-218 
 
 V. Learns the Indian language. His teachers. No 
 
 Protestant Missions 218-221 
 
 VI. Preaches to the Indians. Nonantum. His method. 222-224 
 VII. His first preaching. The ten Commandments. Ques- 
 tions by the Indians. The second preaching. 
 
 Catechism 224-228 
 
 VIII. Success of his efforts. Seconded by Governor Win- 
 throp and other leaders of the Colony. Permanent 
 results. Indian town at Nonantum. Industry of 
 the praying Indians. Clothing. Cambridge Sy- 
 nod. An Indian congregation 228-233 
 
XV111 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IX. Need of financial support for the mission. Appeal 
 to friends in England. Cromwell seconds it. So- 
 ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in New 
 
 England. Large contributions 233-237 
 
 X. Town of praying Indians at Natick. Title to the 
 lands. Eliot's foot-bridge. The allotment of land. 
 Stockade. The large framed house . . . 237-241 
 
 XI. The Indian community. Exodus, eighteenth chap- 
 ter. Covenant. Religious services at Natick. 
 Laws of Massachusetts. Indian laws. Other In- 
 dian communities. Reservations of land. Eliot's 
 training school for preachers. Major Gookin the 
 
 Commissioner 241-245 
 
 XII. Indian churches. Caution of the Missionary. The 
 Indian Catechism. First Church at Natick. Other 
 Churches 245-248 
 
 XIII. The Indian Bible. Eliot had no assistants. Pub- 
 
 lished in 1661. Expenses paid by the English 
 Society. Second edition of the Bible. A dead 
 language 249-253 
 
 XIV. Progress of Missions among the Indians. Eliot's 
 
 missionary tours. Opposition of the Sachems. 
 King Philip. Eliot goes to Nashaway. Quaboag. 
 Narrative by Major Gookin of missionary tours. 253-258 
 XV. Extension of the work in the Old Colony, and on 
 the Islands. Number of Missionaries. Visit from 
 
 a Jesuit Missionary to Mr. Eliot 258-261 
 
 XVI. King Philip's War. A revolt of paganism. Dis- 
 trust of the praying Indians. Removed to Deer 
 Island. Sufferings of the Indians. Release at 
 the end of the war. Their poverty and discourage- 
 ment 261-265 
 
 XVII. The closing years. Decline of the Indian Churches. 
 Decay of the Indian race. Efforts of Mr. 
 Eliot to check the decline. Old age of Mr. Eliot. 
 His death. List of his works. His burial 
 place 266-270 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 IV 
 
 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT 
 AWAKENING 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Meaning of the Great Awakening 273 
 
 I. Decay of the Puritan Churches. The Reforming 
 Synod. Evidences of religious declension. Causes. 
 Mistakes of the Puritans. Union of Church and 
 State. Half Way Covenant. An extreme theology. 
 Efforts to check the decline of the Churches. Re- 
 ligious declension in England 274-282 
 
 II. The life of Jonathan Edwards. Education at Yale 
 College. Ordination at Northampton. Preaching. 
 His delicate sensibilities. Poetic temperament. 
 Religious experiences. Personal appearance and 
 manner of preaching 283-288 
 
 III. Arminianism of the eighteenth century. Methods of 
 preaching. Influence of Mr. Stoddard. Edwards's 
 preaching on Justification by Faith. Beginning of 
 the revival, 1734. New sense of personal responsi- 
 bility. Extension of the revival in the Valley of 
 the Connecticut. Edwards as an evangelist. Re- 
 vivals of 1740, 1741, 1745. Pastors as evangelists. 
 The sermon at Enfield. Condition of that parish. 
 The sermon adapted to the special case. Themes 
 of Edwards's sermons 288-298 
 
 IV. The Methodist revival in England. Preaching of 
 Whitefield. His visit to New England. Preaches 
 in Boston and in Northampton. A new impulse to 
 
 the Great Awakening 298-300 
 
 V. Extent of the religious work in New England. In- 
 fluence upon methods of preaching, and upon eccle- 
 siastical methods. Upon the religious life of this 
 country. The Methodists in the United States. 
 Missionary agencies of the nineteenth century. 301-305 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Intelligence of the fathers of New England. Their 
 libraries. Harvard College. The great middle class 
 
 in England 309-310 
 
 I. The Elizabethan age of English literature. Spenser. 
 The Faery Queen. Protestant. Sidney. Milton. 
 Bacon. Shakespeare. His life in the great age of 
 
 Puritanism 311-315 
 
 II. Birth of Shakespeare. His parents. Free school at 
 Stratford. Marriage. Goes to London. Connec- 
 tion with the theatre. An actor. Writer of plays. 
 The Lord Chamberlain's Company. Buys the New 
 Place at Stratford 315-320 
 
 III. His relation to the Puritans. His life among them. 
 Stratford a stronghold of Puritanism. His eldest 
 daughter a Puritan. The Puritans a majority of 
 Englishmen. Shakespeare's knowledge of the Puri- 
 tans. His universality. Does not revile the Puri- 
 tans, but ignores them 321-326 
 
 IV. His lack of sympathy with the common people. With 
 their struggles against oppression. His injustice 
 to Jack Cade in Henry VI. No reference to Magna 
 Charta in King John. His associations with the 
 nobility. Contrast with Milton and Spenser as 
 respects political principles. The Puritans did not 
 patronize the stage. The English Reformation in 
 
 the play of Henry VII 1 326-333 
 
 V. Limitations of Shakespeare. His estimate of his 
 poems. Neglect of his dramatic works. Has left 
 no trace upon the political life of his time. His 
 sensibility to the best in nature and art ... 333-337 
 
 VI. Lack of moral purpose in his plays. His opinion of 
 the proper function of the drama. Moral purpose 
 
CONTENTS. XXI 
 
 of the highest art. Purity of his own moral na- 
 
 ture 337-340 
 
 VII. The question as to a religious element in Shake- 
 speare. A Romanist or a Protestant ? References 
 to the Church. To clergymen. To music. To the 
 Bible. Not an Agnostic. References to God and 
 Providence. To the Crusades. To prayer. To a 
 future life. To suicide. His lack of faith in the 
 spiritual. His early hopefulness. Gloom of his 
 later years. His Sonnets. Companions of his life 
 in London. Why he was unable to enter into the 
 Puritan spirit and life 340-354 
 
 INDEX 355 
 
List of Authorities Referred To 
 
 [See "The Puritan in England and New-England" xxv-xxix.] 
 
 Among My Books. James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Bancroft's History of the United States, Centenary Edition. 6 vols. 
 Bibliotheca Sacra. 1855. 1897. 
 
 Bradford's (Governor) History of Plymouth Plantation. Legisla- 
 tive Edition. 
 
 Brigham's Compact, with the Charter. 
 Bryce's American Commonwealths. 
 Burke's Works. Vol. II. 
 
 Cambridge Platform of Church Discipline. 
 
 Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices. 
 
 Campbell's Puritan in Holland, England, and America. 2 vols. 
 
 Centenary of American Methodism. Stevens. 
 
 Chalmer's History of the Revolt of the American Colonies. 
 
 Christian History, Boston. 
 
 Clap's Memoirs. 
 
 Cockenoe. Elliot's First Indian Teacher. 1896. Harpers. 
 
 Colonial Records of Connecticut. 
 
 Colonial Records of Massachusetts. 
 
 Colonial Records of New Hampshire. 
 
 Colonial Records of New Haven. 
 
 Colonial Records of Rhode Island. 
 
 Congregational Quarterly. Vol. I.-V. 
 
 Congregationalism as seen in its Literature. Dr. Dexter. 
 
 Contemporary Review. January, 1895. 
 
 Craik's English of Shakespeare. 
 
 Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism. Prof. Williston 
 
 Walker. 
 Critical Study of Shakespeare. George Brandes. 2 vols. 
 
XXIV LIST OF A UTHORITIES REFERRED TO. 
 
 Davis History of Plymouth. 
 
 Dowden's Shakespeare, His Mind and Art. 
 
 Early Constitutional History of Connecticut. Dr. L. Bacon. 
 
 Election Sermons of Massachusetts. 1666-1714. 
 
 Eliot's Communion of Churches. 
 
 Eliot Genealogy. 
 
 Eliot's Indian Bible. 
 
 Eliot's Indian Grammar. 
 
 Eliot's Life, by Dr. Nehemiah Adams. 
 
 Eliot's Life by C. Francis. Spark's American Biography. 
 
 Ellis' History of the First Church in Boston. 
 
 Elton's Life of Roger Williams. 
 
 Encyclopedia Britannica. Art. Witchcraft. Vol. XXIV. 
 
 Felt's Ecclesiastical History of New England. 
 Fiske's Beginnings of New England. 
 
 Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic. 1888. 
 
 Green's History of the English People : 4 volumes. 
 
 Green's Making of England. 
 
 Hazard's Papers. 
 
 Higginson's New England Plantation. 
 
 Historical Discourses. Dr. Bacon. 
 
 History of Connecticut. Alexander Johnson. 
 
 History of Congregationalism. Professor Walker. 
 
 History of Doctrines. Professor Fisher. 
 
 History of New England. 1630-1649. John Winthrop. Edition 
 
 of 1858. 
 
 Hubbard's History. 
 Hume's History of England. 
 Hutchinson's Collections. 
 
 Johnson, Edward. Wonder- Working Providence. 
 Journal of the Privy Council. 
 
 Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. John Cotton. 
 Life of Jonathan Edwards. Prof. A. V. G. Allen. 
 
LIST OF A UTHORITIES REFERRED TO. XXV 
 
 Macaulay's History of England. 
 
 Ms. Journal of E. Parkman. Library American Antiquarian 
 
 Society. 
 Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections, ist, 3rd, and 4th 
 
 Series. 
 
 Mather's Magnalia. 1702. 
 
 Memorials of the Pilgrim Fathers. W. Winters. 
 Milton's L'Allegro. 
 Morton's Memorial. 
 Mourt's Relation. Dr. Dexter's Edition. 1865. 
 
 Natick. Bigelow's History of. 
 
 Neal's History of the Puritans. 4 vols. 1732. 
 
 New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. 14, 
 
 Vol. 48, 1894. 
 
 New England Prospect. Wood. 
 Northend's The Bay Colony. 
 
 Palfrey's History of New England. 5 volumes. 
 Parliamentary History. Vol. I. 
 Prince's Annals of New England. 1736. 
 Protestant Missions. Dr. A. C. Thompson. 
 Puritan in England and New England. 
 
 Records Colony of Massachusetts Bay. 
 Rhode Island Historical Collections. 
 
 Schlegel's Dramatic Literature. Bohn's Edition. 
 
 SewalPs Diary. 1674-1729. 
 
 Shakespeare's Dramatic Works. White's Edition. 
 
 Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible. Bishop Words- 
 worth. 
 
 Shakespeare's Life, Art, and Character. Hudson. 
 
 Shephard's Sincere Convert. 1648. 
 
 Some Aspects of the Religious Life in New England. Dr. George 
 L. Walker. 
 
 The Great Awakening. Joseph Tracy. 
 
 The New World. December, 1896. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers. Rev. John Brown. 1895. 
 
XXVI LIST OF A UTHORITIES REFERRED TO. 
 
 The Simple Cobbler of Agawam. Nathaniel Ward. 
 
 Three Episodes of Massachusetts History. Charles Francis Adams. 
 
 Trumbull's History of Connecticut. 
 
 Vattel. Law of Nations. 
 
 Way of the Churches Cleared. John Cotton. 
 
 Willard's Body of Divinity. 
 
 Winslow's Brief Narration. 
 
 Works of Jonathan Edwards. Worcester Edition. 
 
 Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts. 
 Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers. 
 
List of Illustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 GOVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP Frontispiece 
 
 From Sharpe's Engraving of the Portrait in the Massachusetts State 
 Chamber. 
 
 GOVERNOR EDWARD WINSLOW . . .* 121 
 
 From the Painting at Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth. 
 
 JOHN ELIOT PREACHING TO THE INDIANS 209 
 
 From the Bas-relief, Congregational Building. 
 
I 
 
 The Pilgrim as a Colonist 
 
The Pilgrim as a Colonist 
 
 NORTH AMERICA had been known to 
 Europeans more than a hundred years 
 before the earliest permanent settlements were 
 made in New England. The coasts and bays 
 and harbors had been explored by enterprising 
 navigators of various nations, and the narratives 
 which they had published had awakened an in- 
 terest in the country among many people. As 
 early as 1575 from thirty to fifty English ships 
 came every year to the Banks of Newfoundland 
 to fish. Fifty years before the settlement of 
 Plymouth, attempts more or less successful had 
 been made to plant colonies within the present 
 limits of the United States. The first perma- 
 nent Colony in Virginia had been planted thirteen 
 years earlier than the first Colony in New Eng- 
 land. Every year the country was becoming 
 better known. In 1607 a small Colony was 
 planted within the present limits of Maine, but 
 it was soon abandoned. Other attempts to es- 
 tablish settlements had been made, having for 
 their leading purpose the prosecution of the cod 
 fisheries, and the extension of the trade in furs 
 with the Indians. 
 
THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 I 
 
 THE earliest permanent settlements in NW_ 
 
 England were made by the Pilgrims and the 
 
 Puritans, who had been crowded out 
 
 Earliest Settle- . 
 
 or rLngland by religious persecution. 
 
 These settlements were among the re- 
 sults of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. 
 The Pilgrims had been driven from their na- 
 tive land in 1608, by the stress of persecution. 
 They had found a hospitable refuge in Hol- 
 land, where they dwelt in peace and security 
 for twelve years. But they had learned that it 
 was not possible for them to secure the results 
 which they had most at heart so long as they 
 dwelt in Holland. They could not be content 
 with peace and security for themselves alone, 
 because they believed they had an important 
 mission to fulfil for the extension of the kingdom 
 of God among their own countrymen. " A man 
 must not respect only to live," they said, " and 
 doe good to himselfe, but he should see where he 
 can live to do most good to others." l In Hol- 
 land they were likely to lose their own language, 
 and their connection with the English people. 
 They were not able to induce the Dutch people 
 to keep the Sabbath according to their own con- 
 victions of duty. They could not give their 
 
 1 Mourt's Relation, Dr. Dexter's edition, 146 R. C. 
 
REASONS FOR THE EMIGRATION. 
 
 children such an education as they had received. 1 
 If they should continue in Holland they would 
 be likely to lose their influence with the English 
 people, and to become incorporated with the 
 people of Holland. They had also, as Governor 
 Bradford tells us, a great hope of laying some 
 good foundation "for y e propagating and ad- 
 vancing ye gospel of ye kingdom of Christ in 
 those remote parts of the world." 2 " Seeing we 
 daily pray for the conversion of the heathens, 
 we must consider whether there be not some 
 ordinary means and course for us to take to 
 convert them, or whether praier for them be only 
 referred to God's extraordanaire work from 
 heaven. . . . To us they cannot come, for our 
 land is full ; to them we may goe, their land is 
 emptie." 3 
 
 The experiences of twelve years of " peace 
 and security " in Holland had taught these 
 stanch Englishmen of the Protestant faith that 
 the only way by which they could fulfil the 
 mission which God had given them was to 
 establish colonies in the new lands beyond the 
 sea. They could support themselves where they 
 were, but they could not transmit to other gen- 
 erations the liberty which they had gained. 
 
 1 Young's Chronicles, Edward Winslow, 380. 
 
 2 Bradford's History, 24 (edition of Mass. Historical Society). 
 8 Robert Cushman in Mourt's Relation, 147, 148. 
 
THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Therefore they determined to go, in spite of 
 their weakness and poverty. The congregation 
 at Leyden can hardly have numbered more than 
 two or three hundred. 1 Only the younger and 
 more vigorous members of the community could 
 go in the beginning. They were too poor to 
 provide a ship and the necessary supplies for a 
 colony. So they entered into an agreement 
 with a company of business men in London. 
 The company was to furnish the capital neces- 
 sary to carry forward the enterprise. This was 
 purely a business arrangement, and the terms 
 were not very liberal. Those who were trans- 
 ported to the Colony and those who provided 
 the capital were to be in partnership for seven 
 years. The Colonists were to work for the Com- 
 pany, and they were to have " their meate, drink, 
 apparell, and all provisions out of the common 
 stock and goods of y e colonie." It was stipu- 
 lated that they were not only to build houses, 
 and plant and cultivate the fields, but also to 
 engage in the fisheries, and that all the profits 
 obtained either by tilling the land, or by trading 
 with the Indians, or by the fisheries, should re- 
 main in the common stock until the seven years 
 had expired. At that time, " the houses, lands, 
 goods and chattels were to be divided among 
 
 1 Young's Chronicles, chapter xxvi. pp. 455, 456. Winslow's 
 Brief Narration, 90. Bradford's History, 42. 
 
TERMS OF THE SETTLEMENT. 
 
 those who had shares in the common stock, 
 whether as capitalists or as colonists." 1 It was 
 expected that by the expiration of that period 
 the profits of the trade with the Indians, and of 
 the fisheries, and of agricultural industry, would 
 have amounted to enough to repay the capital 
 that had been invested, and to pay a profit to 
 those who had shares in the Colony. 
 
 These terms were accepted by the Pilgrims be- 
 cause they were the best they could obtain, and, 
 because they were convinced that their success 
 as a religious body depended entirely upon 
 planting colonies in America., It was agreed that 
 every one who joined the Colony should become 
 a shareholder.l Those who had any property put 
 it into the common stock. Every person above 
 sixteen years of age was considered as the owner 
 of one share of stock, of the value of ten pounds. 
 
 The Colonists had asked the King for a defi- 
 nite promise that they should enjoy religious^ 
 liberty in their new homes, but he had refused 
 to make such a promise. They had attempted 
 to secure from the Virginia Company a patent 
 with a grant of land for their settlement. But at 
 the time of their departure no patent had been 
 secured. A number of persons from London 
 and other places in England joined the Colony, 
 and after many delays they sailed from Plymouth 
 
 1 Bradford's History, 45, 46. 
 
8 
 
 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 in the Mayflower, a ship of a hundred and 
 eighty tons, September 6th, 1620,* with one 
 hundred and two persons on board. 
 
 What prospect was there that this small colony 
 would succeed, where so many earlier colonies 
 had failed? Their pastor, John Robinson, had 
 set forth the reasons in a letter to Sir Edwin 
 Sandys, three years before. He said: 
 
 " ist. We verily believe and trust y e Lord is with us, 
 unto whom and whose service we have given ourselves 
 in many trialls. 
 
 " 2ly. We are well weaned from y e delicate milke of 
 our Mother countrie, and enured to y e difficulties of a 
 strange and hard land. 
 
 " 3ly. The people are, for the body of them, industri- 
 ous, & frugall, as any company of people in the world. 
 
 " 4ly. We are knite together as a body in a most stricte 
 & sacred bond and covenante of the Lord, of the viola- 
 tion whereof we make great conscience, and by vertue 
 whereof we doe hould our selves straitly tied to all care 
 of each others good, and of ye whole by each one and so 
 mutually. 
 
 " 5. Lastly, it is not with us as with other men whom 
 small things can discourage, or small discontentments 
 cause to wish themselves home againe." 1 
 
 Mr. Robinson knew his people well when he 
 wrote these remarkable words. And the people 
 showed, in the experiences of the next twenty 
 years, that he had not overrated the faith, and 
 
 1 Bradford's History, 32, 33. 
 
THE MAYFLOWER. 
 
 patience, and energy of these Anglo-Saxon 
 Christians. 
 
 The Mayflower had a stormy passage across 
 the Atlantic. On the Qth of November, more than 
 nine weeks after they had left England, they came 
 in sight of land, which proved to be Cape Cod, 
 "at which they were not a little joyfull." They 
 made some efforts to sail to the south until they 
 should reach the mouth of the Hudson River, but 
 they were turned back by the dangers of the pas- 
 sage, and the " next day they gott into y e Cape- 
 harbor where they ride in saftie. . . . Being thus 
 arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to 
 land, they fell upon their knees & blessed y e God 
 of heaven, who had brought them over y e vast & 
 furious Ocean, and delivered them from all ye 
 perils & miseries thereof, againe to set their 
 feete on y e firme and stable earth, their proper 
 elemente." l 
 
 Before they landed they made preparations for 
 the beginning of a settled government. We learn 
 from a letter of Mr. Robinson, that they had de- 
 termined before they set out from Leyden " to 
 become a body politike using civil governmente 
 amongst themselves." 2 They had also discovered 
 during the long voyage across the sea that they 
 had some disorderly persons in their company, 
 who would need to be restrained by the authority 
 
 1 Bradford, 77, 78. 2 Bradford, 66. 
 
IO THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 of a settled government. Governor Bradford tells 
 us that the strangers amongst them had been say- 
 ing that "as soon as they should come on shore 
 they should do as they pleased, for no one had 
 power to command them." 1 So they entered into 
 a mutual compact, which was the foundation of 
 their government for many years. In this com- 
 pact they say : 
 
 \/" We whose names are underwritten, the loyall 
 subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King 
 James, by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, 
 France, & Ireland King, defender of ye faith, 
 &c., haveing undertaken, for y e glorie of God, 
 and advancemente of y e Christian faith, and honor 
 of our King & Countrie, a voyage to plant y e 
 first Colonie in y e Northerne parts of Virginia; 
 doe by these presents, solemnly & mutually in ye 
 presence of God, and one of another, covenant 
 and combine ourselves together into a civill body 
 politicke, for our better ordering & preservation 
 & furtherance of ye ends aforesaid ; and by virtue 
 hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just 
 & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, 
 & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought 
 most meete & convenient for ye general good of 
 ye Colonie, unto which we promise all due sub- 
 mission and obedience. In witness whereof we 
 have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape 
 
 1 Bradford, 89. 
 
THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT. II 
 
 Codd, ye 1 1 of November, in ye year of ye raigne 
 of our soveraigne lord, King James, of England, 
 France, & Ireland ye eighteenth, and of Scotland 
 ye Fiftie fourth. Ano-Dom. i62O. 5>1 
 
 To this solemn compact were appended the 
 signatures of the adult males of the Company, 2 
 as representing not only themselves but the 
 members of their families. The other English 
 Colonies had suffered from the lack of regular 
 authority. The idle and the dissipated had 
 weakened the sober and industrious Colonists, 
 and in a number of instances had ruined the 
 Colony. Such authority as existed in those Col- 
 onies had been derived from England, either by 
 the appointment of the Company on whose lands 
 the settlement had been made, or by that of the 
 King. Here, for the first time, was a provision 
 for self-government, under the sovereignty of the 
 King of England. At this initial point in the 
 history of the Colony, the Pilgrims showed their 
 skill and wisdom as Colonists. They knew how 
 to plant a settlement for freemen. In this com- 
 pact it is taken for granted that " rulers derive 
 their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
 erned." The signers of this compact, and such 
 others as they should select, were to have a voice 
 in the election of officers, and in the enactment 
 
 1 Bradford, 89, 90. 
 
 2 See Morton's Memorial, 26. Prince's Annals, 172. 
 
12 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 and execution of laws. " Here," said John Quincy 
 Adams, " was a unanimous and personal assent, 
 by all the individuals of the community, to the 
 association, by which they become a nation." 
 To the same effect, Mr. Bancroft said, " Here 
 was the birth of popular constitutional liberty. 
 In the cabin of the Mayflower, humanity recov- 
 ered its rights, and instituted government on the 
 basis of equal laws enacted by the people for the 
 general good." 1 
 
 After this excellent beginning, these practical 
 social philosophers proceeded to organize the 
 Colony according to this compact, as loyal sub- 
 jects of the King of England. In the first place, 
 they elected Mr. John Carver (a man, as they 
 said, " godly and well approved amongst them ") 
 their Governor for the remainder of that year. 
 The same day they sent out the first party to 
 explore the country, and find a place for a settle- 
 ment. Fifteen or sixteen men, well armed, were 
 sent ashore at what is now Provincetown, to see 
 wnat the land was and what inhabitants they 
 could meet with. The next month was devoted 
 to these explorations. They went sometimes in 
 boats, and sometimes on foot. The weather was 
 cold, and the severe storms of the late autumn 
 and of the early winter were upon them. The 
 
 1 Bancroft's History of the United States, Centenary Edition, 
 i. 244. 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR LANDING. 13 
 
 party went armed, so as to defend themselves 
 against attacks of the Indians, who were some- 
 times friendly and sometimes hostile. At length, 
 on Saturday, the 9th of December (O. S.), Cap- 
 tain Myles Standish and his party landed on 
 Clark's Island, at the entrance to the harbor 
 of Plymouth. Here they rested on the Sabbath 
 day, according to the commandment. On Mon- 
 day, the nth of December (O. S.), they landed 
 on Plymouth rock, not " on a stern and rock- 
 bound coast," as Mrs. Hemans says, but "in a 
 goodly land with a very good harbor for their 
 ship," a place "very good for situation, . . . with 
 divers corn fields, and little running brooks, of 
 very sweet fresh water, . . . the best water that 
 ever we drunke." The brooks were full of fish. 
 There was an abundance of wild fowl. There 
 was a great variety of timber growing. " So," 
 they tell us, " we returned to our Ship againe 
 with good newes to the rest of our people, which 
 did much comfort their hearts." 1 
 
 On the 1 5th of December (O. S.) the May- 
 flower was turned toward the newly found har- 
 bor, and the next day she was anchored at the 
 entrance to the bay, whose shores were said to 
 be "like a Cycle, or Fish Hooke." On the i8th 
 and 1 9th, they were making careful examina- 
 tion of the various favorable points about the 
 
 1 Mourt's Relation, 57-61. 
 
14 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 bay. On Wednesday, the 2Oth (O. S.), after 
 they had called upon the Lord to direct them, 
 they decided upon the place for their first set- 
 tlement. They were prevented from landing 
 the two days following by a severe storm, but 
 on Saturday, December 23 (O. S.), which was 
 January 2 (N. S.), they made their final landing. 
 
 It was now almost midwinter. But they be- 
 gan at once cutting and carrying timber, for build- 
 ing their houses. They rested on the 24th, which 
 was the Sabbath ; but no man rested, we are told, 
 on the 25th, which was Christmas. All who 
 were able to work went on shore. Some were 
 cutting timber, some were carrying logs to the 
 place selected for building, some were sawing, 
 and some were splitting. On Thursday they 
 measured the ground for the house lots of the 
 nineteen families into which they had divided 
 their company. They were to have two rows of 
 houses for the sake of compactness, and greater 
 safety against the attacks of Indians. It was 
 agreed that every man should build his own 
 house, thinking "men would make more hast 
 than working in common." The common house, 
 which was designed as the place for storing the 
 goods of the whole Colony, was the first to be 
 completed. It was a building twenty feet square. 
 They gathered grass from the open fields to 
 thatch the roof. It took them about three weeks 
 
CALAMITIES OF THE WINTER. 15 
 
 to complete it. From that time until the other 
 houses were ready for use, those of the Colony 
 who were on shore used the common house as 
 a lodging place ; for when the thatched roof took 
 fire, a few days later, there were two men who 
 were sick in bed in this house, and " the house 
 was as full of beds as they could lie one by an- 
 other." Before the end of January, they com- 
 pleted another building for storing their common 
 provisions. By the 2oth of February they had 
 completed a house for their sick people, for 
 the unusual experiences and fatigues to which 
 these people, so recently from the city of Leyden, 
 were entirely unaccustomed had caused a gen- 
 eral sickness, so that at the time of greatest dis- 
 tress there were but six or seven well persons to 
 care for the sick, and to bury the dead. But the 
 true spirit of the Pilgrims was manifested in a 
 wonderful manner during this time of general 
 distress. Those who were well, we are told, 
 " spared no pains, night nor day, but with abun- 
 dance of toyle and hazard of their own health, 
 fetched them wood from a distance, made their 
 fires, and nursed them as tenderly as if they had 
 been of their own families." 1 But the mortality 
 was very great. Six of the small company died 
 in December, eight in January, seventeen in 
 February, and thirteen in March. Before the 
 
 1 Bradford's History, 91, also foot note. 
 
i6 
 
 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 year was over, one half the whole number had 
 died. 
 
 The work of building houses was going on 
 through the winter. The timber was brought 
 from the forest by the men of the Colony, for 
 they had neither horses nor cattle, neither cows 
 nor milk. It is not certain how many houses 
 were completed the first winter. Until the 5th 
 of April, when the Mayflower sailed for England, 
 some of them were permitted to find a refuge, 
 such as it was, on the ship. 
 
 The Indians were never far away. Now and 
 then they showed themselves to the Colonists, 
 but they were treated with so much kindness, 
 and with so much fearlessness, that there was, 
 for the most part, peace between the English 
 and the savages. It was some months before 
 they were able to have any communication with 
 them. About the 26th of March, of the first 
 winter, Samoset, an Indian who had learned a 
 little English, came alone into the village, and 
 bade them welcome. He told them of the vari- 
 ous tribes of Indians, of their chiefs, and the 
 number of their warriors. They gave him pres- 
 ents, and sent him away in peace. A little later 
 he came back with five other Indians, who were 
 also treated in a kind and friendly manner. The 
 ist of April Samoset returned with an Indian 
 who was able to speak a little English, whose 
 
THE FIRST SPRING. I 7 
 
 name was Tisquantum. These two friendly 
 Indians were of very great advantage to the 
 settlers. They brought Massaspit, the chief of 
 the Wampanoags to Plymouth, and prepared 
 the way for a treaty of peace. The Governor 
 kissed the hand of the chief, and the chief kissed 
 the Governor. They drank strong water to- 
 gether, and, by the help of the interpreters, they 
 entered into an alliance of peace and friendship, 
 which was never broken so long as the chief 
 lived. 
 
 The extreme severity of the winter had gone 
 by in the latter part of January, when they had 
 a few " very faire Sunshinie days." On Sunday, 
 January 3ist, they had their first service of 
 worship in the common house on shore. The 
 next day they carried their barrels of meal to 
 the storehouse. The latter part of March they 
 appointed Captain Myles Standish the com- 
 mander of their little army. Their cannon were 
 landed on the 3d of March, and were drawn up 
 the hill and mounted in a position to sweep 
 the approaches to the village in case of hostile 
 attack. It was on the i3th of March when 
 they heard " the birds singing in the woods 
 most pleasantly," and the same day they had 
 their first thunderstorm. On the 2Qth of March 
 they prepared the ground and sowed their gar- 
 den seeds. About the same time the men of 
 
i8 
 
 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 the Colony held a public meeting, and adopted 
 the first laws. The ist of April was another 
 warm day, and they held another public meeting 
 to adopt regulations for the Colony. 
 
 The year began the last of March, according 
 to the old style, and on the last day of the old 
 year they elected the excellent Governor Carver 
 their Governor for another year. About this 
 time they learned, from one of the friendly 
 Indians, that four years before the Colony was 
 planted, there had been a plague in those parts, 
 of which nearly all the inhabitants had died, so 
 that "there was neither man, woman, nor childe 
 remaining, to hinder our possession, or to lay 
 claim unto it." 1 This was regarded by the Pil- 
 grims as very remarkable, for it left the way 
 open for them to make a peaceable settlement. 
 It was also one of the indications that the 
 Indians of those parts were a decaying race. It 
 is probable that they were becoming fewer be- 
 fore the settlements of Europeans were begun. 
 At the same time it is certainly true that the 
 Pilgrims treated the aborigines with great kind- 
 ness, and that they never, in any instance, re- 
 sorted to hostile measures, excepting when there 
 was decisive evidence that the Indians were pre- 
 paring for hostilities. 
 
 1 Mourt's Relation, 85. 
 
RETURN OF THE MAYFLOWER. I 9 
 
 II 
 
 GOVERNOR BRADFORD in his History begins the 
 year 1621 the latter part of March, according to 
 the reckoning of that time. It was the spring- 
 time, and the affairs of the Colony were begin- 
 ning to wear a more cheerful aspect. Several 
 of the houses had been so far completed that the 
 families could occupy them with a The First spring 
 degree of comfort. The severe sick- atpl y mouth - 
 ness was abating, and those of the Colonists who 
 had survived the winter were regaining strength 
 and courage. About the middle of April (N. S.), 
 the Mayflower, which had been retained through 
 the winter on account of the distress of the 
 Colony, sailed for England. But no one of the 
 Pilgrims went back in the vessel. 
 
 The people now began to plant their corn, 
 under the instruction of Tisquantum, the friendly 
 Indian. They had no means of ploughing the 
 fields, so that they were obliged to prepare 
 the ground with hoes, in the manner of the 
 Indians. They used for seed some corn which 
 they had found stored in the ground, where the 
 Indians had placed it for safety. This corn they 
 afterwards paid for at its full value. Tisquan- 
 tum taught them how to enrich the ground 
 which they had planted by burying in the soil 
 the large fish which were abundant on that 
 
2O THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 shore. He told them that the crop would come 
 to nothing unless they put in an abundance of 
 these alewives. They also sowed some wheat 
 and pease which they had brought from Eng- 
 land. All the work, except that in the small gar- 
 dens which belonged with the houses, was done 
 in common. This method was not adopted by 
 the Pilgrims from choice, but because it was 
 required by the agreement into which they had 
 entered with those who had provided the capital 
 for the Colony. There were only twenty-one 
 men and six boys left to do the work. But 
 this small company planted and cultivated twenty 
 acres of Indian corn, and six acres of wheat and 
 pease, or barley, besides carrying forward their 
 building operations. A little later we find that 
 they had eleven buildings, seven of which were 
 dwellings, and the others houses for the general 
 use of the plantation. 
 
 While they were busy with their planting, 
 Governor Carver died, after an illness of a very 
 few days. He was greatly lamented, and was 
 buried with military honors. A few days later 
 William Bradford was chosen Governor by the 
 suffrages of the men of the Colony, and Isaac 
 Allerton was chosen his Assistant. 
 
 On the 27th of May the first marriage 
 in the Colony took place. Edward Winslow, 
 whose wife had died during the terrible winter, 
 
VISIT TO MASSASOIT. 21 
 
 married Mrs. Susanna White, the mother of 
 Peregrine, the first child born after their arrival. 
 Her husband also had died during the winter. 
 There was no minister amongst them, and the 
 ceremony was performed by a magistrate, and 
 probably by Governor Bradford. 
 
 As the urgent business of the springtime was 
 finished, the enterprising Colony determined to 
 send an expedition into the wilderness to explore 
 the country, and to cultivate peaceful relations with 
 their new friend Massasoit. Edward Winslow and 
 Stephen Hopkins were sent by the Governor, on 
 the 1 2th of July, with their friend Tisquantum, 
 who was both interpreter and guide. They took 
 with them presents, with a message of peace, and 
 also an invitation to the chief to open a trade 
 with them in furs, which the Indians desired to 
 sell, as much as the English desired to buy. 
 They were instructed to offer to pay the full 
 value for the corn which they had dug out from 
 the Indian place of storage on their first landing. 
 The business was all skilfully and successfully 
 done. They were two days on the journey out, 
 and had abundant opportunities to study the 
 people and the country, and to make friends 
 among them. Massasoit was not at home when 
 they arrived, but he came at the call of their 
 messenger. They discharged their guns, and 
 saluted him. They then delivered their messages, 
 
22 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 and their presents to the chief. He made them 
 a great speech, after the Indian manner, renewed 
 his assurances of peace and friendship, and invited 
 them to smoke the pipe of peace. On Friday 
 morning they set out for home, and arrived safely 
 before the Sabbath. The result of this friendly 
 visit was to strengthen the ties of friendship, and 
 to prepare the way for a profitable trade with the 
 Indians. 
 
 On the 1 4th of August Captain Standish was 
 sent with his small army of fourteen well armed 
 men into the Indian country, to rescue one of 
 the friendly Indians, who was supposed to be 
 detained by an unfriendly chief. This expedition 
 pushing boldly into the wilderness impressed the 
 Indians with the courage and strength of the 
 Colonists. They brought back the friendly In- 
 dian in safety, and increased the influence of the 
 English. A little later they received peaceful 
 messages from a number of chieftains, and they 
 had a number of opportunities to trade with the 
 natives. 
 
 Late in September another expedition was sent 
 to explore the country north of the settlement, to 
 make treaties with the Indians, and to open trade 
 with them. The party went in the shallop as far 
 as what is now Boston harbor, some forty-four 
 miles. There were ten men, with Tisquantum as 
 an interpreter, and two other Indians. They made 
 
VISIT TO BOSTON HARBOR. 2$ 
 
 the acquaintance of the Massachusetts tribe of 
 Indians. They were received in a friendly way, 
 and had opportunities to extend the sphere of in- 
 fluence of the Colony, and to learn many things 
 in regard to the habits of the natives. They won 
 their confidence by their " gentle carriage towards 
 them," and found them eager to trade their furs 
 for such goods as the English had to sell. Some 
 of them even sold the fur robes from their backs, 
 and tied branches of trees about themselves, after 
 the manner of the dwellers in Eden. The shallop 
 was anchored in Boston Bay. The party went 
 fearlessly into the country, and were so much 
 pleased with what they saw that they wished they 
 had settled there instead of at Plymouth. They 
 came home in safety, and brought a quantity of 
 beaver skins. They had a fair wind on the re- 
 turn voyage, which began at evening and ended 
 before noon of the next day. 1 
 
 One cannot but admire the energy and enter- 
 prise of this little Colony during this first year, 
 which had brought them so many bereavements. 
 There were no losses from dissipation or from 
 idleness. They were an industrious and thrifty 
 community. They made their own laws, and 
 executed them. They had their military organi- 
 zation for defence against all enemies. 
 
 The harvest which they gathered in October 
 
 1 Mourt's Relation, 124-130. 
 
24 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 was abundant. " We had a good increase of 
 Indian-Corne," they said, " and our barley indif- 
 ferent good, but our pease not worth the gather- 
 ing. . . . We are so farre from want, that we often 
 wish you were partakers of our plentie." " I 
 never in my life remember a more seasonable 
 year," said Mr. Winslow, " than we have here 
 Results of the enjoyed, and if we have once but 
 First Harvest. KinC) Horses, and Shecpe, I make no 
 question but men might live as contented here 
 as in any part of the world." ] The grain was all 
 stored in the common house, and there was found 
 to be enough to provide a peck of meal a week 
 for each person. Game was abundant at that 
 season. Wild turkeys were numerous, and water 
 fowl of various kinds. They had a good supply 
 of fish, and of lobsters, and they obtained oysters 
 from the Indians. They also found excellent 
 fruits growing in the open spaces, such as grapes, 
 and plums, and various sorts of berries. So that 
 Governor Bradford says : " All y e somer there was 
 no wante." 2 Their relations with the Indians 
 had become so friendly that Winslow tells us 
 they went about in the woods as safely " as in 
 the hieways in England." 
 
 So they appointed their first Thanksgiving. 
 The Governor sent four men to shoot such game 
 as the woods afforded, and these in one day se- 
 
 1 Mourt's Relation, 133-135- 2 History, 105. 
 
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING. 
 
 cured "as much fowl as, with a little help beside, 
 served the Company almost a week." They had 
 games, and military exercises, and feasts. The 
 Indians came in to enjoy the festival with them. 
 This Thanksgiving lasted a number of days, and 
 was probably accompanied by religious services, 
 though these are not mentioned in the earlier 
 records. 1 
 
 The Colony consisted at this time of about 
 fifty persons. So far as we know, there were 
 seven dwellings. An equal division of the peo- 
 ple would give about seven persons to a dwell- 
 ing. These were built of squared timbers. The 
 spaces between the timbers were filled in with 
 clay, which was sometimes destroyed by the 
 wind and rain. The roofs were thatched. The 
 fireplaces were probably of stones, laid in clay. 
 The chimneys, standing outside the walls, were 
 of wood, plastered inside with clay. 2 They had 
 oiled paper, instead of glass, for their windows. 3 
 
 On the 2ist of November, they discovered 
 a ship making for their harbor. It proved 
 to be the Fortune, of fifty-five tons, Arrival of the 
 sent out by their friends in England Forttme - 
 with a reinforcement for the Colony. There 
 were thirty-five in this party, most of them young 
 
 1 Mourt's Relation, 133. 
 
 2 Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic 582, 583. 
 8 Mourt's Relation, 142. 
 
THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 men. Among them were John Winslow, a 
 brother of Edward, and Jonathan Brewster, el- 
 dest son of Elder Brewster; Thomas Cushman, 
 son of Robert Cushman, afterwards Elder of the 
 Church in Plymouth ; Thomas Prence, who mar- 
 ried a daughter of Elder Brewster; and others 
 from Leyden, who became valuable citizens. 
 Bradford says that many of those who came were 
 wild young men, who little considered whither 
 they went. " The plantation," he says, " was glad 
 of this addition to its strength, but could have 
 wished that many of them had been of better 
 condition, and all of them better furnished with 
 provisions, but y* could not be helpt." These 
 new comers were without provisions when they 
 landed, and were scantily furnished with cloth- 
 ing. The ship brought a Charter, granted by 
 the President and Council of New England to 
 John Pierce and his associates, for the benefit of 
 the Colony. This is now preserved at Ply- 
 mouth, and is said to be the oldest document 
 in Massachusetts connected with her history. 
 
 The Fortune sailed for England at the end 
 of fourteen days, taking back the first cargo from 
 the Colony, which was valued at about ,500. 
 It consisted of beaver skins and lumber, with 
 some sassafras. Unfortunately this precious 
 cargo never reached the Company in England, 
 for the ship was captured by a French armed 
 
RETURN OF THE FORTUNE. 2J 
 
 vessel, and taken to a French port. After a few 
 days the master and his company were permitted 
 to return to England with the ship, but the cargo 
 was confiscated. 
 
 III. 
 
 AFTER the sailing of the Fortune the officers 
 of the Colony began to make preparations for the 
 winter. The number to be fed and sheltered 
 was now increased to eighty-six. The The second 
 new comers were disposed among the Wlnter - 
 several families, increasing the average number 
 to ten or twelve persons. An exact account was 
 taken of the provisions in store, and it was found 
 that, in consequence of the increase in their 
 numbers, it was necessary to put them all upon 
 a half allowance of food. "So they were pres- 
 ently put on half allowance, one as well as 
 another, which begane to be hard, but they bore 
 it patiently under hope of supply." The dwell- 
 ings were made as comfortable as possible, and 
 the scanty supplies of food were supplemented 
 by hunting and fishing. 
 
 Soon after the Fortune had sailed, the chief 
 sachem of the Narragansett tribe of Indians, 
 which then possessed nearly all the territory now 
 included in the State of Rhode Island, sent a 
 messenger to Governor Bradford with a bundle 
 of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake- 
 
28 
 
 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 This was interpreted by the friendly Indians as 
 a hostile challenge. The Governor, with the 
 advice of Captain Standish, stuffed the rattle- 
 snake skin with powder and shot, and sent it 
 back to the chief with a message that, if " they 
 had rather have warre than peace, they might 
 begin when they would : they had done them no 
 wrong, neither did y ey fear them, or should they 
 find them unprepared." This bold defiance of 
 a chieftain, who is said to have been able to lead 
 into the field some thousands of savage warriors, 
 seems to have prevented a hostile attack. The 
 snake skin was sent from one chief to another, 
 and, when no one would receive it, was re- 
 turned to Plymouth. The Colonists, however, 
 lost no time in enclosing their village with a 
 strong line of palisades, extending half a mile. 
 This task was accomplished in five weeks. In 
 the line of palisades were bastions, from which 
 the whole outside could be raked with musketry. 
 Captain Standish divided his small army into 
 four squadrons, and gave the men frequent 
 opportunities for military discipline, and yet the 
 Pilgrims were never attacked. The wall, which 
 was guarded at night by vigilant sentries, sufficed 
 to prevent the hostilities which it was built to 
 resist. 
 
 The regular work of the Colony went on dur- 
 ing the winter. One incident has been preserved. 
 
CHRISTMAS. 29 
 
 On Christmas day the Governor called the men 
 as usual to work. But some of the new comers 
 excused themselves, and said it was against their 
 consciences to work on that day. So the Gov- 
 ernor told them that, if they made it a matter of 
 conscience, he would excuse them till they were 
 better informed. So he led away the rest and 
 left them. But when they returned from their 
 work at noon, he found them playing games in 
 the street. He told them that it was against 
 his conscience that they should play and others 
 work. So he took away their implements, and 
 said that, if they made the keeping of Christmas 
 a matter of devotion, they should keep their 
 houses, but there should be no gambling or 
 revelling in the streets. 
 
 IV 
 
 THE foundations of the Pilgrim Republic were 
 laid during those earliest months of its history. 
 The people showed the same heroic Thepugrim 
 spirit, with the same fortitude and pa- Republic, 
 tience, as the Colony grew older. Governor Brad- 
 ford was re-elected in 1622, and from year to year 
 as long as he lived, except that in 1633 he got 
 off " by importunity," and on four or five other 
 occasions he secured a respite for a year. The 
 community was well regulated and orderly, mak- 
 
3<D THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 ing its own laws, in subordination to the laws 
 of England, electing its own officers, and adapt- 
 ing its habits to the conditions of a new country. 
 The first of the laws entered in the record book of 
 the Colony provided for trial by a jury of twelve 
 honest men, to be impanelled by authority, upon 
 their oath. This was enacted December 27, 1623. 
 The Indian policy of the Colony was from the 
 beginning one of kindness and good faith blended 
 The Indian with firmness. When the Pilgrims 
 policy. heard that the Indians in Virginia 
 
 had massacred some hundreds of the Eng- 
 lish settlers, they redoubled their vigilance, and 
 kept themselves well informed of what was going 
 on among their dusky neighbors. When there 
 seemed to be occasion for a more elaborate forti- 
 fication, they built their fort on the hill, and 
 mounted their six cannon, and kept sentinels on 
 duty day and night to guard against a surprise. 
 Yet they continued to go without fear among 
 those bands of Indians on whose fidelity they 
 had learned to rely. In the spring of 1623 they 
 were told that their friend Massasoit was very 
 sick, and likely to die. The Governor immedi- 
 ately sent Mr. Winslow and Mr. Hampden, with 
 visit to an interpreter and a message of sym- 
 
 Massasoit - pathy, and with some simple medi- 
 cines. It was more than a day's journey through 
 the wilderness. They found the chief at the 
 
SICKNESS OF MASSASOIT. 31 
 
 point of death, but succeeded in checking his 
 disease, and restoring him to health. Massasoit 
 revealed to Mr. Winslow a plot, which Some of 
 the more distant Indians had formed, to massacre 
 the entire Colony, together with another English 
 Colony that had been planted in the vicinity. 1 
 On their way homeward one of the chiefs in- 
 quired of Mr. Winslow how he dared come so 
 far into the Indian country. He replied that, -N. 
 when there was true love, there was no fear, and \ 
 that his heart was so upright towards them that j 
 he was fearless to come amongst them. The 
 Indians observed that they craved a blessing 
 before their meals, and returned thanks after- 
 wards, and they inquired the meaning of this 
 custom. This gave Mr. Winslow an oppor- 
 tunity to talk with them about God's providence, 
 and His commandments, and the ways in whiclx 
 they could secure His good will. This is a \ 
 specimen of the ways in which the Pilgrims ) 
 taught the principles of the Christian religion / 
 to the natives. 2 
 
 On reaching Plymouth Mr. Winslow made 
 known the warning he had received from Massa- 
 soit that the hostile bands of Indians were pre- 
 paring to attack the Colony. The Indians had 
 become incensed against Mr. Weston's English 
 
 1 Young's Chronicles, 315, 325. 
 
 * Young's Chronicles, 243, 257, 271. 
 
32 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Colony at Weymouth, b'ecause they had at various 
 times treated them with injustice and cruelty, 
 and they had combined to destroy not only that 
 Colony, but the Colony at Plymouth also. Mas- 
 sasoit himself had been urged to join the con- 
 spiracy, but had refused. 
 
 This matter was laid before the people of the 
 Colony at their Annual Court, April 2d, 1623, 
 and it was voted to leave it in the hands of the 
 Governor, his Assistant, and Captain Standish. 
 They acted with promptness and energy, though 
 it grieved them to shed the blood of those whose 
 good they had been seeking. Captain Standish 
 took eight men, with the shallop to Weymouth, 
 where he found out who were the hostile chiefs, 
 and what their plans were. A severe conflict fol- 
 lowed, in which seven of the Indian leaders were 
 slain. This broke up the conspiracy, and Captain 
 Standish returned in a few days to Plymouth with 
 all his party. Their pastor, John Robinson, who 
 was still in Leyden, blamed them for shedding the 
 blood of the savages, saying, " O how happy a 
 thing had it been if you had converted some, be- 
 fore you had killed any ! " But the Pilgrims had 
 ample proof of the plot to massacre themselves, 
 their wives and their children, as well as the 
 people of the other Colony. They believed it 
 was right for them to make the conflict short, 
 sharp, and decisive. It is pleasant to know that 
 
FAMINE IN 1622. 33 
 
 this was the only serious trouble they ever had 
 with the Indians of their vicinity, during the en- 
 tire history of the Colony. They always treated 
 them justly and kindly, purchasing the land they 
 occupied at a price that was satisfactory to those 
 who had a claim upon it. 1 So unjust is the wit- 
 ticism, which is sometimes repeated even now, 
 which asserts that our forefathers, when they 
 landed on these shores, 
 
 " First fell on their knees, 
 Then on the Aborigines." 
 
 V 
 
 IN respect to the growth of the Colony, there : 
 was a slow but real improvement from year to 
 year. In 1622 we are told that by the end of 
 May their scanty store of provisions was ex- 
 hausted. They secured a small sup- Famine 
 ply from the fishing vessels on the inI 622. 
 coast of Maine, which enabled them to give a 
 quarter of a pound of bread a day to each person. 
 They lived through the summer for the most 
 part on shellfish, which they could take with the 
 hand. The bay was full of fish, but they had no 
 fish-hooks or seines. It was not the season for 
 game. In May of that year they sent the shallop 
 with ten men on a second trading voyage to Bos- 
 
 1 Young's Chronicles, 259 ; Congregational Quarterly,!. 129-135. 
 
 3 
 
34 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 ton Bay, which secured for them a good supply 
 of beaver skins in exchange for articles which the 
 Indians wanted. 
 
 They planted their fields as they had done the 
 year before, but their agricultural labor was inter- 
 rupted by the necessity of building the fort on the 
 hill, and of keeping guard against an attack by 
 the Indians. Some of the growing corn was 
 stolen by people who sought a refuge in their 
 harbor while on their way to Weymouth. The 
 harvest, when it was gathered, proved quite in- 
 sufficient for their wants. Early in September, 
 however, the ship Discovery came into the har- 
 bor, and sold them a quantity of knives and 
 beads, such as they needed in their trade with the 
 Indians. They also supplied themselves at that 
 time with fishing tackle. As the fall came on, 
 they were able to increase their stores of food by 
 game and fish. They also bought a quantity of 
 corn and beans from the Indians who lived about 
 the Cape. So that they were able to live through 
 the second winter with comfort. 
 
 As the spring of 1623 came on, it was decided 
 to abandon, so far as practicable, the communis- 
 tic methods which they had followed since the 
 beginning of the settlement. A portion of land 
 was assigned to each family, to cultivate for a 
 year on its own account. This gave a new 
 spirit to the Colony. The incentives to industry 
 
THE GREAT DROUGHT. 35 
 
 were increased, so that, we are told, much more 
 corn was planted than in the earlier years, and 
 even the women went into the fields to plant 
 corn, taking their little ones with them. Still 
 they were required to set apart a regular portion 
 of their gains to meet the general obligations of 
 the Colony, and to support the government. A 
 severe drought followed in the early summer, 
 and there was danger that they would fail to 
 reap a harvest. A day of special prayer for 
 rain was appointed. In the morning of the day, 
 when they came together, " the heavens were as 
 clear, and the drought as like to continue as ever 
 it was," yet, " (our exercise continuing some eight 
 or nine hours), before our departure me Great 
 the weather was overcast, the clouds Drought - 
 gathered together on all sides, and on the next 
 morning distilled such soft, sweet, and moderate 
 showers of rain, continuing some fourteen days, 
 and mixed with such seasonable weather, as it 
 was hard to say whether our withered corn or our 
 drooping affections were most quickened." l The 
 pagan Indians, we are told, took notice of these 
 wonderful answers to their prayers, and were 
 impressed with the goodness of the God of the 
 English. The Pilgrims soon kept a day of public 
 thanksgiving on account of the abundant rain. 
 Until the time of harvest there was great 
 
 1 Young's Chronicles, 349-351. 
 
36 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 scarcity of food. The people lived on ground 
 nuts, clams, and fish. There was neither bread 
 nor corn for months together. Sometimes at 
 night they did not know where to have a bit in 
 the morning. Yet the people were orderly and 
 hopeful, and continued their regular work. Six 
 or seven fishing companies were formed, and as 
 they had but a single boat, the companies took 
 turns in going out for fish. No sooner had one 
 company returned than the next went out in 
 the boat. Neither did they return till they had 
 caught something, though it was five or six days, 
 for there was nothing at home, and " to goe 
 home emptie would be a great discouragement 
 to y e reste." 1 
 
 In August they were encouraged by the arrival 
 of two ships from England, the Anne, and the 
 Little James, bringing ninety-six passengers for 
 the Colony. Many of these were from the old 
 Church in Leyden, and several were wives, chil- 
 dren, and kindred of the early settlers. There 
 were many pleasant reunions. Yet the new 
 comers were disappointed at what they found in 
 the Colony. Their friends were greatly changed 
 by the hardships of two years. The best dish 
 they could present their friends was a lobster, or 
 a piece of fish, without bread, or any thing else 
 but a cup of spring water. Some of them were 
 
 1 Bradford, 137. 
 
THE FOREFATHERS. 
 
 ragged, and they had lost the freshness of their 
 complexion. 
 
 The ninety-six passengers who came in these 
 ships, together with thirty-five in the Fortune, 
 and a hundred and two in the Mayflower, 
 two hundred and thirty-three in all, make up 
 the number of those who are known as the Pil- 
 grims, or the First Comers, or the Forefathers. 
 The passengers who came this year were all in 
 good health excepting one, and they found that 
 those who came in the Mayflower had enjoyed 
 good health since the time of the great mortality 
 of the first winter. 
 
 The new comers had brought a supply of pro- 
 visions sufficient to last them until they could 
 raise a crop the next summer, and it was agreed 
 that the growing crops should belong to those 
 who had planted them, while those just arrived 
 should depend upon their own provisions. But 
 when the time of harvest came, all such matters 
 were forgotten. In place of famine there was an 
 abundance of food for all, and under the new 
 arrangement of personal property in crops the 
 face of things was soon entirely changed. All 
 had enough, and some of the more industrious 
 had to spare, so that from that time there was no 
 season of famine or of want. 
 
 The village had grown by the addition of a 
 number of dwellings. The lower story of the 
 
38 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 fort had been finished, so that it was used for 
 religious services on the Lord's day, as well as 
 for general meetings of the Colony. It was a 
 great gratification to the people that they were 
 able to load with furs and with lumber the ship 
 Anne, which sailed for England late in Sep- 
 tember, and thus to make a good beginning in 
 paying the debt which the Colony owed to those 
 who had furnished their supplies. In November, 
 however, there was a serious fire at Plymouth, 
 which consumed three or four dwellings. It 
 began next the general storehouse, in which 
 was the stock of trading goods for the Colony, 
 and the provisions for the coming year. Gover- 
 nor Bradford states that if this storehouse had 
 been destroyed, the plantation must have been 
 abandoned. So critical were the hours when they 
 were trying to extinguish the flames. 
 
 VI 
 
 THE year 1624 was one of prosperity for Ply- 
 mouth. The success of the experiment of giving 
 to each family a portion of land to cultivate led 
 to the abandonment of the communistic plans 
 which they had followed, not from choice, but 
 because they seemed to be required by the terms 
 of their agreement with the capitalists in England. 
 In certain matters the business of the Colony was 
 
THE YEAR 1624. 3Q 
 
 still carried on as that of one company, which was 
 accumulating funds to pay a large debt which 
 rested upon the entire Colony. But besides that, 
 it was now provided that a portion of land should 
 be divided amongst the inhabitants, giving one 
 acre to each person as his own. Ninety-seven 
 small lots were assigned at this time, including 
 about two hundred acres, and all the lots were as 
 near the settlement as possible. No larger sec- 
 tions were assigned until the end of the seven 
 years during which they were bound to carry on 
 the business of the Colony as a common interest. 1 
 There were at this time thirty-two dwelling-houses 
 in Plymouth, besides the buildings erected for 
 public uses. This spring the first cattle were 
 brought into the Colony from England : " three 
 heifers and a bull, the first beginning of that kind 
 of cattle in the land." 2 
 
 Plentiful harvests followed from year to year, 
 under the new method. The people not only 
 raised corn enough for their own wants, but had 
 a surplus, which they were able to sell at six 
 shillings a bushel. They extended their trade in 
 furs, and lessened from year to year the old debt 
 in England. Their stock of cattle increased so 
 that there were twelve cows in 1627. In 1626 a 
 number of goats were brought into the Colony. 
 We have an interesting account of the condition 
 
 1 Bradford, 167. 2 Bradford, 158. 
 
4O THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 of the settlement in 1627 by Isaac de Rasieres, 
 secretary of the Dutch Colony at Manhattan. 
 He says : 
 
 " New Plymouth lies on the slope of a hill, with one 
 broad street. The houses are constructed of hewn 
 planks, with gardens also enclosed behind and at the 
 sides, so that their houses and courtyards are arranged 
 in very good order, with a stockade against a sudden 
 attack. At the ends of the streets there are three 
 wooden gates. In the centre, on the cross street, 
 stands the Governor's house, before which is a square 
 enclosure upon which four cannon are mounted. Up 
 the hill they have a large square house with a flat roof, 
 made of thick sawn planks, stayed with oak beams, upon 
 the top of which they have six cannon which shoot iron 
 balls of four or five pounds, and command the surround- 
 ing country. The lower part they use for their church, 
 where they preach on Sundays and the usual holidays. 
 They assemble by beat of drum, each with his musket 
 or firelock, in front of the captain's door. They have 
 their cloaks on, and place themselves in order, and are 
 led by a sergeant without beat of drum. Behind comes 
 the Governor in a long robe : beside him, on the right 
 hand comes the preacher with his cloak on, and on the 
 left the captain with his side arms and cloak." 
 
 It is probable that there was more of martial 
 array on this particular Sunday than usual, on 
 account of the presence of the Dutch secretary. 
 But the Pilgrims were on guard night and day, 
 Sundays as well as week days, and they were 
 never taken by surprise. 
 
END OF THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS. 4! 
 
 The end of the first seven years was a marked 
 period in the history of the Colony. A settlement 
 was made with the capitalists in England who 
 had provided the funds for the Colony ; and it 
 was found that the balance of debt was ,1,800. 
 Security for the payment of this sum was given 
 by eight enterprising men of the Colony. Among 
 them were William Bradford, Myles Standish, 
 Edward Winslow, William Brewster, and John 
 Alden, who bound themselves to pay ,200 a year 
 until the whole sum was paid. 1 This settlement 
 left the Colony entirely free from the restrictions 
 which had hindered its growth, and opened the 
 way for a more rapid development. 
 
 First of all, they made a new division of land. 
 The good land nearest the settlement was laid 
 out into shares of twenty acres each. One share 
 was assigned by lot to each man in the Colony, 
 another to his wife, and one to each of their 
 children. This was in addition to the land they 
 already had. There were one hundred and fifty- 
 six shares of land assigned at this time. The 
 records of the Colony show that, besides the one 
 hundred and fifty-six who received lots of land, 
 there had been one hundred and eleven other 
 members of the Colony, fifty-three of whom had 
 removed to other places before that time, and 
 fifty-eight had died, making two hundred and 
 
 1 Bradford, 212-214. 
 
42 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 sixty-seven in all. There had been only seven 
 deaths since the great mortality of the first year. 
 
 In order to provide for the debts of the Colony 
 those who had given bonds to the English capi- 
 talists formed themselves into a company, which 
 is known in this history as " The Undertakers." 
 It was agreed that the Undertakers should have 
 control of the trade of the Colony for the term of 
 six years. The profits of this trade would go far 
 towards paying the debts. They also engaged to 
 import such goods as the Colonists needed, which 
 were to be sold to them in exchange for corn at 
 six shillings a bushel. Each holder of a share of 
 land was to pay to the Undertakers three bushels 
 of corn or six pounds of tobacco each year for 
 six years. All the shares of land were to be 
 holden for the payment of the debts. Thus the 
 Undertakers acted as the agents of the Colonists, 
 and each Colonist agreed to contribute a small 
 sum each year towards the payment of the debt. 
 In the end the debt was honestly paid in full, and 
 the encumbrances upon the lands of the Colonists 
 were removed. 
 
 VII 
 
 THE Plymouth Colony was a Democracy. The 
 Compact signed in the cabin of the Mayflower 
 assumed that those who signed it were freemen, 
 and voters in the new commonwealth. The 
 
DEMOCRACY OF THE PILGRIMS. 43 
 
 common law of England was always recognized 
 as in full force in the Colony, and from time to 
 time they insisted that they had all the rights 
 and privileges of Englishmen. In institutions of 
 subsequent years men were admitted tte ^s 111118 - 
 to the rights of freemen in the Colony by vote of 
 the citizens. There was never a religious test 
 of citizenship. Some of the men of greatest 
 influence, such as Myles Standish, were never 
 members of the church at Plymouth. The 
 people were very tolerant of those who differed 
 with them. Yet they had a high ideal of the 
 responsibilities of citizenship. In 1671 it was 
 provided that one to be eligible to citizenship 
 should be of " sober and peaceable conversation, 
 and orthodox in the fundamentals of religion." 
 Their manner of life was very simple. The 
 houses contained not more than two or three 
 rooms. The floors were of hewn planks or of 
 earth, sprinkled with sand or rushes. Some of 
 the rooms contained furniture brought from 
 England or from Holland. But the most of 
 the furniture was very simple and rude. There 
 was now and then a silver spoon, but there were 
 more pewter spoons and platters. Most of the 
 table furniture was of wood. There were a few 
 books. Governor Bradford left a library of two 
 hundred and seventy-five volumes. Brewster 
 had four hundred volumes at the time of his 
 
44 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 death. Myles Standish had Homer's Iliad, 
 Caesar's Commentaries, Bariffe's Artillery, His- 
 tories of Queen Elizabeth, of England, of Ger- 
 many, and of Turkey, Calvin's Institutes, Wilson's 
 Dictionary, a number of Commentaries on the 
 Scriptures, and other books appraised at ^n 9^. 
 In the other Pilgrim homes we may be sure 
 there were copies of the Geneva Bible, with 
 some books of history and of devotion. 
 
 _werg able to 
 
 write. They had lived twelve years in Holland, 
 when " every child went to school." 1 At Ply- 
 mouth they taught their children themselves so 
 long as they were unable to maintain a public 
 school. As soon as practicable they passed 
 laws for the maintenance of public schools for 
 all the children. There are constant references 
 to schools and schoolmasters in their earlier his- 
 tory. They planted the church and the school 
 side by side in their settlements. 2 
 Their dress was like tb^ w hirb 
 
 mon in England. One can see illustrations of 
 it in old English portraits of that period. They 
 wore loose cloaks, and felt hats with broad brims 
 and high crowns, short coats commonly belted 
 at the waist, broad linen collars and cuffs turned 
 back, knee breeches, long stockings, and low shoes 
 
 1 Campbell's Puritan in Holland, i. 161. 
 
 2 Bradford, 161, 162. Pilgrim Republic, 494, 495. 
 
THEIR MANNER OF LIFE. 45 
 
 with silver buckles over the instep. There was 
 more color in the dress of the men than is com- 
 mon in our time. The dress of the women was 
 much more like that which is now worn than 
 that of the men. It was not of costly materials, 
 and the styles did not change from year to year. 1 
 
 Their life was simple and frugal and industri- 
 ous. The men put up the buildings, tilled the 
 fields, without the help of horses or oxen in 
 the earlier years, hunted the wild game, or took 
 the fish from the brooks or the sea. The women 
 cared for their homes, prepared the food, took 
 care of their children (which were numerous in 
 the new settlement), and nursed the sick. There 
 were times when the women and children went 
 into the fields to assist in planting, and in caring 
 for the growing crops. 
 
 They were a thoughtful people, and were prone 
 to free discussion. They managed their demo- 
 cratic government intelligently and wisely. They 
 were a very patient people. In some instances 
 they were greatly wronged by those who had 
 been appointed to do their business in England. 
 There was no need that the debts of the Colony 
 should have hung over it so many years. They 
 did use such means as they could to obtain their 
 rights. But their poverty, and the smallness of 
 their numbers, and the distance of the English 
 
 1 The Simple Cobbler of Agawam, 25, 26. 
 
4 6 
 
 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 markets made it very difficult for them to enforce 
 the contracts which they had made with their 
 agents. The gentleness and patience of the 
 people, as they continued their toil year after 
 year, were sublime. 
 
 It was a great sorrow to them that their pastor, 
 John Robinson, was never able to come to Ply- 
 mouth from Holland. He died in Leyden in 
 1625, and was buried in St. Peter's Church. So 
 long as he lived they regarded themselves as still 
 under his ministry. He sent them frequent let- 
 ters, which were read by them instead of his dis- 
 courses. But their Elder, William Brewster, who 
 had been an officer of the church while they were 
 in Leyden, preached " twice every Sabbath, both 
 powerfully and profitably to y e great contentment 
 of y e hearers. Many were brought to God by his 
 ministrie." In 1624 Mr. John Lyford, an edu- 
 xhe pilgrim cated clergyman of the Church of 
 church. England, was sent to Plymouth by 
 
 the capitalists in England, through whom the 
 Pilgrims did their business. He was kindly re- 
 ceived, and for a time he alternated with Elder 
 Brewster in preaching. But Mr. Lyford did not 
 easily fall in with the methods of these Separatists, 
 and after a few months he began to hold services 
 in a private house, using the Book of Common 
 Prayer. The community was too small to main- 
 tain two congregations, and, after much discussion, 
 
THEIR MINISTERS. 47 
 
 Mr. Lyford was sent out of the Colony. 1 He went 
 first to Salem, and later to Virginia. 
 
 In 1629, Mr. Ralph Smith, who is said to have 
 been a university man, came to Plymouth. He 
 had been ordained in the Church of England, but 
 had become a Separatist. He was chosen the 
 pastor of the Pilgrim Church, and continued in 
 that office five or six years. He had as an as- 
 sociate in the ministry for about two years the 
 celebrated Roger Williams, who left Plymouth 
 in 1633. In those years the Pilgrims had for the 
 first time a minister who was authorized to ad- 
 minister the sacraments, which they prized very 
 highly. Mr. John Norton came in 1636, and 
 remained one year. After him came Mr. John 
 Reynor, " an able and a godly man," who minis- 
 tered to them most acceptably seventeen years 
 as teacher of the church. There are very slight 
 references to the salaries of these ministers, but 
 we find that in 1642 the Plymouth Church bought 
 the house and barns and gardens of Mr. Smith, 
 with six acres of land, and presented the estate to 
 Mr. Reynor. In 1638 the learned and brilliant 
 Charles Chauncy came to Plymouth, having been 
 obliged to ee from England by the stress of 
 persecution. He was made the pastor of the 
 Church in connection with Mr. Reynor, and 
 continued there until 1641. 
 
 1 See a full account of the troubles with Mr. Lyford in Bradford, 
 171-196. 
 
48 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 In the service of song the Pilgrims used Ains- 
 worth's metrical version of the Psalms, with 
 tunes printed in only one part. The singing 
 was congregational. They used the Geneva 
 Bible in their services. Two or three chapters 
 _, r were read, and a full exposition was 
 
 Services of Wor- 
 ship in the pu- given. A prayer was offered at the 
 
 grim Churches. f i . f 
 
 beginning, and another at the end of 
 each service. Two Psalms were usually sung in 
 unison at the beginning and at the end of the 
 service. The sermon had a prominent place 
 always. The sacraments were administered at 
 stated times, and there was a collection for the 
 support of the minister of the Church, and for 
 the poor. 
 
 Among the most useful men in the Colony 
 was Samuel Fuller, the first deacon of the 
 Church, and the beloved physician. He was 
 also for some years an officer in the Colony. 
 We read of him as prescribing not only for his 
 own people, but also for the friendly Indians. 
 More than once he was called to the Massachu- 
 setts Colony in times of special suffering from 
 the diseases incident to a new settlement. He 
 seems to have been loved and trusted by all, and 
 to have exerted an influence in both Colonies, 
 which was in some respects greater than that of 
 any other of the Pilgrims. He died in 1633. 
 
GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 49 
 
 VIII 
 
 IN 1630, the Council for New England sent 
 over from London a new and more liberal and 
 definite patent of the- territory of Plymouth. It 
 included what is at present the three counties of 
 Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable, excepting the 
 towns of Hingham and Hull. The Extension of the 
 title ran to William Bradford and his Colony - 
 heirs. At a later time he transferred his rights 
 to the Colony. This patent gave to him and his 
 associates the power to establish a government, 
 and to make and execute laws. Still the Colony 
 always recognized the Mayflower compact as the 
 fundamental law. 
 
 The population of the Colony increased but 
 slowly. In 1627 it numbered a hundred and 
 eighty. In 1630, it numbered three hundred. 
 In 1643, it had increased to about three thou- 
 sand. In 1690, there were eight thousand. 
 
 As the danger of attacks from the Indians 
 became less, there was a strong tendency to 
 scatter the settlements over the whole territory 
 covered by their patent. The settlement in Dux- 
 bury was begun in 1632; that at Scituate in 
 1636. Mansfield was incorporated in 1640. A 
 few years later the towns of Yarmouth, Sand- 
 wich, Barnstable, and Taunton were settled. 
 
 4 
 
5O THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 These towns were represented by their deputies 
 in the General Court. 
 
 By the year 1632, there had been a great in- 
 crease in the number of domestic animals, and 
 the work on the farms was carried on by the 
 use of oxen, and in some instances of horses. 
 In 1637, apple orchards had become common 
 in Duxbury. 
 
 In the earlier years, the corn was pounded in 
 hand mortars. In 1633, the first rude mill was 
 built. In 1636, there was a grist mill near Ply- 
 mouth, where the corn was ground. 
 
 The legislation of the Colony was such as was 
 required from time to time, under the limitations 
 of the laws of England. It was ordered in 1628 
 that thatched roofs should be changed for roofs 
 of boards or paling. The earliest liquor law was 
 passed in 1633. It provided that not more than 
 two pence worth of liquor should be sold to any 
 Laws of the person except to strangers. In 1636, 
 there was a careful revision of the 
 laws, and from that time we have a regular 
 record of the Acts of the General Court. This 
 body consisted at first of all the freemen. As 
 the settlements extended, it was enacted that 
 every town within the Colony should make choice 
 of two of its freemen, and the town of Plymouth 
 of four, to serve as deputies ; and these deputies, 
 in connection with the officers of the Colony, 
 
 
THE PILGRIM LA WS. 5 J 
 
 were to constitute the General Court. There 
 was a second revision of the laws in 1658, and a 
 third in 1671, when the laws were printed for the 
 first time. In 1685, the fourth and last revision 
 of the laws was made. The General Court used 
 to meet at 7 A. M. in summer, and at 8 A. M. in 
 winter. 
 
 The legislation of the Colony provided for the 
 annual election of the Governor and his Assist- 
 ants, and of the Deputies. The rights of con- 
 science were carefully guarded in the legislation. 
 The laws were such as were needed in a new 
 country, where the permanent settlers were liable 
 to annoyances from the lawless and irresponsible 
 people who came in the ships that resorted to the 
 harbor. There were little settlements, at that 
 time, all along the coast, made up of very differ- 
 ent people from the Pilgrims. Some of these set- 
 tlements were so lawless that they existed only a 
 short time. The people of Plymouth were con- 
 stantly troubled by these unwelcome strangers. 
 As the population increased, there were laws to 
 regulate the taking and sale of fish, the burning 
 of forests, and trading with Indians. There were 
 laws respecting roads, ferries, bridges, fairs, ale- 
 houses, military service, marriage, and the collec- 
 tion of taxes. Profane swearing was forbidden. 
 In the later years of the Colony persons were 
 fined for desecration of the Lord's day, for ab- 
 
52 THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 sence from public worship, and for reviling the 
 ministers. In 1658, a law was passed for sup- 
 porting the ministers by a tax levied upon all 
 citizens. 
 
 The Pilgrims shared the common opinions of 
 their time in respect to witchcraft. The later 
 laws of Plymouth required that a witch should 
 be put to death. There were two trials for 
 witchcraft, one in 1661, the other in 1677. In 
 both cases the verdict of not guilty was rendered 
 by the jury. There were also laws against the 
 Quakers, which seem very severe to the people 
 of our time. They were executed with more or 
 less severity, but they were not in accordance 
 with the gentle and charitable spirit of the 
 Pilgrims. 
 
 IX 
 
 ONLY a part of those who settled within the 
 limits of Plymouth Colony were Pilgrims. We 
 wot aii were have seen in the earlier pages that 
 pilgrims. the two hundred and thirty-three who 
 
 landed at Plymouth before 1624 were called the 
 Forefathers, or the Pilgrims. The next party 
 that came from Leyden in 1629 was made up of 
 thirty-five. A smaller party came from Leyden 
 the next year. These two parties, in addition 
 to those who were here before, make less than 
 three hundred. These were, for the most part, 
 
NOT ALL .PILGRIMS. 5 3 
 
 good representatives of that rare body of men 
 from whom the plan for emigration to America 
 had its spring. They were gentle, charitable, 
 and tolerant. That which we call the Pilgrim 
 spirit came from these men and women. 
 
 After the larger Colony of Massachusetts was 
 planted, in 1628 there were influences exerted 
 upon the Old Colony to modify its ruling ten- 
 dencies. There was a constant and friendly in- 
 tercourse between the people of the two Colonies; 
 and this made the Puritan somewhat like the 
 Pilgrim, and the Pilgrim more or less like the 
 Puritan. A good many of those who landed at 
 Plymouth removed after a time to Massachu- 
 setts. A large number from Massachusetts settled 
 within the bounds of the Old Colony. Judge 
 Davis of Plymouth has stated that " the old Pil- 
 grim Colony was inundated and overwhelmed by 
 migrations from her sister Colony. Taunton, 
 Rehoboth, Barnstable, Sandwich, and Yarmouth 
 had all been settled by emigrants having little 
 or no affiliations with the Colony into which they 
 had come." 1 A more recent writer has stated 
 " that the territory of the Plymouth Colony was 
 settled by people from Massachusetts Bay, with 
 the exception of Plymouth, Duxbury, Marshfield, 
 and Eastham." 2 
 
 1 History of the Town of Plymouth, William T. Davis, 65, 66. 
 
 2 The Bay Colony, William D. Northend, LL. D., 16. 
 
54 TH E PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 In 1643, tne four Colonies of Plymouth, Mas- 
 sachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven were 
 The confedera- united in a Confederation called The 
 tion. United Colonies of New England. 
 
 This Confederation brought the Colony of Ply- 
 mouth into constant communication with the 
 Puritan Colonies, and it led to some modifica- 
 tions of the earlier methods. Plymouth lost 
 something of its independence of thought and 
 iction, and it adopted some of the laws of the 
 >ay Colony. The most severe laws of the Ply- 
 mouth Colony, such as those for the punishment 
 of Quakers and for the punishment of witch- 
 craft, were enacted after the time of the Confed- 
 eration, and after the people of the Bay Colony 
 had come in great numbers into the territory of 
 Plymouth. 
 
 These tendencies toward the lessening of the 
 differences between the Pilgrims and the Puri- 
 tans were strengthened by the act of the English 
 government in 1692, which united the two Col- 
 onies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay un- 
 der the name of the Province of Massachusetts. 
 And yet it is an open question which section 
 /"was most influenced by the other. Very much 
 / of the spirit of the Pilgrim fathers remains to 
 this day in the great State of Massachusetts. 
 / Many of the best elements in New England 
 \character are our inheritance from them. 
 
SUCCESS OF THE COLONY. 55 
 
 X 
 
 IT is not the purpose of this narrative to give a 
 complete history of the Pilgrims, but 
 simply to show some of the qualities 
 of that people as Colonists. 
 
 It must be admitted that the Anglo-Saxons, 
 among the people of modern times, have been 
 most successful in planting vigorous colonies in 
 the outlying parts of the world. They have had 
 the freedom, and the enterprise, and the faith 
 from which successful colonies could be devel- 
 oped. The English Pilgrims had the instinct 
 of colonization. They were so few, and their 
 resources were so slender, that the plan to cross 
 the Atlantic and plant settlements in New Eng- 
 land seemed quite impracticable. We are re- 
 minded again of the memorable words of their 
 pastor, John Robinson, who was perfectly sure 
 they would succeed, because they were indus- 
 trious, and frugal, and temperate, and accustomed 
 to overcome difficulties, and because they looked 
 for direction in all their ways to the Ruler of the 
 world, and because they were bound together in 
 Christian bonds. It was because they were such 
 a people that they secured the confidence and 
 good will of the people of Holland, and were 
 able to charter ships for the voyage across the 
 Atlantic, and to secure capital with which to 
 
THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 procure supplies for their settlement, and were 
 able to put up dwellings at Plymouth in the 
 depth of winter; to organize and govern their 
 little commonwealth without the aid of a royal 
 charter; to win the confidence of the savages 
 by their gentleness and good faith, and to con- 
 trol them by their steady courage. Other Eng- 
 lish settlements on the coast were failing because 
 of the lack of stamina among their people, but 
 the Pilgrim settlement held on its way, with 
 singular patience and wisdom, until, in its third 
 year, it reached the point where the harvest was 
 not only sufficient for its wants, but where it had 
 food to sell to its neighbors. The Pilgrims were 
 always kind and gentle in their dealings with the 
 Indians, but they were also vigilant and coura- 
 geous. If the savages would make war upon 
 them, they were always ready to accept thfc chal- 
 lenge. They were safe because they were sol- 
 diers, well armed and disciplined, and always on 
 the alert against the attacks of a crafty enemy. 
 
 They were enterprising as well as industrious. 
 They never forgot the obligation to repay the 
 money which had been advanced to them. They 
 carried on a profitable trade with the Indians all 
 along the eastern coast. They planted trading 
 stations on the Kennebec and the Connecticut. 
 They were among the most successful fishermen 
 and fur-traders. In some instances they were 
 
MORALS OF THE PEOPLE. 57 
 
 obliged to pay thirty and even fifty per cent for 
 the use of money. They were grievously wronged 
 by some of the agents whom they had employed. 
 But in the end every shilling which they owed 
 was paid. They had the respect of the Indians 
 and of their Dutch neighbors, and of the great 
 Colony which the Puritans planted to the north 
 of them. There was nothing weak or slippery 
 about those gentle Christians. If they sung 
 psalms they took their muskets with them to the 
 place of prayer, and they were always ready, 
 not only to defend their own homes, but to send 
 help to their neighbors in times of danger. 
 Their gentleness had made them great. They 
 had the faith that rises above adversity. If they 
 had no meat or bread, they could live on fish. 
 If they had no fish, they could live on shell-fish, 
 and thank God that they had still " the abun- 
 dance of the sea, and treasures hid in the sand." 
 
 They had learned in Holland how to order a 
 free state. They never forgot that " all religions 
 were free " in that land. They respected the 
 rights of conscience at a time when other Eng- 
 lish Christians denied those rights. They re- 
 garded the individual as the unit of the state, 
 and they made all citizens equal before the law. 
 They planted the school by the side of the 
 church in all their settlements, and kept alive 
 even in the hardest years the love of knowledge. 
 
THE PILGRIM AS A COLONIST. 
 
 With a great price they obtained their free- 
 dom, and they spared no pains to preserve it. 
 They honored the Lord's day and His word. 
 They sought out men of learning and piety as 
 their religious teachers, and they went con- 
 stantly to the place of worship. 
 
 So the Colony grew and prospered. There were 
 great men among them, men of learning and 
 of statesmanship as well as of piety. Some of 
 those men had stood before kings. Some of them 
 wrote books the world will not willingly let die. 
 One of these books has just been brought back 
 to Massachusetts, and deposited in the archives 
 of the State, two hundred and fifty years after it 
 was written, a treasure which the Mother Coun- 
 try yielded gracefully to the keeping of the 
 great nation which had embodied in its con- 
 stitution the principles which Governor^ Brad- 
 ford and his associates had so clearly stated in 
 the " Compact " written in the cabin of the 
 Mayflower. 
 
 It is to the credit of the Pilgrims that they 
 lived in good fellowship with the larger Colony 
 at the Bay. They learned some things from 
 them, while they gave them some of their own 
 principles. The New England spirit did not 
 come altogether from the Pilgrims, nor alto- 
 gether from the Puritans. They both came 
 from different sections of the great English 
 
THEIR TOLERATION. 59 
 
 people. They both came here on account of 
 persecution for their religious views and prac- 
 tices. They were both the champions of civil 
 and religious liberty. They were both very far 
 in advance of their age. It was well that they 
 both came to the New World, because they were 
 able here to work out their principles more freely, 
 and with a stronger hold upon the future, than 
 they could have secured in the Old World. 
 
II 
 
 The Puritan as a Colonist 
 
The Puritan as a Colonist 
 
 THE Pilgrim Colony at Plymouth prepared 
 the way for the larger Puritan Colony of 
 Massachusetts Bay. From the time when the 
 Pilgrims settled at Plymouth, the eyes of the 
 English Puritans were directed towards them. 
 They studied their progress with increasing in- 
 terest, as it became more probable from year to 
 year that the only way by which they could pro- 
 vide for the exercise of their religion, and secure 
 their liBerties as Englishmen, was by planting 
 colonies in America. We have the well known 
 message of one of their leaders : " Let it not be 
 grievous unto you that you have been instrumen- 
 tal to break the ice for others. The honor shall 
 be yours to the world's end." 
 
 There had been Puritans in England for two 
 or three generations before they began to plant 
 colonies. They were increasing in The English 
 numbers and in influence through *>&** 
 the reigns of Elizabeth and of James the First. 
 They had a controlling influence among the 
 English people during the first half of the seven- 
 teenth century. In 1604, the French ambassa- 
 
64 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 dor wrote to the French Court that the English 
 Parliament was " composed mostly of Puritans." 
 They included a large part of the intelligent and 
 prosperous middle classes of the English people, 
 the country gentlemen and the commercial 
 classes, with a fair proportion of the professional 
 men. The merchants and traders of England 
 had been rising rapidly in wealth and in social 
 position and influence. The common people of 
 that age were becoming more intelligent. Hume 
 tells us that the aggregate property of the Puri- 
 tan House of Commons of 1629 was computed 
 to be three times as great as that of the Lords. 1 
 
 The Puritans were the advanced Protestants 
 of their time. In respect to the methods of 
 Church government they were in closer sym- 
 pathy with the Reformed Churches on the Conti- 
 nent of Europe, and with the Church of Scotland, 
 than with the Church of England. And yet 
 they were not Separatists. They were disposed 
 to maintain their rights and liberties inside the 
 National Church, and inside the kingdom. As 
 a party, they used all constitutional methods to 
 secure a reform both in the Church and in the 
 State. They sent their sons to the English 
 Universities, where they were prepared to be- 
 come leaders in the struggle for civil and reli- 
 gious liberty. They elected a majority of the 
 
 1 Hume, chap. i. Greene, iii. 6-8. 
 
HIS POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. 65 
 
 House of Commons a number of times, and they 
 were able to limit very much the arbitrary plans 
 of the King, and to compel him to recognize the 
 rights of the people. They were constantly in- 
 sisting in Parliament upon the principle that 
 "governments derive their just powers from the 
 consent of the governed." It was not stated in 
 those terms precisely in those days, but that was 
 the substance of the contention of the statesmen 
 of that period. King James told his Parlia- 
 ment that their " privileges were derived from 
 the gracious concessions of their monarchs," 
 and that it was " treason for them to question his 
 royal prerogative." But the Commons informed 
 the King, through Sir Edward Coke, that he 
 "possessed no prerogative whatever except by 
 the law of the land." 1 King James said, "The 
 properties and causes of calling a Parliament are 
 to confer with the King and give him their ad- 
 vice in matters of greatest weight and impor- 
 tance." " I am your kindly King," he said, 
 "therefore do what you ought. Show a trust 
 in me, and go on honestly as ye ought to do, 
 like good and faithful subjects, and what you 
 have warrant for, go on with, and I will not be 
 curious unless you give me too much cause/' 2 
 But the Commons refused to vote money un- 
 
 1 Lord Campbell, Lives of the Chief Justices, chap. viii. 
 
 2 Parliamentary History, i. 1373-1376. 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 less the King would respect the laws of the land, 
 and when they did vote money they appointed 
 a committee to attend to the disbursement of 
 the revenues. It was their policy to keep the 
 national treasury under their own control, as 
 the most effective means of limiting the arbi- 
 trary power of the King. James claimed more 
 power than any English sovereign had ever 
 claimed before ; and the people insisted more 
 resolutely than ever before upon their rights 
 and liberties. 
 
 The crisis, which was inevitable, came in the 
 early years of Charles the First. He insisted 
 upon the royal prerogative as strenuously as his 
 father had done. The House of Commons drew 
 up the famous Petition of Right, in behalf of the 
 laws and the ancient liberties of the English peo- 
 ple, to which the King gave a reluctant^assent. 
 But he continued to levy taxes without authority 
 of law, and to make arbitrary arnests, and he in- 
 structed his officers who had the prisoners in 
 charge not to recognize the writ of Habeas Cor- 
 pus. He dissolved three Parliaments in succes- 
 sion, and for eleven years he governed Eng- 
 land without the authority of Parliament, collect- 
 ing revenues in such ways as he found most 
 convenient. 
 
 In the mean time some of the leading clergy- 
 men in the Established Church were preaching 
 
 
RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY. 
 
 the doctrine of passive obedience, and, as a recent 
 writer has said, they were turning religion into 
 a systematic attack upon English lib- The church of 
 erty. Laud was now Bishop of Lon- En e land - 
 don, and he already had a leading part in the 
 administration of ecclesiastical affairs. Many of 
 the Non-Conforming ministers were driven from 
 their parishes by the Court of High Commission. 
 Some of them were imprisoned. Others were 
 compelled to flee from the country. At the same 
 time some of the conforming clergymen were in- 
 troducing the doctrines and ceremonies of the 
 Church of Rome. It seemed to the Puritans 
 that their Mother Church was likely to discard 
 the Protestant faith. 
 
 The Puritans were not agreed as to the best 
 course to pursue. Some of them were inclined 
 to remain in their native land and defend their 
 rights in the Church and in the kingdom. The 
 great majority of them were of this opinion, and 
 a few years later they took up arms against the 
 King, and established the Commonwealth. A 
 smaller number of the Puritans believed that it 
 was necessary to plant colonies beyond the sea, 
 and establish free Christian states there, which 
 would be places of refuge in future years, not 
 only for themselves, but for their Protestant fel- 
 low countrymen. 
 
 The outlook for freedom in Europe was not 
 
68 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 promising. The earlier hopes of the growth of 
 Protestantism had been grievously disappointed. 
 In France, the Huguenots were already at the 
 mercy of their enemies. In Germany the Thirty 
 Years' War had reached the darkest period for 
 the cause of Protestantism. In England there 
 seemed to be very little promise of security for 
 civil or religious liberty. Several of the leading 
 members of Parliament had been arrested and 
 committed to the Tower. They were held at the 
 King's pleasure, and were required to make their 
 submission to the King as the condition of their 
 release. The most eminent of them all, Sir John 
 Eliot, was kept in prison until he died. Charles 
 proclaimed his purpose to govern without a 
 Parliament until the people should cease their 
 opposition to his policy. 
 
 I 
 
 IT was at that time that a large and influential 
 portion of the English Puritans began to prepare 
 to transport themselves and their families to 
 America. Their plans were formed with great 
 care and deliberation. It was two or three years 
 before they were matured. 
 
 Among those who had a leading part in pre- 
 paring the way for the first Colony was the ex- 
 cellent John White, who had been the Puritan 
 
 
THE DORCHESTER ADVENTURERS. 69 
 
 rector of Trinity Church in Dorchester Rev . John 
 for more than twenty years. The Pu- WMte - 
 ritans were numerous in that part of England. 
 A number of the merchants of Dorchester were 
 engaged in the business of fishing on the coast 
 of New England. A number of vessels went out 
 every year from Dorchester for the fishing grounds. 
 By the influence of Mr. White an association was 
 formed with the name of " The Dorchester Ad- 
 venturers," and with a capital of three thousand 
 pounds, to form a settlement on Cape Ann, where 
 the fishermen could be employed in agricultural 
 pursuits when not employed in taking fish, and 
 where a minister could be supported, to impart re- 
 ligious instruction to the fishermen who resorted 
 there, and to teach the Indians the Christian faith. \ 
 The Dorchester Company sent a small party 
 to begin the settlement in 1624. In 1625 they 
 appointed Mr. Roger Conant Governor at Cape 
 Ann, and invited Mr. John Lyford to become 
 the minister of the plantation. Both these men\ 
 had removed from Plymouth because they did i 
 not accept the principles of the Separatists. Mr. 
 Lyford probably conducted religious services af-y 
 ter the Episcopal forms. In the fall of 1626 the 
 settlement was removed to Naumkeag, where a 
 number of houses were erected, and where the 
 settlers planted corn, and prepared to make their 
 permanent home. 
 
7O THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 The fact that a settlement had been com- 
 menced at that point led a number of men of 
 settlement wealth and influence in England to 
 at saiem. make plans for sending a colony of 
 
 Puritans to that place. In 1628 a grant of 
 land was secured from " The Council for New 
 England," including a large part of what is now 
 Massachusetts. A new company was formed, 
 which purchased from " The Dorchester Adven- 
 turers " all their property at Cape Ann and 
 Naumkeag. Mr. John Endicott, one of the most 
 virile of the Puritan leaders, was appointed to 
 conduct the Colony. He sailed from Weymouth 
 in the ship Abigail, June 2oth, 1628, with a small 
 company of men and a few cattle, and landed at 
 Naumkeag on the 6th of September. He found a 
 small company of the old settlers on the ground. 
 The whole number, including the new comers, 
 was between fifty and sixty. There was some 
 difficulty between the old settlers and the new 
 Colonists, which was amicably adjusted, and on 
 that account the name of the plantation was 
 changed to Salem, which means peace. Endicott 
 at once made preparations, in accordance with 
 his instructions, to begin another plantation at 
 the place that is now known as Charlestown. 1 
 The Colony at that time was without a minister, 
 
 1 Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, 5-16. Northend's Ba> 
 Colony. Palfrey, i. 284-296. 
 
THE ROYAL CHARTER, 7 1 
 
 as Mr. Lyford had departed for Virginia, but 
 religious services were probably held under the 
 forms of the Church of England. 
 
 In the mean time the friends of the enterprise 
 were taking measures to obtain a new charter 
 from the King, which would strengthen The New 
 their title to the territory, and give charter< 
 them power to make laws for their people and 
 administer government in the Colony. They 
 had a number of influential friends at Court, 
 among whom were Earl Warwick and Lord 
 Dorchester. They succeeded in obtaining from 
 Charles a charter, which constituted them a body 
 politic and corporate, under the title of " The 
 Governor and Company, of the Massachusetts 
 Bay in New England." It is dated March 4th, 
 1629. One of those who were active in secur- 
 ing it wrote, a little later, concerning the charter, 
 that it " was obtained from his Majesty's especial 
 grace, with great cost, favor of personages of 
 note, and much labor." 1 It was granted at the 
 very time when Charles was beginning the ex- 
 periment of governing without a Parliament. 
 
 This charter, which is very long, filling some 
 twenty-five closely printed pages, was the funda- 
 mental law of the Colony of Massachusetts for 
 
 1 It is stated by some authorities that the charter cost the Com- 
 pany two thousand pounds. Charles was in great need of money 
 at that time. 
 
7 2 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 fifty-five years. It conveyed to the Company of 
 Massachusetts Bay all the land between Charles 
 River and the Merrimac, and three miles north 
 of the Merrimac, and three miles south of the 
 Charles, from the Atlantic on the east to the 
 South Sea on the west, with the havens, ports, 
 and rivers, and all the islands on the eastern 
 or western coasts of America lying within these 
 limits. 1 It gave to the Company power to elect 
 its own officers, and to make laws for the good 
 of the Company, and for the government of the 
 people dwelling on its territory, provided the 
 laws were not contrary to the laws of England. 
 
 The fact that the Company had planted a 
 settlement in New England, and that this charter 
 had been secured from the King, attested by the 
 Great Seal of England, gave a new impetus to 
 the great Puritan exodus. Descriptions of the 
 new country were circulated among the people, 
 and the question of emigration was discussed in 
 every Puritan household. Ships were chartered 
 by the Company to transport a large number of 
 emigrants in the spring. 
 
 The earliest records of the Massachusetts Bay 
 Company are dated February 23d, 1629. The 
 ship George Bonaventure, of three hundred tons, 
 armed with twenty cannon, sailed in April with 
 fifty-two planters, provisions, and cattle for the 
 
 1 For the original charter, see Hazard, i. 239, or The Bay Colony, 
 Northend, Appendix. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF SALEM. 73 
 
 settlement, and arrived at Salem June 22d. A 
 little later the ship Talbot, of three hundred tons, 
 sailed with above one hundred planters, some 
 goats, and provisions for the Colony for twelve 
 months ; and the Lion's Whelp of one hundred 
 and twenty tons, carrying fifty planters with pro- 
 visions. These reached Salem June 29th. Later 
 still, three other ships, the Four Sisters, the 
 Mayflower, which had carried the Pilgrims nine 
 years before, and the Pilgrim, sailed, carrying 
 planters and provisions. The records indicate 
 that during that year the Company sent over 
 three hundred men, eighty women, and twenty- 
 six children, with a hundred and forty head of 
 cattle, forty goats, and with necessary apparel, 
 provisions, tools, and arms, including a number 
 of pieces of ordnance. The Company had been 
 careful "to make plentiful provision of godly 
 ministers " for the Colony. Mr. Skelton, Mr. 
 Higginsonj Mr. Bright, and Mr. Smith went in 
 the first three vessels. 
 
 They found " about half a score of houses, and 
 a fair house newly built for the Governor." 
 There were fields of corn that gave promise of 
 a good harvest. They lost no time in dividing 
 their company between Salem and Mishawam 
 (now *Charlestown). Two thirds remained at 
 Salem, and the remainder went to Mishawam to 
 prepare the way for the larger number expected 
 the next year. 
 
4 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Important letters were sent to Endicott, the 
 Governor of the Colony, notifying him that 
 Government of they had confirmed him as Gover- 
 the colony. nor o f the pi anta tion ; that they had 
 
 joined with him as a Council seven persons, who 
 might select three others from the men on the 
 plantation, or from the new comers, and that 
 the old planters might choose two. They 
 enjoined him to treat the Indians justly and 
 courteously, and to educate their children ; and 
 reminded him that the main end of the plantation 
 was to bring the Indians to the better knowledge 
 of the Gospel. They also gave instructions that 
 if any of the Indians claimed title to any of the 
 lands covered by the patent, they should en- 
 deavor to purchase their title, so as to avoid the 
 least appearance of intrusion. In order that the 
 Sabbath might be celebrated in a religious man- 
 ner, they directed that all who inhabit the plan- 
 tation be permitted to cease labor at three o'clock 
 Saturday afternoon, and that they spend the rest 
 of that day in catechising, and in preparation for 
 the Sabbath, as the ministers shall direct. 
 
 It was provided in the instructions to Endicott 
 that each person who transported himself and 
 his family to the plantation should have fifty 
 acres of land, and more if the Governor and 
 Council should deem it necessary in any case, 
 conveyed to him in the name of the Company, 
 
BEGINNING OF THE COLONY. 75 
 
 to which the Seal of the Company should be 
 affixed ; fifty acres to each person who was sent 
 over by any adventurer in the common stock at 
 his own charge, servants as well as others; and 
 two hundred acres to each adventurer who had 
 contributed ^"50 to the common stock, and at 
 the same rate for additional contributions. 1 
 
 This was the beginning of the earliest Puritan 
 Colony. There was no trace of communism in 
 it. Nor was there any considerable democratic 
 element. It was at that date a Colony governed 
 by a foreign corporation, under a charter from 
 the King of England, which corporation had 
 power to make laws for the government of the 
 Colony without the consent of the inhabitants. 
 The Company had been fortunate in securing a 
 good title to a territory large enough to furnish 
 homes for the great body of English Puritans. 
 Each planter had the opportunity to secure a 
 generous portion of land, to which he could 
 secure a legal title. The people were expected 
 to gain a livelihood by agricultural pursuits ; but 
 they had an opportunity to supplement their 
 incomes by fishing and by trading with the In- 
 dians. This was the beginning. The state of the 
 democratic elements were to come Colon y- 
 into the government of the Colony at a later 
 time. The religious spirit of the Colony was 
 
 1 Mass. Colonial Records, i. 398. 
 
76 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 excellent. Mr. Higginson wrote home : " That 
 which is our greatest comfort and means of de- 
 fence above all other is that we have here the 
 true religion and holy ordinances of Almighty 
 God taught among us. Thanks be to God, we 
 have here plenty of preaching and diligent cate- 
 chising, with strict and careful exercise, and 
 good and commendable orders to bring our peo- 
 ple into a Christian conversation, with whom we 
 have to do withal. And thus we doubt not but 
 God will be with us, and if God be with us who 
 can be against us ? " * 
 
 II 
 
 THE Governor of the Company in England 
 wrote in his first letter to Endicott, that " for the 
 The First dmrch propagating of the Gospel, our aim 
 above all things in settling the plan- 
 tation, we have been careful to make plentiful 
 provision of godly ministers for those of our 
 nation, and for the Indians." He also informs 
 him that they had joined three ministers with 
 him as members of his Council, namely, Mr. 
 Francis Higginson, Mr. Samuel Skelton, and Mr. 
 Francis Bright. 2 These were all clergymen who 
 had been ordained in the Church of England, 
 
 1 Higginson, New England Plantation, 123. 
 
 2 Mass. Colonial Records, i. 37. March 23, 1628. 
 
THEIR MINISTERS. 77 
 
 and who had been for years in charge of parishes. 
 Mr. Bright soon returned to England, but the 
 two others had a very important part in organiz- 
 ing the churches of New England. 
 
 Mr. Higginson was born in 1588, graduated at 
 Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1609 or 1610, re- 
 ceived the degree of A. M. in 1613, and was min- 
 ister of a parish in Leicester for a number of 
 years. He was a man of unusual gifts, and was 
 much beloved by his parishioners. He became 
 a Non-Conformist, and was deprived of his parish 
 by the Bishop. At the time when he was invited 
 by the Company to join the new Colony he was 
 expecting to be arrested and sent to London for 
 his Non-Conformity. Although he could not 
 conform to all the requirements of the Estab- 
 lished Church, he was far from being a Sepa- 
 ratist. His memorable words, spoken, according 
 to Cotton Mather, when the ship was passing 
 out of sight of Land's End, show that he re- 
 garded the Church of England as a true church. 
 " We do not go to New England," he said, " to 
 separate from the Church, but only to separate 
 from the corruptions of it, and to practise the 
 positive part of church reformation, and to propa- 
 gate the Gospel in America/' 
 
 Mr. Skelton was graduated at Clare Hall, 
 Cambridge in 1611, and received the degree of 
 
 1 Mather's Magnalia, i. 362. 
 
78 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 A. M. in 1615. He was minister of a parish in 
 Dorsetshire ; became a Non-Conformist and was 
 deprived of his parish. Endicott had known him 
 in England, and had " profited by his ministry." 
 
 We cannot be quite sure what were the plans 
 of these clergymen in respect to the beginning of 
 a church in the new Colony. The letter of Gov- 
 ernor Cradock to Endicott states that they had 
 left to the ministers whom they had sent over the 
 decision as to " the manner of the exercising their 
 ministry? We do not know what plans had 
 been formed by the Puritans before the Colony 
 was sent over, in respect to a church organiza- 
 tion. There is reason to believe that the matter 
 had been very carefully considered for a long 
 time. They were quite familiar with the methods 
 of the Reformed Churches in France and Switz- 
 erland and Scotland. Hutchinson tells us they 
 " consulted about settling a Reformed Congrega- 
 tion according to the rule of the Gospel, as they 
 apprehended, and the pattern of the best Re- 
 formed Churches." 1 Their contention had been, 
 for a long time, that some things in the Church 
 of England were not according to the New 
 Testament, and not favorable to the growth of 
 true religion. It would have been very incon- 
 sistent if the Puritans had organized prelatical 
 churches in the new country. They must have 
 
 1 See in Mass. Hist. Collections, Series ii., v. 117. 
 
DR. SAMUEL FULLER. 79 
 
 come to the Colony prepared to begin the church 
 after a pattern such as the larger number of the 
 Protestants of Europe had approved. 
 
 The ministers found on their arrival that the 
 Governor of the Colony, Mr. Endicott, was al- 
 ready prepared for such an organization. The 
 little Colony had suffered much from sickness 
 during the winter, and they had sent to Ply- 
 mouth and secured the services of the excellent 
 physician, Deacon Samuel Fuller of the Pilgrim 
 Church. His skill and his knowledge of the 
 diseases of the coast had been of great service 
 to the suffering Colonists. He had also given 
 Mr. Endicott an account of the organization of 
 the Pilgrim Church, and of its forms of worship. 
 Mr. Endicott accepted these as in accordance 
 with the teachings of the New Testament. He 
 tells us that they were the same which he had 
 " preferred and maintained ever since the Lord 
 had revealed himself to him." l In fact, if they 
 were to discard the " Historic Episcopate," the 
 question of organizing a church was compara- 
 tively simple. 
 
 There must have been earnest consultations at 
 Salem between the ministers and the Colonists. 
 Morton tells us that Mr. Higginson and Mr. 
 Skelton consulted with Mr. Endicott, and the 
 rest of the godly people whom they found in- 
 
 1 Bradford's History, Legislative Ed., 316. 
 
8o 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 habitants of the place, and the chief of the 
 passengers who came over with them, "about 
 settling a Reformed Congregation" 
 
 The result was that, about four weeks after the 
 arrival of the new Colonists, Governor Endicott 
 appointed the 2Oth of July as "a solemne day 
 of humiliation for ye choyce of a pastor and 
 teacher." The people came together at that 
 time, and after fasting, prayer, and a sermon, 
 they cast their ballots and chose Mr. Skelton 
 to be pastor and Mr. Higginson to be teacher. 
 Then Mr. Skelton was solemnly set apart for his 
 office. Mr. Higginson and three or four of the 
 gravest members of the church laid their hands 
 on Mr. Skelton, and Mr. Higginson prayed. 
 Then the same service was repeated for Mr. 
 Higginson, with prayer by Mr. Skelton. These 
 things are stated in a letter by Mr. Charles Gott, 
 who was present, and who was afterwards deacon 
 of the church in Salem. 2 
 
 A little later the Governor appointed August 
 6th as another day of fasting and prayer, for the 
 election and setting apart of elders and deacons. 
 Mr. Higginson had been requested to draw up 
 a covenant for the members of the church. At 
 the appointed time he read the covenant which 
 he had prepared, and it was solemnly assented to 
 by thirty members, and a copy was given to each. 
 
 1 Morton's Memorial, 97. 2 Bradford's History, 316. 
 
THE CHURCH IN SALEM. 
 
 8i 
 
 This covenant was included in a single sentence, 
 as follows : 
 
 " We covenant with the Lord, and one with 
 another, and doe bynd our selves in the presence 
 of God, to walk together in all his waies, accord- 
 ing as he is pleased to reveale himself unto us 
 in his Blessed word of truth." 
 
 After the acceptance of this covenant, the two 
 ministers were again ordained in the same man- 
 ner as they had been on the 2Oth of July, as was 
 also Mr. Houghton, who had been chosen ruling 
 elder. 1 Some of the old writers state that Governor 
 Bradford, coming by sea as a representative of 
 the church in Plymouth, " gave them the right 
 hand of fellowship, wishing all prosperity, and a 
 blessed success unto such good beginnings." 2 
 
 The real meaning of this action of the Puritans 
 at Salem was made plain by a discussion which 
 began immediately. Two of the lead- significance of 
 ing men, who had just come into the tteirActi011 - 
 Colony from England, took exception to the 
 course that had been followed by the ministers, 
 and by the great majority of the people of the 
 Colony. Mr. Samuel Brown and his brother 
 John were both original members of the Massa- 
 
 1 The literature relating to their transactions is very extensive. 
 See Prof. Walker's Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, 
 93-116. Northend's Bay Colony, 50-52. 
 
 2 Morton's Memorial, 99. Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic, 325. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 chusetts Company, and also members of the 
 Governor's Council. One was a lawyer and the 
 other a merchant. They were men of wealth and 
 of influence, and were disposed to push their own 
 opinions in the plantation. They refused to have 
 anything to do with the organization of the new 
 church, which they regarded as a secession from 
 the National Church, and, gathering a company 
 of people who were of the same mind, they set 
 up a separate congregation where worship was 
 conducted according to the Book of Common 
 Prayer. They were themselves Non-Conformists, 
 but they were not prepared to break entirely with 
 the Church of England. When they were brought 
 before the Governor to explain their proceedings, 
 they said that the ministers were leading the peo- 
 ple into extremes, that they had already become 
 "Separatists and would be Anabaptists." To this 
 the ministers replied very plainly, that they were 
 neither Separatists nor Anabaptists; that they 
 did not separate from the Church of England nor 
 from the ordinances of God there, but only from 
 the corruptions and disorders there; that they 
 came away from the Common Prayer and cere- 
 V monies, and had suffered much for their Non- 
 "-Conformity in their native land, and therefore, 
 being in a place where they might have their 
 liberty, they neither could nor would use them, 
 because they judged the imposition of these 
 
THE FREE CHURCHES. 83 
 
 things to be sinful corruptions of the worship 
 of God." 1 
 
 This disagreement was a serious matter for 
 the infant Colony. Endicott had written instruc- 
 tions from the Company that persons not " con- 
 formable to their government be not permitted 
 to remain within the limits of their grant." He 
 called the Browns to account for what he termed 
 their "seditious " proceedings, and, finding that 
 they were likely to cause serious trouble in the 
 Colony, he told them that " New England was 
 no place for such as they," and sent them back 
 to England. This seems to have been done on 
 the principle that the corporate body owned the 
 territory, and that as the owners they had a right 
 to send out of their bounds all such persons as 
 were likely to cause them trouble or loss. 
 
 The new churches that were planted in the 
 Puritan Colonies followed the same principles 
 that had guided the church in Salem. They were 
 free churches. In respect to their organization 
 and the methods of administration, they were 
 like the Pilgrim Church at Plymouth. They 
 emphasized the local church as a body made 
 up of believers, bound together by a covenant 
 for Christian worship and service. But these 
 churches claimed very positively that they were 
 not " Separatist " churches. This statement was 
 
 1 Morton's Memorial, 100, 101. 
 
8 4 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 made not only at the time, but by their leading 
 men in subsequent years. When Roger Williams 
 came into the Colony, he objected to the churches 
 because they were not Separatist churches. He 
 would not commune with them because they rec- 
 ognized the Church of England as a true church. 
 John Cotton, in his work entitled " The Way 
 of the Churches Cleared," published in 1648, 
 states explicitly, that we do not deny " that the 
 parochial Congregations in England are true 
 
 Ohurches. Our separation from them is not a 
 sparation from them as no churches, but rather 
 separation from the corruptions found among 
 hem." 1 
 
 The action of the people of the Colony in 
 establishing churches that were not under the 
 control of the Church of England was in accord- 
 ance with the understanding at the time they 
 received their charter. It was well known that 
 those who were seeking to establish a settlement 
 in New England were Non-Conformists, and that 
 it was their purpose to establish a colony where 
 they could worship God in accordance with the 
 
 1 See Cotton's Way of the Churches Cleared, chap. iii. sect. 3. 
 Also pp. 14-16. He denies that Independency is a fit name for our 
 churches. ' Sure I am," he says, "that Mr. Skelton, their pastor, 
 was studious of that way before he left Holland in Lincolnshire. 
 ... He is much mistaken who saith the Congregation of Plymouth 
 did leaven all the vicinity. . . . Those who came over were not such 
 as would be leavened by vicinity of neighbors." 
 
TRANSFER OF THE CHARTER. 85 
 
 dictates of their own consciences. Governor 
 Winthrop states that, at a hearing before the King 
 and his Council in 1633, the agents of the Coun- 
 cil were told that " His Majesty did not intend 
 to impose the ceremonies of the Church of Eng- 
 land upon us, for that it was considered that it 
 was the freedom from such things that made 
 people come over to us." 1 In all the com- 
 plaints that were afterward made against the 
 Colony, it was never alleged that the establishing 
 of churches without Episcopal supervision was 
 inconsistent with the understanding on which 
 the charter was given. 
 
 Ill 
 
 IN the summer of 1629 the General Court of 
 the Company was considering a proposition to 
 transfer the government of the Col- 
 
 & Transfer of the 
 
 ony to New England. The plan was company to New 
 brought forward by Governor Cra- 
 dock at a meeting on the i3th of May, and it was 
 further discussed at meetings held in August and 
 September. A committee was chosen to take 
 the advice of counsel as to the right of the Com- 
 pany to transfer its charter to New England. In 
 the charters of all similar companies prior to 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 103. Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, 295 
 Northend's Bay Colony, 53-55. 
 
86 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 that of Massachusetts, it had been stipulated that 
 the chief government should remain in England. 
 But in the charter of the Massachusetts Colony 
 there was no such stipulation. Those who held 
 the charter found that some of the leading men 
 among the Puritans were not willing to enter a 
 Colony that was to be under the government of 
 a corporation beyond the sea. They claimed 
 that the Puritan Colony should be self-govern- 
 ing. The future growth and prosperity of the 
 Colony were believed to depend upon the de- 
 cision of the question concerning the removal of 
 the government to the Colony itself. 
 
 On the 26th of August, a memorable meeting 
 was held at Cambridge by a number of leading 
 Puritans who were considering the question of 
 a removal to New England. Among them were 
 Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Winthrop^ Isaac 
 Johnson, Thomas Dudley, John Humphrey, Wil- 
 liam Pynchon, Increase Nowell, Thomas Sharp, 
 The Meeting at an d William Vassall. The result of 
 Cambridge. fafe mee ting was that twelve gentle- 
 men, including all those named above, signed an 
 agreement to embark with their families for the 
 plantation in New England by the first of March 
 next, provided " that before the last of September 
 next, the whole Government, together with the 
 patent for the said Plantation, be first, by an 
 order of Court, legally transferred and estab- 
 
JOHN WINTHROP GOVERNOR. 87 
 
 lished to remain with us, and others which shall 
 inhabit upon the said plantation." 
 
 The General Court finally decided to transfer 
 the government to New England. At a meet- 
 ing held October 2oth, 1629, Governor Cradock 
 having resigned his office, John Winthrop was 
 elected Governor, and thereupon he accepted and 
 took the oath to that place appertaining. John 
 Humphrey was chosen Deputy Governor, and 
 Sir Richard Saltonstall, Isaac Johnson, Thomas 
 Dudley, John Endicott, Increase Nowell, William 
 Vassall, William Pynchon, Samuel Sharp, Edward 
 Rossiter, Thomas Sharp, John Revell, Matthew 
 Cradock, Thomas Goffe, Samuel Aldersey, John 
 Venn, Nathaniel Wright, Theophilus Eaton, and 
 Thomas Adams were chosen Assistants. It was 
 agreed that the members of the Company who 
 were to remain in England should have a share 
 in the profits of the trading stock for the term 
 of seven years, and the management of the stock 
 was intrusted to ten gentlemen, five of whom 
 were to remain in England, and five to go to 
 New England. 1 
 
 These events gave a great impulse to the 
 plans for a removal to New England. The far- 
 reaching plans of the leaders of the enterprise had 
 been successful, and a large number of the best 
 
 1 Colonial Records, i. 49. Hubbard, chap, xviii. Hutchinson's 
 Collections, 25, 26. 
 
88 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 people of England were ready to avail themselves 
 of the advantages of the liberal charter, and to 
 follow the well known leaders to the Bay Colony. 
 The emigration was on a scale beyond any simi- 
 lar movement in England before. " The prin- 
 cipal planters of Massachusetts," according to 
 the testimony of one of their opponents, " were 
 English country gentlemen of no inconsiderable 
 fortunes, of enlarged understandings, improved 
 by liberal education." 1 They came from every 
 part of England, but a large majority were from 
 the eastern counties. " It was not by accident," 
 says Mr. John Fiske, " that the earliest counties 
 of Massachusetts were called Norfolk, Suffolk, 
 and Essex, or that Boston in Lincolnshire gave 
 its name to the capital." 
 
 John Winthrop, the Governor, was born in 
 Groton, Suffolk, in 1587, was a student for two 
 years at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was 
 bred to the law. His father and grandfather 
 were lawyers. He was a man of great ability, 
 and of wide influence in England, and had an 
 income of six or seven hundred pounds a year, 
 equal to two thousand pounds at this time. 
 John Humphrey, the Deputy Governor, was a 
 man of learning, activity, and piety, and had 
 been the familiar companion of the patriotic 
 noblemen of the time. Thomas Dudley, who 
 
 1 Chalmers's History of the Revolt of the American Colonies, i. 58. 
 
THE LEADERS OF THE COLONY. 89 
 
 was of a very different type from the suave and 
 charitable Winthrop, came of an ancient family, 
 and brought to the service of the Colony a mind 
 trained in active life, full of energy and courage. 
 Sir Richard Saltonstall of Yorkshire was a gen- 
 erous contributor to the Colony. Isaac Johnson, 
 a son in law of Lord Lincoln, was an extensive 
 landowner, and was esteemed the richest of the 
 emigrants. Theophilus Eaton was a merchant 
 in London, and had been Minister of Charles 
 the First to Denmark. Simon Bradstreet,the son 
 of a clergyman, had studied at Cambridge, and 
 inherited a fine estate in Suffolkshire. These 
 men represented that which was the best and 
 most progressive in England at that time. And 
 those were the times of Lord Bacon, and Sidney, 
 and Shakespeare, and Milton. The mind of the 
 nation had been awakened from its' lethargy, and 
 it was evident that a new era of progress was at 
 hand. 
 
 Governor Winthrop, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Salton- 
 stall, Mr. Dudley, Mr. Phillips, and Mr. Codding- 
 ton sailed on the 8th of April from Yarmouth on 
 the Arabella, and arrived at Salem on the 1 2th 
 of June, having in their possession the charter of 
 the Company. On leaving England they issued 
 a printed address to " their Brethren of the 
 Church of England," which they speak of as their 
 dear mother. They express much affection for 
 
9O THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 their native land which they are leaving, and 
 ask their brethren to pray for them without 
 ceasing, " making continual requests for us to 
 God in all your prayers." 
 
 Sixteen other vessels went with them to Massa- 
 chusetts during the year, carrying not less than 
 one thousand persons, with sixty horses, two 
 hundred and forty cows, a large supply of pro- 
 visions, stores, and goods of various kinds for 
 trading with the Indians. Some of the ships 
 landed at Salem, some at Charlestown. 
 
 The condition of the Colony on their arrival 
 was discouraging. More than a quarter of those 
 who had come over a year before had died, and 
 many of the survivors were sick. The supply of 
 provisions was small. They had not enough 
 corn to last a fortnight when the fleet arrived. 
 A portion of the provisions of the new comers 
 had spoiled on the passage. By mistake, some 
 provisions designed for the Colony had not been 
 shipped. The supplies were so limited that they 
 were obliged to discharge from their indentures a 
 large number of servants who had been sent over 
 during the two years preceding. 
 
 Governor Winthrop lost no time in making 
 arrangements for distributing among the differ- 
 ent plantations the large number of Colonists 
 who had just arrived. He went to Charlestown, 
 where was already a considerable settlement, 
 
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON. 9 1 
 
 and to Medford and Boston. A good many of 
 the new comers were soon settled at Charles- 
 town. The Governor with some of the Assist- 
 ants took possession of the " great house " which 
 had already been erected for them. In August, 
 Mr. Johnson, one of the Assistants, settled in 
 Boston, where he found a good supply of whole- 
 some water. On that account Governor Win- 
 throp, took over the frame of a house which he 
 had constructed at Charlestown, and late in the 
 autumn Winthrop, Dudley, and some other leaders 
 of the Colony erected cottages there. Sir Rich- 
 ard Saltonstall with a company of his friends 
 settled at Watertown, with Mr. George Phillips 
 as their minister. Mr. Pynchon with a party of 
 his friends settled in Roxbury, and another party 
 settled at Matapan, now Dorchester. Mr. Cra- 
 dock began a plantation at Medford, and a few 
 families settled at Saugus. Before the winter 
 eight plantations had been commenced, namely, 
 Salem, Charlestown, Boston, Matapan, Watertown, 
 Roxbury, Medford, and Saugus. 
 
 The rude habitations which the Colonists were 
 able to erect were a poor substitute for the com- 
 fortable homes they had left in England. " They 
 lived many of them in tents and wigwams at 
 Charlestown," says one of the old writers ; " their 
 meeting place being abroad, under a tree, where 
 I have heard Mr. Wilson and Mr. Phillips preach 
 
9 2 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 many a good sermon." 1 Deputy Governor Dudley 
 wrote, " I have no table, or other room to write 
 in than by the fireside upon my knee in this 
 sharp winter ; to which my family must have 
 leave to resort, though they break good manners, 
 and make me many times forget what I would 
 say, and say what I would not." 2 
 
 Many of the Colonists were sick of scurvy and 
 of fever contracted on the voyage. Many died 
 soon after their arrival. There was great suffer- 
 ing from exposure to the weather, and before 
 December two hundred of the new comers had 
 died. Among the first of these were Mr. Isaac 
 Johnson, one of the Assistants, and his wife, the 
 Lady Arabella. In November they succeeded 
 in buying a hundred bushels of corn from the 
 Indians on Cape Cod. In August, Governor 
 Winthrop had sent the ship Lion to the nearest 
 port in Ireland or England for provisions. This 
 ship returned the 5th of February loaded with 
 provisions, at a time when the inhabitants were 
 subsisting on clams and mussels, and on bread 
 made from ground nuts and acorns. When the 
 ship arrived, the day of fasting and prayer which 
 had been appointed for the 6th of February was 
 changed to a day of Thanksgiving, and this day 
 was observed the 22d of February. 
 
 1 Clap's Memoirs. Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, 351. 
 
 2 Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, 303. 
 
THE EARLY CHURCHES. 93 
 
 The great suffering of that first winter, and 
 the large number of deaths, caused some of the 
 Colonists to lose hope. When the vessels went 
 back to England about one hundred of the 
 people went back. Mr. Bright, the minister at 
 Charlestown, and Mr. Vassall, one of the Assist- 
 ants, were among those who returned. But the 
 great body of the people remained, and bore with 
 wonderful fortitude the hard experiences of the 
 earlier years, determined to work out the diffi- 
 cult problems connected with the new Colony. 
 
 IV 
 
 AMONG, the first things which the Puritan 
 leaders provided for was the support of ministers 
 for the people, and the gathering of ineEany 
 churches. At the first meeting of chttrches - 
 the Court of Assistants, held at Charlestown, it 
 was voted that houses be built for Mr. Wilson 
 and Mr. Phillips, at the public charge, with con- 
 venient speed. It was also voted that Mr. 
 Phillips " should have, for his maintenance, three 
 hogsheads of meal, one of malt, four bushels of 
 Indian corn, one of oatmeal, one half a hundred 
 pounds of salt fish ; and for apparel and other 
 provisions, twenty pounds : or if he preferred to 
 be paid in money, he should have forty pounds 
 per annum, and find his own provisions." It 
 
94 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 was also ordered that " Mr. Wilson should have 
 twenty pounds per annum till his wife came 
 over." All these were to be a common charge 
 upon the Colony, those at Salem and Matapan 
 excepted, because they had their own ministers 
 to support. Provision was also made at that 
 time for Mr. Gager, a physician, at the public 
 charge, and for James Penn, beadle, who was to 
 wait upon the Governor, and to execute his 
 commands. 1 
 
 The first Puritan church to be formed after 
 the one at Salem was organized in England. 
 The method of organization is full of historical 
 significance. It was made up from a company 
 gathered by that energetic Non-Conformist minis- 
 ter, the excellent John White of Dorchester, Eng- 
 land. The people came from the counties of 
 Devon, Dorset, and Somerset, in 1629 ancT 1630. 
 They assembled at the New Hospital at Ply- 
 mouth, England, just as they were ready to sail. 
 An old writer tells us : 
 
 "These godly people resolved to live together; and 
 therefore, as they had made choice of those reverend 
 Servants of God, Mr. John Wareham and Mr. John 
 Maverick, to be their ministers, so they kept a solemn 
 Day of fasting in the New Hospital in Plymouth, in 
 England, spending it in Preaching and in Praying: 
 where that worthy man of God, Mr. John White of 
 Dorchester in Dorset was present, and Preached unto 
 
 1 Massachusetts Colonial Records, i. 73, 74. 
 
THE CHURCH IN DORCHESTER. 95 
 
 us the Word of God in the forepart of the Day ; and in 
 the latter part of the Day, as the people did solemnly 
 make Choice of, and call these godly Ministers to be 
 their Officers, so also the Revd. Mr. Wareham and Mr. 
 Maverick did accept thereof, and expressed the same." l 
 
 It is uncertain whether there was a formal or- 
 dination, by the laying on of hands, of these min- 
 isters. We do not certainly know whether the 
 members of the church gave their assent to a 
 covenant at that time. There is a conflict in the 
 testimony that has come down to us. Roger 
 Clap, who has given the most definite account of 
 what was done, was admitted into fellowship with 
 this church on their arrival in New England. 
 This implies that their organization was already 
 a complete one. 
 
 This whole transaction shows what views the 
 Puritan Non-Conformists in England had adopted 
 in respect to the essentials of a Christian church. 
 John White was a fair representative of them. 
 Evidently they were not in favor of the trans- 
 fer to New England of the Episcopal Church. 
 In the Mother Country they remained in that 
 church, but they did not regard prelacy as es- 
 sential to a true church. On the other hand, they 
 were not Separatists, as the people at Plymouth 
 were. And yet, when they came into the new 
 
 1 Roger Clap's Memoirs, 39. Young's Chronicles of Mass., 346- 
 367. See also Prof. Walker's Creeds and Platforms, 149, 150. 
 
96 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Colonies, they organized their churches in much 
 the same way as the Pilgrims had done. The 
 Dorchester church, which was formed at the New 
 Hospital in Plymouth, England, was very much 
 like the church that had been formed at Salem 
 the year before. 
 
 The third and fourth Puritan churches were 
 organized in Charlestown and Watertown on the 
 churches at 3oth of July, 1 630.* Only four per- 
 chariestown and sons united to form the church in 
 Charlestown ; namely, Governor Win- 
 throp, Isaac Johnson, Thomas Dudley, and John 
 Wilson. Five others were admitted to fellowship 
 a few days later, and others in rapid succession. 
 This process indicates the care that was taken to 
 make up the church of those who were esteemed 
 fit for membership. It was almost a month later 
 when the church observed another day of fasting 
 and prayer, and at that time selected John Wil- 
 son, teacher, Increase Nowell, ruling elder, and 
 William Gager and William A spin wall, deacons. 
 These officers were then installed by the laying 
 on of hands. It was expressly stated in the case 
 of Mr. Wilson, that the act of ordination was to 
 be understood only as his consecration to the 
 service to which he was now called, and not as a 
 denial of the validity of his Episcopal ordination 
 in England. 2 In forming this church the advice 
 
 1 Mather's Magnalia, i. 377. 2 Winthrop, i. 32, 33. 
 
THE CHURCH IN CHARLESTOWN. 97 
 
 and counsel of the Pilgrim Church at Plymouth 
 was sought, and was freely given. 
 
 The Covenant of the Church in Charlestown 
 was as follows: 
 
 " In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, & in obedi- 
 ence to His holy will & Divine Ordinance : 
 
 " Wee whose names are hereunder written, being by 
 His most wise & good Providence brought together into 
 this part of America in the Bay of Massachusetts, and 
 desirous to unite our selves into one Congregation or 
 Church, Vnder the Lord Jesus Christ our Head, in such 
 sort as becometh all those whom He hath Redeemed, & 
 Sanctified to Himselfe, do hereby Solemnly and reli- 
 giously (as in His most holy Presence), Promise & bind 
 ourselves to walk in all our wayes according to the Rule 
 of the Gospell, & in all sincere conformity to His holy 
 Ordinances, & in mutual love, & respect each for other, 
 so neere as God shall give vs grace." l 
 
 Not long after the organization of this church 
 Mr. Wilson and a number of the prominent 
 members removed to Boston, and the church be- 
 came the First Church of Boston. At a later 
 time the people of Charlestown formed themselves 
 into a church by a mutual covenant. On the 3Oth 
 of July the good people of Watertown also en- 
 tered into a covenant, which is preserved in the 
 pages of Cotton Mather. 2 It is longer than the 
 covenant of the churches of Salem, or Dorches- 
 
 1 History of the First Church in Boston, A. B. Ellis, 3. 
 
 2 Magnalia, i. 377. 
 
 7 
 
9 8 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 ter, or Charlestown, but is made up of the same 
 elements. 
 
 This is sufficient to show how the Puritan 
 Churches in New England were formed. Their 
 members had been members of the Episcopal 
 Church in England. Their ministers, almost 
 without exception, had been educated in the 
 English Universities, and had been ordained 
 by the Bishops and Presbyters of that Church. 
 They had the learning and the manners of Eng- 
 lish clergymen. They did not believe, however, 
 that the orders or the services of that Church 
 were the only ones that had any validity. The 
 essential thing in a church, in their opinion, was 
 a company of believers, associated together by a 
 mutual covenant, living in Christian love and 
 fellowship with each other, and with all other 
 Christians, and observing the ordinances ^which 
 are set forth in the New Testament. The Puri- 
 tans formed free churches in their Colonies, ac- 
 cording to a very simple pattern, and these free 
 churches, after an experience of more than two 
 hundred and fifty years, are still lights in the 
 world, sending out Christian influences in all 
 the earth, working zealously, in connection with 
 Christians in other communions, in the service of 
 the Master, for the redemption of all the nations 
 of men. 
 
OCCUPATIONS OF THE PEOPLE, 99 
 
 WE are next to trace the plans of the Puritan 
 Colonists in providing for the social and eco- 
 nomic, and jjoHticaUife of the people. Variety ^g 
 The large number of Englishmen ^colonists. 
 who came into the Colony of Massachusetts Bay 
 in the earlier years were frpm_ different callings 
 and occupations in life. There was an unusually 
 large proportion of University men. Governor 
 Winthrop and some of his associates in the Gen- 
 eral Court were lawyers. William Gager was not 
 the only physician among them. By the end of 
 1630 there were seven or eight clergymen in the 
 Colony. There were a number of merchants 
 who brought into the new country considerable 
 wealth. These men were able, in the course of a 
 few years, to develop profitable business enter- 
 prises, by the fisheries and the fur trade with the 
 Indians, and by trade with their own people. 
 The lajgest number of the pioneers were farm- 
 ers, who availed themselves of the proposals of 
 the Company and became the owners of land in 
 the different plantations. These men were able 
 within a few years to erect comfortable dwellings 
 in the midst of fruitful fields and orchards, that 
 brought them an ample support. Many of the Col- 
 onists brought with- them servants whose passage 
 they had paid, and for whose support they were 
 
IOO THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 responsible. These servants bound themselves 
 to repay them by their labor. The first Colonists 
 also brought with them horses and cattle of vari- 
 ous kinds, and goats and sheep, and such tools as 
 were needed for building and fishing and farming. 
 The Colonists were characterized from the first 
 by habits of industry and frugality, as well as by 
 energy and thrift. 
 
 We have already seen that it was the policy 
 of the Massachusetts Company to encourage the 
 owners of the settlers to gain a title to the land 
 SoU ' which they cultivated. 1 There was 
 
 at one time a probability that some families of 
 the English nobility would come to New Eng- 
 land, and would become owners of large tracts 
 of land, and lay the foundation for a land system 
 like that of Great Britain. Formal inquiries 
 were made as to whether they could have cer- 
 tain hereditary rights, which would secure to 
 them a share in the government similar to that 
 of the English peers. 2 All such proposals were 
 declined in courteous though decided terms, be- 
 cause they were not in harmony with the best 
 aspirations of the people who had crossed the 
 sea to lay the foundations for a new England. 
 The free democratic^ principle was continually 
 
 1 Colonial Records of Massachusetts, i. 398. 
 
 2 Winthrop, i. 135-137. Hutchinson's History, i. 433, 490. 
 Palfrey, i. 390. Edmund Burke, ii. 145. 
 
COLONIAL GOVERNMENT. IOI 
 
 asserting itself. No hereditary privileges could 
 be conceded even to such generous friends and 
 patrons as Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brook, and 
 the other "persons of quality" who united with 
 them in their proposals. The right to own the 
 land which they cultivated was secured to the 
 Colonists in the early years. 
 
 The Colonial government at first had few of 
 the elements of a democracy. In the beginning 
 the Corporation, which owned the The colonial 
 territory, and which had the right to ^^ r ^^- 
 make laws for the people, was a foreign body, 
 holding its meetings in England. The trans- 
 fer of the charter to New England prepared 
 the way for the people to gain a share in the 
 government. 
 
 The first session in New England of the 
 " General Court of the Company of Massachu- 
 setts Bay" was held in Boston, October iQth, 
 1630. This General Court consisted of the Gov- 
 ernor, Deputy Governor, and eighteen Assist- 
 ants, and of such freemen as they had chosen. 
 There was at that time no representation from 
 the people of the Colony, and yet the General 
 Court had power to enact such laws First Meetin g of 
 as they should think proper for the the General court 
 
 * i in New England. 
 
 people inhabiting the Colony, pro- 
 vided the laws were not contrary to the laws of 
 England. At this first meeting of the General 
 
IO2 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Court, one hundred and nine persons applied for 
 admission as freemen. This admission would 
 make them members of the Company, and en- 
 title them to vote at all elections of officers, and 
 on all proposals for the enactment of laws. This 
 number must have included a large proportion 
 of the adult males of the Colony. Had this 
 application been granted, it would have brought 
 the government of the Colony under the control 
 of those who desired to become freemen. But 
 the officials had too little confidence in the peo- 
 ple to grant the application. They did not think 
 it would be for the interest of the Colony that 
 the election of officers and the enactment of laws 
 should be confided to inexperienced men. And 
 yet they could not well refuse to admit the peo- 
 ple to some share in the government. The Gen- 
 eral Court decided, on this account, to lessen 
 the power of those who should be admitted as 
 freemen. They voted that the election of Gov- 
 ernor and Deputy Governor should be by the 
 Assistants, and not by the freemen ; that the 
 power of making laws and choosing officers to 
 execute the same should be limited to the Gov- 
 ernor and Deputy Governor with the Assistants. 
 They granted to the freemen the power of elect- 
 ing Assistants whenever there should be a vacancy 
 in the board. At the annual meeting of the 
 General Court, held at Boston, the i8th of May, 
 
RELIGIOUS TEST. IC>3 
 
 1631, one hundred and sixteen persons, including 
 most of those who had applied in October, were 
 admitted as freemen in the Company, on taking 
 the prescribed oath. It was ordered at that time 
 by the General Court, that once a year at least 
 there should be a session of the General Court 
 for the election of officers and for other purposes. 
 At this annual session "the commons" (that is, 
 the freemen) could nominate any person or per- 
 sons whom they should choose for the office of 
 Assistant, provided there were any vacancies in 
 that body. The Commons could also express 
 their desire for the removal of one or more of 
 the Assistants, "for any defect or misbehav- 
 
 iour." 
 
 These orders were designed to make the office 
 of Assistant a permanent office, unless the occu- 
 pant should be removed by the freemen for defect 
 or misbehavior. It was also ordered by the 
 General Court at that time, that for the time to 
 come no man should be admitted to be a free- 
 man but such as are members of some of the 
 churches within the limits of the Colony. At 
 that session of the General Court, Winthrop 
 was re-elected to the office of Governor, and 
 Dudley to that of Deputy Governor. 1 
 
 But the action which had been taken by the 
 General Court restricting the rights of the free- 
 
 1 See Massachusetts Records, i. 79-87. 
 
IO4 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 men in the election of Governor and Assistants 
 was looked upon by the people as an assumption 
 of power. It was plainly in conflict with the 
 charter, and public opinion in the Colony was 
 decidedly favorable to the right of the people to 
 a generous share in the government. At the ses- 
 sion of the General Court in May, 1632, it was 
 ordered that the election of Governor, Deputy 
 Governor, and Assistants shall be by the whole 
 court, consisting of all the freemen, as well as of 
 the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assistants, 
 and that the Governor shall always be chosen out 
 of the Assistants. 1 This was a very large conces- 
 sion to the people. From that time they had a 
 large and increasing share in the government of 
 the Colony. 
 
 It was provided in the charter that the Court 
 of Assistants, with the Governor, may hold meet- 
 ings once a month for such business relating to 
 the Colony as may require to be done. This pro- 
 vision resulted in a great increase in the power 
 of the Assistants. Most of the judicial functions 
 rested in them, and they were called " the magis- 
 trates." They appointed justices of the peace 
 with powers like those of such officers in Eng- 
 land. They levied taxes, appropriated money, 
 tried suits, punished offenders, and framed laws 
 for the Colony. They assumed to be an es- 
 
 1 Massachusetts Records, i. 95. 
 
DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS. IC>5 
 
 tate above the freemen, who were called the 
 Commons. 
 
 The question of the right of the Court of As- 
 sistants to levy taxes without the consent of the 
 people was raised in the early years of the Col- 
 ony. In consequence of the representations of 
 the freemen, it was voted by the Court of Assist- 
 ants that every plantation within the Colony 
 should have the right to appoint two deputies 
 to confer with the Court in regard to the assess- 
 ment of taxes. This also was a concession to 
 the democratic tendencies in the Colony. 
 
 \ 
 
 ONE of the objects of those who went to the \ 
 Colony of Massachusetts Bay was to teach the j 
 Indians the Christian religion. It Dealings with / 
 was stated in the charter of the Col- the mdtais. 
 ony that it was " the principal end of the planta- 
 tion to winn- and incite the natives of the coun- 
 try to the knowledge and obedience of the only 
 true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Chris- 
 tian faith." ] Governor Cradock, in his letter 
 to Endicott in February, 1629, enjoined him to 
 treat the Indians justly and courteously, and to 
 educate their children. At a meeting of the 
 
 1 Bay Colony Charter, Northend, 526. 
 
io6 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Court held in 1631, it was ordered that satis- 
 faction should be made to the Indians for a 
 canoe which Thomas Morton had unjustly taken 
 from them, and that his house be burned in 
 sight of the Indians for their satisfaction for 
 the wrongs he had done them. " It is the 
 earnest desire of our whole company," wrote 
 Governor Cradock, " that you have a diligent and 
 watchful eye over our own people, that they de- 
 mean themselves justly and courteously towards 
 the Indians." At one time it was agreed that 
 " Sir Richard Saltonstall shall give Sagamore 
 John a hogshead of corn for the hurt his cattle 
 did him in his corn " ; and also that " Nicholas 
 Frost, for theft committed by him upon the 
 Indians shall be severely whipped, and banished 
 out of this patent." 1 These are specimens of the 
 action that was taken for the protection of the 
 ndians against dishonest white men. 
 
 There were few Indians in the vicinity of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay at the time of the settlement by 
 the English. That region had been almost de- 
 populated by an epidemic which had prevailed 
 before the arrival of the English, and was for the 
 most part open for the settlers without interfer- 
 ence with the rights of the aborigines. Not a 
 foot of land previously in their occupation was 
 appropriated except by purchase. Vattel, in his 
 
 1 Massachusetts Colonial Records, i. 102, and 100, 121, 133. 
 
PEACEFUL RELATIONS. IO7 
 
 Law of Nations, says : " We cannot fail to ap- 
 plaud the moderation of the English Puritans 
 who first established themselves in New Eng- 
 land, who bought from the savages the land 
 which they wished to occupy." 1 There were 
 occasional acts of injustice towards the red men 
 by individuals who belonged in the Colony, and 
 sometimes a white man was robbed or murdered 
 by the Indians ; but these occurrences were rare 
 and exceptional. The relations between the 
 Colonists and the Indians were friendly up to 
 the time of the Pequot war, and the legislation 
 relating to the Indians was just and humane 
 through the whole period of Colonial history. 
 When the Indians were sick, and their own peo- 
 ple were afraid to take care of them on account 
 of the danger of infection, their white neighbors 
 came to their help. The Indians were much 
 affected by the kindness of their English friends, 
 who came to them daily to minister to their 
 wants. They also buried their dead, and gave 
 homes to their orphan children. 2 The relation 
 of the Indian chiefs to Governor Winthrop was 
 very friendly. They were desirous to put on 
 English garments, and the Governor encouraged 
 them to do so. He was careful to redress any 
 
 1 Vattel, Law of Nations, book i. chap, xviii. Palfrey, i- 362. 
 Winthrop, i. 89, 116, 119. 
 
 2 Winthrop, i. 119. 
 
loS 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 wrongs they had suffered from white men, and 
 on a number of occasions he invited them to 
 dine with him at his house, and treated his dusky 
 guests with especial respect and courtesy. 
 
 VII 
 
 THE general history of the Colony during the 
 early years was much like that of other English 
 The colony in Colonies. The settlement at Boston 
 1630 to 1633. grew rapidly. A new plantation was 
 begun at Newtown, now Cambridge, in 1631, 
 and it was proposed to make it a fortified town, 
 and to remove the cannon and the stores of 
 ammunition to that place. There was a plan 
 to make Newtown the capital, and to induce 
 the Governor and Deputy Governor and most 
 of the Assistants to build houses there. But the 
 influence of the people in Boston induced Win- 
 throp to remain there, and the majority of the 
 officials remained with him. 
 
 In 1631, only a few joined the Colony from 
 England. Among those who came w r ere the 
 wife and some of the children of Governor Win- 
 throp, and John Eliot, who was known in later 
 years as the Apostle to the Indians. 
 
 It was ordered in April that every captain 
 shall train his company on Saturday of each 
 week; and later, that there should be a general 
 
GROWTH OF THE COLONY. IOQ 
 
 training once a month. It was the policy of the 
 Colony to accustom the settlers to the use of 
 arms, so as to be ready to resist attacks from, the 
 Indians or from other enemies. 
 
 Two hundred and fifty came from England to 
 the Colony in 1632. Among them was Mr. 
 Wilson, pastor of the church in Boston, who 
 had gone to England for his family; Thomas 
 Welde, who was soon after ordained minister at 
 Roxbury ; and Thomas James, who was afterwards 
 minister at Charlestown. Mr. Eliot, who had 
 come the year before, was ordained at Roxbury. 
 Thus the churches which had been formed in 
 the new settlements were provided with ministers. 
 
 It was " thought by general consent that Bos- 
 ton was the fittest place for public meetings of 
 any place in the Bay."" It was ordered that 
 a market should be kept there every Thurs- 
 day. A house of correction was also erected. 
 A meeting-house was built in Boston, and a 
 house for the pastor, by a voluntary contribu- 
 tion of about one hundred and twenty pounds. 
 It is said to have had mud walls and a thatched 
 roof, and to have stood on the south side of what 
 is now State Street, near the corner of Devon- 
 shire Street. The settlement at that time con- 
 sisted of only a few dwellings. 
 
 In 1633, seven hundred persons came to Mas- 
 
 1 Colonial Records, i. 101. 
 
I IO THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 sachusetts from England. Among them were 
 John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and Samuel Stone, 
 ministers; and Mr. Haynes, Mr. Pierce, and Mr. 
 Goofe, who became leading men in the Colony. 
 Mr. Cotton was ordained by imposition of hands 
 as teacher of the church in Boston, of which Mr. 
 Wilson was pastor; Mr. Hooker was ordained as 
 pastor, and Mr. Stone as teacher, of the church 
 in Newtown. 
 
 The year 1634 was a notable one in the his- 
 tory of the Colony. It now contained about 
 three thousand people, scattered through sixteen 
 plantations. 1 When notice of the meeting of the 
 General Court in May was sent out, the freemen 
 in the different settlements elected delegates, 
 three from each town, who came to Boston and 
 desired to see the charter of the Colony. After 
 the examination the deputies were sure that~the 
 power of making laws was in the General Court, 
 including all the freemen. In this opinion the 
 General Court, after an examination, agreed with 
 the deputies, and voted that the General Court 
 has power to make laws, elect officers, levy taxes, 
 dispose of lands, and to elect freemen. These 
 votes gave to the freemen, who were represented 
 by the deputies, the control of the affairs of the 
 Colony, and they were determined to maintain 
 their rights under the charter. The election 
 
 1 Wood, New England Prospect, 44. 
 
THE NEW ENGLAND TOWN. Ill 
 
 sermon was preached by Mr. Cotton, in which 
 he stated "that a magistrate ought not to be 
 turned into the condition of a private man with- 
 out just .cause." The deputies determined to 
 effect a change in the office of Governor, not be- 
 cause they had less confidence in Mr. Winthrop 
 than before, but because he stood before the 
 people as representing the doctrine that a magis- 
 trate has a claim to be continued in his office. 
 The vote for Governor was taken " by papers," 
 that is by ballot, after the custom in the Dutch 
 Republic, and Mr. Dudley was chosen Governor 
 and Mr. Ludlow Deputy Governor. 
 
 In this way the democratic element in the 
 Colony asserted itself, and from that time the 
 people were recognized more and more definitely 
 as the source of political power. 
 
 VIII 
 
 ONE of the characteristic things in the Puritan 
 Colonies was the division of the territory into 
 towns. Many of the ideas of the Puritans tended 
 towards republicanism, and they naturally organ- 
 ized their towns as little republics in which the 
 people should manage their local affairs in their 
 own way. There was nothing in England at that 
 time from which they could have borrowed the 
 idea of the town. It was somewhat like the tun- 
 
112 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 moot of the Anglo-Saxons. 1 It was in accord- 
 ance with the best traditions of teutonic liberty. 
 There was something like it in some of the old- 
 est Cantons in Switzerland, and in the char- 
 tered towns of the Netherlands, 2 in which some 
 of the Puritans had lived. Mr. Bryce quotes 
 the words of Jefferson in regard to the towns 
 of New England : " They are the vital principle 
 of their government, and have proved themselves 
 the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of 
 man for the perfect exercise of self-government, 
 and for its preservation." 3 
 
 The settlers of New England had the advan- 
 tage of planting in a new country, when there 
 were no class distinctions or vested rights to 
 limit the freedom of their action. The terms 
 plantation and town were used indiscriminately 
 in the early years. Companies of immigrants 
 were authorized from time to time to settle in 
 places that had been designated by the Court. 
 These settlements were recognized in the course 
 of time as towns or plantations. Their bounda- 
 ries were fixed by the Court, sometimes after 
 consultation with the inhabitants. The General 
 Court exercised jurisdiction over the towns, re- 
 
 1 The Making of England. Green, 187. 
 
 8 The Puritan in Holland, England, and America. Douglas 
 Campbell, i. 143-147. 
 
 8 The American Commonwealth, i. 567. 
 
THE TOWN MEETING. 113 
 
 quiring them to provide themselves with minis- 
 ters, to provide arms for the inhabitants, and 
 to provide a place for the safe keeping of arms ; 
 also, to provide standard weights and measures ; 
 and, a little later, to support schools. In 1636 the 
 General Court defined the powers of The Town 
 the towns. They were to order their s y stem - 
 local affairs, dispose of their lands, and to elect 
 their officers. The voters in town meeting were 
 those who had been admitted as freemen. Some 
 who are now living can remember when the 
 annual town meeting was called the " freeman's 
 meeting," a reminiscence of the time when there 
 was a distinction between a citizen and a free- 
 man. The town meeting was usually held in the 
 meeting-house. 
 
 So the New England town meeting came into 
 existence to meet a definite want of the people 
 of jhejown. The little republic grew up in the 
 plantation of pioneers, and they were trained in 
 the duties and responsibilities of citizenship in 
 a free state, while they were doing the business 
 that belonged to their own community. This 
 institution of the Puritan fathers has been planted 
 wherever their descendants have gone, in the 
 East and the West, with the possible exception 
 of Oregon. The town meeting had its full 
 share in the development of the great Republic. / 
 Within the town were gathered the institutions 
 
114 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 which were especially valued by the fathers. At 
 a time when the means of communication were 
 very limited, the town was the permanent home 
 of the family. They seldom went beyond its 
 bounds. Certain eccentricities of speech and of 
 manner characterized the people of certain towns, 
 'he public schools in the earlier years were 
 supported by the towns. We find these schools 
 The PUNIC m existence at a very early date, 
 schools. f^e p eO pi e h ac i brought their Eng- 
 
 lish Bibles across the sea, and they must needs 
 teach their children to read the Bible. In the 
 first 3'ears the parents were the teachers. 1 As 
 the towns grew larger, other teachers were em- 
 ployed, and the children were sent to school. 
 The money was sometimes raised by voluntary 
 subscriptions. There is preserved an interesting 
 list of such subscriptions for a school in Boston, 
 made in 1636. Governor Henry Vane gave ten 
 pounds; John Winthrop, ten pounds. There are 
 forty-five names in all, and the amounts vary from 
 three shillings to ten pounds. This paper shows 
 in an interesting way how much those people, 
 some of whom had not been a year within the 
 Colony, cared for schools. As early as 1635 it 
 was voted that Philemon Pormont " shall be in- 
 treated to become schoolmaster for the teaching 
 and nurturing of children." We read in Win- 
 
 1 Bradford, 161, 162. Winthrop, ii. 267. 
 
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. I I 5 
 
 throp's Journal of free schools in Roxbury, where- 
 of every inhabitant bound some house or land for 
 a yearly payment for the support of schools. In 
 Boston, he tells us, an order was passed in 1645 
 to allow fifty pounds a year and a house to the 
 master, and thirty pounds to an usher. The 
 children were to be taught to " read and write, 
 and cypher, and Indians' children were to be 
 taught freely. . . . Other towns did the like," 
 he tells us, " providing maintenance by several 
 means." 1 In 1647 the Colony was so far ad- 
 vanced that a general law was passed which 
 required every town of fifty families to employ 
 a teacher "for all such children as shall resort to 
 him, to write and read." Every town of one hun- 
 dred families was required to set up a grammar 
 school, " the master thereof being able to instruct 
 youth so far as they may be fitted for the Univer- 
 sity." No distinction was made in any of the 
 early laws between boys and girls. The schools 
 were provided for all children. There was a 
 penalty of ^5 to be collected from towns that 
 should fail to provide schools. It was left with 
 the inhabitants to determine in what way the 
 money for the support of schools should be 
 raised. 2 
 
 Much earlier than this, in October, 1636, the 
 
 1 Winthrop, ii. 267. Bradford, 161, 162. 
 8 Massachusetts Records, ii. 203. 
 
I I 6 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 General Court voted to raise ^400 towards a 
 school or college, the location and character of 
 the buildings to be determined at the next session 
 of the Court. A year later the Court located the 
 college at Newtown, and appointed a committee to 
 oversee the work. A little later the name of the 
 town was changed to Cambridge, after the town 
 of the favorite Puritan University in England. 
 Harvard Mr. John Harvard, of Charlestown, 
 
 college. a graduate of Cambridge Univer- 
 
 sity, died soon after, leaving half of his estate, 
 worth some ^700, and the whole of his library, 
 as an endowment for the College, and in 1639 
 the Court gave it the name of Harvard College. 1 
 The first class was graduated in 1642, with nine 
 students. No instance can be found in previous 
 history of so wise and so generous a provision, 
 by a new Colony, for the education of the people, 
 as this which was made by the Puritan fathers of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 In the Colonial times, as we have seen, the 
 voters in town meeting were all members of 
 support of the church. The minister was called, 
 Ministers. an j se ttled by vote of the freemen 
 of the town. The early Puritans believed that 
 ministers should be maintained by the free and 
 voluntary offerings of the people. 2 That was 
 
 1 Massachusetts Records,!. 183, 208, 217, 253. 
 * Walker's Creeds and Platforms, 71-79. 
 
SUPPORT OF MINISTERS. I I 7 
 
 the method followed by the Pilgrims at Ply- 
 mouth in the earlier years. In Boston, the 
 money for building meeting-houses and for the 
 support of ministers was raised by voluntary con- 
 tributions through most of the Colonial period. 
 The same method was followed in the beginning 
 by the other churches. Winthrop says that it 
 was offensive to some of their people in his time 
 to raise money by taxation for the support of the 
 Gospel. 1 The people were taught that it was the 
 duty, not only of members of the churches, " but 
 of all that were taught in the Word to contribute 
 unto him that teacheth in all good things." As 
 attendance on public worship was required by law, 
 this principle brought all the people under this 
 obligation. 
 
 At the same time, the Puritans, unfortunately 
 as it seems to us at this day, brought with them 
 from England the principle of the union of church 
 union of Church and State. They "*se. 
 held, as they say in the Cambridge Platform, 
 that "the magistrates are nursing fathers and 
 nursing mothers" to the churches. 2 That is, 
 they did not trust the churches to stand with- 
 out external aid. There were practical difficul- 
 ties in raising money to build meeting-houses, 
 and to support ministers in some of the towns. 
 
 1 Winthrop, ii. 93. 
 
 2 Cambridge Platform, chap. xi. 4. 
 
n8 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 The money was not always in the hands of those 
 most willing to contribute. And yet the law 
 required every town to have a minister, and to 
 build a meeting-house. So that, in the course 
 of time, the power of the government was called 
 in to enforce the obligation to support public 
 worship. The friends of the church paid their 
 proportion voluntarily, but those who were in- 
 different or unfriendly were compelled to pay. 
 After some years, the custom was adopted of 
 collecting the salary of the minister by the same 
 constables who gathered the other taxes. This 
 method of imposing a tax upon the people for 
 the support of the churches did not tend to in- 
 crease the good will of the people towards the 
 churches. It probably interfered with the natu- 
 ral influence of the ministers upon the people. 
 There grew up in all the Puritan Colonies a class 
 of dissenters, who claimed, and in the end se- 
 cured, the right to determine for themselves 
 how much they should pay for the support of 
 the church, and to whom they should pay it. 
 The most serious difficulties which the Puritan 
 churches met, in later years, grew out of the 
 assumption, which was unfortunately made in 
 the earlier times, that they were the "Standing 
 order," and as such entitled to certain exclusive 
 rights and privileges. 1 
 
 1 Massachusetts Records, i. 117-120. 
 
PROSPERITY OF MASSACHUSETTS. I I 9 
 
 IX 
 
 THE year 1634 developed the spirit of the peo- 
 ple of the Colony in a number of ways. They 
 had already passed in safety some of Growth of the 
 the severest trials of a new settle- Colcmy - 
 ment They had become acclimated in the new 
 country, and had learned to adapt themselves to 
 the necessary conditions of life in the wilderness. 
 They were producing, from year to year, food 
 enough for themselves and their cattle. They 
 were now so numerous that they had ceased to 
 apprehend an attack from the Indians. The 
 people in the towns were learning how to secure 
 their right to a share in the legislation of the 
 Colony. The whole number who had been ad- 
 mitted as freemen was three hundred and sixty- 
 six. This was about twelve per cent of the num- 
 ber of inhabitants, a small proportion, yet large 
 enough to secure to the people a real voice in 
 moulding the institutions of the Colony. There 
 was no complete code of laws, but some of the 
 most important points had been fixed by the 
 General Court, such as the right of trial by jury, 
 and the equitable assessment of taxes upon prop- 
 erty, and not upon the polls, as had been the 
 earlier custom. 
 
 At the same time, the growth of the Colony 
 was attracting unfavorable attention from the 
 
I2O THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 English government. King Charles probably 
 did not anticipate, when he granted the charter, 
 that a large and prosperous Colony of English 
 Dissenters would be formed within a few years, 
 which would become a refuge for those who were 
 prosecuted for their Non-Conformity by the Court 
 of High Commission. Archbishop Abbott had 
 died the year before, and Bishop Laud had suc- 
 ceeded him as Primate of all England. He was a 
 member of the Privy Council, and he was using 
 his great influence in the most decided way in 
 opposition to the Dissenters, whether within or 
 without the kingdom. Ten large ships which 
 were ready to sail for Massachusetts were for- 
 bidden to depart. An Order in Council was 
 issued, which set forth tha'- "great numbers of 
 His Majesty's subjects were being transported 
 out of this kingdom to the plantation of NBw 
 England, amongst whom divers persons known 
 to be ill affected, discontented not only with civil 
 but ecclesiastical government here, are observed 
 to resort thither, whereby such confusion and 
 distraction is already grown there, especially in 
 point of religion, as, beside the ruin of the said 
 plantation, cannot but highly tend to the scandal 
 both of Church and State here." l 
 
 Mr. Cradock, who was regarded as the repre- 
 sentative of the Company in England, was ordered 
 
 i Journal of the Privy Council, February, 1634. 
 
ATTACK UPON THE CHARTER. 121 
 
 to produce the charter before the Privy Council, 
 that the proceedings of the Colony might be 
 compared with its provisions. 1 He sent a re- 
 quest to Governor Dudley to send the charter 
 to England. These proceedings caused great 
 anxiety in the Colony, but they united the people 
 for the defence of their rights. The Governor 
 replied diplomatically to Mr. Cradock, that he 
 had no authority to transmit the charter without 
 an order from the General Court, which would 
 meet in September. Mr. Edward Winslow of 
 the Plymouth Colony was sent to England to 
 mediate in behalf of the Colony, and to correct 
 the false statements in respect to a violation of 
 the terms of the charter. 
 
 The ships had been permitted to sail under 
 certain conditions, and in June fourteen ships 
 had reached Boston and Salem, bringing a large 
 number of Colonists, with provisions and cattle, 
 and also " ordnance, muskets, and powder bought 
 for the public, by moneys given to that end : for 
 godly people in England' began to apprehend a 
 special hand of God in raising this plantation and 
 their hearts were generally stirred to come over." 2 
 
 The complaints against the Colony were re- 
 newed before the Privy Council, and an alarm- 
 ing report reached Boston to the effect that the 
 charter had been declared void, and that a gen- 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 135. 2 Winthrop, i. 138. 
 
122 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 eral governor was to be sent over by the King. 1 
 This report caused the greatest alarm. It was 
 believed that if a general governor should be sent 
 over, with unrestricted powers, the ruin of the 
 Colony would be inevitable. The people deter- 
 mined at once to resist by force, if necessary, the 
 execution of such a plan. They were of course 
 aware that a large part of the people of England 
 were in sympathy with them, and that the King 
 could ill afford to add to the discontent which 
 had been caused by his arbitrary methods of 
 government. They determined to erect fortifi- 
 cations on Castle Island, and at Charlestown and 
 Dorchester, and they asked the people at Salem 
 to fortify their harbor. They appointed a com- 
 mittee, consisting of the Governor and four other 
 leading men, to " give command for the managing 
 and ordering of any war that may befall us for 
 the space of a year next ensuing." Orders were 
 given for training the companies of militia, and 
 providing them with efficient arms. Warrants 
 were sent to all the constables in all the towns 
 requiring the people to send money, or workmen 
 to labor three days apiece towards the fort at 
 Boston. Orders were given to impress men and 
 carts, to help make carriages and wheels for the 
 ordnance. A cannonier was appointed for the 
 fort at Boston. A tax of ^600 was also laid 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 138. 
 
RESISTANCE TO ENGLAND. 123 
 
 upon the Colony. A beacon was set on Beacon 
 Hill in Boston, and plans were matured for send- 
 ing messengers to all the towns upon the dis- 
 covery of the approach of danger. 
 
 All the ministers of the Colony, except one 
 who had just arrived, were called together by the 
 Governor and Assistants, and they were asked 
 " what we ought to do if a general governor 
 should be sent out by England." They replied, 
 " that, if a general governor were sent, we ought 
 not to accept him, but to defend our lawful pos- 
 sessions, (if we were able,) otherwise to avoid, or 
 protract." 1 These proceedings show that the 
 people of the Colony were prepared to defend, 
 by force if necessary, their rights under the 
 charter from the King. It was in reliance upon 
 that charter that they had made their homes in 
 the wilderness, and it would have been necessary 
 to break the whole power of the Colony before 
 a ship with a governor from England could have 
 entered their harbors. 
 
 They were protected, not only by their own 
 unity and courage, but also by the weakness of 
 their adversaries. Matters in England were 
 rapidly approaching a crisis. The effort of the 
 King to govern without a Parliament was break- 
 ing down. He was not prepared at that time to 
 enter into a contest with the Colonists, in which 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 1 54. 
 
124 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 he would have been sure of the opposition of a 
 large portion of the people of England. Some 
 proceedings were held in the Privy Council. The 
 old Council for New England, of which Gorges 
 
 o o 
 
 and Mason were the most active members, offered 
 to surrender their charter, and requested that 
 the charter of the Company of Massachusetts 
 Bay be revoked, so as to leave the country open 
 for a royal government. In September following, 
 upon the application of the Attorney General of 
 England, a writ of quo warranto was issued, and 
 served upon the members of the Company in 
 England. Some changes were presented, and 
 some judgments were entered against them. 
 Preparations were made to send an armed force 
 to Boston. In July, 1637, Sir Ferdinando Gor- 
 ges was appointed governor general of the whole 
 country. But the governor general could not 
 carry out the orders that had been given him 
 among such a people as the Colonists were, with- 
 out an army, and the King had no army to 
 send. 1 In the end nothing was done to inter- 
 rupt the growth of the Colony. The General 
 Court declined to surrender the charter, and 
 after the storm had gone by, it was found that 
 the validity of the charter was still unimpaired, 
 and the Colony continued the government ac- 
 cording to its provisions. 2 
 
 1 Chalmers, i. 37. 2 Chalmers, i. 55. 
 
NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS. 125 
 
 X 
 
 FOR a number of years after the events just 
 narrated, the course of the Colony of Massachu- 
 setts Bay excited little attention in Development of 
 England, because the English people ^^lomes. 
 were absorbed in the great contest between the 
 King and the Parliament. That was the oppor- 
 tunity for the Colony to grow, and to develop its 
 political and religious principles. The disturb- 
 ances in the mother country also tended to in- 
 crease the number who came to these shores. 
 In 1638, according to Winthrop, twenty ships 
 and at least three thousand persons came to New 
 Er. gland. 1 These large Lccessions gave new 
 courage and enterprise to the pioneers. They 
 began very early to look beyond the bounds of the 
 Colony. Between 1634 and 1640, there were 
 planted three Puritan Colonies besides Massa- 
 chusetts. In each instance, the planting of a 
 new Colony was the indirect result of a variety 
 of views, such as is likely to show itself among 
 people who have been trained to independent 
 thinking. The early Puritans needed plenty of 
 room. If they had been shut up within a single 
 Colony, with a single type of government, they 
 would have been uncomfortable. 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 268. 
 
126 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 One of these newer colonies was that of Rhode 
 Island, under the lead of Roger Williams, who 
 settlement of arrived at Boston in February, 1631. 
 Rhode island. Winthrop notes his arrival in his 
 Journal, and speaks of him as a " godly minis- 
 ter." 1 He was probably a native of Wales, and 
 was not far from thirty years old, when he came 
 to Massachusetts. He had been a 
 student at Pembroke College, Cam- 
 bridge, where he took the degree of Bachelor of 
 Arts in 1627. He was a man of unusual ability 
 and scholarship. He was probably ordained in 
 the Church of England, and afterwards became 
 a Non-Conformist. He said, in one of his letters, 
 " Truly it was bitter as death to me when Bishop 
 Laud pursued me out of this land, and my con- 
 science was persuaded against the national Church, 
 and ceremonies, and bishops." 2 
 
 On arriving in Massachusetts, he found himself 
 out of sympathy with many things in the govern- 
 ment. It would have been better if he had gone 
 at once to Plymouth, for he was at that time a 
 rigid Separatist, and could have no communion 
 with the church in Boston, because its members 
 would not make a public declaration of their 
 repentance for having had communion with the 
 churches of England while they lived there. 3 He 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 41. 8 Winthrop, i. 52. 
 
 2 Benedict, i. 473. Elton's Life, 89. 
 
ROGER WILLIAMS. 
 
 did not approve of some of the laws of the Col- 
 ony. He declared that the magistrate ought 
 not to punish violations of the Sabbath, or any 
 other offences " against the laws of the first 
 table." In fact, the government of the Colony 
 had to deal at that time with a very positive Dis- 
 senter, who took no pains to conceal his opinions. 
 The church in Salem invited him to become 
 their teacher. The Court of the Colony sent a 
 letter of remonstrance to Salem against his set- 
 tlement, on account of the opinions he had set 
 forth, and this seems to have caused some delay 
 in the proceedings. 1 After a little time we find 
 him in Plymouth, where " he exercised his gifts," 
 and where "he was admitted a member of the 
 church, and his teaching was well approved." 2 
 He seems to have been an assistant of the pas- 
 tor, Mr. Ralph Smith. A year or two later, Brad- 
 ford wrote that Mr. Williams " began to fall into 
 some strange opinions, and from opinions to 
 practice." This caused controversy and discon- 
 tent in the Pilgrim Church, on which account he 
 left them abruptly, receiving however a letter of 
 dismission to the church in Salem. For some 
 time he was an assistant to the pastor, Mr. Skel- 
 ton ; and, after his death, he was chosen pastor 
 
 1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, i. 40. Felt's Eccle- 
 siastical History of New England, i. 149. 
 
 2 Bradford, 310. 
 
128 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 in his place. He had a short and troubled min- 
 istry there, and in April, 1635, he was summoned 
 to appear before the Court of Assistants, and was 
 charged with certain errors in his preaching. 
 The errors were condemned by the magistrates, 
 and by the ministers who were called in to assist 
 the magistrates. They related to the authority 
 of magistrates, and to the administering of oaths 
 to persons who were not regenerate, and to join- 
 ing in worship with such persons. Time was 
 given Mr. Williams for consideration, but, as he 
 gave no satisfaction, at the next session of the 
 General Court, in September, 1635, he was ordered 
 to depart out of the jurisdiction of the Colony 
 within six weeks next ensuing. Afterwards per- 
 mission was given him to remain through the 
 winter. He spent the time in making prepara- 
 tions for a new settlement, which he proposed 
 to plant on Narragansett Bay, and in enlisting a 
 company of adherents. He lived a part of the 
 winter among the Indians at Sowans, now War- 
 ren, and in the spring he removed to what is now 
 Providence, 1 where he purchased a tract of land 
 from the Indians, which he paid for by mortgag- 
 ing his house in Salem. He gave land freely to 
 all who joined the Colony. 
 
 There are few at this day who would deny that 
 the banishment of Roger Williams was one of the 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 158-176. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND. 
 
 mistakes of the Puritans. It is not necessary to 
 agree with all the opinions which he expressed, or 
 to approve the methods he employed in setting 
 them forth. But a strong Colony of intelligent 
 Christian men, who had expatriated themselves 
 that they might enjoy liberty of conscience, could 
 well afford to tolerate so intelligent and con- 
 scientious a Dissenter as Roger Williams. If 
 he had been permitted to work out freely his 
 principles in Massachusetts, it is very likely 
 that he would have secured the adherence of 
 the good people of that Colony to those prin- 
 ciples of religious liberty which have made his 
 name illustrious. 
 
 Williams called the place where he settled 
 Providence, from "a sense of God's merciful 
 providence unto me in my distress." The colony of 
 The little Puritan Colony which he ***ewi*- 
 founded was bound together by a simple compact. 
 " We do promise," they said, " to subject ourselves 
 in active and passive obedience to all such orders 
 or agreements as shall be made for the public 
 good of the body in an orderly way by the major 
 consent of the present inhabitants, masters of 
 families, incorporated together into a township, 
 and such others as they shall admit into the 
 same, only in civil things." l 
 
 Two years later a settlement was begun on the 
 
 1 Rhode Island Colonial Records, i. 14. 
 9 
 
I 3 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 island of Rhode Island. 1 In 1642 Mr. Williams 
 was sent to England as the agent of the Colony, 
 and he secured a patent for the incorporation 
 of Providence Plantation. In 1663 another and 
 more satisfactory charter was secured from the 
 King for " Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
 tions," and this charter continued to be the 
 fundamental law of Rhode Island till 1842. 
 
 XI 
 
 A LITTLE before the time when the settlement 
 of Rhode Island was begun, a request was pre- 
 The colony of sented to the General Court of Massa- 
 connecticut. chusetts, at its session in September, 
 1634, by Thomas Hooker and others of New- 
 town, for permission to remove to the Connecticut 
 Valley. They gave as the reasons for this re- 
 quest, first, the want of accommodation for their 
 cattle, because the towns were set too near to- 
 gether; second, the fruitfulness of Connecticut, 
 and the liability that the Dutch would possess it ; 
 and thirdly, " The strong bent of their spirits 
 to remove thither." 2 Of these reasons, the last 
 was probably the most potent. There were men 
 in Newtown, and in some other plantations of 
 the Colony, who did not favor the restriction of 
 the suffrage to members of the churches, or the 
 
 1 Rhode Island Colonial Records, i. 137. 
 
 2 Winthrop, i. 140. 
 
THOMAS HOOKER. 
 
 accumulation of power in the hands of the magis- 
 trates. Mr. Cotton had already declared that de- 
 mocracy was no fit government either for church 
 or commonwealth. Governor Winthrop, in a 
 letter to Thomas Hooker, had advocated the re- 
 striction of the suffrage, by saying that " the best 
 part is always the least : and of that best part the 
 wiser part is always the lesser." Hooker had re- 
 plied that, " in matters which concern 
 
 Democratic 
 
 the common good, a general council, ideas of 
 chosen by all, to transact businesses 
 which concern all, I conceive most suitable to 
 rule, and most safe for relief of the whole." Those 
 who were the leaders in planting a new colony 
 on the banks of the Connecticut were intent 
 upon a truly democratic government, based upon 
 free suffrage. 
 
 The request of the people of Newtown was not 
 granted at first. The next year, however, the 
 Court gave leave "to the inhabitants of Water- 
 town, Roxbury, and Dorchester to remove to 
 any place they should desire to, provided they 
 continue still under this government." 1 The 
 next year commissioners were appointed by the 
 General Court for the government of the people 
 who should remove to Connecticut. 
 
 In the course of the summer of 1635 a small 
 company from Dorchester found their way to 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 160. 
 
I3 2 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Windsor, where the Plymouth Colony had al- 
 ready begun a settlement. They purchased 
 Emigration to tne right of this company for the 
 Connecticut. sum o f 5O) i nc i u di ng what the 
 
 Plymouth people had paid the Indians for their 
 lands. Late in the autumn another party of 
 sixty persons, including women and children, 
 driving cattle before them, set out for the new 
 Colony. They experienced great hardships on 
 account of the severity of the weather, and a por- 
 tion of the party returned. In June, 1636, a large 
 party from Newtown, under the lead of Hooker 
 and Stone, set out. They drove a herd of a hun- 
 dred and sixty cattle, which grazed as they jour- 
 neyed and supplied them with milk. Early berries, 
 which they found growing by the way, gave variety 
 to their diet. The journey was over in a fortnight. 
 Mrs. Hooker, by reason of illness, was carried on 
 a litter. Other companies came during the sum- 
 mer from Dorchester and Watertown. Their 
 ministers came with them ; Mr. Henry Smith 
 from Watertown, and Mr. Wareham from Dor- 
 chester. Within a year the population of the 
 towns on the Connecticut was estimated at eight 
 hundred, including two hundred and fifty adult 
 men, distributed among the three towns of Hart- 
 ford, Wethersfield, and Windsor. A little earlier 
 in the season, William Pynchon of Roxbury, with a 
 small company of pioneers, made his way through 
 
SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. 133 
 
 the wilderness, following the Bay Path, and began 
 a settlement which they called Agawam, after- 
 wards changed to Springfield. 1 The four settle- 
 ments were organized as independent towns in 
 the beginning. In May, 1639, a General Court was 
 held at Hartford, made up of fifteen members, 
 chosen from the several towns. 2 At this meeting 
 of the Court, Mr. Hooker preached a memorable 
 sermon in which he said : " The foundation of 
 authority is laid in the free consent of the peo- 
 ple: the choice of public magistrates belongs unto 
 the people, by God's own ordinance : they who 
 have power to appoint officers and magistrates 
 have the right to set the bounds and limitations 
 of the power and place of those who are called." 3 
 In January, 1639, the freemen of the different 
 towns met at Hartford, and adopted a written 
 constitution for the government of the Colony. 
 It is said to be " the earliest example of a written 
 constitution, constituting a government, and de- 
 fining its powers." 4 It was an independent gov- 
 ernment, not recognizing any external human 
 authority, on either side of the ocean. It gives 
 the right of suffrage to all such persons as shall 
 be adjudged to be worthy of it by the freemen of 
 
 1 The Puritan in England and New England. Byington, 191- 
 218. 
 
 2 Connecticut Colonial Records, i. 9. 
 8 Palfrey, i. 536, note. 
 
 4 Dr. Bacon, Early Constitutional History of Connecticut, 5, 6. 
 
134 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 the towns, and who take an oath of allegiance to 
 the commonwealth. It provides for two meetings 
 a year of the freemen of the Colony. At the meet- 
 ing in April of each year they were to elect by 
 ballot a Governor, (who must be a member of 
 some church,) and as many magistrates and other 
 public officers as should be found requisite. There 
 were to be four deputies from each of the exist- 
 ing towns ; and from towns subsequently formed 
 as many as the General Court should determine. 
 The General Court was to consist of the Gov- 
 ernor and at least four magistrates, and the 
 deputies from the towns. It should have power 
 to make laws, to grant levies, to admit freemen, 
 to dispose of lands, to call any officer or other per- 
 son to account for any misdemeanor, and to deal 
 with any other matter that concerns the common- 
 wealth, except election of magistrates, which was 
 to be done by the whole body of freemen. In the 
 absence of special laws, " the rule of the word of 
 God " was to be followed. 1 This constitution was 
 that of an independent state, and it continued in 
 force a hundred and eighty years. The Colony 
 was, by its terms, a federation of independent 
 towns, not only of such as existed at that time, 
 but of all towns that should come into being on 
 that territory. This Constitution of Connecticut, 
 framed by a few Puritan pioneers on the borders 
 
 1 Connecticut Colonial Records, i. 20-25 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NEW HAVEN. 135 
 
 of the wilderness two hundred and sixty years 
 ago, contains the germs of the Constitution of the 
 United States. " The little federal republic," says 
 Mr. John Fiske, "grew till it became the strongest 
 political structure on the continent : . . . and, in 
 the chief crisis of the Federal Convention of 1787, 
 Connecticut, with her compromise, which secured 
 equal State representation in one branch of the 
 national government, and popular representation 
 in the other, played the controlling part." 1 
 
 In the early months of 1638 another Puritan 
 Colony was founded at Quinnipiack, on Long 
 Island Sound. The leader of the party was 
 Theophilus Eaton, an original member and an 
 officer of the Massachusetts Company. He was 
 a wealthy merchant of London, a parishioner of 
 John Davenport, who had been a Non-Conform- 
 ing minister of St. Stephen's Church in London. 
 Mr. Davenport was a man of learning and elo- 
 quence, who had been driven from his parish by 
 Bishop Laud. Eaton had come to settlement of 
 Boston with a party of friends, in two Wew Haven - 
 ships, prepared to begin a new settlement. His 
 company included three ministers, John Daven- 
 port, Samuel Eaton, and Peter Pruden. The 
 voyage from Boston took them two weeks. They 
 kept their first Sabbath under the shelter of an 
 oak, where they listened to a sermon from Mr. 
 
 1 Beginnings of New England, 128, 
 
136 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Davenport. A few days later, they entered into 
 a civil compact, in which they agreed to be gov- 
 erned by the rules which the Scriptures hold out, 
 not only in the gathering and ordering of a 
 church, but also in all civil affairs. In June they 
 adopted a form of government, which was more 
 conservative than any other in New England. It 
 provided that the suffrage should be limited to mem- 
 bers of the church ; and that they should be gov- 
 erned in all matters, civil as well as ecclesiastical, 
 by the rules which are set forth in the Scriptures. 
 Twelve men were chosen, who were to select 
 seven of their own number to begin the church. 
 The church members were constituted freemen, 
 and they elected Mr. Eaton a magistrate for one 
 year, and four others as deputies. A General 
 Court of the new independent state was held 
 in October: land which had been purchased 
 from the Indians was divided into lots, which 
 were distributed among the members of the 
 Colony ; and arrangements were made for build- 
 ing a meeting-house, for regulating the prices of 
 commodities and of labor, for defence against 
 hostile Indians, and for determining who should 
 be permitted to become members of the Colony. 
 The next year the name of the town was changed 
 to New Haven. 
 
 A large number of Puritans of similar senti- 
 ments came into the new Colony within a few 
 
MRS. ANNE HUTCHINSON. 137 
 
 years. Milford and Guilford were settled in 
 1639. In 1643 these independent towns were con- 
 federated, and the General Court of the Colony of 
 New Haven began to hold semi-annual sessions. 1 
 Mr. Eaton was chosen Governor, and Stephen 
 Goodyeare was chosen Deputy Governor. 
 
 While these new Colonies were forming in the 
 southern parts of New England, there arose in 
 Massachusetts a controversy more T hecoionyof 
 serious than the one connected with Massachusetts. 
 Roger Williams, and one which led to a still wider 
 extension of the Puritan settlements. It grew 
 out of the teachings of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, 
 who came to Boston in September, 1634. She 
 had known Mr. Cotton while in England, and 
 had been an attendant at his church. One 
 motive in coming to Massachusetts was her de- 
 sire to attend his ministry. She is described by 
 Winthrop as a "woman of ready wit, and bold 
 spirit" 2 She must have had a good deal of 
 ability, and an unusual power to draw others 
 after her. 
 
 Some time after coming to Boston she com- 
 menced holding meetings for women, at her own 
 house. These meetings were attended every 
 week by large numbers, from Boston and the 
 other towns in the neighborhood. She con- 
 ducted them herself, and in the course of time 
 
 1 New Haven Colonial Records, 57-116. 
 
 2 Winthrop, i. 200. 
 
138 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 she began to set forth religious opinions, which 
 were not new, but which were very different from 
 those which were preached by the ministers of 
 that Colony. She made much of a certain inner 
 ( light and assurance, which came, as she said, 
 \ from the indwelling of the Divine Spirit. Much 
 of what she said reminds one of the teachings 
 of the Quakers, and of the German Mystics of 
 the fourteenth century. She believed that she 
 had a very close and intimate relation with the 
 Almighty, which enabled her to speak by direct 
 revelation, and to prophesy future events. She 
 became very much opposed to Mr. Wilson, the 
 pastor of the church, and turned her back upon 
 him when he arose to preach. She criticised the 
 most of the ministers of the Colony, as " under 
 a covenant of works," while she declared that Mr. 
 Cotton and Mr. Wheelwright, and such others as 
 seemed to agree with her, were under a cove- 
 ^nant of grace. Mr. Winthrop says that she 
 i brought with her "two dangerous errors: the 
 \ first, that the person of the Holy Ghost dwells 
 ( in a justified person ; and the second, that no 
 / sanctification can help to evidence to us our 
 \justification." At one time she numbered among 
 her followers Governor Vane, Mr. Cotton, the 
 teacher of the church, and nearly all the mem- 
 bers except Governor Winthrop and Mr. Wilson, 
 the pastor. The fact that so well educated a 
 
SYNOD OF 1637. I 39 
 
 man as John Cotton gave his approval to some 
 
 of her teachings indicates that they were not x? C 
 
 quite absurd. \) / 
 
 Things were growing worse every day. The 
 churches of the Colony were involved in the , 
 controversy. The people were divided into hos-\. 
 tile parties, and the powers of the government ) 
 were weakened. After about two years of con- 
 troversy, measures were taken, under the lead of 
 Governor Winthrop, to bring the trouble to an 
 end. All the ministers of the Colony came to- 
 gether to consider what should be done. By 
 their advice, the General Court summoned a 
 Synod, to be composed of all the ministers of 
 the Puritan Colonies. This body met at New- 
 town, August 30, 1637, and continued in session 
 three weeks. Thomas Hooker of Hartford was 
 one of the Moderators. A list of eighty-two 
 doubtful teachings was drawn up, and these were 
 all condemned by the Synod as erroneous. 
 These included most of the opinions 
 
 1 Synod of 1637. 
 
 which had been advocated by Mrs. 
 Hutchinson and her followers. If this decision 
 had been accepted by Mrs. Hutchinson, or if she 
 had been willing to cease the agitation of these 
 matters, there would have been an end of the") 
 troubles. But she continued to hold meetings \ 
 twice a week at her house, and kept up the ex- 
 citement among the people. 
 
I4O THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 In the end, the General Court determined to 
 put an end to the contention. It brought the 
 leading agitators to trial, as disturbers of the 
 peace of the Colony. Some of them were dis- 
 franchised ; others were sent away from the 
 Colony. Mrs. Hutchinson was tried for con- 
 tinuing the meetings at her house after the 
 decision of the Synod, and for railing at the 
 ministers. The trial lasted two days. She de- 
 fended herself with great energy, and laid claim 
 among other things, to prophetic inspiration. 
 At the conclusion, " the Court proceeded and 
 banished her: but because it was winter, they 
 committed her to a private house, where she was 
 well provided, and her own friends and the elders 
 were permitted to go to her, but none else." l 
 
 As the result of these proceedings her adhe- 
 rents were scattered among the Colonies. Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, with some of her followers, joined 
 the Colony of Rhode Island. Mr. Wheelwright 
 went north, and began a settlement at Exeter, 
 within what is now New Hampshire. Others 
 settled at Dover and at Hampton. 2 And so the 
 contention in Boston came to an end. It is fair 
 to state that the proceedings against Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson seem to have been on account of the 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 146. Massachusetts Colonial Records, i. 207. 
 
 2 New Hampshire Historical Collections, i. 299. Charles 
 Francis Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History. 
 
INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 14 J 
 
 factious and turbulent way in which she pro- 
 mulgated her opinions, rather than on account 
 of the opinions themselves. 
 
 XII 
 
 FROM the time of the landing of the Pilgrims 
 at Plymouth, there had been friendly relations, 
 for the most part, between the white men and the 
 Indians in both Colonies, down to the year 1636. 
 One reason was that the number of Indians in 
 the vicinity of Plymouth and of Boston was not 
 large. The officers of the Colonies had always 
 recognized the rights of the Indians, and had 
 purchased so much of the land as they needed to 
 occupy. Whenever white men had treated the 
 Indians with injustice, they had been severely 
 punished. If the settlements had not extended 
 beyond the eastern part of the territory, where 
 the whites were able to protect each other, it is 
 probable that these friendly relations would have 
 continued for many years longer. 
 
 The extension of the settlements to Narragan- 
 sett Bay, and to the valley of the Connecticut, 
 brought the Colonists into conflict with the large 
 and powerful tribes of Indians whose country 
 extended from Narragansett Bay to the Con- 
 necticut. That country had a large population 
 of Indians. In 1636, some Indians of Block 
 
142 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Island captured a small vessel on Long Island 
 Sound, and murdered John Oldham, whom they 
 Thepequotwar ^ ounc i on board, and captured two 
 boys who were with him. Governor 
 Vane sent a messenger to demand that the mur- 
 derers should be punished. As nothing came of 
 it, he sent Endicott, the last of August, with 
 ninety men, who ravaged the island, without 
 finding the Indians, and then sailed to Fort 
 Saybrook, a military post at the mouth of the 
 Connecticut. Later, he attacked the Pequots 
 on the mainland, burned a large number of wig- 
 wams, and returned to Boston without the loss 
 of a man. 
 
 All this served only to irritate the Indians. 
 The Colonists in Connecticut were kept in con- 
 stant alarm through the winter. Indians hung 
 about the settlements to capture such of the set- 
 tlers as ventured to go to a distance from their 
 dwellings. These they tortured and murdered. 
 In the spring of 1637, the Indians made an attack 
 upon Wethersfield, killed nine persons, and car- 
 ried away some captives. In all some thirty of 
 the settlers were killed during the year. 
 
 At that time there were only three hundred 
 white men in Connecticut. Ninety of them were 
 enlisted for a campaign against the Indians, under 
 Captain John Mason, a soldier of experience and 
 of courage. A call for aid was made upon Ply- 
 
THE PEQUOT WAR. 143 
 
 mouth and Massachusetts. Roger Williams used 
 his influence with the Narragansetts to prevent 
 them from joining the Pequots against the Eng- 
 lish, and by his persuasion the chiefs of the 
 Narragansetts made a treaty of alliance with 
 the Colony of Massachusetts. Only twenty Mas- 
 sachusetts men, under Captain Underhill, had 
 reached the seat of war when the active cam- 
 paign was begun. 
 
 Captain Mason, with the Connecticut men, 
 and with a force of Indian allies, went directly 
 into the country of the Pequots, and attacked 
 one of their strongholds so early in the morning 
 that he took the Indians by surprise. It was a 
 stockade with two narrow entrances, one on the 
 east and the other on the west. Mason divided 
 his small force and attacked the Indians at both [^ 
 entrances. His men forced their way into the 
 fort and prevented the escape of the people. 
 The Indians defended themselves with vigor, 
 but the wigwams were set on fire. The English 
 were well armed, and more than six hundred In- 
 dians perished by the fire and by the sword within 
 a few hours. A party of two hundred Pequots 
 from the other stockade attacked the little force 
 under Mason later in the day, but they were 
 beaten off. He soon met Captain Patrick with 
 forty Massachusetts men, who had been coming 
 with the utmost speed to his assistance. A 
 
144 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 larger party from Massachusetts was sent later. 
 The war was continued through the summer. 
 In the end the Pequots who remained surrendered 
 to the English, and were distributed between 
 other Indian tribes, and this warlike nation ceased 
 to have a separate existence. 
 
 The Pequot war served to draw the Colonies 
 into a closer sympathy with each other. It im- 
 pressed the savage tribes with a sense of the 
 immense superiority of the English as soldiers. 
 The Colonists also learned a lesson of the great 
 value to their own peace of a good understand- 
 ing with their savage neighbors. As a result, 
 for more than the lifetime of a generation, until 
 King Philip's War, there was no serious trouble 
 between the white men and the Indians. 1 
 
 XIII 
 
 THE Long Parliament met at Westminster, 
 November 3, 1640. This was a marked period in 
 The Long par- * ne history, not only of Great Britain, 
 "*"* but of New England. With the call- 
 
 ing of that Parliament the friends of liberty in 
 the old country were assured of a fair field for the 
 struggle in behalf of the rights of Englishmen. 
 The meeting of that Parliament also marked the 
 
 1 History of Connecticut, by Alexander Johnston, 34-55. Sand- 
 ford's Connecticut, 21-28. Trumbull's Connecticut, 59-87. 
 
THE PURITAN COLONIES. 145 
 
 end of the immigration to this country. Be- 
 tween 1620, when the Pilgrims landed at Ply- 
 mouth, and 1640, about twenty-one thousand 
 persons had come across the sea to New England. 
 They had come over in two hundred and ninety- 
 eight ships. The cost of transporting the peo- 
 ple, and their goods, and their cattle, was not 
 far from half a million dollars. During the next 
 century and a quarter, very few came from the 
 mother country. For the next twenty years a 
 considerable number went back to England to take 
 a part in the contest that was going on there. 
 
 " God had sifted three kingdoms," said William 
 Stoughton, half a century later, " that he might 
 send choice grain into the wilderness." They 
 were of pure English blood. Mr. Savage, our 
 highest authority on such a subject, states that 
 ninety-eight per cent of the people in New Eng- 
 land at that time were of strictly English descent. 
 Now and then we come upon the name of a 
 Welshman among the New England Puritans, 
 but very few at that day were of Scottish or Irish 
 descent. The immigration consisted largely of 
 English country gentlemen. They were thrifty 
 and prosperous people, the friends of law and 
 order, as well as of freedom. It is not unreason- 
 able to suppose that one fourth of the present 
 population of the United States is descended 
 from the twenty-one thousand Pilgrims and Puri- 
 
 10 
 
146 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 tans who came to these shores from England and 
 Holland. 
 
 At the close of the Pequot War, some magis- 
 trates and ministers of Connecticut held a con- 
 me confedera- ference with the authorities at Boston 
 tion - with regard to a Confederation. Later, 
 
 Massachusetts proposed a plan for a Union, to 
 which Connecticut did not agree. In 1642, Con- 
 necticut made overtures to Plymouth, New Haven, 
 and Massachusetts, and in May, 1643, commis- 
 sioners from these four Colonies met at Boston 
 and agreed upon Articles of Confederation, which 
 were afterwards ratified by the General Courts of 
 the four Colonies. They took the name of the 
 United Colonies of New England. It was a fed- 
 erative union, not an absorption of the separate 
 Colonies. The preamble to the Articles of Con- 
 federation states that the people in the different 
 Colonies had come to America for the same pur- 
 pose, which was "to advance the kingdom of 
 Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel 
 in purity and peace." It states the reasons for 
 union to be the unexpected spread of the settle- 
 ments over the country, the peril from the In- 
 dians, the danger from the settlements of other 
 people of strange languages to the north and 
 the south, and the distractions in England. 
 Each Colony retained its power to control its 
 internal affairs. The Articles provided for the 
 
THE CONFEDERATION. 147 
 
 appointment of two Commissioners from each Col- 
 ony, who must be members of churches. These 
 Commissioners were to meet annually, on the first 
 Thursday in September, and as much oftener as 
 should be necessary, in the different Colonies, in 
 rotation, beginning in Boston, to provide for com- 
 mon interests and for common defence. Each 
 Colony was to provide men, provisions, and other 
 expenditures in the proportion of its male inhab- 
 itants between sixteen and sixty. The Commis- 
 sioners were to have power to call upon the 
 Colonies to furnish their respective quotas. It 
 was provided that fugitives from one Colony 
 might be arrested by the authorities of another 
 Colony. 1 The Confederation was to have entire 
 control over all dealings with the Indians, or 
 other foreign powers. 
 
 The Colonies north of Massachusetts were not 
 invited to become members of the Confederacy, 
 nor the Colony of Rhode Island. This Confeder- 
 acy did not exist by authority of the King or of 
 the Parliament. The Articles of Confederation 
 served as models for the Continental Congress 
 when they framed the Articles of Confederation 
 of all the Colonies in 1781. At the date of the 
 Confederation of the four Colonies, Massachu- 
 setts had about fifteen thousand people, and the 
 other Colonies about three thousand each. 
 
 1 Winthrop, ii. 101-106. 
 
14-8 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 The influence of the Confederation upon the 
 Colonies of New England was very great. It 
 promoted an exchange of opinions, which in 
 those scattered settlements was of great impor- 
 tance. It tended to limit the prevalence of local 
 peculiarities. It tended, on the whole, towards 
 strengthening the democratic tendencies among 
 the people, and limiting the aristocratic influences 
 which had been imported from the old country. 
 It increased the feeling of security, and helped 
 the development of popular institutions. From 
 the date of the Confederation, the difference 
 between the Pilgrim Colony and the Colonies of 
 the Puritans was less perceptible than in the 
 earlier years. 
 
 At the date of the Confederation there were 
 forty-nine towns in the four Colonies. Plymouth 
 had eight, Massachusetts thirty, Connecticut six, 
 and New Haven five. Each Colony was a fed- 
 eration of little republics, all of which were 
 represented in the Colonial government. They 
 appointed their selectmen and their other officers 
 to have charge of the general business of the 
 Government of town. The basis of the suffrage was 
 tnecoionies. no t uniform. In Plymouth and Con- 
 necticut the freemen conferred the franchise 
 upon such citizens as they esteemed most worthy 
 of it. In Massachusetts they were restricted to 
 those who were members of the churches. Taxes 
 
LAWS AND COURTS. 149 
 
 were assessed upon property, not upon the polls. 
 Each Colony had a Governor, and all but Ply- 
 mouth had a Deputy Governor, elected annually 
 by the freemen. Plymouth and Massachusetts 
 had boards of Assistants. In Connecticut and 
 New Haven these were called Magistrates. In 
 each Colony Deputies were elected by the free- 
 men of the towns, who were members of the 
 General Court of the Colony. In 1644, the 
 Deputies in Massachusetts became a co-ordinate 
 branch of the General Court, meeting by them- 
 selves. This change was made in Connecticut 
 in I645. 1 
 
 Courts of Justice were established in each 
 Colony in its early years. At first the Gover- 
 nor and the Assistants were the magistrates. A 
 little later, there were local courts. Justices of 
 the Peace were appointed in Massachusetts dur- 
 ing its first year. Juries were called for the 
 trial of cases in all the Colonies except New 
 Haven. 
 
 Plymouth had a code of laws in 1632. Massa- 
 chusetts adopted " The Body of Liberties " in 
 1641. It had been drawn up by Mr. Nathaniel 
 Ward, pastor of the church at Ipswich. He had 
 been a lawyer while in England. 2 A part of this 
 
 1 Connecticut Colonial Records, i. 119. 
 
 2 See a fuller account in The Puritan in England and New 
 England, 255. 
 
I5O THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 code was adopted by Connecticut in 1643. In 
 New Haven, "the judicial laws of God, as they 
 were delivered by Moses," were the rule for the 
 guidance of the courts. In all the Colonies there 
 were laws, such as existed in England at that 
 time, to regulate the prices of commodities and 
 of labor. 1 In New England, as in Virginia and 
 in England, the support of the ministers and 
 attendance upon public worship were required 
 by law. 2 
 
 The churches in all the Colonies were organ- 
 ized after the Congregational way. Each church 
 was independent. The officers of a Congrega- 
 tional Church at that time were a pastor and a 
 teacher, who were both preachers, of equal au- 
 thority; one or more ruling elders, and one or 
 more deacons, who had charge of financial affairs, 
 and especially the duty of providing for the 
 poor. 3 In 1643 there were about eighty min- 
 isters in New England. 4 The places of worship 
 were called meeting-houses. As bells were seldom 
 to be had, the people were called together by the 
 beat of the drum. The men were seated on one 
 side of the audience room, and the women on the 
 other. The first service of public worship began 
 
 1 Macaulay's History of England, chapter iii. 
 
 2 Massachusetts Colonial Records, i. 140. 
 
 8 The Puritan in England and New England, 146-162. 
 4 Winthrop, i. 265, note. 
 
SERVICES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 at about nine o'clock in the forenoon, and the 
 second at one or two in the afternoon. The 
 services consisted of the singing of the Psalms 
 from a metrical version, by the congregation, 
 without the aid of musical instruments; unwrit- 
 ten prayers, the exposition of the Scriptures, and 
 sermons. Children were baptized in the meet- 
 ing-house, commonly on the Sunday following 
 their birth. The sacraments were administered 
 at frequent intervals. Marriages were performed 
 by the magistrates. The dead were buried by 
 their neighbors and friends, without any religious 
 jites. 
 
 In the earlier years the houses of the people 
 were built of logs, with thatched roofs. The 
 floors were of clay or of split logs. The 
 ground floor was divided by partitions into two 
 or three rooms. The fireplace was of rough 
 stones, and the chimneys were of boards, plas- 
 tered inside with clay. Lumber was sawed by 
 hand in saw-pits. Later, sawmills were con- 
 structed. 
 
 In the second period, the better class of houses 
 were of two stories. The frame timbers were of oak 
 and very heavy. The windows were two and a half 
 to three feet long, and eighteen inches wide. The 
 glass was in diamond panes of three or four inches. 
 The windows were sometimes on hinges. The 
 principal article of food in the early days was 
 
I5 2 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Indian corn. Wild game was abundant. Bean 
 porridge, and hasty pudding and milk, were also 
 very common articles of food. Beer was brewed 
 in families, and the orchards soon yielded an 
 abundance of cider. Wine and rum were very 
 commonly used in those days, although, if we may 
 credit the statements of early travellers, intoxica- 
 tion was uncommon. The dress of the largest 
 ^^umber of the people was plain. Economy in 
 ry /dress was enjoined, not only in moral teachings, 
 
 / but by the laws of the Colony. The General 
 Court passed orders forbidding the "excessive 
 
 V wearing of lace, and other superfluities." 1 
 
 The ministers of that time exercised a great 
 deal of influence. They preached to the people, 
 catechised the children, visited at the homes of 
 the Colonists, and were constantly called upon 
 for advice and counsel. They usually wore the 
 gown and bands in the pulpit. It was the prac- 
 tice of the General Court of Massachusetts to 
 propound important questions to the ministers, 
 which they answered in writing. " The proceed- 
 ing," says William D. Northend, LL. D., "was 
 similar to that requiring the justices of the 
 Supreme Judicial Court to give to either branch 
 of the Legislature, or to the Governor and Coun- 
 cil, upon request, opinions upon important ques- 
 tions of law." He adds : " The opinions given 
 
 1 Massachusetts Colonial Records, i. 274. 
 
THE CONFEDERACY. 153 
 
 by the ministers which have been preserved 
 are very able, and will, in logic and sound rea- 
 soning, bear a not unfavorable comparison with 
 opinions of the justices, given under this pro- 
 vision of our Constitution." 1 
 
 XIV 
 
 THE first meeting of the Commissioners of the 
 Confederacy of New England was held in Boston, 
 September 7, 1643. Edward Winslow First Meeting of 
 and William Collier were there from the confederacy. 
 Plymouth ; John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley, 
 from Massachusetts; George Fenwick and Ed- 
 ward Hopkins, from Connecticut; and The- 
 ophilus Eaton and Thomas Gregson, from New 
 Haven. Winthrop was elected President. The 
 matters that came before the body were of great 
 importance. The Commissioners agreed to the 
 incorporation of Milford into the Colony of New 
 Haven, and of Southampton into the Colony of 
 Connecticut. The Indian question engaged much 
 of their attention. The Narragansetts and the 
 Mohegans were the most powerful tribes of south- 
 ern New England. They had both been on 
 friendly terms with the Colonists, and were both 
 jealous of each other. There were strong reasons 
 for the opinion that the Narragansetts were plan- 
 
 1 The Bay Colony, 204, note. 
 
154 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 ning a general massacre of the English. Their 
 chief, Miantonomo, was summoned to Boston, 
 where he made promises that were for the time 
 satisfactory. There were contentions between 
 Samuel Gorton and some other troublesome 
 white men, on the one hand, and the Indians, 
 about the purchase of a section of land, which 
 tended to make the troubles more serious. 1 
 These things all came before the Commissioners 
 of the Confederacy. They were satisfied that 
 there was a conspiracy to destroy the white men 
 of the Colonies, and that the Narragansett chief 
 was at the head of it. They recommended to 
 the Colonies to make preparations for war. But 
 in the end the two great tribes went to war with 
 each other. Miantonomo was taken prisoner, and, 
 after some delay, was put to death by his Indian 
 captors, with the assent of the white men, and so 
 for the time the danger was averted. 
 
 The Confederacy also dealt with the other 
 European Colonies in America. The Swedish 
 Governor in Delaware had ill treated some New 
 Haven people who had begun business within his 
 Colony, and New Haven made a complaint to the 
 Commissioners. A letter from Winthrop brought 
 a promise from the Swedes that they would not 
 molest any visitors who should bring authority 
 
 1 Rhode Island Historical Collections, ii. 191. Massachusetts 
 Historical Collections, xxi. 2. 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 155 
 
 from the Commissioners. The Dutch at New 
 Amsterdam complained of encroachments by 
 Connecticut upon their rights. The Commis- 
 sioners succeeded in adjusting this matter with- 
 out serious trouble. The French on the north 
 were in conflict among themselves. La Tour 
 and D'Aulnay both sought the aid of Massa- 
 chusetts. The Federal Commissioners, at their 
 second session, made a declaration of neutrality, 
 saying "that no jurisdiction within this Confed- 
 eration shall permit any voluntaries to go forth 
 in a warlike way against any people whatsoever, 
 without order and direction of the Commissioners 
 of the several Colonies." 
 
 The second meeting lasted a fortnight, or 
 longer. The Commissioners advised the Gen- 
 eral Courts of the Colonies to make permanent 
 provision by law for the maintenance of the 
 clergy. They recommended that every family 
 throughout the plantations should make a contri- 
 bution every year toward the maintenance of poor 
 students in the College at Cambridge. They 
 authorized Massachusetts to receive Martha's 
 Vineyard into its jurisdiction. They forbade 
 the selling of arms and ammunition to the In- 
 dians. They provided for a yearly census of all 
 the males from sixteen years to sixty, in each 
 Colony; and they instructed their President to 
 engage an agent to lay out the best course for 
 
156 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 a road from Boston to the Connecticut River. 
 They also asked the ministers to inquire what 
 measures could be taken to provide a confes- 
 sion of doctrine and discipline to be used in the 
 churches. In these very decided and well con- 
 sidered ways the Confederacy of the Colonies 
 began its work. 
 
 XV 
 
 THE next important event in the Colonies was 
 the meeting of the Synod which framed the Cam- 
 bridge Platform. The general purpose of the 
 Synod was "to consult and advise of one uni- 
 form order of discipline in the churches agree- 
 able to the Scriptures." The form of church 
 polity which had grown up among the Pilgrims 
 and the Puritans was comparatively new in mod- 
 ern times. It was a decided departure, not only 
 from the prelatical episcopal system, but also 
 from Presbyterianism, and from the polity of 
 The Cambridge most of tne other churches of the Ref- 
 synod. ormation. There were some people 
 
 of influence in New England who did not ap- 
 prove of the Independent churches that had 
 grown up here. There was an increasing num- 
 ber who objected to limiting the franchise to 
 members of the churches. A vigorous effort was 
 in progress to induce the Parliament to impose 
 the Presbyterian system upon these Colonies. 
 
THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. 157 
 
 The Westminster Assembly was in session, with 
 a majority of Presbyterians, and it had agreed 
 upon a statement of church polity that was 
 strictly Presbyterian. But in New England it 
 was generally maintained that the members of 
 the church should decide questions relating to 
 the admission of members, the discipline of the 
 churches, and the selection of ministers. 1 John 
 Cotton had prepared his " Way of the Churches 
 of Christ in New England," and his " Keyes of 
 the Kingdom of Heaven," in which he had set 
 forth the views commonly held by the churches of 
 the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Thomas Hooker 
 of Connecticut, who was perhaps the ablest of 
 the ministers, had also prepared his "Survey 
 of the Summe of Church Discipline." In this 
 treatise Hooker brought out more plainly than 
 the earlier writers had done the relation of the 
 Independent churches to each other, and the 
 need of councils to express the fellowship of 
 the churches. In 1647, tne church in Windsor, 
 Connecticut, adopted its creed covenant, which 
 was one of the earliest Confessions of Faith in 
 New England. 
 
 It was fully time for setting forth the prin- 
 ciples of church government on which the New 
 England churches could unite. There had been 
 some decided advance since the first churches 
 
 1 Walker's Creeds and Platforms, 138, 139. 
 
158 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 were organized. There were already treatises 
 prepared by individual ministers. But there was 
 need of a standard for all the churches. The 
 preparation of such a standard would require the 
 united wisdom of the best men in all the Colo- 
 nies. So, in accordance with the custom of the 
 time, some of the ministers asked the General 
 Court of Massachusetts to convene a Synod. 
 The Magistrates (or the Upper House) passed 
 an act for that purpose. The Deputies of the 
 towns (or the Lower House) objected, on the 
 ground that the civil magistrates have no right 
 to exercise authority over the churches. This 
 act of the Deputies was very significant, as an 
 indication that the power of the Theocracy was 
 waning. The matter was settled by a compro- 
 mise, according to which the act of the General 
 Court took the form of an invitation, instead of 
 a command. 1 The General Court of Massachu- 
 setts invited the several churches of the Colony 
 to meet at Cambridge on the ist of September 
 next ensuing, by their Elders and Messengers, 
 in a public Assembly, to consider "such questions 
 of church government and discipline " as they 
 shall think needful, so as to set forth " one forme 
 of government and discipline," such as " they 
 judge agreeable to the Holy Scriptures." The 
 General Court directed that copies of this invi- 
 
 1 Winthrop, ii. 330-332. 
 
THE CHURCHES REPRESENTED. 
 
 tation be sent to all the churches within the Con- 
 federation, and that they be desired to send their 
 Elders and Messengers to this Assembly, who 
 should have the same rights and privileges in 
 the body as those of Massachusetts. 
 
 All the churches of Massachusetts but four 
 were represented in the Assembly or Synod 
 when it met at Cambridge the ist Meeting of the 
 of September, 1646 (O. S.). Two of Synod ' 
 the absent churches sent their representatives 
 a few days later, 1 so that the Synod at that 
 time contained representatives from twenty-eight 
 churches of Massachusetts, two of New Hamp- 
 shire, and a few, we do not know how many, 
 from the other Colonies. The Synod appointed 
 John Cotton and Richard Mather of Massachu- 
 setts, and Ralph Partridge of Plymouth, to pre- 
 pare, each one by himself, a model of church 
 government for submission to the Synod at its 
 next session. The body then adjourned to the 
 8th of June of the following year, after a session 
 of only fourteen days. 
 
 The Synod met again, June 8, 1647, and after 
 a short session adjourned to the i6th of August, 
 1648. This last session did its work rapidly. 
 The " Platform of Church Discipline," drawn up 
 by Richard Mather of Dorchester, was adopted, 
 with some amendments. The Synod also ac- 
 
 3 Creeds and Platforms, 168. 
 
l6O THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 cepted the Confession of Faith of the West- 
 minster Assembly, "for the substance thereof," 
 as the doctrinal standard. They had thus put 
 the churches on a platform which was accepted 
 as orthodox by the English Puritans, and they 
 had set forth the Congregational method of 
 discipline and government in a consistent and 
 logical order, such that they could meet success- 
 fully the charges of looseness and of heresy 
 which had been put forth as reasons for the in- 
 terference of the English Parliament. 
 
 The Platform was accepted by the General 
 Court, and commended to the churches. " It is," 
 The Cambridge the Court said, u for the substance 
 platform. thereof that we have practised, and 
 
 do believe." It is two hundred and fifty years 
 since it was adopted, and for a considerable part 
 of that time it has been the recognized standard 
 of the Congregational Churches. It sets forth the 
 power of each local church to control its local 
 affairs, under the direction of the New Testament. 
 It emphasizes the relation of the churches to each 
 other in fellowship, and it provides for the call- 
 ing of Ecclesiastical Councils, for advice on mat- 
 ters in which all the churches have an interest. 
 This part of the Platform has been more fully 
 developed in modern times, and the Mutual and 
 Ex parte Councils have become characteristic 
 features of the Congregational Churches. 
 
INDIAN MISSIONS. l6l 
 
 In respect to the power of the magistrate in 
 ecclesiastical matters, the provisions of the Plat- 
 form have been essentially modified since the 
 union of Church and State has been given up. 
 All that part of the Congregational system 
 which has to do with the missionary work, at 
 home and abroad, has been developed in later 
 periods. 
 
 About the time when the Cambridge Synod 
 was doing its work, there was the beginning of a 
 very important missionary enterprise Missions to the 
 among the Indians. The Pilgrims Indians - 
 and the Puritans had made the conversion of the 
 native tribes to the Christian faith prominent 
 among the reasons for coming to this country. 
 They had done a good deal of work for the 
 Indians from year to year. We should espe- 
 cially note that Roger Williams learned the 
 language of the Indians, and preached to them 
 with a good degree of success. In 1632 he pub- 
 lished his " Key to the Languages of the Indians." 
 In 1636 the General Court of the Plymouth Col- 
 ony passed an order to encourage the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel among the Indians. In 1644 
 Massachusetts asked the ministers to point out 
 the best methods of teaching the truths of re- 
 ligion to the Indians. Two years later the 
 Court asked the ministers to choose two of their 
 number, every year, to preach to the Indians 
 
162 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 in their own language. About the same time, 
 Thomas Mayhew, and his son of the same name, 
 began to preach to the Indians on Martha's 
 Vineyard. The work was carried on by the 
 father, the son, and the grandson for many years, 
 and a large number of Indians were gathered 
 into Christian communities and churches. 
 
 In 1646, John Eliot, one of the ministers of 
 the church in Roxbury, began to preach to the 
 Indians at Nonantum. He translated the Bible 
 into the language of the Massachusetts tribe, 
 and gathered the Christian Indians into com- 
 munities at Nonantum and Natick, and at other 
 places. A large number of the natives were 
 taught to read. They were gathered into schools 
 and churches and congregations. There was a 
 considerable number of well educated Indian 
 teachers and preachers. Good people in all the 
 Colonies were enlisted in the work, and there 
 was a prospect at one time that the Indians 
 of New England would accept the religion 
 and the civilization of their white neighbors. 
 King Philip's War, however, interrupted the 
 missions. Many of the Indians lost their lives 
 during the war. Those who remained had be- 
 come discouraged, and to a degree demoralized. 
 After that time, the native tribes were scat- 
 tered among the more distant tribes, and the 
 Indian never appeared again as an important 
 
CLAIMS OF THE COLONISTS. 
 
 factor in the population of southern New Eng- 
 land. 1 
 
 At that time there was a very friendly feeling 
 between the English Puritans and the people of 
 Massachusetts, and much of the money which 
 was used in carrying forward missions among the 
 Indians, and in printing Bibles for them came 
 from England. But there were questions arising 
 from time to time as to the authority which the 
 English government had over the Colonies, which 
 it was very difficult to settle. In 1643, the Com- 
 mons passed an ordinance freeing New England 
 from taxation " until the House should take 
 further order." But in the same year Parlia- 
 ment appointed a Board of Commissioners to 
 have charge of the administration of the Colonies. 
 It was claimed by the people of Mas- claims of the 
 sachusetts that, under their charter, Colonists - 
 they had exclusive authority to maintain local 
 government, so long as their laws did not con- 
 travene the laws of England. They even claimed 
 the right to control their harbors. When the 
 master of a vessel commissioned by Parliament 
 threatened to capture a ship in the King's ser- 
 vice in Boston Harbor, Winthrop ordered the 
 master to come on shore, and forbade him to 
 meddle with any ship in the harbor. 2 The Gen- 
 
 1 See the chapter in this volume entitled "John Eliot, the 
 Apostle to the Indians." 
 
 2 Winthrop, ii. 194. Colonial Records of Massachusetts, ii. 121. 
 
164 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 eral Court sent a petition to the Parliament 
 praying " that no such attempt may be made 
 hereafter upon any ships in our harbors, or of 
 any of our confederates in New England." 
 These acts came very near to a claim to inde- 
 pendence of the Mother Country. When cer- 
 tain parties presented to the Parliament an 
 appeal from the action of the General Court, 
 Mr. Edward Winslow of Plymouth, a skilful 
 diplomatist, was sent to England as the agent 
 of Massachusetts, to ask the Commissioners for 
 Foreign Plantations to " confirm our liberties 
 granted us by charter, by leaving delinquents 
 to our just proceedings, and discountenancing 
 our enemies, and disturbers of our peace." The 
 request of the Colonists was granted by the 
 Commissioners, and assurances were given that 
 their administration under the charter should 
 not be interfered with. During the time of the 
 Commonwealth the spirit of the English govern- 
 ment was on the whole friendly to New England. 
 The Colonists on their part showed their good 
 will to the government in the Mother Country, 
 while maintaining very firmly their own rights. 
 
 Between the years 1651 and 1658, nearly the 
 entire territory of Maine came under the govern- 
 ment of Massachusetts, which had some time be- 
 fore acquired a title to the settlements in New 
 Hampshire. Oliver Cromwell had a plan to 
 
PINE TREE SHILLINGS. 165 
 
 transfer the people of New England to Ireland 
 and to Jamaica, and he made them generous pro- 
 posals to this end. 1 These proposals were care- 
 fully considered, but the people had already come 
 to love their new homes, and were quite unwilling 
 to leave them. In 1651, the General Court was 
 informed by Winslow that the Parliament desired 
 that the Colony should take out a new patent, in 
 the name of the new government of England. 
 They replied that under their present charter 
 they had a right to live " under magistrates of 
 their own choosing, and under laws of their own 
 making," and they made it plain that they had no 
 desire to change their government. 2 In 1652 the 
 General Court established a mint, and proceeded 
 to coin money, stamping upon one side of the 
 coin the name Massachusetts and a tree in the 
 centre, and upon the other side New England, 
 and the year of the coinage. This coinage was 
 continued for more than thirty years. 
 
 In 1660, Charles the Second became King of 
 England. Plans were soon formed for sending 
 a Governor General to New England, Restoration of 
 witlr authority to govern the Colonies charlesn - 
 in the name of the King. The General Court, 
 however, sent an address to the King, praying for 
 his gracious protection of their religion and their 
 
 1 Massachusetts Colonial Records, iv. (i) no. 
 
 2 Ibid., iv. (i) 72. 
 
1 66 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 liberties, according to the patent which they had 
 received from his royal father. A loyal address 
 was also sent to the Parliament. This was vir- 
 tually a recognition of the new government as 
 the government of England de facto. In 1661 
 the King was formally proclaimed by order of 
 the General Court. The Plymouth Colony, the 
 Colony of New Haven, and that of Connecticut, 
 also acknowledged the King as " the lawful King 
 of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland," ac- 
 cording to the ancient form. The government 
 of Rhode Island joined with the other Colonies 
 in acknowledging the King, and ordered that all 
 writs, warrants, and all other public transactions, 
 should be issued in the name of His Majesty. 
 
 One result of the submission of the Colonies to 
 the King was the granting of a very liberal char- 
 Royai charter ter to Connecticut, which was dated 
 for Connecticut. May IOj l662> j t included the New 
 
 Haven Colony within the boundaries of Connect- 
 icut, so that the more liberal policy with respect 
 to the suffrage which had been adopted by the 
 first settlers of Connecticut was extended over 
 the other Colony. The charter had been secured 
 by John Winthrop, Jr. It provided for a Gov- 
 ernor, Deputy Governor, twelve Assistants, and a 
 House of Deputies, to consist of two members 
 from each town ; all to be elected annually by the 
 freemen of the Colony. This charter was received 
 
CHARTER TO RHODE ISLAND. 
 
 in Connecticut *vith great icy. The General 
 Court committed it to the custody of three lead- 
 ing citizens, who were sworn to keep it safely. 
 They declared all the laws and orders of the 
 Colony to stand in full force, and they proceeded 
 at once to assume jurisdiction over the New 
 Haven Colony. This called forth a vigorous 
 protest from New Haven. In the end, however, 
 the General Court of that Colony submitted, un- 
 der protest, to the royal charter, and New Haven 
 became a part of Connecticut. 1 
 
 On the 8th of July, 1663, a royal charter was 
 granted to the Colony of Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations. It was a liberal charter, 
 and was the foundation of the government of 
 Rhode Island for a hundred and eighty years. 
 It contained this provision, which must have been 
 very acceptable to Roger Williams : " No person 
 within the said Colony, at any time thereafter, 
 shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, 
 or called in question, for any differences of 
 opinion in matters of religion, which do not actu- 
 ally disturb the civil peace of the said Colony ; 
 but that all and every person may freely and 
 fully have and enjoy his and their own judg- 
 ments and consciences in matters of religious 
 concernments." 2 
 
 1 Colonial Records of New Haven, ii. 551-557. 
 
 2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 281. 
 
1 68 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 This charter was received with great joy in 
 Rhode Island. The next spring the new govern- 
 ment was inaugurated, and the officers were 
 elected under the charter. From that time this 
 Colony had a stable government, and enjoyed a 
 good measure of prosperity. It had in 1663 a 
 population of between three and four thousand 
 people. 
 
 v/ 
 
 NOX/' AMONG the weaknesses and inconsistencies of 
 
 \^f/ the Puritans, we must place their treatment of 
 
 L Jyjjr The Quakers in those who differed with them. They 
 
 were very earnest in claiming liberty 
 for themselves, but the majority of them were 
 not willing to concede the same liberty to others. 
 The people who call themselves Friends, and 
 who are known by others as Quakers, have won 
 for themselves in our day the confidence and 
 good will of the world. They are quiet and use- 
 ful citizens, and sincere Christians. They have 
 been the consistent opponents of slavery and of 
 war. The sect originated in England about the 
 middle of the seventeenth century. George Fox 
 was reputed to be its founder. It spread rapidly 
 among the people. Its leaders claimed to have 
 direct revelations from Heaven, and its members 
 all professed to be guided by an "inner light," 
 which directed them in all their lives. They 
 
THE QUA KERS IN MA SSA CHUSE TTS. 169. 
 
 adopted a peculiar style of dress and of speech. 
 In the earlier years they were undoubtedly severe 
 and denunciatory in their treatment of those who 
 did not follow their teachings. They aroused 
 opposition by their charges against rulers and 
 judges. In England they were whipped, and set 
 in the pillory, and were often mobbed. At one 
 time as many as four thousand of them were 
 in English jails. But the more they were perse- 
 cuted, the more rapidly their numbers increased. 
 They sent missionaries to other lands to preach 
 their tenets, who had less success than those in 
 England. .^ 
 
 The authorities of Massachusetts were on\ 
 the watch for them in 1654. They remem- 
 bered the troubles which had come from the 
 Antinomian debates, and they dreaded the re- 
 newal of the controversy. Before any Quakers 
 reached the Colony, a day of fasting and prayer 
 was appointed in view of the danger from the 
 errors that abounded, and especially the danger 
 from the Quakers. The day was hardly past 
 before two Quaker women from Barbados were 
 landed in Boston. The magistrates sent them 
 back by the same vessel that had brought them. 
 These had but just left Boston when Quakers in 
 eight other Quakers arrived from Massachusetts^ 
 England. They were promptly taken to jail, 
 and after eleven weeks of confinement they were 
 
THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 sent back to England in the vessel that had 
 brought them. While these Quakers were de- 
 tained in prison, the Federal Commissioners 
 proposed to the General Courts of all the Colo- 
 nies that all Quakers, and other notorious here- 
 tics, should be forbidden to come into any of 
 the Colonies, and that if any should find their 
 way into any Colony they should be removed 
 forthwith out of the jurisdiction. 1 Each of the 
 Confederated Colonies acted upon this recom- 
 mendation. Connecticut imposed a fine of five 
 pounds a week upon every town that should en- 
 tertain Quakers, or other heretics; and directed 
 magistrates to commit them to prison until they 
 could be sent out of the jurisdiction. New 
 Action of other Haven and Plymouth enacted simi- 
 coionies. lar laws. Plymouth forbade the hold- 
 
 1656-57. . * W i 
 
 mg ot Quaker meetings by strangers 
 or others. 2 Massachusetts imposed a fine of one 
 hundred pounds upon shipmasters who should 
 bring into the jurisdiction any of the heretics 
 commonly called Quakers, " who write blasphe- 
 mous opinions, despising government and the 
 order of God in Church and Commonwealth ; 
 speaking evil of dignities, reviling magistrates 
 and ministers, seeking to turn the people from 
 the faith." 3 They also required such shipmas- 
 
 1 Records in Hazard, ii. 349. 
 
 2 Brigham, Compact with the Charter, etc., 102-104. 
 8 Massachusetts Records, iv. (i) 277. 
 
LA WS A GAINST QUAKERS. I 7 I 
 
 ters to give security for returning such pas- 
 sengers to the port from whence they came. It 
 was also enacted that Quakers who should find 
 entrance to the Colony should be whipped and 
 committed to the house of correction, and kept 
 constantly at work, and prevented from holding 
 communication with any person while in confine- 
 ment. Heavy fines were imposed upon those 
 who should have in their possession Quaker 
 books, or who should defend their opinions. 1 
 
 These enactments show the excitement and 
 the terror of the Colonists. One can hardly 
 comprehend why Colonies of some forty thou- 
 sand intelligent Englishmen should have been 
 thrown into a panic by the apprehension that a 
 few Quaker missionaries would come among 
 them. The severe laws were quite ineffectual. 
 The Quakers came, and suffered the penalties 
 prescribed by the laws. Several of them were 
 women. They were fined, and imprisoned, and 
 scourged. The laws were made more severe. 
 The fines were increased. It was enacted that 
 Quakers who should return after having been 
 once punished should have their ears cut off, 
 according to the custom in England at that 
 time. Finally, on the recommendation of the 
 Federal Commissioners, it was enacted in Mas- 
 sachusetts in 1658, that, if any Quaker should 
 
 1 The Puritan, 174, 175. 
 
172 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 return to the Colony after having been banished, 
 he should be put to death. This law met with 
 decided opposition in the House of Deputies, 
 and was finally passed by a majority of one vote. 
 There is good reason for the opinion that a de- 
 cided majority of the people in the Colony never 
 approved this law. A year after it was enacted, 
 two men, William Robinson and Marmaduke 
 Stevenson, who had come into the jurisdiction 
 expressly to defy the law, were publicly executed 
 on Boston Common, in accordance with its pro- 
 visions. Mary Dyer, who had been condemned 
 to death at the same time, was reprieved at the 
 foot of the gallows, and committed to the care 
 of her son, who took her to her home in Provi- 
 dence. The next year she returned to Massa- 
 chusetts, and was again condemned to death. 
 A pardon was offered her on condition that she 
 would depart and promise to remain away from 
 the Colony, but she refused to give the promise. 
 "In obedience to the will of the Lord I came," 
 she said, "and in His will I will abide faithful 
 unto death." And so she died. A few months 
 later, William Ledra was sentenced to death 
 under the same law. He also was offered a 
 pardon if he would depart from the Colony never 
 to return, but he refused the offer, and the pen- 
 alty was inflicted upon him. 
 
 The execution of these four willing victims 
 
FAULTS OF THE QUAKERS. 173 
 
 gave the victory to the Quakers. The reaction 
 against the law among the people was so strong 
 that it was soon modified. Later, this law be- 
 came a dead letter, and finally it was repealed. 
 A little earlier the magistrates of the Colonies 
 received a message from the King requiring 
 them to stop the punishment of the Quakers, 
 and to send them to England for trial. They 
 promised to obey the mandate, but no Quakers 
 were sent to England for trial. Those who had 
 been imprisoned were set at liberty, however, 
 and there was less energy in the execution of 
 the law. After that time no severe punishments 
 were inflicted. The Quakers continued to give 
 unreasonable provocation to their persecutors. 
 They would sometimes hoot at the magistrates 
 in the streets. They sometimes disturbed the 
 congregations during the hours of public wor- 
 ship, in order to give their testimony against 
 them. One of them came into the meeting- 
 house in Boston, and broke two glass bottles 
 which he had in his hands, exclaiming, " Thus 
 will the Lord break you in pieces." Deborah 
 Wilson, a "young woman of modest and quiet 
 life," was constrained by her convictions of duty 
 to go naked through the streets of Salem "as a 
 sign unto the people." Another " young and 
 chaste woman" went into the church in New- 
 bury without, any clothes, as " a sign to them." 
 
 
174 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 In such ways as these the Quakers deprived 
 themselves of much of the sympathy which they 
 had excited by their fortitude under suffering. 
 On the whole, they made an extremely small 
 number of converts among the people in New 
 England. This showed how unnecessary were 
 the severe measures that had been adopted 
 against them. Roger Williams, the President 
 of Rhode Island, was far wiser, when he replied 
 to the request of the Federal Commissioners 
 that the Quakers should be excluded from his 
 Colony : " We have no law amongst us whereby 
 to punish any for only declaring by words their 
 minds concerning the things and ways of God, 
 as to salvation, and our eternal condition. . . . 
 We find that where the Quakers are suffered to 
 declare themselves freely, and only opposed by 
 arguments, there they least of all desire to come. 
 . . . Any breach of law shall be punished," he de- 
 clared, " but the freedom of different consciences 
 shall be respected." 
 
 There were Baptists in Massachusetts in 
 1644, and they seemed likely to become more 
 persecution of numerous. A law was enacted that 
 me aptists. they should be banished. 1 At the ' 
 time when the law was passed, the Presi- 
 dent of Harvard College denied the lawful- 
 ness of infant baptism, and his successor held 
 
 1 Massachusetts Records, ii. 85. 
 
L A WS A GA INS T THE BA P TIS TS. 175 
 
 that immersion was essential to the rite. 1 *For 
 a long time the law was a dead letter. A con- 
 gregation of Baptists was organized in Charles- 
 town. Five of them were disfranchised in 1665, 
 and two were sent to prison, where they re- 
 mained nearly a year. They renewed their meet- 
 ings after their release, and three of them were 
 sentenced to banishment. A petition against 
 this severe measure was signed by several in- 
 fluential citizens of the Colony, and presented 
 to the magistrates. After this time the Baptist 
 congregation held its meetings for a long time 
 on Noddle's Island in Boston Harbor. In 1668 
 there was a public debate in the meeting-house 
 in Boston which lasted two days, between the 
 Baptists on the one hand and six ministers of 
 the churches on the other. Two months later 
 three leading Baptists were banished from the 
 Colony, and forbidden to return. There was a 
 strong remonstrance presented from a number 
 of the most eminent men in the Colony, and 
 another from thirteen English ministers, against 
 these punishments. These things show that the 
 days of persecution in New England were draw- 
 ing toward the end. The sentence of banish- 
 ment was never executed, and the church on 
 Noddle's Island continued to meet for worship 
 on the Lord's day. Five years later they began 
 
 1 Palfrey, ii. 349. 
 
176 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 to hold their services in Boston. A few years 
 afterwards the agents of the Colony in England 
 were able to declare that "as for the Anabaptists, 
 they are now subject to no other penal statutes 
 than those of the Congregational way." 
 
 The belief in witchcraft was almost universal 
 in the seventeenth century, not only in New Eng- 
 
 * n Great Britain, and in 
 
 witchcraft 
 
 all the countries of Europe. Many 
 
 thousands in those countries had been tried for 
 witchcraft, and put to death by drowning, or 
 hanging, or burning. Sir Matthew Hale, Chief 
 Justice of England, said in a charge to the jury, 
 in the case of two persons on trial for witchcraft 
 in 1665, " That there are such creatures of witches 
 I make no doubt at all." l Other eminent men 
 of that century expressed similar opinions with 
 equal confidence. Governor Winthrop makes 
 frequent references to witchcraft in his Journal, 
 and he evidently regarded it as a reality. He 
 mentions that in March, 1647, a person whom 
 he does not name was executed at Hartford as 
 a witch. The next year, he relates that Margaret 
 Jones of Charlestown was convicted, and exe- 
 cuted for witchcraft. A few years later, Mrs. 
 Anne Hibbins, the widow of a leading citizen, 
 
 1 State Trials, vi. 687. Prof. Fisher's History of the Christian 
 Church, 479-483. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Article Witchcraft 
 The Puritan, 176, 177, 196-234. 
 
WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 177 
 
 was convicted of witchcraft, and suffered death. 
 There were two prosecutions for witchcraft in 
 Plymouth, but in both instances the accused 
 were acquitted by the jury. These prosecutions 
 seem to have occurred in the ordinary admin- 
 istration of the law, without any special excite- 
 ment. The people took it for granted that there 
 were people among them who had dealings with 
 the Evil One. They read in their English Bibles, 
 " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," and they 
 assumed that they were competent to discover 
 the witches. And yet during the first sixty years 
 in the history of New England, the charges of 
 witchcraft were very few. 
 
 In the years 1691 and 1692 occurred the famous\ jA$&+ 
 epidemic of folly and cruelty known as Salem \ O(J^ 
 Witchcraft. It came at a time of S aiem witch- 
 general depression in Massachusetts. craft - 
 The people had been through a period of great 
 political excitement. They had lost the charter 
 by which they had been guided and protected 
 from the beginning. The religious spirit in the 
 churches was much below the mark of earlier 
 years. The age of faith seemed to have given 
 place to an age of doubt. It was a favorable 
 time for the revival of superstition : and it came 
 with the power of a cyclone. 
 
 It is not necessary to dwell upon the incidents 
 of the catastrophe. There was an astonishing// 
 
 12 
 
1 78 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 number of charges of witchcraft in Salem.' A 
 hundred persons were in jail under the charge at 
 one time. The new royal Governor convened a 
 special Court for the trial of the accused. He 
 exceeded his authority in so doing. The accused 
 were all tried by juries. The evidence was of no 
 value at all to people who were in their senses. 
 Yet in the course of a few weeks twenty per- 
 sons, some of them venerable for their years and 
 eminent for their virtues, were adjudged guilty of 
 witchcraft, and were put to death. The madness 
 was over in a few months. For a time there were 
 new charges, and new trials. But juries could not 
 be found who would convict on such testimony as 
 was presented. A little later the judges who had 
 been engaged in the trials began to make confes- 
 sion of their folly and wickedness. The jurors 
 also began to regain their senses, and to confess 
 that they were guilty of the blood of their inno- 
 cent neighbors. Some of the ministers who had 
 encouraged the prosecutions came to a clear 
 sense of the wickedness of the whole proceed- 
 ing, and made public acknowledgment of their 
 errors. After the sad experiences at Salem, there 
 was a final end of the delusion in the Puritan 
 Colonies, though it lingered in England many 
 years longer. 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR. 179 
 
 XVII 
 
 AMONG the stirring events in the later history 
 of the Puritan Colonies was King Philip's War. 
 The events in this war will be nar- King mmp's 
 rated in the section relating to the War< 
 work of the Apostle Eliot. One of the results 
 of the war was the crippling of the missions 
 which that devoted man had planted. 
 
 For thirty-eight years there had been no war 
 between the Colonists and the red men. Ong 
 reason was the terrible punishment which the 
 white men had inflicted upon the Pequots when 
 they entered the war path. But a stronger rea- 
 son was the kindness and justice with which the 
 Colonists had dealt with the Indians. Every foot 
 of land which had been occupied in the different 
 Colonies had been purchased and paid for. The 
 only exception to this statement was the compara- 
 tively small territory conquered during the Pequot 
 war. The shield of the law was over the natives, 
 and those who had wronged them were apt to be 
 brought to justice. The trade in furs and other 
 commodities which the Indians had to sell had 
 enabled them to live much more comfortably than 
 before the English came to the country. The 
 Indians gained much from the examples of in- 
 dustry and economy in their civilized neighbors. 
 The missionaries had gathered some thousands of 
 
i8o 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 them into reservations which had been set apart 
 for the exclusive use of tr?e Indians. There they 
 had been taught the civilization and the religion 
 of the Colonists. Many of them had comfortable 
 dwellings, and productive farms and orchards. 
 Some thousands had been taught to read and 
 write. They had educated teachers and preachers 
 of their own race. Vigorous efforts were made 
 from year to year to extend these advantages to 
 the larger tribes, which were still living as their 
 ancestors had lived. On the part of the whites 
 there was a genuine desire to win their savage 
 neighbors to the habits of civilized life. 
 
 The time came when the powerful tribes of 
 southern New England combined under King 
 Philip to exterminate the Colonists, and to free 
 themselves from the restraints of a civilization that 
 was irksome to them. Many of the Indians had 
 by that time provided themselves with firearms, 
 and they had learned much of the art of war. 
 It was a very formidable conspiracy which the 
 Colonists had to face in 1675. They were 
 thoroughly united against the common enemy. 
 Losses of the They met with heavy losses during 
 colonists. t h e contest. In Plymouth and Massa- 
 
 chusetts ten or twelve towns had been entirely 
 destroyed, and forty others more or less injured 
 by fire, making more than half the whole number. 
 One in ten of the men of military age, five or six 
 
LOSSES .OF THE COLONISTS. l8l 
 
 hundred in all, had been slain in battle, or had 
 been murdered at their own homes. There was 
 hardly a family that was not in mourning. Large 
 sums of money had been expended, and the people 
 were burdened with debt when the war was over. 
 It was many years before the Colonists recovered 
 from the losses which the war had brought them. 
 It is pleasant to record that a gift of a thousand 
 pounds was sent " by divers Christians in Ireland 
 to such as were impoverished, distressed, and in 
 necessity by the late war." 1 But no such aid 
 came from the King or his court. No such aid 
 was solicited by the Colonists. It was a true 
 saying of one of their friends in England at that 
 time, that they were " poor and yet proud." 2 
 
 XVIII 
 
 DURING the reign of Charles the Second the 
 English government was less friendly to the 
 Colonists than during the time of 
 the Commonwealth. One reason may Royal commis- 
 have been that two of the regicide 
 judges who had sat in the court which condemned 
 Charles the First to death had escaped to New 
 England, and were known to be secreted among 
 the Colonists. Mr. John Davenport of New 
 
 1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ii. 304. 
 
 2 Hutchinson's History, i. 279. 
 
182 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 Haven received them to his own house, and 
 preached a very bold sermon, in which he ad- 
 vised his people to receive the Regicides, and aid 
 them as far as possible. 1 It was well known in 
 England that the people of New England were 
 not in favor of the restoration of the monarchy, 
 although they had submitted to it, as an accom- 
 plished fact, and had proclaimed the new King. 
 
 In July, 1664, there arrived in Boston four 
 Commissioners from the King, sent over to 
 visit the several Colonies, to receive such com- 
 plaints and appeals as should be presented to 
 them, and to provide for the peace and security 
 of the country, according to their discretion. 
 They came with a fleet of four ships of war, and 
 four hundred troops of the royal army. These 
 were the first vessels of the English navy that had 
 ever been seen in the harbor of Boston. There 
 was less talk of armed resistance than there had 
 been ten years before, when Charles the First 
 proposed to send a Royal Governor to Boston, be- 
 cause the kingdom was now tolerably well united, 
 and the Colonies would have no chance in a con- 
 test with the power of England. The King de- 
 sired to have the Colonies take out new charters, 
 which would give to him the appointment of the 
 governors and the command of the militia. He 
 also desired to take possession of the Dutch 
 
 1 Bacon's Historical Discourses, 1838. 
 
THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS. 183 
 
 settlement at New Amsterdam, by force of arms, 
 if necessary. 
 
 The expedition, with some aid from the Col- 
 onies, proceeded to New Amsterdam, took pos- 
 session of the place with little opposition, and 
 changed its name to New York. The Federal 
 Commissioners met that year in Hartford, and 
 modified the Articles of Confederation so as to 
 adapt them to the changed conditions on account 
 of the union of New Haven with Connecticut. 
 It was now a Confederation of three Colonies 
 instead of four. 
 
 The Royal Commissioners made their first offi- 
 cial visit to Plymouth, where they were received 
 with the respect due to their rank. 
 
 * The Royal 
 
 They proposed that the oath of alle- commissioners 
 
 1111 ,1 i_ ii i in tlie Colonies. 
 
 giance should be taken by all house- 
 holders ; that all men of competent estates should 
 be admitted to be freemen; that all laws deroga- 
 tory to the King should be repealed; and also that 
 the Lord's Supper should be open to all persons 
 of orthodox opinions, competent knowledge, and 
 moral life, either in the churches already existing, 
 or in congregations of their own. All these pro- 
 posals were readily agreed to except the last ; in 
 regard to which the officers of the Colony said 
 that they should expect those who desired to 
 found churches different from those now exist- 
 ing to continue to contribute their due proportion 
 
1 84 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 towards the support of the ministers, until such 
 time as they should have ministers of their own. 
 
 The Commissioners were also well received in 
 Rhode Island. While there they issued some very 
 arbitrary orders for changing the boundaries of 
 the Colony, which awakened much opposition. 
 Among the people in Connecticut they were re- 
 ceived with respect, and the authorities were 
 quite ready to adopt the measures which they 
 had proposed to the Colony of Plymouth. 
 
 Their next visit was to Boston, where they re- 
 mained about one month. They asked that the 
 law which limited the franchise to members of 
 churches should be repealed. In response to this 
 request, the law was so modified that at the next 
 election seventy men who were not members of 
 any church within the Colony were permitted to 
 vote. The Commissioners also asked that all 
 persons who had been guilty of treason (that is, 
 the Regicides) should be apprehended ; that full 
 reports should be made of the laws now in force 
 in the Colony, and of the provisions for the edu- 
 cation of the people. They also asked for a map 
 of the territory which the Colony claimed under 
 the charter. These requests were readily com- 
 plied with. 
 
 The Commissioners next attempted to hold a 
 Court for hearing appeals from the decisions of 
 the Colonial Courts. The magistrates informed 
 
THE COURT OF APPEAL. 185 
 
 them that the charter of the Colony gave to the 
 officers of the Colony power to hear and try all 
 such cases, and that such a Court of Appeal as 
 they proposed to set up would be a violation of 
 the chartered rights of the Colony. But the 
 Commissioners gave public notice that they 
 should hold a session, at nine o'clock the follow- 
 ing day, at a place which they designated, to 
 hear and determine an appeal from the decision 
 of the magistrates. But the hearing was not 
 permitted to take place. At eight o'clock of the 
 next day, a messenger of the General Court took 
 his stand at the place appointed for the hearing, 
 and published, with sound of trumpet, a procla- 
 mation of the General Court, which denounced 
 the intended act of the Commissioners as a 
 usurpation, and declared that they could not 
 consent to it, nor give it their approval. 
 
 The Commissioners saw themselves to be help- 
 less in the presence of this resolute assertion of 
 the rights of the Colonists under their charter. 
 They were confronted in 1665, in the town of 
 Boston, by the-same spirit of liberty which led 
 to the battle of Bunker Hill and the Declaration 
 of Independence, a little more than a century 
 later. They soon departed from Boston and con- 
 tinued their journey to New Hampshire and 
 Maine. They afterwards returned for a short 
 time to Boston, but failed to accomplish any* 
 
i86 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 thing there. The King recalled the Commis- 
 sioners the next year, and required the Colony 
 to send four persons to represent them in Eng- 
 land before His Majesty. 
 
 The next General Court " gave diligent at- 
 tention to the preparation of military defences." 
 They also informed the King that it would be 
 useless for them to send representatives to Eng- 
 land, and that they could only commit their 
 cause to God, " praying that His Majesty (a 
 prince of so great clemency) will consider the 
 condition of his afflicted subjects, being in im- 
 minent danger by the public enemies of our na- 
 tion, and in a wilderness far remote from relief." 1 
 
 The General Court also sent a present to the 
 King of masts for the royal navy, which had 
 cost the Colony two thousand pounds. This 
 peace offering was very gratefully received in 
 England, and was of great service in equipping 
 the navy for the war with France. 
 
 The Federal Commissioners met at Hartford 
 in 1667, representing only the three Colonies of 
 Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Mr. 
 Leete of Connecticut was President of the Con- 
 gress. The next year the General Court of 
 Massachusetts regained the control of the dis- 
 trict of Maine, of which it had been deprived by 
 the action of the Royal Commissioners. In 
 
 1 Massachusetts Records, iv. (ii.) 317. 
 
SPIRIT OF THE COLONISTS. 187 
 
 1674, the General Court of Massachusetts im- 
 ported sixty pieces of artillery and five hundred 
 firelocks. They also gave orders for the repair 
 of the fortifications of Boston, Charlestown, 
 Salem, and Portsmouth, commissioned two armed 
 vessels, and placed a force of about seven hun- 
 dred men under command of General Dennison, 
 " for the vindication of our honor, to secure 
 peaceable trade in the Sound, and to repress the 
 insolence of the Dutch." 
 
 The difficulties between Charles the Second 
 and the Puritan Colonists were of such a nature 
 that they were likely to become greater rather 
 than less as the years should go by. The 
 Colonists cherished the traditions of the Long 
 Parliament, and of the statesmen who had de- 
 posed the Stuarts and had founded the Com- 
 monwealth. They had established republican 
 governments on this side of the sea, and they 
 had been accustomed to elect their own officers 
 and to make their own laws. They were quite 
 willing to recognize their connection with the 
 Mother Country and to swear allegiance to the 
 King. But they claimed their rights as English- 
 men under the laws of England, and spirit of cuaries 
 under the charters which they had ^second, 
 received. On the other hand, Charles the Second 
 was not the friend of popular institutions, either 
 in England or America. He wished to appoint 
 
i88 
 
 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 the Governors of the Colonies, and to draw 
 a revenue from them, to have the command of 
 their militia, and to reduce the people to such 
 a position that they would be pliant under his 
 government. 
 
 After all other plans had failed, it was deter- 
 mined by the King to cancel the charter of 
 Massachusetts. In 1682 he gave notice that 
 unless the concessions which he had called for 
 were agreed to, he should direct the Attorney 
 General to bring a writ of quo warranto in the 
 Court of King's Bench, for the purpose of mak- 
 ing the charter void. When this was made 
 known in Boston a great town meeting was held 
 in the Old South meeting-house, and the Mod- 
 erator requested all who were for surrendering 
 the charter to hold up their hands. Not a hand 
 was lifted, and then one of the old Puritans ex- 
 claimed, " The Lord be praised." 1 The House 
 of Deputies, after full consideration, also refused 
 to surrender the charter, and on the 2ist of 
 June, 1684, the English Court of Chancery, to 
 which the business had been transferred, ordered 
 judgment to be entered for vacating the charter. 
 This action destroyed the whole political struc- 
 ture of the Colony, which had been growing 
 for fifty-four years, and placed the people at the 
 mercy of the King of England. The titles to 
 
 1 Beginnings of New England, 265. 
 
THE CHARTER REVOKED. 1 89 
 
 lands and other property were disturbed, and 
 the whole civil and ecclesiastical administration, 
 with all rights and immunities based upon the 
 charter, were swept away. 
 
 It was some time before any orders came from 
 England for setting up a new government in 
 Massachusetts, and in the mean time the affairs 
 of the Colony were administered in the ancient 
 form. The sudden death of Charles the Second, 
 by apoplexy, delayed still longer the execution 
 of the decree of the Court of Chancery. James 
 the Second was proclaimed King in Boston, 
 April 20th, 1685. In 1686, a Provisional Gov- 
 ernment was set up by the authority of the King, 
 and the General Court of the Colony abdicated 
 the government, under protest. This was the 
 last act of the charter government of the Colony. 
 
 The charters of Rhode Island and Connecti- 
 cut were set aside by a process similar to that 
 employed against the charter of Massachusetts. 
 Plymouth had no charter. New Hampshire had 
 been constituted a royal Province in 1679, with 
 a Governor and Councillors appointed by the 
 King. Maine was at that time under a provis- 
 ional government, appointed by Massachusetts; 
 so that the whole of New England was now sub- 
 ject to the control of the King, and on the 2oth 
 of December, 1686, Sir Edmund Andros arrived 
 in Boston with a royal commission as Governor 
 
THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 of New England. His administration lasted two 
 years and four months, and was brought to an 
 end by the intelligence that William, Prince of 
 Orange, had landed in England. On the iSth 
 of April, 1689, Boston was aroused by a call to 
 arms. The signal fire was lighted on Beacon 
 Hill, and the militia began to pour in from the 
 country towns. The Castle was surrendered, an 
 English frigate in the harbor was seized, and 
 Governor Andros was arrested as he was trying 
 to escape in woman's clothes. Thus the Revo- 
 lution in Massachusetts was accomplished. 
 
 William the Third was a king of liberal prin- 
 ciples, and did not desire to carry out the plans 
 for depriving the people of New England of a 
 share in the government of their own Colonies. 
 It was found on examination that the charters 
 of Rhode Island and Connecticut had not been 
 legally annulled, and these Colonies were per- 
 mitted to resume their old form of government. 
 New Hampshire continued to be a royal Prov- 
 ince. The Old Colony of Plymouth was an- 
 nexed to Massachusetts, and these two, with the 
 district of Maine, made up the Province of Mas- 
 sachusetts, which received a charter in 1692 
 from William and Mary. By the provisions of 
 the new charter, the freemen of the Province 
 had the right to elect the Legislature, which had 
 the power to make laws, and to impose taxes. 
 
NEW ENGLAND IN 1692. 
 
 The Governor was to be appointed by the Crown. 
 All laws were to be sent to England for approval. 
 A property qualification was prescribed for 
 admission to the right of suffrage, and the old 
 restriction to members of churches was swept 
 away. 
 
 XIX 
 
 IT was seventy-two years from the beginning 
 of English settlements by the Pilgrims at Ply- 
 mouth, when the charter for the Prov- condition of New 
 ince of Massachusetts was granted. England inl692 ' 
 The Puritan Colony of Massachusetts Bay was 
 sixty-four years old. The population of the New 
 England Colonies at that time was probably 
 about seventy-five thousand. This estimate gives 
 forty-five thousand to Massachusetts, including 
 the Old Colony and the district of Maine, eigh- 
 teen thousand to Connecticut, and six thousand 
 each to New Hampshire and Rhode Island. 
 Boston was a prosperous commercial town of 
 five or six thousand people. The settlements 
 were scattered along the coast, from the Penob- 
 scot to the Hudson. The most distant were a 
 hundred miles from tidewater. There were large 
 groups of towns on the Connecticut River, and 
 in the vicinity of Massachusetts Bay. The native 
 Indians had become very few in the southern half 
 of New England. 
 
THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Colonies were still al- 
 most entirely of English blood. A large propor- 
 tion of them were religious people, who were 
 accustomed to conduct their religious worship 
 in the Congregational way. There w r ere some 
 adherents of the Church of England. King's 
 Chapel was already standing. There were a few 
 Baptists, and a few Quakers. Only a small mi- 
 nority of the people at that time were members 
 of churches, although a large proportion of them 
 were accustomed to attend religious services on 
 the Lord's day. There had already been some 
 departures from the earlier Puritan administra- 
 tion of ecclesiastical affairs, as we shall see when 
 we come to the history of the Great Awakening. 
 The people were for the most part honest and 
 thrifty farmers, of simple manners, who dwelt in 
 framed houses, and who were making their farms 
 and orchards more valuable year by year. Much 
 of the business connected with the collection of 
 taxes, police regulations, the care of roads and 
 of schools, and the settlement and maintenance 
 of ministers, was done in the town meetings. 
 There were schools in all the towns, except the 
 newest settlements, and these were open to all 
 the children of the people. ^ So far as we have 
 any means of information, a large percentage of 
 the population in the various Colonies, of both 
 sexes, were able to read and write. 
 
SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE. I 93 
 
 The people of the second and third genera- 
 tions in New England were below those of the 
 first generation in respect to culture and refine- 
 ment of manners. They had the habits of those 
 who are dwelling on the borders of civilization. 
 And yet every practicable effort was made to pre- 
 vent the process of deterioration. Harvard Col- 
 lege was founded that the congregations might 
 have men of education for their ministers. The 
 common schools and the grammar schools were 
 a means of keeping up the intellectual standard 
 among the people. The Pilgrims and Puritans 
 were accustomed to speak of their country as 
 more favored than any other, and when Crom- 
 well proposed to transfer them to lands that had 
 an older civilization, no one was willing to go. 
 The spirit of the people of New Eng- spirit of the 
 land was well expressed in the re- People * 
 markable book entitled, " The Wonder Working 
 Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England," 
 by Edward Johnson of Woburn. It gives a 
 history of the Colonies from 1628 to 1651. It 
 represents the founders as soldiers of Christ, en- 
 listed in a holy war, and guided at every point 
 by a divine hand. " The Lord Christ," the author 
 says, " intends to achieve greater matters by this 
 little handful than the world is aware of." The 
 simple faith of the people was shown very strik- 
 ingly in times of great trial, such as when they 
 
 13 
 
194 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 lost the charter of Massachusetts. They refused 
 to make any compromises, but left themselves 
 under the direction of the Power which they 
 believed had brought them to these shores. 
 
 In every settlement the minister was the man 
 of greatest importance, unless there were some 
 of the higher magistrates residing there. In 
 that case they were the peers of the ministers. 
 The Puritan minister was a man of education 
 and culture. His library, though not large, was 
 adapted to his work as a preacher and teacher of 
 the Holy Scriptures. The ministers were usu- 
 ally well versed in the original languages of the 
 Bible, and in the works of the Protestant theo- 
 logians. They published a large number of theo- 
 logical and practical works, from which we can 
 judge of their learning and culture. These books 
 do not indicate that their authors were familiar 
 with the early English writers, or even with those 
 of the age of Elizabeth. They were not literary 
 men in the modern sense. Of course their 
 knowledge of science was quite limited. But 
 they knew a few things well. Especially they 
 knew the Bible. They were gifted with remark- 
 able spiritual insight They had trained them- 
 selves to reason logically and with convincing 
 power. Many of them had a remarkable knowl- 
 edge of English history. There were great 
 statesmen among them, and the General Court 
 
LAWS OF THE COLONIES. I 95 
 
 did well to consult them on the most important 
 crises in the history of the Colonies. 
 
 In 1672, the General Laws of the Colonies of 
 Massachusetts and Plymouth, and of Connecticut, 
 were published. These laws provided carefully 
 for courts of justice, for trial by jury, for the pun- 
 ishment of crime, for the protection of property, 
 for the registry of deeds and of wills, and for the 
 administration of estates. There were laws de- 
 signed to restrict the sale of intoxicating drinks, 
 and to prevent intemperance. The able bodied 
 men of the Colonies were enrolled in the militia, 
 and were frequently drilled by their officers. 
 The revenue was derived from direct taxes upon 
 property. There were regulations for shipping 
 and for commerce. The post office arrangements 
 were very incomplete. We know that certain 
 persons had been appointed to receive and to 
 transmit letters to be sent beyond the seas, and 
 to deliver letters that had been brought from 
 abroad. 1 Connecticut and Massachusetts had 
 been divided into counties. 
 
 Such systems of Jaws as these indicate that 
 the Colonies were already well regulated and 
 prosperous states. They show that the rights 
 of the citizen were carefully respected, and that 
 the people had the controlling influence in the 
 administration of the government. The Pilgrims 
 
 1 Massachusetts Records, i. 281. 
 
THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 and the Puritans were successful in planting 
 Colonies on this side of the Atlantic, that have 
 grown in the course of years into free republics, 
 with intelligent and progressive citizens, fitted to 
 be incorporated into this greater Republic. 
 
 XX 
 
 MORE than two hundred years have gone by 
 since the Colonies came under the reign of William 
 
 EX ansionof Mary. At that time a large part 
 
 the Puritan even of Massachusetts, as well as of 
 Connecticut and Rhode Island, was 
 unsettled. In New Hampshire there were a very 
 few towns, all in the southern part of the Colony. 
 Maine had a few trading posts, and a small num- 
 ber of settlements on the coast. There were no 
 settlements of white men in the territory that is 
 now Vermont. The greater part of Northern 
 New England was an unbroken wilderness. 
 
 The Puritan Colonists were about a hundred 
 years from that time in filling the vacant spaces 
 in New England, and in developing the dis- 
 tinctive New England character. In 
 Connecticut about thirty towns were 
 incorporated between 1692 and 1745, about as 
 many as were in existence before that date. In 
 1762 all the territory of that Colony had been 
 divided into townships, and they were beginning 
 
FILLING UP NEW ENGLAND. I 97 
 
 to carve new towns out of those already existing. 
 This process continued for some time, as the 
 original townships were too large for the conveni- 
 ence of the inhabitants. Mr. Bancroft estimated 
 the population of New England in 1 755 at 133,000. 
 Up to that time, and for fifty years longer, most 
 of the inhabitants were the descendants of the 
 original Colonists. 1 
 
 A similar process was going on in Rhode 
 Island during the eighteenth century, although 
 there was a larger admixture of Rhode island and 
 families not of the Puritan stock. Massachusetts. 
 In Massachusetts the fifty years that followed 
 the time of the witchcraft delusion saw a great 
 enlargement of the territory under cultivation. 
 A recent writer has said : " It was the great town- 
 planting epoch in New England history. Com- 
 panies for the purchase and settlement of new 
 townships were formed in every considerable 
 community. To get more and more land was 
 the consuming endeavor of the hour. The anti- 
 cipatory Western fever was upon them: and to 
 get further into the woods seemed a passion. 
 No modern Oklahoma or Cherokee strip invaders 
 can surpass the eagerness of those New Eng- 
 landers of that time." 2 It was in Massachusetts 
 
 1 American Commonwealths. Connecticut. Alexander John- 
 son, 270. 
 
 3 Religious Life in New England. Dr. G. L. Walker, 51-53. 
 
198 THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 the period of expansion. About one hundred of 
 the towns of this Colony were settled during this 
 period. 
 
 New Hampshire was filled up during the same 
 
 time by people from the other Puritan Colonies. 
 
 At the beginning of the War of the 
 
 Hew Hampshire. 
 
 Revolution a large part of that terri- 
 tory was already occupied. In 1719 a hundred 
 and twenty Scotch-Irish families settled in Lon- 
 donderry and elsewhere in New England. A few 
 French Huguenots came to New Hampshire. 
 But the great majority of the population was of 
 the stock of the English Puritans. 
 
 The early settlers of Maine came from a large 
 number of places. There were some towns where 
 
 the Scotch- Irish were in the majority 
 
 a century ago, and some of the early 
 churches were Presbyterian. 1 Yet the largest 
 number of Colonists came from Massachusetts 
 and New Hampshire, and they have given their 
 distinctive character to the people of Maine. 
 
 When Vermont was opened for settlement, at 
 the close of the French and Indian War, there 
 
 were many people in Southern New 
 
 Vermont. J 1 
 
 England who were eager to push 
 their way into the new and fertile lands of 
 the north. The War of Independence delayed 
 the rush of settlers to the new State. But as 
 
 1 The Puritan in England and New England, 371-388. 
 
EXODUS TO THE WEST. 1 99 
 
 soon as the war was over the people came in 
 large numbers from Western Massachusetts and 
 from Connecticut. The names of Connecticut 
 towns reappeared in the new settlements among 
 the Green Mountains. There were Windsor, 
 Wethersfield, Hartford, New Haven, Walling- 
 ford, Waterbury, and many more. It was com- 
 mon at one time to call it New Connecticut. 
 The early settlers took with them the ideas, and 
 the institutions, and the religion of the Puritans, 
 so that when Vermont came into the Union in 
 1791, it was another Puritan State. 
 
 After the adoption of the Federal Constitution 
 and the organization of the national government 
 there was the beginning of the memorable Puri- 
 tan Exodus to the West. Central and Western 
 New York were settled very largely from Massa- 
 chusetts and Connecticut. A large number went 
 from Vermont into Northern New York. The 
 Wyoming valley, and some other parts of Penn- 
 sylvania, were settled from Connecticut. In 1 788 
 a party of New England people began a settle- 
 ment at Marietta, Ohio. So many people from 
 Connecticut went into the Western Reserve that 
 this also gained the name of New Connecticut. It 
 was found from the census of 1850 that forty-five 
 per cent of the people living in the six States of 
 Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wis- 
 consin were natives of New England, or of the 
 
2OO THE PURITAN AS A COLONIST. 
 
 States where the New England element in the 
 population preponderated. 1 The sons of the 
 Puritans have given character to those States, 
 
 Hew England s that they are to-day the New Eng- 
 intlie West. j and Q f the Wegt 
 
 As one journeys farther west he finds a great 
 many people of Puritan blood in the States in the 
 Rocky Mountain region and on the Pacific coast. 
 A large proportion of the public men who have 
 had a leading part in moulding the educational, 
 social, and religious institutions of those States 
 had their training in New England. 
 
 There was only one college in the Puritan 
 Colonies in 1691, and many of the people in the 
 distant towns were accustomed to contribute reg- 
 ularly towards its support. Yale was founded a lit- 
 tle later. Williams, and Dartmouth, and Bowdoin, 
 and the University of Vermont, and Middlebury, 
 and Amherst, are all daughters of Harvard and 
 Yale. The scores of colleges and universities 
 in the newer States are near of kin to these. 
 
 The Greater New England stretches from ocean 
 to ocean. The hopes of the founders have been 
 realized, not only in the small States which grew 
 up under their intellectual and religious influence, 
 but in the greater Commonwealths that have been 
 moulded by their descendants. The last census 
 
 1 Congregational Quarterly, 1861, pp. 20, 21. 
 
MISSION OF NEW ENGLAND. 2OI 
 
 shows that even as late as 1890 more than a 
 quarter of those who were born in New England 
 were living outside of New England. These 
 Eastern States are even now the places where 
 the % great scholars and divines, the authors and 
 statesmen of the nation, have had their education. 
 They are, like the small states of Greece, the 
 training schools for the artists and poets and 
 philosophers of the world. 
 
Ill 
 
 John Eliot, The Apostle to the 
 Indians 
 
John Eliot, the Apostle to the 
 Indians 
 
 Puritan was a many-sided man. The 
 JL Puritan divines were in many respects 
 the best representatives of this great body of 
 English Protestants. But their theology was 
 not original with them. It was borrowed from 
 Geneva and from Scotland. The Puritan was a 
 statesman as well as a -preacher, and English and 
 American liberty owes a great debt to the Puri- 
 tan fathers. He was a soldier, as well as a 
 preacher and a statesman. The Puritan was a 
 poet also, and a philosopher, a discoverer and 
 an inventor. 
 
 The Puritan was a missionary. The same 
 religious spirit which inspired the author of 
 Paradise Lost, and gave invincible force to 
 Cromwell's Ironsides, which led the Pilgrims 
 and the Puritans to seek a home in the wilder- 
 ness where they should be free to worship God, 
 this spirit led them to plan not only for them- 
 selves, but for the pagan aborigines. Governor 
 Bradford in his History of Plymouth, speaking 
 of the Pilgrims while yet in Holland, says that 
 
2O6 
 
 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 they began as early as 1617 to think of a re- 
 moval to America for several weighty reasons, 
 among which he mentions "an inward zeall, and 
 great hope of laying some foundation, or making 
 way for y e propagating and advancing y e Gospel 
 of y e kingdom of Christ to the remote ends of 
 the earth, though they should be but stepping- 
 stones to others." 1 
 
 The Pilgrim fathers certainly cherished this 
 " inward zeall and great hope," and they did what 
 they could to lead the Indians to the Christian 
 faith. During the early years of Plymouth 
 Colony a number of the Indians became Chris- 
 tians. Amid the labors and privations of their 
 pioneer life the Pilgrims found time to teach 
 the natives, and to recommend to them the 
 religion of Christ. 
 
 The same was true of the Puritans. The 
 charter of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay 
 states that it is the principal end of the planta- 
 tion to " Winn and incite the natives of the 
 country to the knowledge and Obedience of the 
 onlie true God and Saviour of Mankinde, and 
 the Christian Fayth." The original seal of the 
 Colony of Massachusetts Bay had on it the fig- 
 ure of an Indian, with the words, " Come over 
 and help us." 
 
 1 Bradford's History, 24. Massachusetts Historical Society's 
 Collections, 4th series, vol. iv. 
 
THE BEGINNING OF MISSIONS. 
 
 IN the earlier years of both Colonies it was not 
 practicable to establish missions among the In- 
 dians. The people Were tOO poor, Early Missionary 
 
 and the struggle for existence was EffortSt 
 too intense. But their relations with the Indians 
 were generally friendly. The Indians came 
 every day into their settlements and into their 
 cabins. Sometimes they had articles to sell. 
 They were an imitative race. They were dis- 
 posed to do as the English did. They were not 
 slow to perceive some of the advantages of civili- 
 zation. The religion and the civilization of the 
 English seemed to these children of the forest 
 to be closely related to each other. They were 
 very susceptible to kindness from their white 
 neighbors. The seeds of truth were scattered 
 among them, and there was increasing encour- 
 agement to engage in direct missionary work. 
 In 1636, the Plymouth Colony enacted laws to 
 provide for the preaching of the Gospel among 
 the Indians. This led to a number of efforts 
 within the Plymouth Colony to bring the Indians 
 under religious instruction. As early as 1632, 
 Roger Williams, while a pastor at Plymouth, 
 began to study the language of the Indians of 
 that vicinity. He took pains to become familiar 
 with Indian life, so as to be able to influence 
 
208 
 
 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 them. He was frequently engaged in direct mis- 
 sionary work among their tribes. 
 
 The most important movement for the con- 
 version of the Indians was initiated by the Gen- 
 eral Court of Massachusetts. In November, 1644, 
 the Court expressed its desire that some more 
 direct means should be used for the religious in- 
 struction of the Indians. It asked the ministers 
 to express their opinions as to the best methods. 
 In 1646, the same body directed the ministers 
 to choose two of their number at the annual 
 election every year, to engage in missionary work 
 among the Indians. This called general atten- 
 tion to the matter. But a great preparation had 
 already been made for this work. The Pequot 
 War had been so long over that there seemed to 
 be a reasonable prospect of permanent peace, at 
 least with the Massachusetts tribe of Indians. 
 The policy of the two Colonies had always been 
 to cultivate peaceful relations with the aborig- 
 ines. They had never engaged in war with 
 them, except in defence against hostile attacks. 
 In 1646, the English and the Indians were 
 dwelling together as neighbors and trusting 
 friends. 
 
 A number of the ministers in the New Eng- 
 land Colonies had been studying the languages 
 of the natives and cultivating an acquaintance 
 with them. In 1643, Thomas Mayhew, a mer- 
 
THOMAS MAYHEW. 
 
 chant, settled on the Island of Martha's Vine- 
 yard. His son, of the same name, an educated 
 minister, came to the island a year or two later. 
 These two learned to speak the language of the 
 natives, and they were both very useful mission- 
 aries among them. Others in the Old Colony 
 were doing the same thing. The time for a 
 great missionary work seemed to have come. 
 People were talking about it, and praying for the 
 success of the enterprise. The idea of missions 
 was in the air. The men to lead in the work 
 were already trained, and were finding their way 
 to the people who needed their help. 
 
 Among the most eminent of these early mis- 
 sionaries was John Eliot, who is commonly spoken 
 of as the Apostle to the Indians. There was no 
 name more honored among the Puritan churches 
 than his. In studying his life and work we shall 
 learn how to estimate The Puritan as a Missionary. 
 
 II 
 
 JOHN ELIOT was the son of Bennett Eliot and 
 Lettice Aggar, who were married in Widford, 
 Hertfordshire, England, October 30, 1598.* Little 
 is known of his parents. His father belonged to 
 an old English family that is said to have de- 
 scended from Sir William De Aliot, a Norman 
 
 1 New England Historic Genealogical Register, 1894, p. 403. 
 
2IO JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 knight, who came over with William the Con- 
 queror. 1 He was probably a relative of Sir John 
 Eliot, the great English patriot and statesman 
 of the time of Charles the First ; but there is no 
 decisive evidence of this. 2 Bennett Eliot was a 
 man of some importance as a landholder in four 
 or five parishes in Hertfordshire. His will shows 
 that he had a large estate for those times. By 
 that will he provided generously for the educa- 
 tion of his son John, who was a student at the 
 University at the time of his father's death, and 
 also for the education of his younger children. 3 
 His son John was born in Widford, a small par- 
 ish of about five hundred inhabitants, twenty-five 
 miles north from London, near the borders of 
 Birth of John Essex County, which was the home 
 of so many of the early settlers of 
 New England. We do not know the exact date 
 of his birth, but the old register of the church 
 of St. John Baptist contains this record of his 
 baptism 4 : "John Eliot, the son of Bennett Eliot, 
 was baptized the 5th day of August, in the 
 
 1 Eliot Genealogy, New Haven, Conn., 1864, P- " 
 
 2 Eliot Genealogy, 30-35. 
 
 8 See the will of Bennett Eliot, reprinted in the New England 
 Genealogical Register, 1894, pp. 396-398. 
 
 4 It is only recently that the record of his baptism has been 
 found by one of his descendants, Dr. Ellsworth Elliot of New 
 York City. The earlier writers do not mention his birthplace. 
 Most of the later writers have stated that he was born in Nasing, 
 
THE CHILDHOOD OF JOHN ELIOT. 211 
 
 year of our Lord God 1604." That church is a 
 very ancient structure. Parts of it are probably 
 eight hundred years old. The tower, which is 
 five hundred years old, contains a peal of bells of 
 exceptional sweetness and purity. A memorial 
 window to commemorate John Eliot has been 
 placed in the chancel of the church, at the ex- 
 pense of his descendants in this country, and 
 was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, May 
 21, I894. 1 
 
 We have very little knowledge of the child- 
 hood and youth of John Eliot. He was the 
 third child in a family of seven. " It childhood and 
 
 J Youth of John 
 
 was a great favor of God to me, he Eiiot 
 said at a later time, " that my first years were 
 seasoned with the fear of God, the Word, and 
 prayer." Before he was six years old, his father 
 removed to Nasing, Essex County, a place that 
 was distinguished above almost any other in 
 England for the number of Puritan families that 
 
 Essex, because the younger children of the family were baptized 
 in the church in that parish. For the record see the New England 
 Historic Genealogical Register, 1894, p. 402. Also the Boston 
 Evening "Transcript, October 21, 1893. The present rector of the 
 church, Rev. John T. Lockwood, writes, " The entry here copied 
 is, fortunately, one of the few in Widford Parish which remains 
 clear and distinct after the lapse of 289 years." 
 
 1 See the Boston Evening Transcript, June 16, 1896; and the 
 N. E. H. Genealogical Register, 1894, p. 80. Dr. Elliot secured 
 about $1000, from the Eliots of the United States toward the ex- 
 pense of this memorial window. 
 
212 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 went from it to New England. 1 He grew up in 
 a community in which the Non-Conformists were 
 so numerous as to exert a strong influence. He 
 was matriculated as a pensioner in Jesus College, 
 Cambridge, March 20, 1618, and received the de- 
 gree of Bachelor of Arts in 162$? He was dis- 
 tinguished at the University for his love of the 
 languages, Greek and Hebrew especially. He 
 was also well versed in the general course of 
 liberal studies that were pursued at that time in 
 the English Universities, and was noted for his 
 discriminating knowledge of theology. He was 
 fond of philological inquiries, and was an acute 
 
 grammarian. 3 
 
 Ill 
 
 ON leaving the University, he was employed 
 as an Usher in the Grammar School of Thomas 
 Hooker, at Little Baddow, near Chelmsford, in 
 Essex County. The influence of Thomas Hooker, 
 who was eighteen years older than Eliot, was the 
 leading influence in forming his religious char- 
 acter. He always spoke of the time of his resi- 
 dence with this great Puritan divine as the begin- 
 
 1 Memorials of the Pilgrim Fathers, by W. Winters. 1882. 
 
 2 Original Record, Cambridge University. 
 
 8 Eliot Genealogy, 34. Memorials of the Pilgrim Fathers, 26. 
 Life of John Eliot in Sparks's American Biography, by C. Francis, 
 4, 5. Will of Bennett Elliott, New England Historical and Genea- 
 logical Register, 1894, pp. 366, 367. 
 
HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 ning of his religious life. "To this Beginning of MS 
 place was I called," he said, "through Religious Llfe - 
 the infinite riches of God's mercy, for here the 
 Lord said unto my dead soul, 'Live'; and through 
 the grace of Christ I do live, and I shall live for- 
 ever. When I came to this blessed family, I 
 then saw, and never before, the power of godli- 
 ness in its lively vigor and efficacy." 1 Under 
 the influence of Mr. Hooker, he was led to de- 
 vote himself to the Christian ministry. 
 
 We know comparatively little of his life dur- 
 ing the eight years that followed the date of his 
 graduation. A part of the time was occupied 
 by his work of teaching at Little Baddow. But 
 those were years of persecution for the Non-Con- 
 formists. Neal tells us, in his " History of the 
 Puritans," that " Elliot was not allowed to teach 
 school in his native country." 2 Mr. Hooker was 
 compelled to flee into Holland. Mr. Eliot saw 
 very little opportunity to preach the truth as he 
 understood it in England, and he made prepara- 
 tions to go to New England. A number of his 
 personal friends, including some of his near rela- 
 tives, had engaged to follow him as soon as the 
 way should be open, and he had given a condi- 
 tional promise to become their minister. Some of 
 this company had been his neighbors at Nasing. 
 
 1 The Life of John Eliot, by Dr. Nehemiah Adams, 1870. 
 
 3 Neal's History of the Puritans, i. 305, Harpers' edition, 1858. 
 
214 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 IV 
 
 HE sailed for New England in the ship Lyon, 
 "in the ninth month," we are told, and "landed 
 Removes to New in Boston, November 4, 1631." He 
 EngiaM. fad as fellow passengers Mrs. Mar- 
 
 garet Winthrop, the wife of Governor Winthrop, 
 " with his eldest son and other of his children," 1 
 and more than fifty other people, who went to join 
 the Massachusetts Colony. Mr. Eliot was now 
 twenty-seven years of age, and he must have been 
 already prepared for his work as a minister, al- 
 though it is not certainly known that he had been 
 ordained in England. He immediately united 
 with the First Church in Boston, and was at 
 once invited to be their minister until the return 
 of their pastor, Mr. Wilson, from England. His 
 services were very acceptable to that congrega- 
 tion, and they set their hearts on securing him 
 as the teacher of the church, in connection with 
 the pastor. 2 
 
 The next year, however, his friends from Essex 
 County came over and settled in Roxbury. They 
 claimed the fulfilment of his promise to devote 
 himself to their service. In accordance with this 
 understanding Mr. Eliot declined to listen to the 
 proposals of the church in Boston, and accepted 
 
 1 The Puritan in England and New England, 232. 
 
 2 Winthrop's Journal, i. 93. 
 
HIS SETTLEMENT IN ROXBURY. 215 
 
 the call to settle in Roxbury. He was ordained 
 at Roxbury, November 5, 1632, as teacher of 
 the church, and continued in that office until 
 his death. He had been married about a 
 month before his ordination to Hannah Mum- 
 ford, or Mountford, a lady of about his own 
 age, to whom he had been betrothed in Eng- 
 land. She had come to him under the care of 
 friends as soon as he could promise her a home, 
 and they labored together with one heart and 
 mind until her death, more than fifty years 
 afterwards. 
 
 The ministry of Mr. Eliot in Roxbury was like 
 that of the other Puritan pastors of his time in 
 New England. He was a very able m s Ministry 
 and well read man, a student of the ***!* 
 principles of government, as well as of theology. 
 He was in sympathy with the advanced political 
 views of the Puritans. He believed in a repub- 
 lican form of government, while he was willing 
 to submit to any other form which was estab- 
 lished. He rejoiced in the overthrow of the 
 Stuarts, and in the establishment of the Puritan 
 Commonwealth. He guarded with jealous care 
 the rights of the people in the Colony to repre- 
 sentation in the government. He blamed the 
 Governor and the Council because they had con- 
 cluded a treaty with the Indians, without consult- 
 ing the representatives of the people. He was 
 
2l6 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 the author of a political work called " The 
 Christian Commonwealth/' which set forth, 
 among other things, the right of the people to 
 elect their own rulers. The leading principle 
 of the book was accepted, in the time of Crom- 
 well, by the Puritans in England and America. 
 After the restoration of the Stuarts, however, 
 such principles were considered "seditious, and 
 subversive of the government established in " 
 England. The General Court of Massachu- 
 setts took measures to suppress the book, and 
 obtained from Mr. Eliot a retraction of so much 
 of the book as treated the government of Eng- 
 land by King, Lords, and Commons as anti- 
 christian. He acknowledged the restored gov- 
 ernment of England as " not only a lawful, but 
 eminent form of government," and declared his 
 readiness to subject himself, for conscience' sake, 
 to any form of civil polity which could be de- 
 duced from Scripture as being of God, and 
 abjured everything in the book inconsistent with 
 this declaration. 1 
 
 But although Mr. Eliot was interested, as all 
 the Puritans w r ere, to secure the rights of the 
 people, he was, above all other things, a minister 
 of the Gospel. He was, all his life, a close 
 student of the Bible, and an earnest and faith- 
 
 1 Republished in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., viii. 29. Francis, 
 Life of Eliot, 210-212. 
 
MINISTRY IN ROXBUKV. 21 J 
 
 ful preacher, as well as an affectionate and de- 
 voted pastor. He held the Puritan theology, and 
 preached it, and defended it. His church had 
 two ministers a part of the time of his ministry, 
 a pastor and a teacher, but there was work 
 enough for both of them. He was regarded as 
 a minister of unusual gifts, as is shown by the 
 fact that the church in Boston desired him to 
 take the place that was soon afterwards filled by 
 that eminent man, John Cotton. 
 
 He was so fond of the Hebrew language that 
 he used to say that it was better fitted than any 
 other language to be the universal language. 
 He was quite sure that Hebrew would be the 
 language of heaven. 1 He was interested espe- 
 cially in the progress of medical science, and- he 
 believed that human life would be much longer 
 when the physicians should have gained a knowl- 
 edge of all the medicines that nature has pro- 
 vided, and should have skill to use them. He 
 was sure that the time was coming, according to 
 one of the prophecies, when " the child shall die 
 an hundred years old," 2 and when those who were 
 aged should count their years like the patriarchs. 
 
 " He was distinguished," says one of his biog- 
 raphers, "for facetiousness and affability." His 
 
 i See Eliot's Communion of Churches, chap. iii. 17. Francis, 
 Life of Eliot, 306-308. 
 a Isa. Ixv. 20. 
 
2l8 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 conversation was sprinkled with wit. He had a 
 strong interest in young people. The little chil- 
 dren loved him. He was interested in the public 
 schools, and was the means of establishing a free 
 school in Roxbury, for the support of which he 
 bequeathed a considerable part of his estate. 
 Cotton Mather states that in his day Roxbury 
 furnished more scholars for the College than any 
 other town of its size in New England. His 
 preaching was distinguished by great simplicity 
 and plainness, so that, as Cotton Mather says, 
 in his quaint way: " The very lambs might wade 
 into his discourses, on those texts and themes 
 wherein elephants might swim. . . . His manner 
 was usually gentle and winning, but when sin 
 was to be rebuked, or corruption combated, his 
 voice swelled into solemn and powerful energy. 
 . . . On such occasion there were as many thun- 
 derbolts as words." l 
 
 V 
 
 WHEN Mr. Eliot began in earnest to learn the 
 Indian language, he found an Indian living in 
 Learning the Dorchester who was exactly fitted to 
 the Indians. become his teacher. He says : " God 
 first put into my heart a compassion over their 
 poor souls, and a desire to teach them to 
 
 1 Francis, Life of Eliot, 309-315. 
 
LEARNING THE INDIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 know Christ, and to bring them into His king- 
 dome. Then presently I found out a pregnant 
 witted young man, who had been a servant in an 
 English house, who pretty well understood our 
 language, and well understood his own language, 
 and hath a clear pronunciation : Him I made my 
 interpreter." In another place he tells us that 
 this Indian belonged to Long Island, and that he 
 had been taken prisoner, and had lived with Mr. 
 Colicott of Dorchester. " This Indian," he says, 
 "can read, and I taught him to write, which he 
 quickly learnt. He was the first one I made use 
 of to teach me words, and to be my interpreter. 
 ... By his help, I translated the Commandments, 
 the Lord's Prayer, and many texts of Scripture : 
 also I compiled both exhortations and prayers by 
 his help. I diligently marked the difference of 
 their grammar from ours. When I found the way 
 of them, I would, pursue a Word, a Noun, a Verb, 
 through all the variations I could think of. We 
 must not sit still and look for miracles. Up, and 
 be doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer 
 and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do 
 anything." l 
 
 If we follow the latest authority, this interpreter 
 was an Indian from Long Island, who was well 
 known there, in subsequent years, as a very intel- 
 
 1 See a note at the end of his Indian Grammar, printed in Cam- 
 bridge in 1664. See also a letter of John Eliot, dated February 12, 
 1649, quoted in Cockanoe, 1896. 
 
22O JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 ligent interpreter. His name is variously written, 
 as Cockoo, Cockoe, or Cockenoe. 1 We can ima- 
 gine the enthusiastic student of the Indian lan- 
 guage, calling in this " pregnant witted " young 
 Indian to help him in the long evenings. The 
 minister was now forty years of age, and it was 
 not so easy for him to learn a new language as it 
 would have been twenty years earlier. The lan- 
 guage was unlike any other with which he was 
 acquainted. Some of the words were of enor- 
 mous length. Four or five syllables make a long 
 word with us, but on the title page of Eliot's 
 Indian Bible there is a word of eight syllables. 
 In the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis 
 there is one of nine syllables, with twenty-four 
 letters. I have counted sixteen syllables, with 
 forty-two letters, in an Indian word. The reason 
 of this long drawing out of words is that they ex- 
 press by one word what we express by several 
 words. The pronoun, and the adjective, and 
 the verb, and sometimes the noun, are all in 
 one word. 
 
 Mr. Eliot had another interpreter, an older 
 man, Job Nesutan. Both of these Indians became 
 Christians. 2 It is probable that he had the help 
 of several other Indians in his study of their lan- 
 
 1 John Eliot's first Indian teacher, Cockenoe, 1896, Harpers. 
 
 2 Francis, Life of John Eliot, 40, note. " This young man was 
 then about to join the church in Dorchester." Cockenoe, 16, note. 
 
PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 221 
 
 guage. He would get a word here, and another 
 there, and would learn how to use them. His 
 method seems to have been this : Having an Eng- 
 lish sentence, he would find out the Indian words 
 that make up that sentence. In that way he 
 would learn the order of the words, and the in- 
 flections, as well as the words themselves. It is 
 plain that he could not have learned the language 
 so well, if he had not been a well trained gram- 
 marian. He had a genius for acquiring languages, 
 and a love for the study of new languages. He 
 gradually gained the power, not only to write the 
 Indian language but to speak it. The other 
 pastors of the vicinity were perhaps as much in- 
 terested as he in the work among the Indians. 
 Several of them had some knowledge of the lan- 
 guage. But they all looked to Mr. Eliot as their 
 leader, because he could use the language so 
 much better than they. At that time Protestant 
 missions were in their infancy. For a hundred 
 years after the death of Luther, the Protestant 
 churches were not prepared to establish missions 
 among the heathen. The Dutch Protestants 
 sent a few missionaries to the East Indies, and 
 established a missionary college. But when the 
 Pilgrims came to America there was not a Prot- 
 estant missionary society in the world. 
 
222 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE first effort was made about the middle of 
 September, 1646, not at Nonantum, but at Dor- 
 preacMngto Chester Mill. Mr. Eliot says himself, 
 the Indians. When I first attempted it, they gave 
 no heed unto it, but were weary, and rather de- 
 spised what I said." He writes in another place 
 that the Indians of Dorchester Mill did not re- 
 gard any such thing, at first, though they after- 
 wards desired to be taught to know God. 1 
 
 1 Letter of John Eliot to T. S., September 24, 1647, in the Mass. 
 Hist. Soc. Collections, 3d series, iv. 50. It was in the wigwam 
 of Cutshamakim, the sachem of Neponset, within the limits of 
 Dorchester : 
 
 " When I first attempted it, they gave no heed unto it, but were 
 weary, and rather despised what I said. A while after God stirred 
 vp in some of them a desire to come into English fashions, and live 
 after their manner . . . which when I heard, my heart moved with- 
 in mee, abhorring that wee should sit still and let that work alone, 
 and hoping that this motion of them was of the Lord, and that this 
 mind in them was a preparative to imbrace the Law and Word of 
 God ; and therefore I told them that they and wee were already 
 one," etc. " I told them that if they would learn to know God, I 
 would teach them : unto which they being very willing, I then 
 taught them, (as I at sundry times had indeavored afore,) but 
 never found them so forward, attentive, and desirous to learn, and 
 then I told them I would come to their Wigwams, and teach them, 
 their wives and children, which they seemed very glad of : and from 
 that day forward I have not failed to doe that poore little which 
 you know I doe. I first began with the Indians at Noonantum, 
 as you know ; those of Dorchester Mill not regarding any such 
 thing." The Cleere Sun-Shine of the Gospel, Eliot's Letter to T. 
 S., Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 50. 
 
PREACHING TO THE INDIANS. 223 
 
 His next effort was at Nonantum. 1 There 
 had been great solicitude about the result of 
 this second attempt, and much prayer had been 
 offered. He did not go alone, nor without an 
 appointment There were four in the mission- 
 ary party. Eliot of course was one; Thomas 
 Shepard, minister in Cambridge, was another ; 
 John Wilson, minister in Boston, was probably 
 the third ; and Major Daniel Gookin was prob- 
 ably the fourth. We have an account of this 
 meeting, written by one who was present. It is 
 plain from the narrative itself that it was not writ- 
 ten by Mr. Eliot. Perhaps it was by Mr. Wilson. 
 
 " Upon October 28, 1646," so the record runs, 
 " four of us, having sought God, went unto the 
 Indians inhabiting within our bounds, with de- 
 sire to make known the things of their peace 
 to them. A little before we came to their Wig- 
 wams, five or six of the chief of them met us 
 with English salutations, bidding us much wel- 
 
 1 It is not easy to fix the exact location of Waban's tent. 
 Gookin says (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist series, i. 168) : " The first 
 place he began to preach at was Nonantum, near Watertowne 
 Mill, upon the south side of Charles River, about four or five miles 
 from his own house, where lived at that time Waban, one of their 
 principal men, and some Indians with him." This, so far as we 
 know, is the only contemporary authority. Tradition, which runs 
 back a number of generations, has fixed upon a spot on the south- 
 eastern slope of Nonantum Hill. Here a terrace has been con- 
 structed, bearing an inscription which states that near this spot 
 Eliot first preached to the Indians. See also Drake's History of 
 Middlesex County, ii. 443. 
 
224 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 come: who, leading us into the principall Wig- 
 wam of Waauban, we found many more Indians, 
 men, women, children, gathered together from all 
 quarters round about, according to appointment, 
 to meet with us and learn of us." l 
 
 It was a great historic occasion. It was in 
 obedience to the requirement of the General 
 Court of the Colony for one thing. Four repre- 
 sentative Puritans were there to express the " in- 
 ward zeall and great hope " they had of winning 
 " the natives of the country " to the " Saviour of 
 Mankind." It was almost the earliest of Protes- 
 tant missions, and so it was very nearly the begin- 
 ning of that great missionary movement which 
 has since extended over the world. 2 Eliot and 
 Mayhew, and a very few more, stand almost at the 
 head of that great multitude of missionaries who 
 have been going out from Christian lands these 
 last two hundred and fifty years. 
 
 VII. 
 
 WHEN all were assembled, in that " principall 
 Wigwam of Waauban," Mr. Eliot began the ser- 
 vice with prayer. He prayed in English, because 
 his command of the language of the Indians was 
 
 1 The Day-Breaking of the Gospell with the Indians in New 
 England, in Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections, 3d 
 series, iv. 3. 
 
 8 Protestant Missions, Dr. A. C. Thompson, 22-81. 
 
PREACHING TO THE INDIANS. 22$ 
 
 so imperfect that it seemed hardly T he First Meet- 
 reverent to address the Lord with * am^tum. 
 such broken words. 1 Then Mr. Eliot preached 
 to that attentive company, as the old chronicler 
 tells us, " the blessed word of Salvation, for 
 an hour and a quarter." He began, in the 
 only way in which it was possible for him to 
 begin with any prospect of success, by telling 
 the Indians of the law of God. He repeated the 
 ten Commandments, and explained the mean- 
 ing of each one of them. He showed them in 
 what ways they were breaking these command- 
 ments of God every day of their lives. He made 
 his address very plain and practical, for he knew 
 very well what the sins of the Indians were. He 
 told them that the great God was angry with 
 them every day because they were every day 
 breaking His commandments. He told them 
 further, that he had come, with their English 
 friends, to make known to them a Saviour who 
 had come into the world to seek and to save lost 
 men. He made it plain to them that, if they 
 would repent of their sins, and pray to God for 
 forgiveness, if they would worship God, and obey 
 His commandments, His anger would turn away 
 from them, and He would make them His dear 
 children. 2 ' 
 
 1 Francis, Life of Eliot, 49. 
 
 2 The Day-Breaking of the Gospell with the Indians, 4 
 
226 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 The effect of his address upon the Indians 
 was very great, just as the effect of these truths 
 has always been very great wherever they have 
 been preached. Mr. Eliot then inquired whether 
 they had understood what he had said. They 
 answered that they had. He then said, " Have 
 all of you in this Wigwam understood, or only 
 some few?" and they answered, "with multitude 
 of voyces, that they all of them did understand 
 all that which was then spoken to them." After 
 this, the old record tells us, we invited them to 
 ask questions "for the more clear understanding 
 of what had been delivered." Whereupon one 
 inquired, u How may we come to know Jesus 
 Christ?" After this had been answered, another 
 inquired, "Whether Jesus Christ did understand, 
 or God did understand Indian prayers, when they 
 spoke in their own language." They were told 
 that " God made Indian men, just as He made 
 Englishmen, and He knew the words and even 
 the thoughts of Indians because He had made 
 them. After a number of other inquiries had 
 been answered by us, we also asked a number of 
 questions of them, which they answered as well 
 as they could. . . . After three hours' time thus 
 spent with them, we asked them if they were not 
 weary, and they answered, No. But wee re- 
 solved to leave them with an appetite. The 
 chiefe of them, seeing us conclude with prayer, 
 
THE SHORT CATECHISM. 22*J 
 
 desired to know when we would come againe ; 
 so wee appointed the time, and having given 
 the children some apples, and the men some 
 tobacco, and what else we then had at hand, 
 . . . wee departed with many welcomes from 
 them." 1 
 
 Two weeks later Mr. Eliot and his three friends 
 came to Nonantum again, and found a larger 
 number of Indians, and, what was very signifi- 
 cant, that the Indians had provided seats for the 
 English visitors. He began this time with the 
 children. He taught them a short catechism 
 with three questions : 
 
 " Who made you and all the world ? 
 " Who shall redeem you from sin and Hell ? 
 " How many Commandments hath God given you 
 to Keep?" 
 
 After the children had learned this catechism, 
 Mr. Eliot preached to the Indians " by the space 
 of an hour," going over once more with the prin- 
 cipal facts and doctrines of the Christian religion. 
 A number of Indians were melted to tears by 
 what they were told of the love and grace of God, 
 and of their sin against Him. An old Indian in- 
 quired whether it " was too late for such an old 
 man as hee, who was neare death, to repent, or 
 seeke after God?" Another asked how the 
 
 1 Day-Breaking of the Gospell, 5-8. Winthrop, ii. 304. 
 
228 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 English came to differ so much from the Indians 
 in the knowledge of God, seeing we all have one 
 Father. Another wished to know how we may 
 come to serve God. They spent the whole after- 
 noon in this way. Mr. Eliot prayed this time in 
 the Indian language, to the great joy and wonder 
 of his dusky congregation. 1 They were now cer- 
 tain that the God whom Mr. Eliot worshipped 
 could understand Indian prayers. 
 
 VIII 
 
 MR. ELIOT continued to go to Nonantum once 
 a fortnight, to catechise the children, 2 and to 
 preach to the people. He had the co-operation 
 of the men of greatest influence in the Colony. 
 Governor Winthrop was sometimes there, and 
 President Dunster of Harvard College, and Major 
 Gookin, and Mr. Heath, and Mr. Edward Jackson. 
 Of the ministers, we find the names of Shepard, 
 and Wilson, and Richard Mather, and Allen 
 of Dedham, and others. 3 The work spread rap- 
 
 1 Day-Breaking of the Gospell, 8-17. 
 
 2 He extended his catechism for the children so as to include 
 the most important points of the Christian faith. This was after- 
 wards printed, and was an important part of the means used by Mr. 
 Eliot in teaching the Indian children. He also prepared, and 
 printed in the language of the Indians, a larger catechism which he 
 used for the older members of the Indian communities. See Mass. 
 Hist. Soc. Coll., i. 169, Gookin. 
 
 8 Day-Breaking of the Gospell, 41. 
 
REGULAR PREACHING PLACES. 
 
 idly. An Indian sachem who lived near Concord 
 came to Nonantum to hear the missionary, and 
 he desired Mr. Eliot to go and preach to his 
 people. Another sachem at Neponset, Cuts-ha- 
 ma-kim, who had formerly opposed the work, 
 desired to have a meeting in his cabin. For a 
 long time Mr. Eliot went regularly one week 
 to Neponset, and the next week to Nonantum. 
 He had a number of other preaching places 
 in this vicinity, such as Pawtucket, " where is 
 a great confluence of Indians every spring"; 
 Wamesit near Tewksbury, Concord, Nasha- 
 way (now Lancaster), and Punkapaog (now 
 Stoughton). 
 
 He went sometimes as far as Yarmouth to- 
 ward the east, and nearly as far toward the west. 
 There was some difference in the dialects, yet the 
 Indians were almost always able to understand 
 Mr. Eliot, and many received his message with 
 great joy. He wrote the following sentence in 
 the record book of his church, at the close of the 
 first winter : " This winter was one of the mild- 
 est that ever we had : no snow all winter long, 
 nor sharp weather. We never had a bad day to 
 go and preach to the Indians all this winter: 
 praised be the Lord." 
 
 All the accounts that have come down to 
 us indicate that there was a genuine religious 
 work at that time among the Indians. Among 
 
2 3 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 the results were such as these : 
 
 Permanent 
 
 Effects of The Indians forsook their former re- 
 
 thisWork. .. . , . . . . 
 
 ligion and worship, they began to 
 pray not only by themselves, but in their 
 families, morning and evening, and to return 
 thanks at their meals. They taught their chil- 
 dren as far as they were able, and they asked 
 earnestly for teachers and schools. They began 
 to keep the Lord's day as a day of rest and of 
 worship. They met by themselves, when the mis- 
 sionary could not be present, to pray, and to speak 
 of the things they had learned from God's word. 1 
 Waban, the leading man at Nonantum, soon 
 began to pray, and to teach his company the 
 things he had so recently learned. After the 
 third meeting at Nonantum, there came to Mr. 
 Eliot's house in Roxbury one Wampas, " a wise 
 and sage Indian." He took with him his own 
 son, and three other children, and asked permis- 
 sion to leave them with the English, that they 
 might be educated to know God, for, he said, if 
 they remain at home they will grow up in rude- 
 ness and wickedness. Wampas also brought two 
 young Indians, who wished to find employment 
 in English families, that they might be in the 
 way of knowing the true religion, in which they 
 already felt a deep interest. 
 
 1 Eliot's Letter to T. S., Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, 
 iv. 51. 
 
SE TTLEMENT A T NONA NTUM. 2 3 I 
 
 Mr. Eliot believed that civilization must go 
 with Christianity. " I find it absolutely neces- 
 sary," he says, " to carry on civility with religion." l 
 The savage must form habits of regular industry 
 before he can have strength of character to live 
 an honest and virtuous life. He believed that 
 " cleanliness is next to Godliness." He pointed 
 out that there could be no delicacy in the family 
 life so long as all lived by day and by night in 
 one apartment. So he sought to gather the 
 families of praying Indians into a community, 
 where they could build better houses, and could 
 labor in the fields as the English did. The Gen- 
 eral Court " purchased land for them to make 
 their towne," 2 at the same time that the Indians 
 were consulting about laws to govern themselves. 
 Under the lead of Waban they adopted ten laws, 
 as many as there were Commandments. These 
 laws were intended to secure habits of industry 
 and of virtue, and to lead to a cleanly and decent 
 way of living. The Indians set about enclosing 
 the ground that had been given them, some 
 hundreds of acres, with ditches and a stone 
 wall. Mr. Eliot had provided for them "mattocks, 
 shovels, and crowes of iron," and he promised to 
 give them sixpence a rod for all the wall they 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., $d series, iv. 88. 
 
 2 Day-Breaking of the Gospell, Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d 
 series, iv. 20, also 31, also 88. 
 
2J2 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 would build. 1 The Indians desired to know 
 what name their town should have, and they 
 were told it should be called Noonatomen, or 
 Nonantum, which signifies rejoicing. These 
 people built their houses with partitions for sepa- 
 rate rooms, so that, we are told, " the meanest of 
 them were equal to those of any sachem." They 
 were provided with cloth by their English friends, 
 and in a little time they were able to go to the 
 religious services decently clothed. Some re- 
 mains of their walls were to be seen a century 
 ago. It was a great uplift for those poor people. 
 Mr. Eliot promised to give them many hundred 
 trees, for orchards. The women desired to learn 
 to spin, and he procured wheels for them. They 
 began to form habits of industry, and to find 
 something to sell at market, at all seasons of the 
 year. 2 Mr. Shepard states that when he came 
 to Nonantum, late in the summer of the next 
 year, he " marvailed to see so many Indian men, 
 women, and children in English apparell, they 
 being generally clad, especially upon Lecture 
 dayes, which they have got partly by gift from 
 the English, and partly by their own labours, by 
 which some of them have very handsomely ap- 
 parelled themselves, and you would scarce know 
 them from English people." 3 
 
 1 Clear Sun-Shine, Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 61. 
 
 2 Ibid., Eliot's Letter, 59. Ibid., 45. 
 
THE INDIANS BEFORE THE SYNOD. 233 
 
 On the 8th of June, 1647, the Cambridge Synod 
 met for its second session at Cambridge. It was 
 thought best that the missionary work 
 
 J Eliot's Sermon 
 
 among the Indians should be brought to the Indians at 
 before the representatives of all the 
 churches of New England. Accordingly, Mr. 
 Eliot called together a great number of the 
 Indians, and preached to them in their own lan- 
 guage, in the presence of the Synod. He set 
 before them the teachings of the Bible in regard 
 to sin, and to the need of a Saviour. He cate- 
 chised the children also, and the ministers were 
 delighted, not only by the careful attention of 
 the people to the word, but especially by the 
 " readiness of divers poor naked children to an- 
 swer openly the chief questions which had been 
 taught them." l From that time the work among 
 the Indians had a large place in the sympathies 
 and the prayers of good people not only here 
 but in England. 
 
 IX 
 
 THUS, in less than a year, the work of this 
 Apostle among the Indians had reached a point 
 where it was necessary to ask for regular and 
 generous contributions for carrying 
 
 .. * & Need of large 
 
 it forward, and those contributions Missionary 
 
 t T- i i i\ T T-T , Contributions. 
 
 must come from England. Mr. Eliot 
 
 1 Ibid., 45. Winthrop, ii. 376. 
 
2 34 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 himself was a man of slender resources. His 
 salary at Roxbury was only ^60 a year, which 
 was smaller than that of some other minis- 
 ters in the vicinity, and with that he was to 
 support and educate a family of six children. 
 The General Court voted him the first year a 
 gratuity of ^10, but this would not have paid for 
 the articles which he procured for the Indians 
 during that year. 
 
 The settlements about him were very new, and 
 the people were poor. Boston was only sixteen 
 years old, and the time of log houses with thatched 
 roofs had not gone by. Dorchester, with the other 
 towns south of Boston, was infested by wolves, 
 and it was paying a bounty of thirty shil- 
 lings for every wolf's head. " The place that is 
 now Walnut Avenue was then called The Fox 
 Holes, and a little further on toward Grove 
 Hall was The Bear Marsh, and The Wolf 
 Traps." 1 
 
 There was not a Protestant Missionary Society 
 in the world at that time. Mr. Eliot and his 
 co-laborers set themselves to create such an 
 organization on the other side of the sea. Very 
 careful and particular accounts of the work among 
 the Indians were written by those who had a part 
 in it, such as " The Day- Breaking," " The Cleare 
 Sun-Shine," " The Glorious Progress by the Gos- 
 
 1 Dr. A. C. Thompson's Protestant Missions, 56-58. 
 
NEED OF CONTRIBUTIONS. 235 
 
 pell," and others. Governor Edward Winslow, 
 the agent of the Colonies in England, published 
 in London a number of the letters of Mr. Eliot, 
 in which, in the most simple and modest way, 
 he told of what God was doing for the Indians. 
 This was dedicated by Governor Winslow to the 
 Parliament of England. The statements which 
 the praying Indians made before the elders in 
 regard to their religious exercises were all taken 
 down in writing by Mr. Eliot, and these, with 
 the names of the Indians, were published and 
 read in England. Mr. Eliot wrote to England, 
 " We need some annual revenue to purchase 
 tools for the Indians, to pay teachers for their 
 schools, to pay for printing in their language a 
 primer in which they may learn to read, and to 
 pay for such help as I need in translating the 
 Scriptures, which I look upon as a sacred and 
 holy work. We shall also need to pay for 
 printing such a translation when it shall have 
 been made." His plans were even larger than 
 that. He said, "There be sundry pregnant 
 witted youths, which I desire may be wholly 
 sequestered to learning and put to school." 
 These youths he desired to train up as 
 preachers. 1 
 
 These appeals to English Christians were not 
 in vain. Oliver Cromwell, who was then Lord 
 
 1 Eliot's Letter, Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 123. 
 
236 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 Protector, is said to have had a plan for the uni- 
 versal diffusion of the Gospel, and his influence 
 was in favor of every missionary enterprise. By 
 his aid a corporation was established by act of 
 Parliament, entitled " The President and Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel in New Eng- 
 land." It was ordered that a general contribution 
 for the object should be made in all the churches 
 through England and Wales. The results, at 
 first small, became in a few years very generous. 
 The whole amount that was sent to New Eng- 
 land from this Society cannot be stated in 
 definite terms, but it is known that it amounted" 
 to several thousand pounds sterling. 1 The char- 
 ter was renewed in 1660, after the restoration of 
 Charles the Second, and Sir Robert Boyle, one 
 of the founders of the Royal Society, was its 
 President. 
 
 It appears from notices in various letters of 
 Mr. Eliot, and of Major Gookin and others, that 
 the funds received from this society were used in 
 paying the expenses of the education of a num- 
 ber of young Indians, who became preachers to 
 their people ; in building the Indian College at 
 Cambridge; in printing Eliot's Indian Bible, 
 and other books in the language of the Indians ; 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist series, i. 218 ; iii. 180, Letter iii., 
 also Letter vii., to Sir Thomas Boyle. See Francis, Life of Eliot, 
 228-230. 
 
THE INDIAN NA TICK. 
 
 in providing tools and instruments of various 
 kinds for their use ; and in the payment of 
 salaries to missionaries, and native preachers 
 and teachers. 1 Thus the way was prepared for 
 securing the pecuniary support of this work 
 among the Indians, not only in Massachusetts, 
 but in the other New England Colonies, and 
 this Society was the pioneer of the great number 
 of Foreign Missionary Societies, which have 
 been formed and supported by English and 
 American Christians. 
 
 X 
 
 THE time had now come to carry out Mr. 
 Eliot's plans for a larger and more permanent 
 settlement for the Christian Indians, settlement of 
 Nonantum was found to be too small, Watick< 
 and too near the English towns. The mission- 
 ary work was making rapid progress among the 
 Massachusetts tribe of Indians, and it was ex- 
 pected that it would extend to the more numer- 
 ous and powerful tribes, to the Narragansetts 
 and the Mohegans, and to other branches of the 
 great Algonquin family in New England. The 
 missionaries in the Colony of Plymouth were 
 also encouraged by their success among the 
 Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, to expect the con- 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist series, i. 212. 
 
JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 version of the Narragansetts. The plans of Mr. 
 Eliot were made in the expectation of bringing 
 the entire Indian race under the influence of the 
 Gospel. In November, 1648, he wrote to Gov- 
 ernor Winslow in London : " The Indians are 
 not willing to come to live near the English, 
 because they have neither tools, nor skill, nor 
 heart to fence their grounds, and if it be not well 
 fenced their Corne is spoyled by the English 
 cattell, which is a great discouragement to them 
 and to me. A place must be found somewhat 
 remote from the English, where they must have 
 the word constantly taught, and government con- 
 stantly exercised." There should be " incour- 
 agements for the industrious, and means of in- 
 structing them in Letters, Trades, and Labours, 
 as building, fishing, Flax and Hemp dressing, 
 planting orchards," etc. " Such a place will draw 
 many from divers places who desire to be taught 
 the knowledge of God." 1 
 
 These were the plans of Mr. Eliot for an In- 
 dian town. The matter was under consideration 
 two or three years. He made a number of excur- 
 sions into the wilderness in the hope of finding 
 the right place. This matter was made the sub- 
 ject of prayer by the friends of the work among 
 the English, as well as among the Indians. At 
 length a place was selected, on the banks of 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 81. 
 
COMMUNITY AT NA TICK. 2 39 
 
 Charles River, eighteen miles southwest from 
 Boston. They called it Natick, " a place of hills." 
 It was granted to the praying Indians by the peo- 
 ple of Dedham, at the request of Mr. Eliot. This 
 grant was confirmed by the General Court. It 
 is also recorded at Natick, that two families 
 which were supposed to have some claim up- 
 on this land, gave a quitclaim of all their right 
 and interest in the land in Natick " unto the 
 publick interest of the Towne of Naticke, that 
 so the praying Indians might there make a 
 Towne." x 
 
 When the land had been secured, Mr. Eliot 
 induced a considerable number of the praying 
 Indians to remove from Nonantum, and from 
 some other villages, to Natick. The settlement 
 was begun in the spring of 1651. The town was 
 laid out in three streets, two on the Boston side 
 of Charles River, and one on the other side. A 
 foot-bridge had been built across the river the 
 year before by the Indians, under the direction 
 of Mr. Eliot. This bridge was eighty feet long, 
 and nine feet above the water in the middle, with 
 strong supports of stone. This bridge is said to 
 have answered its purpose well, and to have stood 
 against the floods longer than some of those built 
 by the English. 2 , 
 
 1 Biglow's History' of Natick, yBoston,/f 830, p/23./ 
 
 2 MassyHist. 3oc. Coll., 3d 'series, iy. 138 arid I7&. 
 
24O JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 Lots of land were measured and divided. A 
 house lot was assigned to each family. The fields 
 were sown for a crop, apple trees were planted, 
 and dwellings were erected. The Indians at first 
 built wigwams, because, as Mr. Gookin says, they 
 had more skill in such building, and because they 
 were less costly, and warmer. 1 In the course of 
 time, however, the Indians built houses like those 
 of the English Colonists, with partitions and with 
 cellars underneath. They also built a fort of the 
 trunks of trees set in the ground, in circular form. 
 This stockade covered a quarter of an acre of 
 ground. They also built, with a little assistance 
 from an English carpenter, a large framed house, 
 fifty feet long, and twenty-five feet wide, twelve 
 feet between the floors. This building was for 
 the common use. The lower part was a place for 
 worship on the Lord's day. On other days it was 
 used as a schoolroom. The second floor was a 
 storehouse for furs, and other goods. One corner 
 of this storeroom was separated from the rest 
 by a partition, for the use of Mr. Eliot. Here 
 he had a bed, which he occupied as often as he 
 had occasion to remain over night. Governor 
 Endicott praised the ingenuity and the industry 
 of the Indians, "in hewing and squaring their 
 timber, the sawing of the boards, and making a 
 chimney, making also the ground-sells, and wall- 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist series, i. 181. 
 
THE INDIAN COMMl' \'l I'Y. 
 
 pi; Ucs, mortising, and letting in the studds into 
 tin-in, there being but one Englishman to show 
 , and he only two days. 
 
 " 1 
 
 XL 
 
 THE next business was the organization of thr 
 Indian Community. Mr. Eliot induced them to 
 adopt the plan of government which 
 
 Y , } . . , . . , Organization 
 
 he had recommended in his book, of the Indian 
 "The Christian Commonwealth"; a Comraunlty - 
 plan which he had borrowed from the eighteenth 
 chapter of Exodus. The people elected their 
 own rulers. They chose first a ruler of a hun- 
 dred; then two rulers of fifties; and then rulers 
 of tens, whom they called tithing men. They 
 also entered into a civil compact, which they 
 called a Covenant. It was written by Mr. Eliot, 
 and the record of it is probably the earliest public 
 record in existence in the language of the Massa- 
 chusetts Indians. It is dated September 24, 1651. 
 and is in these words : 
 
 "We doe give ourselves and our children unto God, 
 to be His people. He shall rule us in all our all.iiis, not 
 only in our religion, and affairs of the Church, (these 
 we desire as soon as we can, if God will,) but also in all 
 our works and affairs of this world. God shall rule over 
 us. The Lord is our Judge. The Lord is our Law- 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d scries, iv. 190, also ist scries, i. 181. 
 
 1 6 
 
242 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 giver. The Lord is our King. He will save us. The 
 Wisdome which God hath taught us in his Booke, that 
 shall guide us and direct us in the way. O Jehovah, 
 teach us wisdome to find out thy wisdome in thy Scrip- 
 tures. Let the grace of Christ help us, because Christ 
 is the wisdome of God. Send Thy Spirit into our 
 hearts, and let it teach us. Lord take us to be thy 
 people, and let us take thee to be our God." 1 
 
 Two weeks later, Governor Endicott, Mr. Wil- 
 son, and many others, attended the religious ser- 
 vices at Natick, and they have left an account of 
 what they saw. The Governor was much pleased 
 by the exhortations and prayers of the Indians, 
 and -by the attention and seriousness of the con- 
 gregation, which numbered about one hundred, 
 and especially by the singing of a psalm by the 
 Indians in their own language. Mr. Wilson de- 
 scribed the appearance of the village, the circular 
 stockade, the framed common house, the dwell- 
 ings of the people, "the firme high foot-bridge 
 over the River, archwise." He spoke of the 
 appearance of the assembly, the men seated by 
 themselves, and the women by themselves; of 
 the sermon of Mr. Eliot, for an hour more, about 
 "Coming to Christ, and bearing his Yoke." 
 They found the Indian school then in progress, 
 and many other agencies that belonged to this 
 missionary settlement. 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 172. 
 
THE INDIAN COMMUNITY. 
 
 The laws of the Colony of Massachusetts were 
 extended over this Indian town, with certain limi- 
 tations. The Indians were left free to manage 
 their local affairs in their own way. The chief 
 of their officers was Waban, who was a man of 
 great discretion as well as piety. He was the 
 natural leader of the settlement. Two constables 
 were chosen each year. The General Court ap- 
 pointed Major Gookin to superintend the various 
 Indian communities. He was empowered to hold 
 a court, of which he was to be the presiding 
 judge, and of which certain officers chosen by 
 the Indians were to be members. The powers 
 of this court were such as county courts among 
 the English exercised. 1 The Indian settlement 
 had the full and hearty good will of the white 
 people of the vicinity. Natick was the model 
 for a number of other Indian communities, which 
 were organized within the next thirty years by 
 Mr. Eliot There seems to have been in these 
 communities a combination of the private owner- 
 ship of houses and house lots with the tribal 
 ownership and use of those buildings and lands 
 that belonged to the community. Major Gookin, 
 while he was the Indian Commissioner, made 
 visits to all the towns of praying Indians, in com- 
 pany with Mr. Eliot. He has left an interesting 
 account of three such visits, made in 1673 and 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist series, i. 177-184. 
 
244 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 1674, which contains the only definite informa- 
 tion of the Indian communities that has come 
 down to us. He found fourteen of these com- 
 munities. Each of the older communities had 
 its Indian reservation, consisting of from two 
 thousand to six or seven thousand acres of land. 
 Each had its place of worship, its school, and its 
 teacher. Mr. Eliot had trained a number of 
 young Indians as preachers for these congrega- 
 tions, and he went, from time to time, to the 
 people to introduce preachers, who were accepted 
 by them with great joy. They were in the habit 
 of observing the Lord's day, and of meeting for 
 worship and religious instruction on that day. 
 The Indians to whom Mr. Eliot had preached 
 at Neponset had removed to Pakeemitt, within 
 the present limits of Stoughton. They had a 
 ruler, a constable, and a schoolmaster. Mr. 
 John Eliot, Jr., preached to them once a fort- 
 night for a number of years, until his decease. 
 Pawtucket, on the Merrimac, where Mr. Eliot 
 began to preach very early, was a community 
 of about seventy-five praying Indians. Their 
 teacher was Samuel, who had been educated at 
 the expense of the English Society. Once a 
 year there was a great gathering of Indians from 
 a large extent of country to fish at the falls of the 
 Merrimac. This was the time when Mr. Eliot 
 was able to reach a large number of strangers. 
 
INDIAN CHURCHES. 
 
 245 
 
 Other communities were in the vicinity of Con- 
 cord, Marlborough, Grafton, Uxbridge, Wood- 
 stock, Lancaster, Worcester, and Brookfield. 
 
 Mr. Gookin found about eleven hundred Chris- 
 tian people in these fourteen towns in 1674. 
 Many of them had been baptized, and a much 
 smaller number had been gathered into churches. 1 
 
 XII 
 
 IN connection with these communities, I should 
 speak of the earliest Indian churches. Mr. Eliot 
 desired to gather the Christian In- 
 
 Formation of 
 
 dians into churches as soon as they Indian 
 were prepared for membership. This 
 wish was shared by a large number of the pray- 
 ing Indians. But Mr. Eliot was a cautious man, 
 though bold and decided when he was sure that 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist series, i. 180-195. The following 
 are the names of the towns mentioned by Mr. Gookin : 
 
 Naticke, 
 
 Pakeemitt, or Punkapaog, 
 
 Hassanamesitt, 
 
 Okommakamesit, 
 
 Wamesit or Pawtucket, 
 
 Nashobah, 
 
 Magunkaquog, 
 
 Manchage, 
 
 Chabanakongkomun, 
 
 Maannexit, 
 
 Quantisset, 
 
 Wabquisset, 
 
 Pakachoog, 
 
 Waeuntug, 
 
 6,000 acres, 29 families, 145 persons. 
 
 6,000 ' 
 
 12 " 60 " 
 
 8,000 ' 
 
 12 
 
 60 " 
 
 6,000 * 
 
 IO 
 
 50 " 
 
 2,500 
 
 15 
 
 75 " 
 
 2,600 
 
 10 
 
 50 
 
 3,000 ' 
 
 II 
 
 55 " 
 
 Unknown, 12 
 
 60 
 
 9 
 
 45 
 
 " 20 
 
 IOO 
 
 " 20 
 
 IOO 
 
 " 30 
 
 150 
 
 " 20 
 
 IOO 
 
 " 10 " 50 
 
246 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 the time for action had come. There were rea- 
 sons for special care in this matter. The Indians, 
 although sincere in their professions, were easily 
 led astray by those who lived by pandering to 
 their weaknesses. Although it was contrary to 
 the laws of the Colony to sell strong drink 
 to them, the laws were constantly violated, and 
 the work of the missionary was hindered by the 
 lapses of his people into intemperance. After 
 the Indians had orchards of their own, and fields 
 of grain, they learned to distil strong liquors for 
 themselves. Intemperance was sure to lead these 
 weak people into other forms of evil. The con- 
 sequence was that some, who had run well for a 
 time, became apostates, and went back to the 
 vices of the pagans. 
 
 It appears from a number of circumstances that 
 public opinion in the Colony was never quite 
 favorable to the formation of Indian churches, 
 because the majority of the people did not trust 
 the Indians. There were many who believed that 
 it was enough to gather them into communities 
 like the one at Natick, where they could have 
 regular instruction from their ministers, without 
 organizing them into churches. Mr. Eliot did 
 trust the Indians, because he knew them so well, 
 but he accepted the Puritan doctrine of a con- 
 verted church membership, and he did not think 
 it would be wise to admit them to full communion 
 
INDIAN CHURCHES. 
 
 in the churches until they had been sufficiently 
 proved. 
 
 So he acted with great caution. He taught the 
 praying Indians very carefully the larger catechism 
 which he had prepared. For a number of years 
 he had a class of catechumens which he met reg- 
 ularly, and to which he gave a great deal of time. 
 In August, 1652, he called together the pastors 
 of the churches to hear the statements which the 
 Indians might make of " their experience in the 
 Lord's work upon their hearts." Two years later 
 the Indians were called a second time before a 
 council of the ministers to give a reason for the 
 hope that was in them. The questions and the 
 answers were taken down, and they are in print. 
 They show the care that was used to test the In- 
 dians as to their knowledge of religious truth, and 
 as to the sincerity of their religious professions. 
 They showed that they had made great progress 
 in the knowledge of the Bible, and in spiritual 
 discernment. But it was not until 1660 that the 
 first church among the praying Indians was 
 formed at Natick. Mr. Eliot baptized the cate- 
 chumens, and administered to them the Lord's 
 Supper. From that time the church at Natick was 
 recognized as a regular Congregational church, 
 with its own officers and its regular worship, and 
 with the Christian sacraments. It is not known 
 how many members it had in the beginning, but 
 
248 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 in 1670 it had between forty and fifty communi- 
 cants. In 1671 the second Indian church was 
 gathered at Hassanamesett, within the present 
 town of Grafton. " This church had a meeting- 
 house for the worship of God after the English 
 fashion of building." It had a native pastor, and 
 a ruling elder, and a deacon. There were sixteen 
 members of the church living in the town, and 
 several others living in other places. There were 
 in the community about thirty baptized persons. 1 
 A few other Indian churches were organized, but 
 the number was never large. Some Indians were 
 members of the English churches in the Colony. 
 They preferred to be admitted to such churches, 
 and they were welcomed. 
 
 In the training of Indian preachers, Mr. Eliot 
 was very successful. It was his opinion that na- 
 tive Indians were better fitted to preach to their 
 own people than others can be. He lived to see 
 twenty-four such preachers raised up, and pre- 
 pared for their work, many of them by his own 
 instrumentality. We have the authority of Dr. A. 
 C. Thompson for the statement that, after all that 
 has been done for Indian missions during the 
 present century, it is not certain that there are 
 as many well qualified Indian preachers to-day 
 as there were two centuries ago. 2 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist series, i. 184, 185. 
 
 2 Protestant Missions, 71. 
 
 
THE INDIAN BIBLE. 
 
 XIII 
 
 IN addition to the care of these settlements of 
 praying Indians, Mr. Eliot was engaged for al- 
 most forty years in preparing to The Translation 
 translate the Bible into the language oftneBible - 
 of the Massachusetts Indians, and in the trans- 
 lation itself. He was at work upon it as long as 
 he lived. This was his greatest work. He held 
 the opinion that the people could not become 
 intelligent and stable Christians until they had 
 the Sacred Scriptures in their own language, and 
 were able to read them. For years after he was 
 able to speak the language himself, and to teach 
 the Indians to read it, he did not venture to hope 
 that he could put the Bible in printed form into 
 their language. But when he found that it was 
 possible for him to do it, he accepted it as the 
 crowning work of his life. The language was 
 at best that of a barbarous people, a language, 
 we are told, without poetry or song. To put 
 the great mass of inspired thought, which came 
 to him in the forms of Hebrew and Greek speech, 
 into a language so barren of words to express 
 spiritual truth was a most difficult task. The 
 word "book," for example, did not exist in the 
 Indian speech, for they had no books. So he 
 must borrow the word from another language. 
 They had no word for Testament, or for Christ, 
 
2 5^ JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 and no fit word to be used as the name of God; 
 and so all these English words were transferred 
 in order to make the title page for the Indian 
 Bible. Even the word " salt " had to be put into 
 the language, and with that a great many other 
 words to stand for things that are commonplaces 
 among civilized people, but are strange to people 
 without culture. 
 
 Our present Revised Version of the Bible was 
 the work of almost one hundred of the selected 
 scholars of England and America. But it was 
 only a revision of an English Version that was 
 itself the work of many minds, two centuries 
 and a half earlier. Almost every one of the 
 great translations of the Bible has been made 
 by the help of a large number of men trained 
 to scholarly investigation. But Eliot had no 
 companions in his work except such Indian in- 
 terpreters as he had first taught to read and to 
 write. But he labored at his desk early and late, 
 year after year, amid the calls for preaching and 
 parochial work among his own people ; the 
 calls for preaching and teaching, and training 
 preachers and teachers for his Indian congrega- 
 tions; the care of his family, the care also of 
 that Society in England from which all his funds 
 must come, and the care of all those commu- 
 nities of praying Indians. How wonderful that 
 the translation got itself done at last! It is, by 
 
PUBLICATION OF ELIOT S BIBLE. 25! 
 
 the concession of all, one of the wonders of 
 literary history. 
 
 The translation of the New Testament was 
 published in Cambridge in September, 1661, 
 about thirty years after Mr. Eliot landed in New 
 England, and fifteen years after he began preach- 
 ing to the Indians. That of the Old Testament 
 was published in 1663. The printers, and the 
 printing press and types, and all the materials 
 necessary for the printing, were sent over from 
 England by the Society for Propagating the 
 Gospel in New England, which Society paid the 
 expenses of the publication. The number of 
 copies in the first edition was probably fifteen 
 hundred. 1 The expense was not far from^i,ooo. 
 It was the first Bible printed in America. It 
 was not till the middle of the next century that 
 the Bible in English was printed in this country. 
 This edition lasted about twenty years. A large 
 number of the younger Indians were able to read 
 it. It was the household book in hundreds of 
 cabins in the wilderness. It was the most effect- 
 ive means which the missionary was able to 
 employ in his work. 
 
 In 1680, a second edition of the New Testa- 
 ment was printed, and five years later the second 
 edition of the Old Testament was also printed. 
 Mr. Eliot was assisted in the revision by John 
 
 1 Francis, Life of Eliot, 225. 
 
252 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 Cotton, Jr., of Plymouth, who had acquired a 
 good knowledge of the language. Mr. Eliot was 
 eager to have the revision completed. " My 
 age," he says, "makes me importunate. I shall 
 depart joyfully may I but leave the Bible among 
 them, for it is the word of life. ... I desire to 
 see it done before I die, and I am so deep in 
 years that I cannot expect to live long." 
 
 But the two Testaments were bound up to- 
 gether ; the Psalms in Indian meter, with a 
 catechism, were added ; and this second edition 
 of two thousand copies was in use three or four 
 years before the death of the translator. The 
 cost of this edition was ^1,000. It is inter- 
 esting to learn that one of the printers was an 
 Indian. These two editions made about thirty- 
 five hundred copies in the language of this tribe. 
 It was the most precious book in many Indian 
 homes. It served to keep alive the piety of the 
 Indians in the dark days that were before them. 
 
 It is a rare and curious book now, the only 
 memorial of a language that has passed away 
 with the people who used it. It is the most 
 valuable means for studying the dialects of the 
 Algonquin tongue. About one hundred copies 
 remain in libraries in this country and in Europe. 
 It commands a higher price at auction sales than 
 almost any other book. Only a very few now 
 living can read it. One word, at least, has been 
 
PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 253 
 
 adopted into our language from Eliot's Bible. 
 The great leaders among the Israelites, like 
 Joshua and Gideon and Samson, were called 
 in that Bible Mug-Wumps, and this is a good 
 name for the independent leaders and voters 
 among our citizens. 1 
 
 XIV 
 
 WHILE Mr. Eliot was securing the formation 
 of a Missionary Society in England for the 
 support of Indian Missions, and in 
 
 .' Progress of the 
 
 gathering the praying Indians into work among 
 
 ?. & , thelndians. 
 
 communities and churches, and trans- 
 lating the Bible into their language, he was 
 laying a broad foundation for permanent work 
 arnong them. He confidently expected that the 
 race would become a civilized and a Christian 
 people. Some of the " wise and sage " Indians 
 were accustomed to say, at that time, that within 
 fifty or a hundred years all the Indians would 
 become like the English. The exceptionally 
 rapid progress of the missionary work, during 
 the first thirty years, under the Mayhews and 
 others in the Plymouth Colony, and under Eliot 
 in Massachusetts, made this seem very probable. 
 The " great hope and inward zeall " of the Pilgrims 
 
 1 The Indian title to the second edition of the Bible is this : 
 " Mammusse Wuneetupanatamwe, Up-Biblum God Nanesswe Nu- 
 kone Testament kah wonk Wusku Testament." 
 
254 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 and the Puritans led them to labor and pray 
 very earnestly that it might be accomplished. 
 
 Mr. Eliot made efforts from year to year to 
 obtain a hearing for the Gospel among the Mo- 
 hegans and the Narragansetts, those more pow- 
 erful tribes, of whom the Massachusetts and the 
 Pakonoket tribes were afraid. He petitioned the 
 Commissioners of the Colonies to provide for 
 the " instruction of all the Indians in all parts," 
 and he told the Indians that he had done so. 
 "The Mohegans," he says, "were much troubled 
 lest the Court of Commissioners should take some 
 course to teach them to pray to God," and their 
 sachem went to Hartford to express "his great 
 unwillingness thereunto." l 
 
 This opposition of the sachems to missionary 
 work among their people was very decided. Mr. 
 Eliot tells us that one of them came to his re- 
 ligious service, and, after the Lecture, protested 
 against his " proceeding to make a Town," and 
 told him "that all the sachems in the country 
 were against it." He was so violent that all the 
 Indians "were filled with fear, their countenances 
 grew pale, and most of them slunk away." But 
 Mr. Eliot replied to him with equal boldness. " / 
 told him'' he says, " that it was God?s work I was 
 about, and that God was with me. ... I do not 
 fear you," I said, "nor all the sachems in the 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 139. 
 
OPPOSITION OF THE SACHEMS. 255 
 
 country. ... I am resolved to go on with my 
 work ; and do you touch me if you dare. . . . And 
 it pleased God," we read in Mr. Eliot's record, 
 " that his spirit shrunk, and fell before me." So 
 it was that this humble man of God, " whose 
 heart was full of love, and who with the most 
 winning gentleness would interest himself in the 
 wants of the little children in the wigwam," was 
 able, when the occasion demanded, " to face with- 
 out dismay the savage chiefs, and answer their 
 violence with a firmness before which the stout- 
 est of them quailed." 
 
 Still, the missionary was often in great perso- 
 nal danger, for the sachems and the Powwows, or 
 medicine men, believed that they should lose 
 their power over the people if the religion of 
 the English should make progress among them. 
 The sachems would sometimes drive him out 
 with violence, and would tell him that, if he came 
 again, it would be at his peril. Still he continued 
 his work, and planned as wisely as he was able 
 for its extension. He sent two discreet Indians 
 at one time with a generous present to the most 
 powerful sachem among the Narragansetts, with 
 the purpose of teaching his people the Bible. 
 The sachem accepted the present, as Indians 
 generally do, but refused to receive religious in- 
 struction. But the young Indians went about 
 among the people, and found them willing and 
 
2 5 6 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 eager to receive what they had to tell them of 
 the Gospel. He was continually sending his 
 trained native helpers on missions among the 
 pagan Indians, and they found the way open to 
 do good among the people, though they seldom 
 had any favor from the chiefs. 
 
 There is a story mentioned by a number of the 
 earlier biographers to this effect : that Mr. Eliot 
 once met King Philip himself, and urged him to 
 accept the Christian faith, and to encourage the 
 teaching of the Bible among his people. It is 
 said that the chieftain rose to his feet, and, taking 
 hold of a button on Mr. Eliot's coat, said with 
 vehemence, " I care no more for your Gospel than 
 I care for that button'' This story, if true, shows 
 some of the causes of King Philip's War. 
 
 Mr. Eliot pushed his work forward wherever 
 he was permitted. During the twenty-five years 
 from 1650 to 1675 he was enlarging the circle of 
 his influence every year. He made Natick the 
 centre of his operations, but he went himself to 
 a great number of Indian villages, some of them 
 far away. Sometimes it was necessary for him 
 to send Indians over the path to mark the trees, 
 or to cut a path for the missionary through the 
 thick trees. 1 He went four times in one year to 
 Nashaway, now Lancaster, though it was forty 
 miles away. He went generally by invitation. 
 
 i Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 123. 
 
THE RIDE TO BROOKFIELD. 
 
 The aged sachem at Quaboag (now Brookfield), 
 sixty miles away, asked him to come and teach 
 him and his people. But there had been hostili- 
 ties between the Narragansetts and the Mohe- 
 gans, and the road was unsafe. So the sachem 
 at Nashaway came, with twenty armed men, to 
 escort the missionary. He took some of his 
 English friends as an additional guard. But 
 the journey proved to be a hard one. There 
 was continual rain, and they had no protection 
 from the storm by night or by day. " I was not 
 dry, night nor day," he says, " from the third day 
 of the week unto the sixth, but so travelled and at 
 night pull off my boots, wring my stockings, and 
 on with them again, and so continued. . . . The 
 rivers also were raised, so that we were wet in 
 riding through. But that which added to my 
 affliction was, my horse tyred, so that I was 
 forced to let my horse go empty, and ride on 
 one of the men's horses, which I took along with 
 me. Yet God helped me. I considered that 
 word of God, * Endure hardness as a good sol- 
 dier of Jesus Christ.' "* At the end of the jour- 
 ney, the missionary found "sundry who were 
 hungry after instruction," so that he was well 
 paid for his journey. He records with thankful- 
 ness that neither himself nor any of his company 
 were hurt, but came home in safety and in health. 
 
 i Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 125. 
 17 
 
2 5 ^ JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 I do not know where to look for more interest- 
 ing journals of missionary work than we have in 
 Major Gookin's narrative of an official tour which 
 he took with Mr. Eliot through the country of 
 the praying Indians the year before the great war. 
 They went on horseback, through the forests, 
 Major Gookin as the magistrate, and Mr. Eliot 
 as the apostle to the Indians, both acting under 
 the authority of the General Court. The Law 
 and the Gospel, civilization and religion, went 
 together. Setting out from Natick, they visited 
 Stoughton, Pawtucket, Littleton, Hopkinton, 
 Lancaster, Dudley, Uxbridge, Woodstock, and 
 Brookfield. Eliot spent the days in journey- 
 ing and in preaching. In the evenings he met 
 his old friends in their wigwams, and heard and 
 answered their questions, talked with the little 
 children, comforted the sick and the afflicted, 
 and led them all to a closer fellowship with the 
 Master. 
 
 XV 
 
 THE good work among the Indians continued 
 
 to increase up to the beginning of King Philip's 
 
 War, in 1675. There were at that time 
 
 Resultsofthe 111 T v 
 
 work among about eleven hundred praying Indians 
 
 on the mainland in Massachusetts, 
 
 who were distributed in fourteen towns, seven of 
 
 which had tracts of land secured to them by the 
 
 
MISSIONS IN THE OLD COLONY. 259 
 
 General Court. Schools for the children of In- 
 dians had been in operation in most of these 
 towns for many years, and a large proportion of 
 the younger Indians were able to read, and a 
 smaller proportion were able to write. The 
 preachers and the teachers in these villages were 
 nearly all Indians. There were two organized 
 churches within this field, with not quite one 
 hundred members. 
 
 Outside the field of Mr. Eliot's direct labors a 
 more extended missionary work had been carried 
 on within the Old Colony, and on the Islands, 
 and in Rhode Island and Connecticut. This 
 work probably began a little earlier than that on 
 the mainland in Massachusetts. 1 It was prose- 
 cuted by a number of enterprising and devoted 
 missionaries, among whom were the Mayhews, 
 father, son, and grandson, Richard Bourne, 
 Thomas Tupper, John Cotton, Jr., and Samuel 
 Treat; and in Rhode Island and Connecticut, 
 Roger Williams, Abrahan Pierson, and James 
 Fitch. Some of these missionaries were in charge 
 of English churches; others gave their whole 
 time to the work among the Indians. 2 In 1675 
 there were about twenty-five hundred praying 
 Indians in the Old Colony, and on the Islands. 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, iv. 109. New England Me- 
 morial, 379, 384. 
 
 2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist series, i. 196-210; 3d series, iv. 
 107-118. New England Memorial, 379-400. 
 
26O JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 
 Mr. Eliot states that there were four churches on 
 the same ground at that time. 1 Many of these In- 
 dians had been civilized, and gathered into towns, 
 which towns had tracts of land, larger or smaller, 
 secured to the Indians by the government of the 
 Colony. Most of the Indian congregations had 
 native pastors. A large number of the people 
 were able to read and write their own language. 
 
 These missionaries received salaries from the 
 Society in England. Mr. Eliot had ^50 a year, 
 Mr. Mayhew ^30, and Mr. Bourne ^25. There 
 was a constant interchange of fraternal greetings, 
 and of labors. Mr. Mayhew assisted at the or- 
 ganization of the church at Natick, and Mr. Eliot 
 at the organization of the church at Marshpee, 
 and at the ordination of a number of pastors. 
 
 An interesting incident has been preserved 
 which shows the liberal spirit of Mr. Eliot, in 
 connection with the account of the well known 
 visit to Boston of Father Gabriel Druillette, a 
 Jesuit missionary from Canada, in 1650. During 
 his stay in Massachusetts, he called at the house 
 of Mr. Eliot in Roxbury. He writes in his jour- 
 nal that Eliot invited him to lodge with him, as 
 the night had overtaken him. These two mis- 
 sionaries the Jesuit and the Puritan had 
 much discourse concerning their work among 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Coll., ist series, i. 196-210; 3d series, iv. 107-118. 
 Also Francis, Life of Eliot, 263-265. 
 
THE INDIAN WAR. 
 
 26l 
 
 the Indians. The priest wrote in his journal 
 that Eliot treated him with respect and affection, 
 and invited him to pass the winter with him. 
 The morning and evening devotions of the 
 Puritan household must have kept their wonted 
 course, while the faithful priest had his oratory, 
 his orisons, and his matin mass before breaking 
 his fast. So easily do good people of different 
 faiths approach each other, when they are de- 
 voted to the service of the one Lord, and to the 
 salvation of their fellow men. 
 
 XVI 
 
 IF peaceful relations could have been con- 
 tinued between the Colonists and the aborigi- 
 nes, it is probable that these efforts K ingpMiip's 
 to civilize and Christianize the In- War< 
 dians would have been so far successful that the 
 great body of them would have accepted the 
 religion and the civilization of the English set- 
 tlers. That, as we have seen, was the expecta- 
 tion of some of the more enlightened Indians. 
 Still, the method of separating the Christian 
 Indians from their countrymen may not have 
 been as wise as it seemed to Mr. Eliot. It is 
 not the method of modern missionaries. The 
 love of independence was a strong sentiment 
 among the savages. The settlements of the 
 
262 
 
 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 English were crowding upon their hunting 
 grounds, and the leaders among the more power- 
 ful tribes, especially the Mohegans and the Nar- 
 ragansetts, believed that they should become a 
 subject race if they permitted civilization and 
 Christianity to change the habits of their people. 
 -These pagan chiefs had a powerful leader in 
 King Philip, the son of Massasoit, chief sachem 
 of the Wampanoags. In him the highest spirit 
 of his race was impersonated, and he led the 
 pagan Indians in a desperate war, in which their 
 watchword was victory or death. The war cov- 
 ered all New England. For almost three years 
 there was a reign of terror. All the New Eng- 
 land Colonies united their forces. From the 
 beginning the war was cruel and desperate. 
 The burning of Lancaster and Medfield and 
 Brookfield and Groton and Mar] borough and 
 Warwick and Providence, the massacre of 
 helpless women and children, the scalping of 
 husbands and brothers, the infernal torture of 
 prisoners, roused the whole of New England 
 to a vigorous, and in the end a successful war. 
 
 But the war swept away the largest number of 
 the praying Indians, in that part of Massachu- 
 setts which was the field of Eliot's labors. Their 
 towns were located where the contest raged most 
 fiercely. They were not trusted by either party. 
 Philip suspected them all, because they had 
 
THE INDIANS DISTRUSTED. 263 
 
 already yielded themselves to the laws and the 
 religion of the Colonists. The English did not 
 trust them because they believed that, with the 
 Indians, the ties of blood would be stronger than 
 the obligation to their new friends. This dis- 
 trust was strengthened by the fact that some of 
 the praying Indians, from the newer towns were 
 induced to fight with Philip on the side of their 
 race. At the same time, the great body of the 
 Christian Indians were entirely loyal to the 
 English. Several hundred of them enlisted in 
 the army, and taught the English how to cope 
 with the tactics which the Indians always follow. 
 Many times the army was saved from a treach- 
 erous ambush by the skill of these allies. " I 
 contend," says Major Gookin, " that the small 
 company of our Indian friends have taken and 
 slain of the enemy, in the summer of 1676, not 
 less than four hundred, and their fidelity and 
 courage are testified by the certificates of their 
 captains." 
 
 And yet, amid the excitements of the time, the 
 friendly Indians were suspected. The slightest 
 occurrence was enough to kindle the passions 
 of the people. A barn was burned. It was 
 afterwards discovered that it was set on fire by 
 the hostile Indians. But the inhabitants at once 
 imputed the crime to the Christian Indians, and 
 a number of them were shot down before their 
 
264 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIAN'S. 
 
 own doors. Mr. Eliot, now more than seventy 
 years of age, defended the Indians when they 
 were unjustly accused. In some instances Mr. 
 Gookin and Mr. Eliot proved before a court of 
 justice that the charges against the Indians were 
 unjust, and secured their release. This made 
 them unpopular with the people, who accused 
 them of being in sympathy with robbers and 
 murderers. 
 
 In October, 1675, the General Court passed an 
 order that the Indians at Natick should be forth- 
 with removed to Deer Island for safe keeping. 
 There were at that time some two hundred of 
 them, and their removal would break up the 
 settlement, which had been their home for 
 twenty-four years. No charge was made against 
 them, except that it was feared they might 
 become traitors. They sadly but quietly sub- 
 mitted. Their venerable missionary met them 
 on the banks of Charles River, and exhorted 
 them to submit patiently, and to remember that 
 " through much tribulation they must enter into 
 the kingdom of God." All who witnessed the 
 scene were deeply affected by the quiet resigna- 
 tion " of the poor souls, encouraging and ex- 
 horting one another with prayers and tears." 
 Later, the Christian Indians of Punkapog, and 
 of a number of other towns, were also removed 
 to Deer Island and Long Island, so that the whole 
 
CAPTIVITY OF THE INDIANS. 265 
 
 number in captivity was more than five hundred. 
 They were exposed to much suffering from the 
 lack of food and proper care, and many of them 
 died during their confinement. Eliot and Gookin, 
 and other friends, visited them frequently, encour- 
 aging them and ministering to their wants. 
 
 When the stress of the war was over, the In- 
 dians were removed to Cambridge. Many of 
 them were very ill at the time of their removal. 
 Mr. Eliot and Major Gookin devoted themselves 
 to them, securing for them wholesome food, and 
 such care and medicine as their condition re- 
 quired, so that the most of them recovered. Be- 
 fore winter, they removed from Cambridge. Most 
 of them returned to Natick, and the other settle- 
 ments from which they had been taken. But 
 they had suffered great losses by the breaking 
 up of their homes. A large number had lost 
 their lives during the war. They came back in 
 poverty, with diminished numbers, without heart 
 or hope. The sympathy and confidence which 
 they had begun to cherish toward their white 
 neighbors had received a rude shock. They felt 
 that, in any emergency, they were powerless, and 
 that they had no means of securing redress. All 
 these things tended to limit the progress of the 
 missionary work which had been so auspiciously 
 begun. 
 
266 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 
 XVII 
 
 MR. ELIOT resumed his regular missionary 
 labors as soon as the war was over. He endeav- 
 The closing ored to gather such as remained of 
 Years. ^he j nc jians into their old villages 
 
 and places of worship. He was busy preaching 
 to his own people, and visiting them at their 
 homes, and encouraging schools. His latest 
 years were busy years. 
 
 It is easy to understand why his work for the 
 Indians did not secure larger and more perma- 
 nent results. He laid, as we have seen, a broad 
 foundation for a great missionary enterprise. 
 Under favorable circumstances, the churches 
 which were gathered by Eliot, and the May- 
 hews, and their associates, would have grown to 
 such numbers and influence that they would 
 have evangelized the entire race of Indians. But 
 those churches were planted among a small and 
 decaying people. Mr. Bancroft estimates the 
 whole number of Indians in New England, west 
 of the St. Croix, in 1675, at thirty thousand, a 
 number less than the population of a small city. 
 About four thousand of this small number, more 
 than one eighth, had already been evangelized. 
 The Indian population had been declining for 
 some time before Europeans came to settle on 
 
DECLINE OF INDIAN CHURCHES. 26? 
 
 these coasts. It continued to decline. King 
 Philip's War was fatal to the Indian race in 
 these Eastern Colonies. The tribes were broken 
 up and scattered among the other tribes, so that 
 the Indian no longer appears as an important 
 element of population here. 
 
 Everything was done that could be done to 
 preserve and enlarge the Indian churches. In 
 1684, Mr. Eliot wrote that the number of vil- 
 lages of praying Indians had been reduced to 
 four: viz. Natick, Pawtuckett, Stoughton, and 
 Dudley. In the Old Colony and on the islands, 
 the number was considerably larger. There was 
 some religious growth in these communities. 
 The native preachers were earnest and diligent 
 in their work. They were assisted by the Eng- 
 lish ministers, who had planted the churches, and 
 by their successors. But the Indian race faded 
 away, year by year, and the churches of neces- 
 sity became smaller and weaker. The reason 
 was not that the English crowded them out. 
 They had set apart reservations of land which 
 were secured to the Indians, and they taught 
 them how to cultivate the land. The Indian ^ 
 lacked iron in the blood, strength of purpose, ' 
 power to resist temptation to intemperance and 
 to other vices. Even Christianity, as set forth 
 by Eliot and Mayhew, and the other apostles 
 to the Indians, could not secure the continued 
 
268 
 
 JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 existence of the race. " There is a cloud," said 
 Mr. Eliot in his old age, "a dark cloud up- 
 on the work of the Gospel among the poor 
 Indians. The Lord revive and prosper that 
 work, and grant that it may live when I am 
 dead." 
 
 Mr. Eliot had a serene and beautiful old age. 
 His mind was vigorous and active. At the age 
 of seventy-four, he published " The Harmony of 
 the Gospels," a work to which he had devoted a 
 great deal of study. He wrote frequently to 
 England in regard to the printing of his revised 
 version of the Bible. " Our praying Indians," he 
 said, "both on the islands and on the mainland, 
 include thousands of souls, and all of them beg, 
 cry, and entreat for Bibles. He carried the re- 
 vised edition of the Indian Bible through the 
 press when he had passed his eightieth year. 
 He was still interested in the progress of medi- 
 cal science, and in the study of theology. He 
 continued to preach as long as his strength 
 lasted, and then he asked his people at Rox- 
 bury to make no delay in selecting his successor. 
 He outlived nearly all his old friends in the min- 
 istry, and he used to say that Richard Mather, 
 and John Cotton, and the other dear friends who 
 were waiting for him in heaven, would think he 
 had gone the wrong way. His last words were, 
 "Welcome joy!" and then, "Pray, pray, pray!" 
 
PUBLICATIONS OF ELIOT. 26 Q 
 
 He died on the 2oth of May, 1690, eighty-five 
 years of age, one of the last of that generation 
 of great and holy men. 
 
 He was buried in the parish tomb, in the 
 old burying ground, at the corner of Wash- 
 ington and Eustis Streets, Roxbury (now 
 Boston). 
 
 Mrs. Eliot had died three years before, March 
 24,1687. Their children were : 
 
 HANNAH, born September 17, 1633. 
 JOHN, born August 3, 1636, H. C. 1656. 
 JOSEPH, born December 20, 1638, H. C. 1658. 
 SAMUEL, born June 22, 1641, H. C. 1660. 
 AARON, born February 19, 1644. Died 1655. 
 BENJAMIN, born January 29, 1647, H. C. 1665. 
 
 The following is an incomplete list of his pub- 
 lications, in addition to the Indian Bible : 
 
 An Indian Catechism, 1655. 
 
 The Christian Commonwealth, 1659. 
 
 Baxter's Call to the Unconverted (Translation), 
 
 1664. 
 
 The Indian Psalter, 1664. 
 The Communion of Churches, 1665. 
 Bayley's Practice of Piety (Translation), 1665. 
 The Indian Primer (Indian), 1669. 
 The Logic Primer (Indian), 1672. 
 Harmony of the Gospels, 1678. 
 Shepard's Sincere Convert (Translation), 1689. 
 
27O JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 The following inscription was placed upon his 
 tomb. 1 
 
 HERE LIE THE REMAINS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN ELIOT, 
 
 THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS, 
 
 ORDAINED OVER THE FIRST CHURCH, 
 
 NOVEMBER 5, 1632. 
 
 DIED MAY 20, 1690, 
 
 AGED 
 LXXXVI. 
 
 1 See Genealogical Register, xiv. 220. 
 
IV 
 
 Jonathan Edwards, and the Great 
 Awakening 
 
Jonathan Edwards, and the Great 
 Awakening 
 
 HE Great Awakening of which so much is 
 said in the books published in New Eng- 
 land about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
 was connected with a remarkable declension of 
 the religious life in the Puritan churches. The 
 fathers of New England had come here especially 
 to plant pure churches, on the basis of a member- 
 ship made up of those who had a genuine reli- 
 gious experience. All who became communicants 
 in those churches during the first generation were 
 required to give an account of their religious ex- 
 periences. It was the confident expectation of 
 the Pilgrims and the Puritans, that they should 
 be able to develop a church life in this new coun- 
 try that would be much nearer the standard of the 
 New Testament than any that had been known 
 since the time of the primitive churches. They 
 were confident that, in leaving the methods of 
 organization and of worship to which they had 
 been accustomed in England, they had escaped 
 from the influences that tended towards a weak 
 and formal spiritual life. 
 
 18 
 
2 74 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 I 
 
 IN this expectation they were for a time disap- 
 pointed. It is true a high standard of piety was 
 maintained in their churches for thirty or forty 
 years. But the second generation fell below the 
 standard of the fathers. VWe have the well known 
 statement of Thomas Prince, that "a little after 
 1660 there began to appear a Decay; and this 
 increased to 1670, when it grew very visible and 
 threatening, and was generally complained of and 
 bewailed bitterly by the Pious among them ; and 
 yet much more in 1680, when but few of the 
 first Generation remained." 1 This state of things 
 me Reform- led to the calling of the Reforming 
 ing synod. JJyn_Qd, which met in Boston in_i_678. 
 It was made up of delegates from the churches 
 of Massachusetts. This Synod, after a careful 
 examination of the religious condition of the 
 congregations, set forth a statement which, as 
 it is read now in the pages of Cotton Mather, 
 is simply appalling. They lamented the ne- 
 glect of public worship; the desecration of the 
 Lord's day; the lack of family government; an 
 alarming increase of worldliness among the peo- 
 ple, accompanied by dishonesty, extravagance, 
 lying, intemperance, profanity, and a general de- 
 cay of godliness in the land. The change was 
 
 1 Christian History, Boston, 1743, i. 84. 
 
DECAY IN THE PURITAN CHURCHES. 2 75 
 
 certainly very great from the time when Hugh 
 Peters, in a sermon preached in 1646 before 
 Parliament, the Westminster Assembly, and the 
 Corporation of London, stated in respect to 
 Massachusetts, " I have lived seven years in a 
 country where I never saw a beggar, nor heard 
 an oath, nor looked upon a drunkard." 
 
 The evidence that there was a decline in the 
 religious life in New England at that time is 
 too decisive to be questioned. The Election 
 Sermons preached before the General Court of 
 Plymouth Colony, and of the Colony of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, and of that of Connecticut, show 
 that the change in the churches had been such 
 as to cause very great alarm. In Plymouth, 
 Thomas Walley said in 1669, " How is New 
 England fallen ! The land that was a land of 
 Holiness hath lost her holiness." In Massachu- 
 setts, William Stoughton said to the Legislature 
 in 1668: " O what a sad metamorphosis hath of 
 later years passed upon us in these churches and 
 plantations ! Alas ! how is New England in dan- 
 ger to be buried in its own ruins." Dr. Increase 
 Mather said in 1678: "Clear, sound conversions 
 are not frequent. . . . Many of the rising genera- 
 tion are profane, Drunkards, Swearers, Licentious, 
 and scoffers at the Power of Godliness." Rev. 
 Samuel Whitman said in Connecticut in 1714: 
 " Religion is on the Wane among us. ... We are 
 
276 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 risen up a Generation that have in a great 
 Measure forgot the errand of our Fathers." 1 
 
 There were a number of reasons for this appar- 
 ent failure of the early churches of New England 
 to realize the hopes of their founders. 
 
 Reasons for the 
 
 Decline of These reasons were not such as to 
 
 cast any discredit upon the sincerity 
 or the piety of the founders^]) Some of the rea- 
 sons were connected with the weakness and iso- 
 lation of the settlements. The second generation 
 had not enjoyed the pleasant social life of Old 
 England. They were ruder in manners than 
 their fathers, with less of education and of cul- 
 ture. The struggle of life in the wilderness was 
 a severe one, and there was a tendency to give a 
 subordinate place to the things that are re- 
 ligious. The first settlers had come here fresh 
 from the struggle for freedom to worship accord- 
 ing to their own consciences. Their children had 
 no such experience of conflict. 
 
 There was also an element in the population 
 lade up of the children of those who had come 
 to New England in the condition of servants to 
 the original planters. These persons were never 
 in full sympathy with the ideas of the Puritans, 
 and their descendants were only too likely to 
 fall away from the religious habits of the earlier 
 
 1 See the Election Sermons preached in these three Colonies 
 between 1668 and 1714. 
 
UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 generations. " They were," says Dr. Walker, " rela- 
 tively a numerous and positively a debasing factor 
 in the life of the Colonial towns and villages." 
 
 Besides these natural causes of the decline of 
 religion in the Colonies there were other causes 
 connected with the methods that were adopted 
 by the leaders among the New England Puri- 
 tans. It is common to say that " they builded 
 better than they knew." The statement may be 
 correct as to the main part of the policy of the 
 founders. And yet they had established an eccle- 
 siastical system in their plantations that was 
 comparatively untried in modern times. It was 
 inevitable that some mistakes should be made, 
 even by men as wise and devout as the founders 
 of these Colonies. 
 
 The close union of Church and State in Massa- 
 chusetts and some of the other Colonies was 
 shown by the results to be one of these mistakes. 
 Such a union was especially unfavorable to the 
 development of Congregational Churches. While 
 it lasted it limited very much the development of 
 the religious life among the people. It was not 
 in harmony with the free spirit of the churches 
 that were here established. Experience has 
 shown that it is better for Congregationalists not 
 to be " The Standing Order." 
 
 1 Some Aspects of the Religious Life of New England, p. 49. 
 Dr. George L. Walker. 
 
27 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 The Half Way Covenant was another of the 
 mistakes of the early Congregationalists. It was, 
 at best, a compromise between the methods of 
 the Established Church of England, and those of 
 the free churches of New England. In the 
 course of time it did away with the Puritan prin- 
 ciple of a church made up of regenerated per- 
 sons. The Episcopal Church, with its methods 
 of government, and its Prayer Book, is much bet- 
 ter fitted than the Congregational churches to 
 train a class of communicants who have come 
 into the church by reason of their baptism in 
 infancy. 
 
 In addition to these causes of declension, we 
 should recognize the methods of presenting re- 
 ligious truth in the pulpit. The 
 
 Preaching in the d 
 
 seventeenth early ministers of New England were 
 extreme Calvinists. They had not 
 learned in the seventeenth century how to preach 
 the sovereignty of God in such a way as to 
 develop a sense of personal freedom and responsi- 
 bility. We have but to read the treatises that 
 were given to the press during the first century 
 of the history of New England by the Puritan 
 divines to learn that they were not " wise to win 
 souls " by presenting the " sweet reasonableness" 
 of the Gospel. The sermons of those preachers 
 made the impression upon some minds that all 
 things were so arranged in the Divine economy 
 
EXTREME CALVINISM. 
 
 that impenitent men had very little to do towards 
 securing their salvation. 
 
 For example, Thomas Shepard said : " Thou 
 mayest see the land of Canaan, and take much 
 pains to goe into Canaan, and mayest tast of 
 the bunches of Grapes of that good land, but 
 never enter into Canaan, into Heaven, but thou 
 liest bound hand and foot in this woful estate, 
 and here thou must lie and rot like a dead car- 
 kasse in his grave untill the Lord come and rowle 
 away the stone, and bid thee come out and live." 1 
 In another place he says : " Now doe not thou 
 shift it from thy selfe, and say, God is Merciful. 
 True, but it is to very few, as shall be proved. 
 'T is a thousand to one if ever thou bee one of 
 that small number whom God hath picked out 
 to escape this wrath to come." 2 
 
 President Willard said : " Election is an act 
 of grace. Redemption is an act of pure grace. 
 Election is absolute, not hypothetical. The sub- 
 jects of election are a definite number of men. 
 . . . There are some men to whom God doth 
 not afford the means and offices of Salvation, 
 and they must needs perish." 3 
 
 These quotations are sufficient to indicate the 
 sort of instruction that used to be given in 
 
 1 Sincere Convert, 1646, p. 71. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 98. 
 
 8 Willard's Body of Divinity, 196, 197. 
 
28O JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 many of the congregations during the Puritan 
 age in New England. There was a variety in 
 the methods of preaching at that time. Thomas 
 Hooker gave more emphasis to the truth of per- 
 sonal freedom and responsibility than John Nor- 
 ton did. Some of those preachers found the 
 substance of their messages in the parables of the 
 Prodigal Son, and of the Great Supper, and in 
 the free and gracious invitations of the Saviour. 
 But the prevailing tone in the pulpit was fatal- 
 istic. It discouraged human effort. Great mul- 
 titudes were waiting for God to come and save 
 them. They persuaded themselves that they 
 were not responsible for their continued impeni- 
 tence. They were using the means of grace, and 
 they were taught that they could do no more 
 until God should be pleased to pluck them as 
 brands from the burning. 
 
 After the time of the Reforming Synod the 
 decline of religion was checked for a few years, 
 
 Efforts to check an< ^ earnes ^ efforts were made in 
 the Religious Massachusetts and Connecticut to 
 
 Declension. 1-1 11- 
 
 bring about a general awakening 
 among the people. These efforts were not in 
 vain. There were some revivals of religion in 
 the churches. We have an account of a remark- 
 able religious work in Taunton in 1704, and of 
 a number of revivals in Northampton during the 
 long ministry of Rev. Solomon Stoddard. The 
 
RELIGION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 28l 
 
 list might easily be extended. But on the whole 
 the ministers and churches of New England at 
 that time were very far from the ways of the 
 fathers. The Half Way Covenant had brought 
 into the churches large numbers of people who 
 were not, even in their own judgment, true 
 Christians. The need of regeneration was not 
 made prominent in the preaching of that time. 
 The ministers were preaching morality, and the 
 people were becoming more immoral every year. 
 Many were trusting to their good works to save 
 them, but they were not careful to do such works 
 as God had required. " And yet," said one of 
 the old writers, " never had the expectation of 
 reaching heaven at last been more general or 
 more confident." 
 
 The Protestant churches in Great Britain at 
 that time were no better than those in America. 
 There had been a decided reaction from the in- 
 tense religious spirit of the seventeenth century. 
 Bishop Butler remarks, in the Preface to the 
 Analogy (1736), that "it has come to be taken 
 for granted that Christianity is not so much as 
 a subject of inquiry; but that it is now discov- 
 ered to be fictitious." The same writer stated 
 that the characteristic of that age was " an 
 avowed scorn of religion in some, and a growing 
 disregard of it in the generality." Addison de- 
 clared that there " was less appearance of religion 
 
282 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 in England than in any neighboring state or 
 kingdom." " In the higher circles of society," 
 said Montesquieu, " every one laughs if one talks 
 of religion." Bishop Burnet, in 1713, wrote of 
 those who presented themselves to be ordained 
 as clergymen, " They can give no account, or at 
 least a very imperfect one, of the contents of the 
 Gospels, or of the Catechism itself." The truth 
 is that Puritanism in England had lost a great 
 part of its vigor and its influence, and the Estab- 
 lished Church had not prepared itself to take its 
 place in leading the English people to a higher 
 religious life. 1 
 
 It was time for a Great Awakening. He to 
 whom the church is dearer than the apple of 
 His eye was preparing a group of men with re- 
 markable gifts to serve as His agents in a work 
 that was to give a new direction to modern 
 thought, as well as to modern Christianity. Some 
 of these great evangelists were trained in Great 
 Britain, as Whitefield and the Wesleys. Others 
 had been trained in this country, such as Ed- 
 wards, the Tenants, Parsons, and Wheelock. 
 The Church of England needed the Awaken- 
 ing quite as much as the Dissenters, or the 
 Puritan Churches of New England. 
 
 1 See Prof. Fisher's History of Doctrine, 389-391. Greene's 
 Short History of the English People, 736. Bibliotheca Sacra, 
 1897, pp. 69-80. 
 
BIRTH OF EDWARDS. 283 
 
 II 
 
 JONATHAN EDWARDS was the son of Timothy 
 Edwards, the pastor for sixty years at East Wind- 
 sor, Connecticut. His mother was Eariyiifeof 
 the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, Edwards * 
 whose pastorate at Northampton lasted from 
 1672 to 1729. He was born October 5, 1703. 
 He was a precocious boy. He has been com- 
 pared to Pascal in respect to the early manifes- 
 tation of intellectual power. His early writings, 
 and the books that he read even before he en- 
 tered college, show a decided bent towards 
 the study of nature and of mind. He entered 
 Yale College at the age of thirteen, and was 
 graduated at seventeen. Afterwards he spent 
 two years in the study of theology in connec- 
 tion with the College. He was licensed to preach 
 at the age of nineteen. His first preaching was 
 in New York, where he was very much liked. 
 After eight months in New York he declined to 
 remain longer, and went back to the College, 
 where he served for two years as tutor, continu- 
 ing his studies in divinity and in psychology. 
 He was ordained at Northampton, February 
 15, 1727, in his twenty-third year, as colleague 
 pastor with his grandfather, then in his eighty- 
 fourth year. 
 
 Eight years later, the Great Awakening began 
 
284 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 in that parish, in connection with the preaching 
 of that remarkable man. He is spoken of most 
 frequently as a hard logician, a metaphysician, a 
 Calvinistic theologian. If that had been all, the 
 revival would not have begun in his parish. 
 He was undoubtedly a man of the highest order 
 of intellect. He was a brilliant scholar. He 
 was a man of deep piety. He was accustomed, 
 while yet a child, to go by himself to secret places 
 in the woods for the purpose of prayer. He 
 passed through very deep religious experiences 
 during his college life. A little later he wrote, 
 " I made seeking my salvation the main business 
 of my life." The Diary which he kept in his 
 early years shows how deep his religious expe- 
 riences were, and how entire his consecration. 
 He recorded his solemn engagement always " to 
 do whatever he thought to be most for the glory 
 of God and his own good, without consideration 
 of the time, whether now or never so many my- 
 riads of ages hence ; no matter how great or 
 how many the difficulties he might meet ; to do 
 his duty, and what is most for the good of man- 
 kind in general." He resolved never to lose a 
 moment of time, to live while he lived with all 
 his might. An instructive parallel might be 
 drawn between the early religious exercises of 
 John and Charles Wesley and those of Jona- 
 than Edwards. The revival on both sides of the 
 
IMA GIN A TION OF ED WA RDS. 285 
 
 sea had its spring in the deep searchings of heart, 
 and in the complete consecration of these men. 
 
 Jonathan Edwards was a man of tender feel- 
 ings, and of very strong affections. He had the 
 imagination of a poet. "He had a Q Ualltiesof 
 rare combination," says a recent ^M"" 1 - 
 writer, "of fervor of feeling, of almost oriental 
 richness of imagination, with intellectual acumen 
 which clothed all that he said with glowing force, 
 while beneath his words flowed the stream of 
 a most carefully elaborated theological system." 
 
 Let us select two or three specimens from the 
 writings of this representative Puritan pastor. 
 On a certain day, in his early youth, he walked in 
 his father's pasture. He says : "As I was walking 
 there, and looking up in the sky and clouds, there 
 came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glori- 
 ous majesty and grace of God, as I knew not how 
 to express. I seemed to see them both in a 
 sweet conjunction, majesty and meekness joined 
 together; it was a sweet and gentle and holy 
 majesty, and also a majestic sweetness, an awful 
 sweetness, a high and great and holy gentleness." 
 
 "I spent the most of my time," he says, "in 
 thinking of divine things, year after year; often 
 walking alone in the woods and solitary places 
 for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and con- 
 verse with God ; and it was always my manner 
 at such times to sing forth my contemplations." 
 
286 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 In one of his private papers, written in middle 
 life, he says, " The soul of a true Christian ap- 
 peared like such a little white flower as we see 
 in the spring of the year, low and humble on the 
 ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleas- 
 ant beams of the sun's glory, rejoicing as it were 
 in a calm rapture, diffusing around a sweet fra- 
 grancy, standing peacefully and lovingly in the 
 midst of other flowers round about; all in like 
 manner opening their bosoms to drink in the 
 light of the sun." 1 
 
 Here is a passage from his Journal, in which 
 he describes Sarah Pierrepont, who became his 
 wife a few years later: "They say there is a 
 young lady in ... who is beloved of that Great 
 Being who made and rules the world, and that 
 there are certain seasons in which this Great 
 Being, in some way or other, invisibly comes to 
 her, and fills her mind with exceeding great de- 
 light, and that she hardly cares for any thing 
 except to meditate on Him; that she expects 
 after awhile to be received up where He is ; to 
 be raised up out of the world, and caught up into 
 Heaven, being assured that there she is to dwell 
 with Him, and to be ravished with His love and 
 delight forever. She will sometimes go about 
 from place to place singing sweetly, and seems 
 
 1 Life of Edwards. New York reprint of the Worcester Edi- 
 tion, i. 18. 
 
HIS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 
 
 to be always full of joy and pleasure, and no one 
 knows for what. She loves to be alone, walking 
 in the fields and groves, and seems to have some 
 one invisible always conversing with her." 
 
 He describes an experience which he had 
 while in middle life, in which he had " a view of 
 the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between 
 God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure, 
 and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle 
 condescension. The person of Christ appeared 
 ineffably excellent, with an excellency great 
 enough to swallow up all thought and concep- 
 tion, which continued, as near as I can judge, 
 about an hour, which kept me the greater part 
 of the time in tears, and weeping aloud. I felt 
 an ardency of soul to be, what I know not 
 otherwise how to express, emptied and anni- 
 hilated ; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ 
 alone; to love Him with a pure and holy love; 
 to trust in Him ; to live upon Him; to serve and 
 follow Him ; and to be perfectly sanctified and 
 made pure with a divine and heavenly purity." 
 
 In his personal appearance Mr. Edwards is 
 said to have been a tall, slender man, upwards of 
 six feet in height. His face was of msP ersonai 
 the feminine type, like that of the A w earancc ' 
 Apostle John, rather than that of the Apostles 
 Peter or Paul. There was about him the air 
 of a seer, of one inspired. His appearance in 
 
288 
 
 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 the pulpit was graceful, his delivery natural, easy, 
 and very solemn. His voice was not loud or 
 strong, but he spoke with such distinctness, clear- 
 ness, and precision, his sentences were so full 
 of ideas, set in a plain and striking light, that he 
 commanded the attention of the audience. His 
 sermons were written, but he was not closely con- 
 fined to his notes. He was accustomed to lean 
 on one arm, fastening his eyes upon some dis- 
 tant part of the meeting-house. 1 He used very 
 little action in the pulpit, but he spoke with 
 such fervor and earnestness that his words had 
 great power. He was one of the great preachers 
 of the age, Prof. A. V. G. Allen speaks of him 
 as the greatest of them. 
 
 Ill 
 
 IT was the mission of this man of great intel- 
 lectual power and profound spiritual insight to 
 apply the truths of the Gospel to a people in a 
 very low religious condition. He had to meet 
 what was then called Arminianism ; a system 
 that differed radically from the evangelical Ar- 
 minianism which Wesley preached, and which 
 has been a leading factor in the revivals of re- 
 ligion of the last century and a half. This so 
 
 1 Edwards's Works, Life, i. 29. Life of Jonathan Edwards, 
 by Prof. A. V. G. Allen. 
 
CONDITION OF THE CHURCHES. 289 
 
 called Arminianism was combined with Arian 
 and Socinian opinions. It had grown up in New 
 England, as a reaction from the extreme Calvin- 
 ism of the early New England fathers. Its 
 progress had been helped by the working of the 
 Half Way Covenant Inasmuch as the change 
 at conversion was supposed to be altogether be- 
 yond human power, men inquired whether there 
 were not some religious acts which they could 
 perform which would lead on towards conversion. 
 The Arminians of that day taught that the use 
 of "the means of grace," such as the state of the 
 reading of the Scriptures, prayer, at- churches - 
 tendance on public worship, and especially the 
 use of the sacraments, would prepare them for the 
 kingdom of Heaven. Men were not taught that 
 it was their duty to repent of their sins, and be- 
 gin at once to serve and obey God, trusting to 
 His promised help and grace, but only that it was 
 their duty to use the means of grace. This 
 relieved them from a sense of responsibility for 
 their continued impenitence. They persuaded 
 themselves that they were doing their part of 
 the work, and that there was nothing more for 
 them to do until they should receive the Divine 
 Spirit, who had power to change their evil nature, 
 and give them the new heart and the new spirit. 
 The preaching of the time was mainly didactic. 
 It was addressed to the understanding, rather 
 
JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 than to the heart. Its tone was ethical, rather 
 than spiritual. It dwelt mainly on the duties of 
 men to each other and to God. Multitudes were 
 lingering among the so called preliminaries to 
 regeneration, waiting for the Divine work in their 
 hearts. So that in many of the Puritan churches 
 the people were trusting in forms and outward 
 observances, while spiritual religion was losing 
 its power. 
 
 The long and very able ministry of Mr. Stod- 
 dard at Northampton had moulded the opinions 
 and habits of the people of that town. He had 
 taught them that the Lord's Supper was a con- 
 verting ordinance. The Half Way Covenant had 
 brought into that church a large number who 
 were not, even in their own opinion, regenerated 
 persons. Mr. Edwards tells us, in his Narrative, 
 that the town had at that time about two hundred 
 families. He believed that the religious condi- 
 tion of the people was at least as good as that of 
 the people in other parts of New England. But, 
 he tells us, it was a time of extraordinary dulness 
 in religion ; that for some years licentiousness 
 had prevailed among the young people of the 
 town ; that many of them were very much ad- 
 dicted to night walking, and frequenting the 
 tavern, and to lewd practices; that they would 
 frequently get together for what they called 
 frolics, and would spend the greater part of the 
 
JUS TIFICA TION BY FAITH. 2 Q I 
 
 night in them, without any regard to order in 
 the families they belonged to ; and that indeed 
 family government did much fail in the town. 
 He found also that many of the young people 
 were indecent in their conduct in meeting. 1 
 
 Two or three years after the beginning of the 
 ministry of Mr. Edwards, there began to be a 
 marked improvement in the habits of the young 
 people of his congregation. They became more 
 decorous in their behavior during the religious 
 services, and more disposed to keep the Lord's 
 day, and to listen to religious instruction. Late 
 in the year 1734, the young pastor determined 
 to meet the errors which prevailed among his 
 people by a series of sermons on Justification by 
 Faith alone, the doctrine with which, The Great 
 as Luther declared, a church stands Awakenil *. 
 or falls. He tells us that, " although great fault 
 was found with meddling with the controversy 
 in the pulpit at that time, by such a person " (as 
 the young and inexperienced pastor), " and though 
 it was ridiculed by many, yet it proved a word 
 spoken in season, and was most evidently at- 
 tended with a very remarkable blessing of Heaven 
 to the souls of the people." 
 
 In these sermons he attempted to sweep away 
 the hopes which men had built upon their moral- 
 
 1 Edwards's Works, i. 29. Narrative of Surprising Conver- 
 sions, Works, iii. 233. The Great Awakening, by Dr. Joseph 
 Tracy, 213. Allen's Life of Edwards, 40 and 126. 
 
JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 ity, their " owning the covenant," partaking of the 
 Lord's Supper, and using the other means of 
 grace. He taught that the first thing, and the 
 only thing for them to do, was to come to Christ, 
 with penitence for their sins, relying only upon 
 the free promises of the Gospel. " This way of 
 the Gospel was made evident," to use the -words 
 of Edwards, " as the true and only way. Then it 
 was, in the latter part of December (1734) that 
 the Spirit of God began to work wonderfully 
 amongst us, and there were, very suddenly, five 
 or six persons, to all appearances, savingly con- 
 verted, and some were wrought upon in a very 
 remarkable manner." 1 
 
 The revival was connected very closely with 
 the preaching of Mr. Edwards. He set forth 
 with great power the Calvinistic system of doc- 
 trine, but in the stress and pressure of the reli- 
 gious work he was led into those modifications 
 of the older Calvinism, out of which the New 
 England theology has grown. His system was 
 a modified Calvinism. The urgent motive with 
 the great evangelist was to present the truth in 
 such a way as to deepen the sense of personal re- 
 sponsibility. He made much of the difference 
 between natural and moral ability. He taught 
 that the sinner has a natural ability to repent, 
 and is therefore under obligation to repent. His 
 
 i Works, iii. 234. 
 
BEGINNING OF THE REVIVAL. 
 
 inability is moral, and consists in an unwilling- 
 ness to do his duty. For this unwillingness he is 
 responsible. To continue in the use of means, 
 without repentance, is only to add to the sins of 
 the past. The promises of God are addressed 
 only to those who repent. He insisted, there- 
 fore, upon immediate repentance. Means were 
 nothing without repentance ; strivings and reso- 
 lutions were nothing. He exhorted his people 
 to cast themselves just as they were upon the 
 mercy of God, and trust Him to save them in 
 His infinite love and grace. 
 
 The revival spread rapidly into all parts of the 
 town, and reached persons of all ages and condi- 
 tions in life. Religion became the great subject 
 of thought and conversation. " There was scarcely 
 a person in the town," says Mr. Edwards, " uncon- 
 cerned about the great things of the eternal 
 world. In the spring and summer following, the 
 town seemed to be full of the presence of God. 
 Our assemblies were then beautiful. Our public 
 praises were greatly enlivened. Our young peo- 
 ple when they met were wont to spend the time 
 in talking of the love of Jesus Christ, the wonder- 
 ful, free, and sovereign grace of God, His glo- 
 rious work in the conversion of souls, and the 
 truth and certainty of the great things of God's 
 word." 1 Mr. Edwards believed that more than 
 
 1 Narrative, 235. 
 
294 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 three hundred were brought to Christ, in that 
 town, within six months, and that almost every- 
 body in the town at that time, above sixteen 
 years of age, was a true Christian. He mentions 
 that some thirty children, of from ten to fourteen 
 years, were among the subjects of this work. He 
 gives an interesting account of the conversion of 
 a child about four years of age. 1 It appears from 
 his statements that religious meetings for children 
 were very common during the revival. 
 
 The work extended from Northampton into 
 the adjoining towns. In March, the revival was 
 general in South Hadley and in Suffield. It 
 soon appeared in Sutherland, Deerfield, Hatfield, 
 West Springfield, Longmeadow, and Northfield. 
 There were revivals of great power in ten or 
 twelve of the leading towns of Connecticut. It 
 continued in the Connecticut Valley for about 
 six months. It reached towns as far apart as 
 Stratford, New Haven, Groton, Lebanon, and 
 Coventry. The next year, Mr. Edwards wrote 
 his " Narrative of Surprising Conversions," which 
 was published first in Great Britain, and, two 
 years later, was republished in Boston, with sev- 
 eral of the sermons that had been most useful in 
 promoting the work. 
 
 It will not be necessary to follow at great length 
 the history of the Great Awakening in the ten 
 
 1 Works, iii. 265, also 348. 
 
LABORS OF MR. EDWARDS. 2Q5 
 
 years that followed 1735. Mr. Edwards had a 
 very important part in the work through all 
 those years. He was, in a sense, the moving 
 spirit of the revival. By his preaching, and his 
 personal labors, and his counsels to the pastors 
 who were constantly consulting him, and by his 
 publications, he helped on the work, and gave it 
 steadiness and permanent influence. In 1740 
 and 1741, there was a work of grace in North- 
 ampton even more extended than the one seven 
 years before. There was another revival two 
 years later, and a third two years afterward. 1 
 During these years, the religious work extended 
 into all parts of New England, and into the 
 middle and southern Colonies. The period of 
 religious inertia had been effectually broken up. 
 A rift had been made in the old fatalism, which 
 had paralyzed so many of the churches. The 
 revivals gave them a new sense of the spiritual 
 power that was within their reach. A consider- 
 able number of pastors began to labor as evan- 
 gelists in parishes near their own. There was 
 an interchange of such labors at that time that 
 was very profitable. There was also a class of 
 itinerant evangelists who were employed in many 
 of the churches. 
 
 We have accounts of the preaching of Mr. 
 Edwards in Westborough, Leicester, Sutton, En- 
 
 i Christian History, i. 367. 
 
296 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 field, Boston, and various other places. 1 In some 
 
 7 stances he spent several weeks in a place. 
 Of the effect of his famous sermon at Enfield, 
 we have an account written by an intelligent 
 minister who was present. He says : " While the 
 people of the neighboring towns were in great 
 distress for their souls, the inhabitants of Enfield 
 were very secure, loose, and vain. A lecture had 
 been appointed there, and the neighboring peo- 
 ple, the night before, were so affected at the 
 thoughtlessness of the inhabitants that they spent 
 a considerable part of the night praying for them. 
 When the time for the lecture came, a number 
 of the neighboring ministers attended, and some 
 from a distance. The appearance of the assem- 
 bly in the meeting-house was thoughtless and 
 vain. The people hardly conducted themselves 
 with common decency. Mr. Edwards preached 
 from a passage in Deut. xxxii. 35, ' Their foot 
 shall slide in due time.' As he advanced in 
 unfolding the meaning of the text, the most rigid 
 logic brought him and his hearers to conclusions 
 which the most tremendous imagery could but 
 inadequately express." The effect was such as 
 might have been expected. " Before the sermon 
 was ended the assembly appeared deeply im- 
 pressed, and bowed down with an awful convic- 
 
 1 Journal of Rev. E. Parkmore of Westborough, in the library 
 of the Antiquarian Society, Worcester. 
 
THE SERMON AT EN FIELD. 2Q7 
 
 tion of their sin and danger. There was such 
 a breathing of distress and weeping that the 
 preacher was obliged to speak to the people and 
 desire silence that he might be heard. This was 
 the beginning of the same great and prevailing 
 concern in that place, with which the Colony in 
 general was visited." l 
 
 This sermon is often quoted as though it were 
 a fair specimen of the preaching of Mr. Edwards. 
 One has only to read the titles of his published 
 sermons to learn how great a variety of topics 
 he presented in the pulpit. " The Excellency of 
 Christ," " Ruth's Resolution," " The Peace which 
 Christ gives His true Followers," " A Divine and 
 Supernatural Light imparted to the Soul," " A 
 God who heareth Prayer," " God the best Por- 
 tion of the Christian," these suggest a style 
 of thought and discourse much more in accord- 
 ance with the other works of the great preacher. 
 He believed and taught that love is the chief of 
 the Christian graces, and that from love of God 
 all other graces flow. He felt that the state of 
 opinion and practice at that time made it neces- 
 sary to preach the terrors of the Lord, and he 
 knew how to uncover the hypocrisy and unbelief 
 of men in a convincing way ; but the dominant 
 tone of his preaching was argumentative and per- 
 
 1 Rev. Mr. Wheelock of Lebanon, quoted in Trumbull's His- 
 tory of Connecticut, ii. 145. 
 
298 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 suasive. If he was ever a son of thunder, it was 
 in the same sense with the Apostles James and 
 John. 
 
 IV 
 
 ABOUT the time when the Great Awakening 
 
 was in progress in New England, the Great 
 
 Methodist Revival in the Mother 
 
 Tie Great 
 
 Awakening Country was beginning, in connection 
 with the ministry of John and Charles 
 Wesley and George Whitefield. These three re- 
 markable men had been together at Oxford Uni- 
 versity, and they had been prepared for their 
 mission as leaders in the religious work of their 
 time by profound religious experiences. They 
 were all members of the Church of England, 
 and in the beginning do not seem to have dis- 
 agreed in theological opinion. Later, the Wes- 
 leys adopted the Arminian system of doctrine, 
 while Whitefield announced himself a Calvinist. 
 Their work was essentially the same work, though 
 carried on by different methods, and as the result 
 of it the old indifference was broken up, and the 
 churches in the various English speaking countries 
 on both sides of the sea received a powerful re- 
 ligious impulse which has continued to this day. 1 
 The visit of Whitefield to New England was 
 in 1740. His work in the South, and in the 
 
 1 Centenary of American Methodism, Stevens, 11-78. 
 
PREACHING OF WHITEFIELD. 
 
 middle Colonies, and in England 
 was already so well known that he 
 was very cordially welcomed by the ministers 
 and churches here. He was then twenty-six 
 years of age, with a fine physical form, and a 
 gift of extemporaneous speech such as few have 
 ever possessed, and with a voice of marvellous 
 power and flexibility. A Connecticut farmer who 
 heard him preach in Hartford said of him : " He 
 looked almost angelical, a young, slim, slender 
 youth before some thousands of people, and with 
 a bold undaunted countenance. It solemnized 
 my mind and put me in a trembling fear before 
 he began to preach, for he looked as if he was 
 clothed with authority from God." His style 
 was natural and clear, animated and pathetic, and 
 sometimes truly sublime. He had a voice of 
 wonderful flexibility, compass, and power; and 
 his action was graceful, impressive, and appro- 
 priate. As an orator, the world perhaps never 
 saw his superior. 
 
 He preached first in Newport, then in Bristol, 
 and then in Boston. No church in the town was 
 large enough to contain the Crowds that came to 
 hear him. It is said that he preached to twenty 
 thousand people on Boston Common. From 
 Boston he went to all the principal towns in 
 Massachusetts and Connecticut. It was a novel 
 
 1 Dr. Walker's Religious Life in New England, 91. 
 
3OO JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 experience to New Englanders to listen to such 
 a preacher, and wherever he went multitudes 
 came to hear him. He visited Northampton, and 
 preached with great eloquence in Mr. Edwards's 
 pulpit Mr. Edwards himself was deeply affected, 
 and wept during almost the whole service. The 
 people were equally moved. 1 
 
 The preaching of Mr. Whitefield extended the 
 religious work very widely among people who 
 were not likely to be reached by the regular min- 
 isters. He also interrupted the harmony of the 
 churches by the methods which he followed. 
 He was still a young man, and was apt to be 
 opinionated and censorious. He made too much 
 of certain physical manifestations which were con- 
 nected with the great excitement that accom- 
 panied his impassioned addresses. Mr. Edwards 
 himself suggested to him that he was giving too 
 much importance to things of that sort. 
 
 But after all that may be said of his indiscre- 
 tions, Mr. Whitefield did more than any other 
 man excepting Mr. Edwards to extend the work 
 of grace through all the English Colonies in 
 America, and to give the churches here new 
 power to mould the masses of the people for 
 good. 
 
 1 Tracy's Great Awakening. 
 
EXTENT OF THE GREAT AWAKENING. 3<DI 
 
 V 
 
 THE most careful students of this critical period 
 in our religious history agree that this religious 
 work has never been equalled in this 
 
 , * Extent of 
 
 country for its intensity and perma- the Great 
 nent results. The estimates of the 
 number of people who were brought into the 
 churches, which were made by the older writers, 
 vary from twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand. 
 We have no reliable statistics of the number of 
 churches and communicants in New England at 
 that time. So far as we are able to Additions to 
 learn, it would seem that the number the churches, 
 of Congregational churches was about three hun- 
 dred and eighty. President Styles states that a 
 hundred and fifty new churches were formed in 
 the new towns and parishes in the twenty years 
 following 1 740. This does not include the large 
 number of Baptist churches that were gathered 
 in those years, nor the number of the Separatist 
 churches. 
 
 More important than the increase in numbers 
 was the change in the methods of administration 
 in the Congregational churches. The great re- 
 vival led them to correct the practical mistakes 
 they had made in the earlier years. The promi- 
 nent part which Mr. Edwards had as the leader in 
 
3O2 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 the Great Awakening, enabled him to guide the 
 churches into a better way. 
 
 One of the most useful of his works is his 
 " Humble Inquiry into the Rules of the Word 
 of God concerning the Qualifications for Full 
 Communion." He stated the question at the 
 outset, " whether any persons except such as are 
 in profession and appearance endued with Chris- 
 tian grace or piety ought to be admitted to the 
 Christian sacraments." It is a clear and con- 
 vincing argument in favor of the Puritan prac- 
 tice of admitting " only those who give evidence 
 that they are the children of God." His views 
 on this matter probably cost him his pastorate 
 at Northampton, but his arguments, taken in 
 connection with the evil results of the Half Way 
 Covenant led the people back to the earlier and 
 better practice. After that time the methods of 
 th e Half- Way- Co vena nt^were_gradually_ _aban- 
 doned by the more spiritual and evangelical 
 churches. 
 
 The union of Church and State was not at 
 once given up. It required the separation from 
 Great Britain, and the adoption of a free repub- 
 lican government to prepare the way for the 
 voluntary system. But the Great Awakening 
 gave an impulse to the religious life of the 
 churches which prepared them in the course of 
 time to dispense with the aid of the state. 
 
THEOLOGICAL CHANGES. 33 
 
 Still more important was the modification of 
 the theological views and methods of preaching 
 among Congregationalists. The cold and formal 
 Armmianism, with its Arian and Socinian ele- 
 ments, was no longer dominant in the Congre- 
 gational churches. Under the influence of the 
 quickened religious experiences of the revival, 
 men learned how to preach the sovereignty of 
 God in such a way as to deepen the sense of 
 freedom and responsibility. The Edwardean 
 theology, as it has been developed by the younger 
 Edwards, and Bellamy, and President Dwight, 
 and Professor Park, and their associates and suc- 
 cessors, has changed the style of preaching in the 
 Puritan pulpits, and has led the ministers to lay 
 hold in a new way upon the truths of the New 
 Testament. There have been, it is true, periods 
 of religious declension since that time, and yet, 
 on the whole, the century and a half since the 
 Great Awakening has been characterized by 
 revivals of religion, and by great movements for 
 the conversion of the world. From the time of 
 the Great Awakening there have been " two 
 wings in the Congregational body." On the one 
 side were the Old Calvinists and the followers 
 of Edwards with his modified Calvinism. These 
 were the friends of the revival, and they were 
 confirmed in their evangelical views by the re- 
 sults of that work of grace. On the other side 
 
3O4 JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 were the so called Arminians, who found them- 
 selves out of sympathy with the spirit and 
 methods of the revival. In the course of about 
 two generations, these two divergent tendencies 
 led to the separation of the Puritan churches 
 into two bodies, which we designate as Orthodox 
 and Unitarian Congregationalists. 
 
 The rise and growth of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church in this country has had much to 
 do in moulding the methods of preaching in the 
 Puritan churches. It has given to the pulpit an 
 added intensity and directness, and a wiser adap- 
 tation to its purpose of arousing men to their 
 religious duties, by following more closely the 
 methods of the New Testament. 
 
 During this period the Home and Foreign 
 Missionary Societies have come into existence, 
 while the English settlements have been pushed 
 out into the valley of the Mississippi, and on to 
 the Pacific coast. Most of the new churches 
 have been Missionary churches. The new col- 
 leges have been planted by Home Missionaries. 
 The Puritan churches have certainly done their 
 part in educating and evangelizing all parts of 
 our country. 
 
 So it has come to pass that in these later 
 periods the churches of the Puritan fathers have 
 come much nearer the ideals of their founders 
 than they did in the earlier years. They have 
 
THE EDWARDEAN THEOLOGY. 305 
 
 become freer, and more spiritual. They have 
 learned a better theology. They have a larger 
 charity, and a sweeter spirit, and they are ful- 
 filling a more important mission to the world ; 
 and, as a result of these changes, they have come 
 into a closer relation to the other branches of 
 the Church of our Lord. They are prepared to 
 unite very heartily with all the true followers of 
 Christ in united efforts for the conversion of the 
 world. 
 
 20 
 
V 
 
 Shakespeare and the Puritans 
 
Shakespeare and the Puritans 
 
 OUR New England ancestors were very in- 
 telligent men and women. They brought 
 their books with them when they planted their 
 settlements on this side of the sea. One could 
 hardly be a Puritan who was not able to read the 
 Geneva Bible. Their ministers were graduates 
 of Cambridge or Oxford, and their libraries con- 
 tained volumes of history, and poetry, and phi- 
 losophy, as well as of theology. 1 Myles Standish 
 left a library which contained volumes on mili- 
 tary tactics, and science, and history, a copy of 
 Homer's Iliad, and an English Dictionary, besides 
 a large number of religious books. William 
 Blackstone, who first gained a title to land in 
 Boston, and who lived there almost alone with his 
 servants, had a library of a hundred and eighty-six 
 volumes, many of them in Latin. William Pyn- 
 chon, the first settler of Springfield, a business 
 man, was able to quote Greek and Latin and 
 Hebrew, and he wrote in a clear and vigorous 
 English style. Governor Winthrop of Massa- 
 chusetts had a good library, comprising not only 
 
 1 The Puritan in England and New England, 124. 
 
3IO SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 English books, but also French and Latin books, 
 The younger Winthrop is said to have had a 
 library of a thousand volumes. These are in- 
 stances which might be multiplied of the books 
 that were to be found in Puritan homes. The 
 Puritans founded Harvard College while their 
 settlements were in their infancy, and established 
 a public school in every township of fifty families 
 for "all such children" (boys and girls) "as shall 
 resort to it." 
 
 The Protestant Reformation in England had 
 brought the great middle class of the English 
 people to a higher grade of intelligence and a 
 closer relation with the real life of the nation. 
 The Puritans were in large part from this great 
 middle class. Most of those who were distin- 
 guished as scholars and authors, and leaders of 
 the people in England at that time, were of 
 humble origin. The Puritans of England shared 
 very fully the new desire for education. A few 
 grammar schools had been founded in different 
 parts of the kingdom for the education of the 
 children of the people, and these schools had 
 much to do in preparing the English people to 
 secure their freedom at home, and to plant free 
 Colonies on this side of the sea. 
 
EDMUND SPENSER. 3 I I 
 
 I 
 
 IT is well known that the age of Queen Eliza- 
 beth was the great age of English literature. It 
 was the later period of the Renaissance, that 
 awakening of Europe from the sleep of centu- 
 ries, out of which has come our civil and reli- 
 gious liberty, with its searching intellectual spirit, 
 its insistence upon the rights of the thinker, 
 the citizen, and the Christian. For a century 
 and a half after the death of Chaucer, England 
 had produced very few authors whose works are 
 worthy to be classed as literature ; but in the 
 time of Elizabeth, it produced a large number 
 of historians, and poets, and dramatists, whose 
 works are read to this day. The singers flooded 
 the land with their songs, and England became, 
 as one old writer has told us, " a nest of singing 
 birds." The Puritan party included a fair pro- 
 portion of the men of genius and of learning in 
 England. The literature which the Puritan 
 divines have left us is certainly profound and 
 scholarly. 
 
 Edmund Spenser, our earliest great poet since 
 the time of Chaucer, was born in 1553, eleven 
 years earlier than Shakespeare. He Edmund 
 took his Bachelor's degree at Pern- si* 0861 "- 
 broke, Cambridge, in 1573, and his Master's de- 
 gree in 1576. He was the friend of Sir Philip 
 
312 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 Sidney and of the Earl of Leicester. Mr. Lowell 
 tells us that he was "fortunate in the friendship 
 of the best men and women of his time. All 
 that we know of him is amiable and of good re- 
 port. He was faithful to the friendships of his 
 youth, pure in his loves, unspotted in his life." 
 In 1579, he published his " Shepherd's Calendar," 
 which showed him to be in hearty sympathy with 
 the Puritans. About the year 1590, he pub- 
 lished a part of the "Faery Queen," which he 
 dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. It was received 
 with enthusiasm by all classes of the English 
 people. One of the old writers has said, " It be- 
 came the delight of every accomplished gentle- 
 man, the model of every poet, the solace of every 
 soldier. It expressed the earnest spirit of the 
 time." The poem is Protestant and Puritan in 
 its whole spirit and tendency. It celebrates the 
 contest of the English Queen with the Papacy. 
 " The worst foe of the Red Cross Knight," said 
 John Richard Green, "is the false, and scarlet 
 clad Duessa of Rome." 1 King James wished 
 to have the poet prosecuted for the references 
 which he recognized to his mother, Mary Queen 
 of Scots, as the Duessa of the poem. Spenser 
 was the most learned of our poets excepting Mil- 
 ton. He was well read in natural and moral 
 philosophy, and was an admirable Greek scholar. 
 
 1 Green's History of the English People, ii. 463-465. 
 
JOHN MIL TON: 313 
 
 He was familiar with the Divine Comedy of Dante, 
 and with the writings of many other Italian authors. 
 The other great Puritan poet who was read by 
 our Puritan ancestors was John Milton, who was 
 born in 1608, fifty-five years later than 
 
 John Milton. 
 
 Spenser. He was the highest and 
 most complete type of Puritanism. Spenser was 
 his model as a poet. He admired Shakespeare 
 also : 
 
 " Sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 
 Warble his native wood notes wild." l 
 
 He was a student at Christ College, Cambridge, 
 and took his first degree in 1628, and his second 
 in 1632. All his earlier years were given to 
 literature, and he became one of the most ac- 
 complished scholars of his time. He began to 
 publish poetry while yet a youth. He travelled 
 in Italy, and was about to cross to Sicily and 
 Greece when he learned of the civil war in Eng- 
 land. " I considered it disgraceful," he said, 
 "that, while my fellow countrymen were fighting 
 at home for liberty, I should be travelling abroad 
 for intellectual purposes." He returned to Eng- 
 land to take his part in the struggle, to which he 
 devoted his life from 1640 to 1660. He became 
 the literary leader of the Puritans, as Cromwell 
 was their political leader. He was the Latin Sec- 
 retary to the Council, and his state papers were 
 
 1 L' Allegro, line 128. 
 
314 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 of the greatest service. His sight was impaired 
 by his devotion to his duties, but when he was 
 warned of the danger of total blindness if he con- 
 tinued to use his eyes, he said that his duty was 
 pressing, and that he should shut his ears to 
 yEsculapius himself, speaking in his temple, so 
 long as the work needed to be done. He went 
 on with his work, but he lost his sight, and his 
 best years were passed in total darkness. His 
 greatest poems, which "the world will not wil- 
 lingly let die," were written during those years. 
 
 A still more notable poet of the Puritan age, 
 greater in some respects than Spenser or Milton, 
 wiiiiam shake- was William Shakespeare. He lived 
 speare - in the earlier half of the Puritan age, 
 
 as Milton lived in the later half of that age. His 
 public career was comprised between the years 
 1586 and 1616, a period of thirty years. This 
 was a very important period in English history, 
 in some respects the most important. It included 
 the later seventeen years of the great reign of 
 Elizabeth, and thirteen years of the reign, not 
 so great, of James the First. It covered the best 
 part of the Elizabethan period of our literature. 
 It was the time of Lord Bacon and Sir Philip 
 Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh, of Ben Jon- 
 son and the rest of the early dramatists. The 
 plans for the settlement of this country were 
 forming during those years. The first Colony in 
 
THE SWEET BARD OF AVON. 3*5 
 
 Virginia was planted nine years before Shake- 
 speare died; and the Mayflower landed at Ply- 
 mouth only four years after his death. The 
 line between the Cavaliers and the Puritans was 
 drawn during his lifetime. Virginia was settled 
 by representatives of the one party, and Massa- 
 chusetts by representatives of the other party. 
 
 II 
 
 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, " the sweet bard of 
 Avon," was born three hundred and thirty-five 
 years ago, in Stratford on Avon, a Shakespeare's 
 small village in Middle England, of ***J*- 
 fourteen or fifteen hundred people. It is a pleas- 
 ant country, of green meadows, leafy hedges, and 
 shade trees. The road from London to Liver- 
 pool crosses the River Avon at this place by an 
 old bridge of fourteen arches. There were two 
 handsome public buildings in Stratford in Shake- 
 speare's time, the Guildhall, with its chapel 
 and Grammar School, its chime of bells, and 
 its fine frescos, and the Church of the Holy 
 Trinity, in which Shakespeare was baptized, 
 April 26, 1564, and in which he was buried fifty- 
 two years later. We do not know the day of his 
 birth, for family records were not kept in those 
 days among the plain people, like the Shake- 
 speare family of that generation. It is probable 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 that it was three or four days before the date of 
 his baptism. That was not an age of genera 1 
 education, as we may infer from the fact that, 
 although the father of the poet was a man of 
 business, and also the Bailiff, and a Justice of 
 the Peace, he was unable to write his name in 
 the baptismal register. He made his mark, as 
 did also his wife, Mary Arden, who was of an 
 ancient English family, which traced its history 
 back to the time of William the Conqueror. It 
 is very likely that the poetic genius of Shake- 
 speare would have been lost to the world but for 
 the fact that a Grammar School had been estab- 
 lished in Stratford a few years before. This was 
 one of the small number of such schools at that 
 time in England. To this school the son of the 
 Bailiff of Stratford was sent when he was about 
 seven years old. We do not know very much of 
 his childhood, but it is probable that he remained 
 in this school six or seven years. The school 
 hours occupied the whole day, with intermissions 
 for meals and for recreation. In the fourth 
 act of " The Merry Wives of Windsor " there is 
 a reminiscence of these school days, where the 
 schoolmaster, Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson, 
 hears William repeat his hie, h&c, hoc, and re- 
 minds him that lapis means a stone, and pulcher 
 means fair. 1 In this school the young poet 
 
 1 Act iv. Scene i. 
 
HIS EDUCA TIOX. 3 I 7 
 
 gleaned the rudiments of his education ; in- 
 cluding the " small Latin and less Greek " which 
 Ben Jonson tells us he possessed. The school 
 course was generally over when a boy was four- 
 teen. It is said that when William was of about 
 that age he was removed from school as his 
 father had need of him in his business. Visitors 
 to Stratford are still shown the room in the 
 Grammar School in which he is said to have 
 been taught, and the desk at which he is said to 
 have studied. 
 
 It is commonly stated that William assisted 
 his father in his business as a glover, and a small 
 farmer, for some years after he left school. Some 
 tell us that he was a clerk in the office of an 
 attorney for a part of the time, and that his re- 
 markable knowledge of legal terms and legal 
 proceedings was gained during those years. 
 
 When he was eighteen, he married Anne 
 Hathaway of Shottery, a hamlet in the same 
 parish, a woman eight years older than himself; 
 and he seems to have made his plans to settle 
 down in Stratford, and to follow the same way 
 of life that his father was following. So little 
 did the youthful poet and dramatist forecast jhis 
 future. But his father was in serious financial 
 difficulties about that time. He lost the larger 
 part of his property, and the business was too 
 small for the support of two families. William 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 Shakespeare had three children born to h 
 within less than three years after his marriag 
 and there was a probability that both the families 
 would fall into poverty. There is also a tradi- 
 tion that the young man fell into evil company, 
 and that he was led by his companions to en- 
 croach upon the park of Sir Thomas Lucy, the 
 great landowner of that region, and to shoot rab- 
 bits and deer. It is even said that Sir Thomas 
 had him " oft whipt and imprisoned." 
 
 So that, in consequence of his poverty, and 
 perhaps also his misdeeds, Shakespeare left his 
 native town at about the age of twenty-one, and 
 went to London to begin the illustrious career 
 which he would very likely have missed but for 
 his misfortunes. His wife and children re- 
 mained in Stratford, and he saw them only at 
 long intervals. But he never lost sight of Strat- 
 ford, and as soon as he was able he began to 
 purchase land and other property there, for the 
 benefit of his family, and that of his father. 
 
 Arrived in London, he connected himself at 
 once with the theatre. The tradition is that he 
 earned his first money by holding the horses of 
 the gentlemen who had ridden to the play, and 
 that he won so much favor that he had to engage 
 boys as his assistants, who were called " Shake- 
 speare's boys." His first business in the theatre 
 itself was that of a prompter's attendant, whose 
 
HIS OCCUPA TION IN LONDON. 3 I 9 
 
 duty it was to give notice to the players of the 
 time for their entrance. He soon rose above 
 these menial positions, and became an actor. 
 At first he played the minor parts, and, as he 
 gained experience, those that were more impor- 
 tant. There is no evidence, however, that he was 
 especially successful as an actor. The most im- 
 portant part which we know that he played was 
 that of the ghost in his own " Hamlet." After a 
 time he began to write. At first he was content 
 to revise and improve such plays as were already 
 in use in the theatre. He came by degrees to 
 do more important work, and work that was 
 more original. Within about three years after 
 he left his native village, he became connected 
 with a company of actors, known as the Lord 
 Chamberlain's Company. In the course of time, 
 he was a shareholder in this company, and he 
 continued to be a member until he left London. 
 
 Some of his earliest tragedies were the his- 
 torical plays, which are so excellent that Lord 
 Chatham used to say that he had gained his 
 knowledge of history from the plays of Shake- 
 speare. In these plays, he follows the older 
 English chronicles, especially those of Holin- 
 shed, so that the genius of the dramatist ap- 
 pears not so much in the story as in the filling 
 out of the plot. The more original plays of 
 Shakespeare were written between 1592 and 
 
32O SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 1612. These twenty years of greatest literary 
 activity cover the period from his twenty-ninth 
 to his forty-ninth year. His income during those 
 years must have been considerable. In 1597, 
 when he was thirty-three, he bought the New 
 Place, or Great House, in Stratford, for sixty 
 pounds sterling, a sum equal to $1,500 of our 
 present money. It had been built by Sir Hugh 
 Clypton. It was at that time the largest and 
 finest house in Stratford. The possession of 
 this place enabled* Shakespeare to gather his 
 family, and perhaps the family of his father, into 
 a comfortable home, and it also added to his 
 own importance, and gave him a better social 
 position. About this time the elder Shakespeare 
 applied at the Herald's College for a coat of 
 arms. The conferring of a coat of arms implied 
 formal admittance into the ranks of the gentry. 
 The application was granted in 1599, so that 
 John Shakespeare had a right from that time 
 to write his name John Shakespeare, Gentleman. 
 In later years, Shakespeare bought other prop- 
 erty in Stratford. A few years later, he pur- 
 chased a house in London. A little before he 
 was fifty, Shakespeare left the theatre, and re- 
 tired to his home in Stratford, where he died at 
 the age of fifty-two. 
 
THE PURITANS OF HIS TIME. 3 21 
 
 III 
 
 THIS sketch of the life of William Shakespeare 
 will help us understand his relation to the English 
 Puritans. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 
 1588 gave the English people a new sense of se- 
 curity and of power. When Elizabeth began to 
 reign, England was hardly recognized as one of 
 the great powers of Europe. The victory over 
 Spain, three centuries ago, made England the 
 mistress of the seas, and at the same time it 
 placed her at the head of the Protestant powers 
 of Europe. The Puritans were the advanced 
 Christians of their time, as the Methodists were 
 two hundred years later. The name Puritan 
 was given in derision, as the name Methodist 
 was given. The Puritans were rising into greater 
 prominence all through the time of Shakespeare. 
 They stood for freedom in the Church and in the 
 State, against arbitrary government. They were 
 not at first hostile to the Established Church of 
 England. The leading Puritans were members 
 of that church, and they were seeking its growth, 
 and its purity. 
 
 In 1603 Elizabeth died, and James the First 
 became King. In the first year of his reign a 
 large number of clergymen of the English Church 
 presented an earnest petition, asking for certain 
 reforms in the services of the church. The peti- 
 
 21 
 
322 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 tion expressed the wishes of a decided majority 
 of the Protestants of the kingdom. But it was 
 rejected, with the threat that force would be used 
 to compel them to conform to the usages and 
 ceremonies to which they had declared their 
 conscientious opposition. In 1604, while Shake- 
 speare was still in London, the House of Com- 
 mons, which contained a majority of Puritans, 
 began the great contest for the rights of the 
 people, which continued, with some interruptions, 
 until the Revolution in 1688, which secured the 
 freedom of England for all time. The most 
 prominent English historians of later times have 
 given emphatic testimony to the earnestness and 
 the success of the efforts of the Puritans in behalf 
 of English liberty. Hume, for example, states 
 that they " kindled the precious spark of liberty," 
 and that " England owes the whole freedom of its 
 constitution to the Puritans alone." 
 
 It is a question of very great interest, why we 
 have no adequate reference to these greatest 
 events of the time in the dramatic works of 
 Shakespeare. We find constant references to 
 them by other great writers of that splendid 
 period of our literary history. Why should not 
 Shakespeare have made such references? We 
 naturally expect to find the spirit of an age re- 
 flected in its literature. That is one of the 
 highest functions of a national literature. Our 
 
PURITANS OF STRATFORD. 323 
 
 American poets Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, 
 Lowell, Mrs. Howe, and the rest have entered 
 very heartily into the great events of the time 
 in this country, such as the Antislavery move- 
 ment, and the War for the Union. They have 
 written our patriotic odes, and our war songs, 
 such as the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It 
 is very true there has been a variety of opinions 
 among American authors in respect to some of 
 the questions involved, as there has been among 
 the other people of the country, but as a class 
 they have entered into the great questions of the 
 age. They have been men of convictions, and 
 have expressed their convictions in their works. 
 Why should not our greatest English dramatist 
 have reflected in his dramas the highest aspira- 
 tions of his time? 
 
 It adds a little to the force of these inquiries 
 to call to mind the fact that Stratford, the early 
 home of Shakespeare, was one of the The Puritans 
 strongholds of Puritanism. Richard ta Stratford. 
 Byfield, a Puritan minister, was vicar of the 
 church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford in 1596. 
 William Whately and Dr. Robert Harris, both 
 eminent Puritans, were among the "lecturers" 
 at Stratford. Sir Thomas Lucy, the aristocratic 
 gentleman of the region, and its representative 
 in Parliament, was a leader among the Puritans. 
 John Fox, author of the Book of Martyrs, found 
 
324 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 refuge from persecution in his hospitable man- 
 sion. Warwickshire was at that time one of 
 the Puritan districts of England. Thomas Cart- 
 wright, the great Puritan preacher, was in War- 
 wick for many years. The Martin-mar-prelate 
 press was at one time concealed in the same 
 county. 1 
 
 The eldest daughter of Shakespeare was also 
 a Puritan. Her husband, a skilful physician, is 
 said to have been " a zealous Protestant," which 
 meant in those days a Puritan. We are told 
 that, " so eminent was he, that even those who 
 hated him for his religion made use of him." We 
 learn from the epitaph of his wife that she was 
 
 " Witty above her sex, but that 's not all, 
 Wise to salvation, was good Mistress Hall. 
 Something of Shakespeare was in that : but this 
 Wholly of Him with whom she 's now in bliss." 
 
 It is plain from the dramas that Shakespeare 
 knew all about the Puritans, and that he did not 
 like them. He makes use of the name Puri- 
 tan a few times, but it never has any special signi- 
 ficance.. Thus, we read in Twelfth Night: 
 
 " Maria. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan. 
 " Sir Andrew. O, if I thought that, I 'd beat him like a dog. 
 " Sir Toby. What ! for being a Puritan ? thy exquisite 
 reason, dear knight? 
 
 1 Prof. John W. Hales, in Contemporary Review, January, 1895. 
 Shakespeare and Puritanism. 
 
HIS TREATMENT OF THE PURITANS. 325 
 
 " Sir Andrew. I have no exquisite reason for % but I have 
 reason good enough. 
 
 " Maria. The devil a Puritan that he is or anything con- 
 stantly, but a time pleaser." l 
 
 In Winter's Tale, the Clown says : 
 
 "But one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to 
 hornpipes." 2 
 
 In Pericles: 
 
 "She would make a Puritan of the devil if he should 
 cheapen a kiss of her." 8 
 
 In All's Well That Ends Well, the Clown 
 says : 
 
 "Though honesty be no Puritan, yet it will do no hurt." 4 
 
 But although Shakespeare does not make much 
 account of the Puritans, he never reviles them, 
 as the other writers of plays in his time were 
 continually doing. There was too much fair- 
 ness and kindness about " the gentle Shake- 
 speare" to permit him to indulge in the pastime 
 of Puritan baiting. He may have been restrained 
 by regard for his favorite daughter, and for his 
 old neighbors at Stratford. It is said, on the 
 authority of an ancient record, that after his re- 
 turn to Stratford, Shakespeare entertained a 
 Puritan preacher at the New Place. 
 
 1 Act ii. Scene 3. 3 Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 2 Act iv. Sc. 2. 4 Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
326 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 It has been common to speak of Shakespeare 
 as remarkable for comprehensiveness. We have 
 called him the " myriad-minded Shakespeare." 
 A recent writer has said: "His universality is 
 the secret and measure of his power. He was a 
 man of universal sympathy, and universal obser- 
 vation. His reading was extensive for his day. 
 He read nothing that he did not remember, and 
 make real to himself. He saw nothing in the 
 present which was not to him prophetic of the 
 future." 1 Statements quite as strong as these 
 could be quoted from some of the latest discus- 
 sions of the dramas of Shakespeare. But did 
 not our great dramatist find anything prophetic 
 of the future in English Puritanism ? 
 
 IV 
 
 ONE thing that is plain from his writings is 
 this : The sympathies of Shakespeare do not 
 me common seem to have been broad enough to 
 people. include the common people, such as 
 
 the larger number of the Puritans were. He 
 was himself a country boy, accustomed to the 
 habits of a rural town. He seems to have gone 
 to London in poverty, and to have lived a frugal 
 and industrious life in the metropolis, so as to 
 
 1 Prof. William S. Tyler of Amherst, Bibliotheca Sacra, 1855, 
 P. 494- 
 
SLIGHT OF THE COMMON PEOPLE. 3 2 7 
 
 better his fortunes, and provide for his family. 
 His wonderful genius enabled him to succeed 
 as a dramatic poet, and to acquire a fortune that 
 was ample for those times. 
 
 It would have been natural for Shakespeare, 
 whose early life placed him so near the common 
 people, to enter with all his heart into the move- 
 ment in behalf of the rights of the people. But 
 his sympathies seem to have been the other way. 
 In the historical plays he never introduces the 
 people who are struggling against tyranny, except 
 to show that they are fools who deserve their 
 chains. He represents every uprising against 
 oppression as an outbreak of 
 
 " Moody beggars, starving for a time 
 Of pell-mell havoc and confusion." 
 
 In Julius Caesar, for example, Flavius says to 
 the laborers : 
 
 " Hence ! home, you idle creatures, get you home." l 
 
 And Marcellus says to them : 
 
 " You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things ! " 2 
 
 In the next scene Casca says : 
 
 "The rabblement shouted, and clapped their chapp'd 
 hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered 
 such a deal of stinking breath, because Caesar refused the 
 crown." 
 
 1 Julius Caesar, Act i. Sc. I. 2 Ibid. 
 
328 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 And further on : 
 
 " If the tag-rag people did not clap him, and hiss him, 
 according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to 
 do the players in the theatre, I am no true man." l 
 
 In Coriolanus, Agrippa says to the people: 
 " Rome and her rats are at the point of battle." * 
 
 But this was in old Rome. How does he 
 speak of the people in the English historical 
 plays? In the Second Part of King Henry VI. 
 he represents the famous Jack Cade and his 
 followers as a crowd of ignorant and unreason- 
 able rebels. 3 But that is not as they are repre- 
 sented by the historical writers whom Shakespeare 
 usually followed. There was great and general 
 discontent in certain counties of England in 
 1450. An insurrection broke out, and an army 
 of twenty thousand men was gathered. It in- 
 cluded a considerable number of men of intelli- 
 gence and of wealth. Some great landowners 
 were there, and some ecclesiastics. Jack Cade 
 was a soldier of experience and courage. The 
 complaints that they set forth were reasonable. 
 They called for reforms in the administration, 
 and a more careful expenditure of the revenues. 
 Even a writer so favorable to Shakespeare as 
 Richard Grant White says: "Shakespeare did 
 
 1 Act i. Sc. 2. 2 Act i. Sc. i. 8 Act iv. Sc. 2 and 6. 
 
KING JOHN. 3 2 9 
 
 not conform strictly to history in this scene." : In 
 fact, for some reason, he departed from the state- 
 ments of Holinshed, and put the speeches of 
 Wat Tyler and his companions, of seventy years 
 before, into the mouth of Jack Cade. So un- 
 willing was Shakespeare to give any credit to 
 the complaints of the people, that he perverted 
 the facts of history in this instance, although in 
 most instances he has reproduced historic facts 
 with wonderful accuracy. 
 
 Another instance of the same kind is found 
 in the play of King John, which covers the period 
 of Magna Charta, that earliest and greatest charter 
 of the rights and liberties of the English people. 
 King John was claiming autocratic power, just 
 as the Stuarts did at a later day. How great an 
 addition to this drama would have been the scene 
 at Runnymede, where the King was compelled 
 by his armed barons to give his assent to the 
 parchment which secured to all his subjects a 
 government of law, meting out equal justice to 
 the commons and to the nobles. 
 
 The truth is, the sympathies of Shakespeare, 
 country bred as he was, seem to have been with 
 the nobility, and not with the rising middle 
 classes, who were contending for their rights as 
 
 1 Notes to the Second Part of Henry VI. Also Greene's 
 History of the English People, i. 565. Brandes' Shakespeare, 
 

 33 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 men and as Englishmen. He was the poet of 
 gay and merry England, not of thoughtful and 
 serious England. His associates were young 
 English noblemen, who frequented the theatres, 
 such as Essex and Leicester. " His heroes," says 
 a recent Danish writer, " were princes and noble- 
 men, the kings and barons of England. It is 
 always they, in his eyes, who make history, of 
 which he shows throughout a naively heroic con- 
 ception. In the wars which he presents, it is 
 always an individual leader and hero on whom 
 everything depends. It is Henry V. who wins 
 the day at Agincourt; just as in Homer it is 
 Achilles who conquers before Troy. Yet in 
 fact the whole issue of these wars depended upon 
 the foot soldiers. It was the English archers 
 who at Agincourt defeated the French army. 
 Shakespeare certainly did not divine that it was 
 the rise of the middle classes, and their spirit of 
 enterprise that constituted the strength of Eng- 
 land under Elizabeth. He regarded his age from 
 the point of view of the man who was accus- 
 tomed to see, in richly endowed and princely 
 young noblemen, the very crown of humanity, 
 the patrons of all lofty efforts, and the originators 
 of all great achievements." 1 
 
 The fact is, there were two Englands in the 
 time of Elizabeth and of James the First: the 
 
 1 A Critical Study of Shakespeare by George Brandes, i. 131. 
 
GENEROUS SYMPATHIES OF SHAKESPEARE. 331 
 
 England of the Court, the nobility, the clergy 
 of the Established Church, all those who were 
 clinging to the traditions of the past; and the 
 England of the common people, who were rising 
 into a condition of intelligence, and who were 
 seeking to secure their freedom in the state, 
 and to build up a truly Protestant Church. 
 These people had some democratic ideas. They 
 were represented in those times by the leaders in 
 the House of Commons. A great many of this 
 class of Englishmen were Puritans. Shakespeare, 
 with his limited historic culture, failed to recog- 
 nize the tokens of a new life for his native land. 
 
 It was not so with Milton, or with Spenser. 
 Milton showed a prophetic insight in his politi- 
 cal pamphlets entitled " A Defence of the People 
 of England," and "The Tenure of Kings and 
 Magistrates," and " A Speech for the Liberty of 
 Unlicensed Printing." Spenser saw very clearly 
 how much the Protestant Reformation meant for 
 England, and his sympathies and influence were 
 with the party of progress. 
 
 On the other hand, Shakespeare was a man of 
 large and generous sympathies. His personality 
 was especially attractive. He is oftenest spoken 
 of by his contemporaries as the " gentle Shake- 
 speare." He was perhaps in sympathy with those 
 in the aristocratic classes, because in his Lon- 
 don life he knew them better than he knew the 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 common people. They were the patrons of the 
 Generous Nature theatre, while the Puritans, as a class, 
 of Shakespeare. were un f r i en dly to theatrical exhibi- 
 tions. They passed laws which restricted such 
 exhibitions, and in some localities they prohib- 
 ited them. In Shakespeare's time, the most of 
 them were not the patrons of art. There was a 
 natural reason why the great dramatist was es- 
 pecially friendly to those who patronized the 
 drama most generously. The common people 
 were, in the opinion of men of his class, unable 
 to appreciate it. He could not have foreseen 
 that three centuries after he had ceased to write, 
 his dramas would be published in great popular 
 editions, and read and appreciated by multitudes 
 of people who did not belong to the classes which, 
 in his time, had so high a social position. 
 
 In the drama of Henry the Eighth, which 
 covers the time of the beginning of the English 
 Henry the Reformation, there is hardly a sug- 
 
 **&** gestion of the great changes in the 
 
 English Church that were in progress. We learn 
 in the fifth act, quite incidentally, that Archbishop 
 Cranmer was something of a heretic, who by his 
 teaching and his chaplains was filling the realm 
 
 " With new opinions, 
 
 Divers and dangerous, which are heresies, 
 And, not reformed, may prove pernicious." : 
 
 1 Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
HIS ESTIMATE OF HIS DRAMAS. 
 
 333 
 
 It is also mentioned that Anne Bullen, the 
 Queen, is 
 
 " A spleeny Lutheran, and not wholesome to 
 Our cause." l 
 
 But that is about all that we learn from that play 
 of the profound changes among the people of 
 England which placed them on the Protestant 
 side. Shakespeare quotes very often from Fox's 
 " Book of Martyrs," from which it is reasonable 
 to infer that he was acquainted with the out- 
 ward facts in Puritan history. But it was not 
 given to him to enter into the meaning of the 
 great political and religious movements from 
 which so much of what is best and most dis- 
 tinctive in our modern life has come. 
 
 V 
 
 THERE are other facts which point to some of 
 the limitations of Shakespeare. He seems to 
 have had little interest in the future HIS Estimate of 
 of the dramatic works on which so hlsplays ' 
 much of his fame rests. Some of his poems, as 
 The Venus and Adonis, he gave to the press him- 
 self. His Sonnets also were perhaps edited by 
 himself. We have no reason to think that he 
 intended to publish his dramas. Such of them 
 as were given to the press in his lifetime were 
 published without his consent, perhaps without 
 
 1 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
334 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 his knowledge. The first edition of his collected 
 dramas was published some years after his death. 
 It contained nineteen plays that had been printed 
 in his lifetime, and eighteen that had not been 
 printed before. But for the care of the editors 
 of the first folio, it is very likely that all these 
 would have been lost to the world 
 
 These facts give us an insight into the spirit 
 and methods of Shakespeare. He was an artist, 
 intent upon the work he was doing. He found 
 his gratification in bringing out the thoughts 
 and visions that came to him. He must have 
 written rapidly, with a full mind, a glowing im- 
 agination, and profound sensibility. But he had 
 little thought of his literary reputation. He was 
 also interested in the pecuniary profits of his dra- 
 matic works. He was a very thrifty man for a 
 great poet. But he does not seem to have been a 
 man of large interest in the events of his time, or 
 of a generous public spirit. There is no evidence 
 that he calculated the influence of his plays upon 
 the world, or that he anticipated that he would 
 stand at the head of modern dramatists. 
 
 Mr. White, who is one of the best and most 
 appreciative of the recent biographers of the poet, 
 states that " Shakespeare has left no trace upon 
 the political or the social life of his time." He 
 adds : " There is no evidence whatever that he 
 was personally known to the eminent men who 
 
PATRIOTISM OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 335 
 
 were his contemporaries, Sidney, Bacon, Hooker, 
 Spenser, Raleigh, Drake, Hampden, Coke, Pym, 
 and Selden." ] We know who the intimate 
 friends of Shakespeare were, the young men 
 who frequented the theatres, and the actors and 
 writers of plays. His acquaintance in London 
 does not seem to have gone much beyond these 
 classes of men. 
 
 On the other hand, Shakespeare was a man of 
 tender sensibilities. Few men have been so 
 loved by their friends as he was. He was also 
 intensely patriotic. There are no finer passages 
 in his dramas than those which breathe the spirit 
 of that noble English patriotism, which had so 
 strong a hold upon the nation in the sixteenth 
 century: He loved his native land : 
 
 "This scepter' d isle, 
 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
 This other Eden, demi-paradise, 
 This fortress, built by nature for herself, 
 Against infection and the hand of war ; 
 This happy breed of men, this little world, 
 This precious stone set in the silver sea, . . . 
 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, 
 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, . . . 
 Renowned for their deeds. . . . 
 This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land, 
 Dear for her reputation through the world." 2 
 
 1 White's Shakespeare, vol. i. p. cxi. 
 
 2 King Richard II., Act ii. Sc. I. 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 Shakespeare appears to have been depressed 
 by the low estimate of his profession. In one of 
 his Sonnets he chides Fortune, 
 
 " That did not better for my life provide 
 Than public means which public manners breeds. 
 Thence comes it that my name receives a brand 
 And almost thence my nature is subdued 
 To what it works in, like the dyer's hand." 1 
 
 It is doubtless true that the popular estimate 
 of the theatre in his time was very low. The 
 corporation of London compelled the players to 
 erect their theatres outside the limits of the city. 
 So they were built on the south of the Thames, 
 near the Bear Garden. The theatre brought in 
 its train a loose, frivolous, and rowdy population. 
 The position of the actors was much below 
 what it is at present. No woman appeared on 
 the stage. There was very little scenery, and 
 all the arrangements upon the stage were very 
 much simpler and ruder than they are at present. 
 The most fashionable seats were on the stage 
 itself, as they are now in the Chinese theatres. 
 " There," says a recent writer, " sat the amateurs, 
 the noble patrons of the theatre, Essex, South- 
 ampton, Pembroke, Rutland. There too sat the 
 author's rivals, the dramatic poets, who had free 
 admissions ; and there too sat the shorthand 
 writers, commissioned by piratical booksellers." 1 
 
 1 Sonnet cxi. 2 Brandes, i. 118-120. 
 
ETHICAL ELEMENT. 337 
 
 It is stated by some writers that dramatic works 
 were hardly ranked as literature in the time of 
 Shakespeare. He wrote his dramas under the 
 inspiration of his matchless genius, but he seems 
 to have estimated them less highly than he did 
 some of his poems. 
 
 VI 
 
 THE question has been much debated whether 
 Shakespeare had any conscious moral purpose in 
 his dramatic works. On the one 
 hand, Mr. White says that " the di- Element in 
 
 rect moral influence of Shakespeare 
 is nothing, and we may be sure that he wrote 
 with no moral purpose." 1 Jonson says that 
 Shakespeare "carries his persons indifferently 
 through right and wrong, and at the close dis- 
 misses them without further care, and leaves 
 their example to operate by chance." Mr. Lowell 
 tells us that " it is doubtful if Shakespeare had 
 any conscious moral intention in his writings. 
 In this he was purely and primarily a poet. . . . 
 He had no moral intention, for the reason that, 
 as an artist, it was not his to deal with the reali- 
 ties, but only with the shows of things; yet with 
 a temperament so just, an insight so inevitable 
 as his, it was impossible that the moral reality, 
 
 i White's Shakespeare, vol. i. p. ccxliv. 
 
 22 
 
33$ SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 which underlies the mirage of the poet's vision 
 should not always be suggested." l 
 
 On the other hand, inasmuch as the moral 
 nature of Shakespeare seems to have been re- 
 markably pure and healthy, it is reasonable to 
 suppose that he would aim to secure a good 
 moral influence by his dramas. He had what I 
 may almost call a Puritan conscience, the con- 
 science which, as he said, " doth make cowards oi 
 us all." He constantly recognizes the distinction 
 between right and wrong. It is the King in 
 Hamlet who says that, 
 
 " In the corrupted currents of this world, 
 Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, 
 And oft 't is seen the wicked prize itself 
 Buys out the law : but 't is not so above : 
 There is no shuffling, there the action lies 
 In his true nature ; and we ourselves compell'd, 
 Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
 To give in evidence." 2 
 
 The Puritans of his time insisted that there 
 was no moral purpose in his dramas, and they 
 gave this reason for their opposition to the the- 
 atre. But it cannot be denied that the moral 
 tone of the works of Shakespeare is very much 
 higher than that of many other English drama- 
 tists of his time. If he had no " conscious moral 
 
 1 Among My Books, i. 226, 227, 
 
 2 Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
NO MORAL PURPOSE. 339 
 
 purpose in his plays," yet unconsciously, as a 
 man of lofty ideals, he would naturally lean to 
 virtue's side in his representations of life. It is 
 quite possible that some men will learn more of 
 truth and duty from the great tragedies of Shake- 
 speare than from direct moral teachings. 
 
 It is perhaps impossible to determine from his 
 works, how far he had a distinct moral purpose. 
 There are some passages which indicate that it 
 was his opinion that it is not the proper function 
 of the drama to teach moral lessons. We have, 
 for example, in Hamlet's directions to the players, 
 the statement that it is the purpose of the theatre 
 " to hold the mirror up to nature, to show virtue 
 her own feature, scorn her own image, and the 
 very age and body of the time his form and 
 pressure." 1 But, as Professor Dowden has said, 
 " The mirror has no tendency. We only in- 
 quire whether the mirror reflects objects clearly 
 and faithfully." Is it true that a poet, with 
 the highest endowments of genius, is to be only 
 a mirror? Is that the purpose of the highest 
 life? 
 
 ~, In his Lectures on Dramatic Art and Litera- 
 ture, Schlegel has said, " We may perceive in 
 Shakespeare himself, notwithstanding his power 
 to excite the most fervent emotions, a certain 
 cool indifference, but still the indifference of a 
 
 1 Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 

 34 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 superior mind, which has run through the whole 
 sphere of human existence, and survived feel- 
 ing." 1 Whether we accept this statement or 
 not, it is undoubtedly true that there is a certain 
 lack in Shakespeare of moral earnestness, of en- 
 thusiasm for truth and duty. This is what 
 Schlegel calls the "irony" of Shakespeare. 
 
 It is not certain that the highest art is without 
 a moral purpose. The paintings of the old mas- 
 ters, for example, are many of them representa- 
 tions of Biblical scenes. It is well known that 
 these paintings were intended to teach moral and 
 religious truth to the people. Raphael painted 
 his finest works for the churches. Who will 
 deny that a large part of the works of art that 
 are set up in our public libraries, and legislative 
 halls, and churches are intended to teach lessons 
 of justice, and patriotism, and religion? Art is 
 the handmaid of religion. 
 
 VII 
 
 THIS brings us to the inquiry, whether there\is 
 a religious element in the plays of Shakespeare. 
 The Puritans, with their intense convictions, in- 
 sisted that religion should pervade and color all 
 literature, and their opposition to the drama was 
 based upon the opinion that its influence was not 
 
 1 Schlegel's Dramatic Literature, 369. 
 
ROMANIST OR PROTESTANT. 341 
 
 religious. This question is having a fresh dis- 
 cussion in our time, and it is likely to attract 
 more attention in the future. 
 
 The question has been much debated whether 
 Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic or a Protes- 
 tant. It is certainly surprising that there should 
 be room for such a question in regard to one of 
 the greatest of Englishmen, who lived through 
 the time of the Spanish Armada. No such ques- 
 tion could be asked in respect to the other great 
 men of his time, with whom we are accustomed 
 to compare him. 
 
 Very different statements have been made by 
 Shakespearian scholars in respect to the religion 
 of the great dramatist. An article has recently \ - 
 been published in Boston, in "The New World," \ 
 on "The Absence of Religion in Shakespeare." 1 / 
 On the other hand, Richard Grant White tells 
 us, with a singular confusion of terms, that 
 "Shakespeare, although he seems to have been 
 a man of sincere piety, appears to have been 
 without religious convictions." 2 
 
 We find many references in the historical 
 dramas to the church and its services, and to 
 clergymen. But Shakespeare's clergymen are 
 decidedly worldly, and some of them unscrupu- 
 lous. He does not give us any pictures of sin- 
 
 1 The New World, December, 1896. 
 
 2 White's Shakespeare, vol. i. p. cxiii. 
 

 34 2 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 cere and self-denying pastors, like Chaucer's 
 Clerke: 
 
 " That was a poure persone of a towne, 
 But rich he was of holy thought and work. 
 Criste's lore and his apostles twelve, 
 He taught, but first he folwed it himselve." 
 
 Or like George Herbert's saintly " Priest to the 
 temple," or like Longfellow's faithful monk, 
 
 " Who saw the blessed vision 
 Of our Lord with light Elysian, 
 Like a vesture wrapped about him, 
 Like a garment round him thrown." 
 
 One of the words frequently used in the dramas 
 is music. Shakespeare had a poet's sense of the 
 charm of music : 
 
 " Look how the floor of heaven 
 Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold ; 
 There 's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 
 But in his motion like an angel sings, 
 Still quiring to the young ey'd cherubins : 
 Such harmony is in immortal souls." l 
 
 " The man that hath no music in himself, 
 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 
 Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils ; 
 The motions of his spirit are dull as night, 
 And his affections dark as Erebus : 
 Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music." 2 
 
 1 Merchant of Venice, Act v. Sc. I. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
THE BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS. 343 
 
 It is very significant, however, that, with all 
 these eloquent references to music, Shakespeare 
 never refers to sacred music. Perhaps he did 
 not often hear it. 
 
 Shakespeare frequently refers to the Bible, but 
 never in any way of special significance, as Spen- 
 ser, and Milton, and Wordsworth, and -rue Bible in 
 Longfellow, and Tennyson do. There SM********- 
 were a number of English translations of the 
 Bible in his day. A large proportion of the 
 people had become very familiar with it. Its 
 language entered into their common speech. It 
 was quite as natural for writers and speakers 
 to quote it, as it is to-day. The version of King 
 James was hardly in common use while Shake- 
 speare was writing his plays, so he quotes the 
 Bishops' Bible, or the Genevan version. Thus 
 we read, in The Merchant of Venice : 
 " The quality of mercy is not strain'd : 
 It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
 Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless'd ; 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." l 
 
 In Love's Labor's Lost we find: 
 
 " For charity itself fulfils the law, 
 And who can sever love from charity." 2 
 
 And in Richard III.: 
 
 " Charity that renders good for bad, blessings for curses." 
 1 Act iv. Sc. i. 2 Act iv. Sc. 3. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
344 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 In the same tragedy: 
 
 " Rail on the Lord's Anointed." 1 
 
 In another play : 
 
 " The New Heaven, and new earth." 2 
 
 Richard II. inquires: 
 
 " Did they not sometimes cry, All hail to me ? 
 So Judas did to Christ." 8 
 
 In Henry VI.:- 
 
 " So Judas kissed his Master, 
 And cried, ' All hail ! ' when he meant all harm." 4 
 
 In another part we read : 
 
 " Now by the death of Him that died for all." 5 
 
 These are specimens of the references to the 
 words of the Bible, which one finds not infre- 
 quently in the works of Shakespeare, as in the 
 other English literature of that age. It is not 
 necessary to quote them all. Bishop Words- 
 worth, in his well known book, entitled " Shake- 
 peare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible," has 
 brought out a large number of such references. 
 They are not very significant. They do not 
 show any special familiarity with religious truth, 
 
 1 Act iv. Sc. 2. a Antony and Cleopatra, Act i. Sc. i. 
 8 Activ. Sc. i. 
 
 4 Third Part of King Henry VI., Act v. Sc. 7. 
 
 5 Second Part of King Henry VI., Act i. Sc. I. 
 
NOT AN AGNOSTIC. 345 
 
 or any lively sympathy with it. They do show 
 that, under the religious teachings of the Puritan 
 age, perhaps in his early home, perhaps in that 
 venerable Trinity Church in Stratford, perhaps 
 by reading, he had become familiar with the 
 more striking facts of sacred history, and with the 
 general teachings of the Bible, and he quoted 
 it as literature. 
 
 Shakespeare was not an Agnostic. He seems 
 to have believed in God, and in some of the 
 other truths of religion. He always speaks with 
 reverence of our Saviour. In the First Part of 
 King Henry IV. the king says : 
 
 " Therefore, friends, 
 As far as to the sepulchre of Christ, 
 Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross 
 We are impressed and engaged to fight, 
 Forthwith a power of English shall we levy 
 To chase these pagans in those holy fields 
 Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet 
 Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed, 
 For our advantage, on the bitter cross." * 
 
 This is a part of the history of the Crusade. 
 The dramatist could hardly avoid this reference 
 to the purpose of the holy war. But we cannot 
 conclude that we have in this speech by the 
 King an expression of the religious sentiments 
 of the author of the play. 
 
 1 First Part of King Henry IV., Act i. Sc. i. 
 
34-6 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 There is a suggestion of immortality in Ham- 
 let, not indeed as the assured hope of man, but 
 rather as a terror, which holds one back from 
 self-destruction : 
 
 " To be, or not to be ; that is the question : 
 Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer 
 The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ; 
 Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, 
 And by opposing end them ? To die : to sleep, 
 No more : and, by a sleep to say we end 
 The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks 
 That flesh is heir to, 't is a consummation 
 Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep : 
 To sleep ! perchance to dream : ay, there 's the rub : 
 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come 
 When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
 Must give us pause. There 's the respect 
 That makes calamity of so long life : 
 For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 
 The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 
 The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, 
 The insolence of office and the spurns 
 That patient merit of the unworthy takes 
 When he himself might his quietus make 
 With a bare bodkin ? Who would these fardels bear 
 To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 
 But that the dread of something after death, 
 The undiscovered country, from whose bourne 
 No traveller returns, puzzles the will, 
 And makes us rather bear those ills we have, 
 Than fly to others that we know not of." l 
 
 i Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 
THE TEMPEST. 347 
 
 This is one among a number of passages in 
 which suicide, the cowardly crime, is dealt 
 with in such a way as to indicate that for the 
 poet himself it was a subject of frequent thought, 
 
 In the comedy called " As You Like It," one 
 of the characters says, 
 
 " All the world 's a stage, 
 And all the men and women merely players ; 
 They have their exits and their entrances ; 
 And one man in his time plays many parts, 
 
 His acts being seven ages 
 
 Last scene of all, 
 
 That ends this strange eventful history, 
 
 Is second childishness and mere oblivion." * 
 
 It is said by some recent critics that the 
 " Tempest " was the latest of the plays of Shake- 
 speare, and that Prospero, the magician, stands 
 for the great dramatist himself. It is Prospero 
 who says : 
 
 " These our actors, 
 
 As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 
 Are melted into air, into thin air : 
 And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
 The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
 And like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
 Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
 As dreams are made on : and our little life 
 Is rounded with a sleep" 2 
 
 1 Act ii. Scene 7. 2 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
34-8 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 
 The truth is Shakespeare never rises into the 
 region of Christian faith. He gives no pictures 
 of sublime, self-sacrificing goodness, for the love 
 of Christ. He seems to have no confident ex- 
 pectation of human improvement. He never 
 expresses a longing for spiritual progress. He 
 never rises from ethics into religion. He de- 
 picts the life of man with a marvellous insight 
 into human motives and purposes, but he does 
 'not seem to know whence we have come, or 
 whither we are going. The impression one gets, 
 especially from the later dramas, is that the mean- 
 ing of life in this world was still an enigma to him. 
 
 Macbeth says, when his wife is dead, and con- 
 science is stinging him, and troubles are closing 
 about him : 
 
 " To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
 To the last syllable of recorded time : 
 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
 The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle I 
 Life 's but a walking shadow : a poor player, 
 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
 And then is heard no more : it is a tale 
 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
 Signifying nothing." 
 
 " I 'gin to be a' weary of the sun, 
 And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone. 
 Ring the alarm ; blow wind ! come wrack ! 
 At least we '11 die with harness on our back." 1 
 1 Act v. Scene 5. 
 
DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 349 
 
 There is sometimes in Shakespeare a recog- 
 nition of God's providence in the world. Ham- 
 let says : 
 
 " There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we will." 1 
 
 Edgar in King Lear says : 
 
 " The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices 
 Make instruments to plague us." 2 
 
 Macbeth says : 
 
 " Even handed justice 
 
 Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 
 To our own lips." 8 
 
 There is an impressive passage in King Henry 
 Fifth, in relation to his bearing after the victory 
 of Agincourt. He exclaims : 
 
 " O God, thy arm was here : 
 And not to us, but to thy arm alone, 
 Ascribe we all ! " 
 
 "Take it, God, 
 For it is none but thine ! " 
 " Come, go we in procession to the village : 
 And be it death proclaimed through our host 
 To boast of this, or take that praise from God 
 Which is his only." 
 
 " Do we all holy rites : 
 Let there be sung Non N obis, and Te Deum." 4 
 
 1 Act v. Scene 2. 8 Act i. Scene 7. 
 
 3 Act v. Scene 3. * Act iv. Scene 8. 
 
35 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 This recognition of Divine aid is very proper 
 for the King: and yet no part of this is original 
 with Shakespeare. He has simply copied the 
 narrative, as he often does, from the chronicles 
 of Holinshed, where we may still read it almost 
 word for word. 
 
 Another passage is in King Richard Second. 
 The Bishop of Carlisle says : 
 
 " Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought 
 For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field, 
 Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross 
 Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens ; 
 And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself 
 To Italy : and there at Venice gave 
 His body to that pleasant country's earth, 
 And his pure soul unto his Captain Christ, 
 Under whose colors he had fought so long." l 
 
 This also is a part of English history. It is 
 quite in keeping with the character of a Chris- 
 tian bishop in that century. It expresses the 
 spirit of war, and that of religion also. It 
 cannot be quoted as an indication of religious 
 faith. 
 
 Perhaps the most impressive passage bearing 
 upon the religious ideas of Shakespeare is con- 
 tained in one of his sonnets. It is the more sig- 
 nificant because it is in a poem so personal as a 
 sonnet : 
 
 1 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
HOPEFULNESS OF THE EARLY DRAMAS. 35 * 
 
 " Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, 
 Fool'd by these rebel powers that thee array, 
 Why dost thou pine within, and suffer death, 
 Painting thy outward walls so costly gay ? 
 Why so large cost, having so short a lease, 
 Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ? 
 Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, 
 Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end? 
 Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss, 
 And let that pine to aggravate thy store ; 
 Buy terms divine, in selling hours of dross ; 
 Within be fed, without be rich no more : 
 So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on man, 
 And, death once dead, there 's no more dying then." l 
 
 This sonnet should be interpreted by the other 
 sonnets, and by the general tenor of the dra- 
 matic works. One swallow does not make a sum- 
 mer, and a few passages, such as these and a few 
 others that might be quoted, have failed to change 
 the general impression that one gets from the 
 works of Shakespeare, that he fails to lead those 
 who read him into the realm of the spiritual and 
 the eternal. 
 
 The earlier dramas of Shakespeare are full of 
 the youthful, hopeful spirit. But those written 
 after his fortieth year show a very perceptible 
 change. We know too little of his life during 
 those years to be quite sure of the cause. In 
 respect to his business and his reputation those 
 
 1 Sonnet cxlvi. 
 
35 2 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 were very prosperous years. Some have thought 
 that the death of his only son and heir cast a 
 dark shadow on his life. The misfortunes of his 
 friends and patrons, Essex, Southampton, and 
 Pembroke changed very much his social life in 
 London. The sonnets are full of suggestions of 
 some mysterious shadow that darkened his life. 
 Some of the most intelligent critics believe that 
 many of the sonnets are autobiographical. Pro- 
 fessor Dowden says, "The friend in whose 
 personality Shakespeare found a source of meas- 
 ureless delight high-born, beautiful, young, ac- 
 complished, ardent wronged himr The woman 
 from whom Shakespeare for a time received a joy- 
 ous quickening of his life, a woman of stained 
 character, and the reverse of beautiful, but a 
 strong character, a lover of art, and possessed 
 of curious magnetic attraction, with her dark 
 eyes which illuminated a pale face, wronged him 
 also." l It is of this dark lady, from whom per- 
 haps he drew the character of Cleopatra, that 
 Shakespeare says: 
 
 " When my love swears that she is made of truth, 
 I do believe her, tho* I know she lies." 2 
 
 The cloud passed by after a time, and Shake- 
 speare regained his full power, with a profounder 
 view of life and its responsibilities. One observes 
 
 1 Professor Dowden, 354. 2 Sonnet cxxxviii. 
 
ABSENCE OF FAITH. 353 
 
 in his later dramas a new sense of the mysterious 
 power of evil, which sometimes holds the will in 
 helpless bondage, Thus the King in Hamlet 
 
 says : 
 
 " What form of prayer 
 
 Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder? 
 That cannot be, since I am still possess'd 
 Of those effects for which I did the murder, 
 My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. 
 May one be pardon'd and retain the offence ? " 
 " What then ? What rests ? 
 Try what repentance can : what can it not ? 
 Yet what can it, when one cannot repent? 
 O wretched state ! O bosom black as death ! 
 O limed soul, that, struggling to be free, 
 Art more engaged I" 1 
 
 Shakespeare did not have the key to unlock 
 these profound mysteries. Wonderful as his 
 powers were, he deals only with this present life. 
 Here is the limitation of his universality. As 
 Scherer has said, " It is on the boundaries of the 
 invisible world that Shakespeare's vision fails." 
 The greatest poets of the world have certainly 
 been full of the religious spirit. Homer was full 
 of it. So were the Greek dramatists. So have 
 been the great poets of the modern world, 
 Dante, Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth, and Tenny^ 
 son. But Shakespeare is the poet of the secular, 
 and not of the religious, of the temporal, and 
 of the eternal. 
 
 1 Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 23 
 
354 SHAKESPEARE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that in that age 
 of conflict there was a lack of sympathy between 
 the Puritans and Shakespeare. They represented 
 an intensely religious life. They lived, as Milton 
 said, "as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye." 
 The spiritual was far more than the temporal to 
 them. The reform of the Church seemed to 
 them the greatest work of the age. Next to that, 
 they were seeking to establish the rights of the 
 people on a secure basis. They did not find 
 Shakespeare in sympathy with the ideas which 
 they were seeking to realize. 
 
 On the other hand, the Puritans seemed, to 
 men like Shakespeare, to be narrow and bigoted. 
 They were ready to fight for the inheritance of 
 the privileged classes against the rising democ- 
 racy. A large part of England at that time was 
 with Shakespeare. A larger part was with the 
 Puritans. It was not until the questions which 
 were then at issue had been adjusted, partly by 
 mutual compromises, and partly by the mellow- 
 ing influence of many years, that the English 
 speaking race of all parties was prepared to 
 enjoy and appreciate that wonderful body of lit- 
 erature that is our common inheritance from Sid- 
 ney and Spenser, from Bacon and Shakespeare, 
 from John Milton and John Bunyan. 
 
Index 
 
Index 
 
 ABANDONMENT OF COMMUNISM, 34, 38. 
 
 ABBOT, ARCHBISHOP, death of, 120. 
 
 ABUNDANCE OF PROVISIONS, 1623, 37 ; Fine Harvests, 39. 
 
 AFFECTION FOR ENGLAND, 89-90. 
 
 AGREEMENT OF THE PILGRIMS WITH THE CAPITALISTS, 6. 
 
 ALIOT, SIR WILLIAM DE, 209. 
 
 ALLEN, PROF. A. V. G., QUOTED, 288. 
 
 ANABAPTISTS, 82, also 176. 
 
 ANDROS, SIR EDMUND,' GOVERNOR GENERAL, 190; Revolution 
 in Massachusetts, 190. 
 
 ANGLO-SAXON COLONIES, 55. 
 
 ANNUAL ELECTIONS, 51. 
 
 ANTINOMIAN DISSENSION, 137, 141. 
 
 ARABELLA, THE SHIP, 89. 
 
 ARMINIANISM, DEFINED, 288; its Arian and Socinian elements, 
 289 ; preliminaries to conversion, 290 ; loses its hold, 303 ; 
 tends to Unitarianism, 305. 
 
 ARMY OF CAPTAIN STANDISH, 22. 
 
 ARTILLERY IMPORTED BY MASSACHUSETTS, 187. 
 
 ARTISTIC SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE, 334, 340. 
 
 ASPINWALL, WILLIAM, Deacon, 96. 
 
 AWAKENING, THE GREAT, from a great declension, 273 ; religious 
 life of the early Puritan churches ; decline of piety in the third 
 generation, 274; the Reforming Synod, 274; its testimony, 
 275; election sermons of that period, 275 ; reasons for the 
 declension; the second generation, 276; servants and their 
 descendants, 277 ; union of Church and State, 277 ; Half Way 
 Covenant, 278 ; Extreme Calvinism, 278 ; Fatalism, 279. 
 
 AWAKENING, THE GREAT, in England, 298; the Wesleys and 
 Whitefield, results of their work, 298. 
 

 INDEX. 
 
 BALLOT, VOTE BY, IN MASSACHUSETTS, in. 
 
 BANCROFT ON THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT, 12. 
 
 BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND, 3. 
 
 BAPTISM OF CHILDREN, 151. 
 
 BAPTISTS IN NEW ENGLAND, 174; laws against them, 174; dis- 
 franchised, and banished, 175 ; meetings on Noddle's Island, 
 175; public debate, 175; a Baptist church in Boston, 176. 
 
 BARNSTABLE, 53, 79. 
 
 BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS, 32, 143, 262. 
 
 BELLAMY, 303. 
 
 BIBLE IN SHAKESPEARE, 343. 
 
 BIBLE, TRANSLATED INTO THE INDIAN LANGUAGE, 249; a soli- 
 tary translator, 250; published 1661 and 1663, 251 ; second 
 edition 1680-1685, 251 ; number of copies, 252 ; cost of the two ; 
 number of copies now preserved, 252 ; Indian title page, 253 
 (note). 
 
 BLACKSTONE, WILLIAM, 309. 
 
 BOSTON SETTLED, 91 ; Winthrop settles in, 91 ; Church of Charles- 
 town removes to Boston. 97 ; rapid growth of the settlement, 
 108; meeting-house built, with parsonage, 109; fortifies the 
 harbor, 122; Commissioners of the Confederacy meet in, 153. 
 
 BOSTON VISITED BY THE PILGRIMS, 22 ; also 33. 
 
 BRADFORD, Gov. WILLIAM, Reasons for going to America, 5 ; 
 author of a history, 19 ; elected Governor, 20 ; speaks of the 
 past harvest, 24; deals with hostile Indians, 27 ; Christmas Day, 
 29 ; re-elected Governor, 29 ; the patent in his name, 49 ; state- 
 ment of the purpose of the Colony, 206 ; his History in 1898, 58. 
 
 BRADSTREET, SIMON, 89. 
 
 BRANDES, PROF. GEORGE, QUOTED, 330, 336. 
 
 BREWSTER, ELDER WILLIAM, 26, 46. 
 
 BRIGHT, FRANCIS, 76 ; returns to England, 93. 
 
 BROOKE, LORD, 101. 
 
 BROWN, SAMUEL AND JOHN, 81 ; sent to England, 83. 
 
 BULLEN, ANNE, 333. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM, the standard of polity for New England, 
 1 60; Church and State, 161. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE SYNOD, 156; its purpose; occasion for, 157; Cotton 
 and Hooker on church polity, 157; churches of the colony in- 
 vited to send delegates, 158; churches of all New England 
 desired to send, 159; John Cotton moderator; adjourned to 
 June 1647, and August, 1648. 
 
INDEX. 359 
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY, Higginson, 77 ; Skelton, 77 ; meeting 
 at, 86 ; Winthrop, 88 ; agreement to go to New England, 86. 
 
 CANNON AT PLYMOUTH. 17. 
 
 CAPE ANN, 69. 
 
 CARGO OF FURS FOR ENGLAND, 1623, 38. 
 
 CATTLE FROM ENGLAND, 39; 1627, 145. 
 
 CATTLE FOR MASSACHUSETTS, 90, 100. 
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST, 66; insisted upon his prerogative, 66; 
 levies taxes illegally, 66. 
 
 CHARLES THE SECOND BECOMES KING, 165 ; plans to send a 
 Governor General, 165 : the King proclaimed in Massachu- 
 setts, Connecticut, Plymouth, New Haven, and Rhode Island, 
 166; sends the Royal Commissioners, 182. 
 
 CHARLESTOWN, 70, 73 ; Winthrop at, 90 ; dwellings in, 91 ; Church 
 in, 96. 
 
 CHARTER FOR MASSACHUSETTS, 71 ; cost of it, 71 (note) ; provis- 
 ions of the charter, 72 ; powers of the colonists, 72 ; demanded 
 by the Privy Council, 121; resistance determined upon, 123; 
 refusal to give up the charter, 124; demanded by Charles the 
 Second; Writ of Quo Warranto, 188; Court of Chancery 
 cancels the charter, 189; delay in setting up the new govern- 
 ment ; death of the King, 189. 
 
 CHARTER FOR PLYMOUTH COLONY, 26 ; new charter, 49. 
 
 CHATHAM, LORD, on the Historical Plays of Shakespeare, 319. 
 
 CHAUCER, 311 ; The Clerke's Tale, 342. 
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH, Eliot's, 216. 
 
 CHRISTMAS, FIRST FOR THE PILGRIMS, 14; Second, 29. 
 
 CHURCH GOVERNMENT OF THE PURITANS, 64; Reformed 
 Churches, 64. 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND, MEMBERS OF, 89, 90, 98. 
 
 CHURCHES IN MASSACHUSETTS, FIRST, 76, 80; SECOND, DOR- 
 CHESTER, 94. 
 
 CHURCHES IN NEW ENGLAND IN 1692, 192. 
 
 CHURCHES, INDIAN, 245 ; delay in forming them, 246; caution of 
 Eliot, 247 ; Church at Natick 1660, 247; number of members, 
 248; Second Indian Church, 248. 
 
 CHURCHES OF GREAT BRITAIN DECLINING, 281 ; testimony of 
 Bishop Butler, Addison, 281 ; Montesquieu, 282. 
 
 CLAP, ROGER, TELLS OF DORCHESTER CHURCH, 95. 
 
 CLARK'S ISLAND, LANDING ON, 13. 
 
 CLERGYMEN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 76. 
 
 COCKENOE, 22O. 
 
360 INDEX. 
 
 CODES OF LAWS, 149. 
 
 COKE, SIR EDWARD, 65. 
 
 COLLEGES OF THE PURITANS, 200. 
 
 COLONY AT PLYMOUTH, 25, 27. 
 
 COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS IN 1638, 125; New colonies planted 
 between 1634 and 1640 ; causes of new plantations, 125 ; popu- 
 lation in 1692, 191. 
 
 COLONISTS FROM ENGLAND IN 1631, 108; in 1632, 109; in 1633, 
 no. 
 
 COMMON HOUSE, 14; size of; lodging place, 15. 
 
 COMMON LAW IN FORCE IN PLYMOUTH, 43. 
 
 COMMONS, THE, 103, 105. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH IN ENGLAND, 163 ; Commissioners for the colo- 
 nies; claims of Massachusetts; ship in Boston harbor, 163; 
 claim to independence, 164; Commonwealth friendly to the 
 colonies, 164. 
 
 COMMUNISM OF THE PILGRIMS, 6, 20, 34, 75? 
 
 COMMUNITY AT NATICK, 241 ; rulers of tens, of fifties, of hundreds ; 
 the covenant, 242 ; good will of the whites, 243 ; fourteen of 
 these communities, 244 ; names of them, 245 (note) ; number 
 of Indians, 245. 
 
 COMPACT AGREED TO ON THE MAYFLOWER, 10 ; signatures to, 
 
 ii,49- 
 
 CONFEDERATION OF THE COLONIES, 146 ; proposed by Connecti- 
 cut; number of colonies; the first meeting, 146; number of 
 commissioners, 147 ; powers of the commissioners, 147 ; popu- 
 lation of the four colonies ; influence of the Confederation ; 
 number of towns in the colonies, 148 ; first meeting in Boston, 
 153 ; second meeting in Hartford, 155. 
 
 CONNECTICUT, PETITION OF HOOKER AND OTHERS TO REMOVE 
 TO CONNECTICUT, 130; reasons for their petition, 130; demo- 
 cratic ideas of Hooker; letter to Governor Winthrop, 131; 
 the request granted in 1635 ; Commissioners chosen to govern 
 the colony, 131 ; the first company of emigrants, 132; the sec- 
 ond company, 132; their ministers, 132; receives a royal char- 
 ter, 166; New Haven added to Connecticut; remonstrance of 
 New Haven, 167 ; population in, 191 ; new towns formed, 
 196. 
 
 CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED, the basis of government, n, 65. 
 
 CONSULTATIONS ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH, 78, 
 79; a Reformed congregation, 80. 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ENGLAND FOR INDIAN MISSIONS, 234; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 36 
 
 poverty of the people in Massachusetts; pamphlets on the mis- 
 sions, 234 ; money sent to America, 236. 
 
 CORN PLANTED UNDER TEACHING OF TlSQUANTUM, 19. 
 
 COTTON, JOHN, SETTLES IN BOSTON, no; Way of the churches, 
 84 (note) ; preaches election sermon, no; his Keys of the 
 Kingdom, 147. 
 
 COUNCIL FOR NEW ENGLAND, 70. 
 
 COURT OF ASSISTANTS, 93 ; permanent membership, 103; monthly 
 meetings, 104. 
 
 COURT OF HIGH COMMISSION, 67 ; imprisons the Non-Conformists, 
 67. 
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE, 149. 
 
 COVENANT AT SALEM, 81 ; Charlestown, 97 ; Watertown, 97. 
 
 COVENANT OF WORKS, 138. 
 
 CRADOCK, GOVERNOR, 85 ; resigns, 87; ordered to produce the 
 charter, 120. 
 
 CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP, 332. 
 
 CROMWELL, OLIVER, THREE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF, 
 vii. ; proposed to transfer the colonists, 165 ; proposals de- 
 clined, 165 ; aids the Indian missions, 235. 
 
 CUTSHAMAKIM, 229. 
 
 DAVENPORT, JOHN, PERSONAL HISTORY, 135 ; his learning, 135 ; 
 harbors the Regicides, 181 ; his sermon, 182. 
 
 DEBTS OF THE COLONY, 26, 41, 45, 56. 
 
 DEFENCES AT PLYMOUTH, 28, 34. 
 
 DEFENCES OF MASSACHUSETTS PUT IN ORDER, 186. 
 
 DELAWARE, GOVERNOR OF, 154. 
 
 DEMOCRACY AT PLYMOUTH, 42 ; at Boston, 100. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF THE COLONISTS WITH CHARLES THE SECOND, 
 187 ; the King unfriendly to popular institutions, 188. 
 
 DISCOVERY, THE SHIP, VISITS PLYMOUTH, 34. 
 
 DISSENTERS IN NEW ENGLAND, 118. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF LAND, 34. 
 
 DIVISION OF LAND, 39 ; number of lots, 41. 
 
 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, 50. 
 
 DORCHESTER ADVENTURERS, 69, 70. 
 
 DORCHESTER SETTLED, 91 ; church formed, 94 ; some of the peo- 
 ple remove to Connecticut, 132. 
 
 DOWDEN QUOTED, 339, 352. 
 
 DRESS OF THE PURITANS, 152; of ministers, 152; of the Pilgrims, 
 44. 
 
362 INDEX. 
 
 DUDLEY, THOMAS, 86; character of, 89; dwelling, 92 ; Commis- 
 
 sioner, 153 ; Governor, 163. 
 DUXBURY, 49, 53. 
 
 DWELLINGS OF THE PEOPLE, 43, 151. 
 DWIGHT, PRESIDENT, 303. 
 DYER, MARY, PUT TO DEATH AS A QUAKER, 172. 
 
 EARLIEST PROTESTANT MISSIONS, 221, 224. 
 
 EATON, SAMUEL, 135. 
 
 EATON, THEOPHILUS, 86; life of, 89; founder of New Haven, 
 135; Governor of the Colony, 137; Commissioner, 1643, J 53' 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL PLANS OF THE PURITANS, 78; not Separatists, 
 78 ; Reformed Churches of Europe, 79 ; Reformed congrega- 
 tion, 80; like Pilgrim Church, 83 ; Non-Conformists, 84. 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE PILGRIMS, 44. 
 
 ^.EDWARDS, JONATHAN, his parents, 283 ; date of his birth, child- 
 hood, 283 ; enters Yale College ; begins to preach ; ordained, 
 283 ; metaphysical qualities, 284 ; religious experiences, 284 ; 
 strong affections, imagination, poetic sensibility, 285 ; his com- 
 munion with God, 286 ; account of Sarah Pierrepont, 286 ; his 
 nearness to the spiritual world, 287 ; the personal appearance 
 of Mr. Edwards, 287; manner of speaking; power over an 
 audience, 288; condition of his parish, 289; dependence on 
 the "means of grace," 289; Half Way Covenant, 290; low 
 state of morals, 290 ; lack of family government, 291 ; his ser- 
 mons on Justification by Faith, 291 ; effect of the sermons, 292 ; 
 conversions, 292 ; elements in his preaching ; his Calvinism ; 
 modifications of the old Calvinism, 293 ; the Edwardean sys- 
 tem, 292 ; spread of the revival, 293 ; results in Northampton, 
 294 ; includes the children, 294 ; extension in the Connecticut 
 Valley, 294; and in New England, 295; revivals in many 
 places from year to year, 295 ; the preaching of Edwards as 
 an evangelist, 296 ; the sermon at Enfield ; results, 297; titles 
 of his sermons, 297 ; the doctrine of the Love of God, 298 ; 
 coming of George Whitefield, 299 ; preaches in Northampton, 
 300 ; influence upon the work, 300 ; results of the Great 
 Awakening, 301 ; qualifications for Communion, 302 ; Church 
 and State, theological changes, 303; Edwardean theology, 
 303 ; old Calvinists ; Methodist Church, 304 ; missionary so- 
 cieties, two wings of the Puritan Churches, 305. 
 
 EDWARDS, JONATHAN, THE YOUNGER, 303. 
 
 EDWARDS, TIMOTHY, 283. 
 
INDEX. 363 
 
 ELIOT, JOHN, 209; birthplace, his father, 210; baptism, 211;*^ 
 childhood, 211 ; graduation at Jesus College, 212; scholarship, 
 212; usher at Little Baddow, 212; influence of Thomas 
 Hooker, 213; goes to New England, 213; preaches in Boston ; 
 settles in Roxbury, 215; marriage, his ministry in Roxbury; 
 political principles, 215; his Christian Commonwealth, 216; 
 retracts parts of the book; a devoted minister, 216; his 
 theology, 217; fondness for Hebrew, 217; facetiousness, 
 217; wit, 218; interest in schools, 218; Cotton Mather's 
 statement, 218; learns the Indian language, 218; motive 
 of his missionary work, 218; his teachers; Cockenoe, Job 
 Nesutan, 220; methods of study, 219, 221 ; Indian languages, 
 220 ; preaches at Nonantum, 222, 223 ; his companions, 223 ; 
 narrative of the services, 223 ; the second meeting, 227 ; 
 preaching in other places, 228 ; results of the work, 230 ; 
 civilization, 231; an Indian town, 232; secures contribu- 
 tions from England, 234 ; his salary, 234 ; plea for help to 
 his missions, 235 ; his foot-bridge, 239, 242 ; translation of the 
 Bible, 250, 252; ride to Brookfield, 256; exposure, 257; 
 success of this excursion, 258 ; missionary journals, 258 ; 
 numbers in Churches, 258 ; effect of King Philip's War, 262 ; 
 resumes his missionary work after the war, 266 ; reasons why 
 it was not of larger success; fidelity of the missionary, 267 ; his 
 old age, 268 ; publishes books, 268 ; his last words, death, his 
 burial place, 269; his children; list of his publications, 269; 
 inscription on his tomb, 270. 
 
 ELIOT, SIR JOHN, 68, 210. 
 
 ELLIOT, ELLSWORTH, DR., 210 (note). 
 
 EMIGRATION TO NEW ENGLAND ON A GREAT SCALE, 87 ; char- 
 acter of the emigrants, 88 ; number, 90. 
 
 ENDICOTT, JOHN, 70; letters to, 74; proposal for an independent 
 church, 79, 83 ; present at Natick, 242. 
 
 ENFIELD SERMON, 296 ; not a specimen of the ordinary preaching 
 of Edwards; the condition of that congregation; the subject 
 of the sermon ; effect of the discourse, 297. 
 
 ENGLISH BLOOD OF THE COLONISTS, 192. 
 
 ENTERPRISE OF THE PILGRIMS, 56. 
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO BOSTON HARBOR, 22, 23. 
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO MASSASOIT, 21. 
 
 FAITH IN THE SPIRITUAL, NOT IN SHAKESPEARE, 348. 
 FAMINE AT PLYMOUTH, 36. 
 

 364 INDEX. 
 
 FATALISM, IN THE PULPIT, 280. 
 
 FEDERAL COMMISSIONERS MEET AT HARTFORD, 1667, 155. 
 
 FIRST SETTLEMENT IN MAINE, 3; 198. 
 
 FISHING AND HUNTING, 24, 45. 
 
 FISKE, JOHN, QUOTED, 135. 
 
 FOOD OF THE PEOPLE, 151, 152. 
 
 FOREFATHERS, OR PILGRIMS, 37; numbers of, 52. 
 
 FORTIFICATIONS AT PLYMOUTH, 28, 30 ; fort on the hill, 34. 
 
 FORTUNE, THE, ARRIVES, 25 ; returns to England, 26. 
 
 FREEMAN'S MEETING, 113. 
 
 FREEMEN, APPLICATIONS TO BECOME, 102; powers of freemen 
 lessened, 102 ; admission of 116 persons, 103 ; limited to mem- 
 bers of churches, 103. 
 
 FRENCH OF CANADA, 155. 
 
 FULLER, SAMUEL, Physician, 48 ; goes to Salem, 79; death of, 48. 
 
 FURNITURE OF PILGRIMS, 48. 
 
 GAGER, WILLIAM, Physician, 94; Deacon, 96, 99. 
 
 GAME, WILD AT PLYMOUTH, 24. 
 
 GENERAL COURT OF PLYMOUTH COLONY, 50. 
 
 GENERAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 101 ; first session, 101 ; no 
 
 representation of the people, 102 ; annual sessions, 103 ; 
 
 Governor and Assistants chosen by, 104; later it included 
 
 delegates from towns, no; powers of legislation, no. 
 GENERAL COURT REQUIRES PREACHING TO THE INDIANS, 208. 
 GENERAL LAWS PUBLISHED, 195; their provisions, 195; rights 
 
 of the people, 196. 
 GENEVA BIBLE, 44, 48. 
 GOATS IN PLYMOUTH, 39. 
 GOFFE, THOMAS, 87. 
 GOOKIN, DANIEL, 223 ; goes to Nonantum, 228 ; superintendent of 
 
 Indian towns, 243; his powers; visits the towns in 1673 an d 
 
 1674, 244; number of praying Indians, 245; towns among 
 
 them, 258. 
 
 GOVERNOR CARVER, ELECTION OF, 12, 18 ; death of, 20. 
 GRAMMAR SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND, 310, 316. 
 GREATER NEW ENGLAND, 200. 
 GRIST MILL, 50. 
 
 HABITS OF LIFE AT PLYMOUTH, 45. 
 
 HALF WAY COVENANT, ITS EFFECTS, 278 ; abandonment, as the 
 result of the revival, 302. 
 
INDEX. 365 
 
 HAMPDEN, JOHN, 30. 
 
 HARVARD, JOHN, FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 116. 
 
 HARVARD COLLEGE, 115; tax towards its establishment, 116; 
 located by General Court ; name of town changed ; its bene- 
 factor, 116 ; contributions for, 155. 
 
 HARVEST, THE FIRST, AT PLYMOUTH, 23 ; the second, 34; third, 39. 
 
 HATHAWAY, ANNE, WIFE OF SHAKESPEARE, 317. 
 
 HEMANS, MRS., 13. 
 
 HERBERT, GEORGE, THE PRIEST TO THE TEMPLE, 342. 
 
 HIGGINSON, FRANCIS, 73 ; writes to England, 76; his life, 77; 
 consults about a church, 79 ; ordained, 80. 
 
 HISTORIC EPISCOPATE, 79. 
 
 HOOKER, THOMAS, no; minister at Newtown ; asks permission 
 to remove to Connecticut, 130; memorable letter to Winthrop, 
 131; leads the colony to the Connecticut, 132; sermon to the 
 General Court, 133 ; his * Survey," 157. 
 
 HOPKINS, EDWARD, COMMISSIONER, 1643, I 53- 
 
 HOPKINS, STEPHEN, 21, 30. 
 
 HOSPITAL AT PLYMOUTH, 15. 
 
 HOUSE OF CORRECTION IN BOSTON, 109. 
 
 HOUSES ERECTED AT PLYMOUTH, 14, l6, 25, 43. 
 
 HUME QUOTED, 322. 
 
 HUTCHINSON, MRS. ANNE, in Boston, 137 ; described by Winthrop ; 
 holds meetings for women, 137; inner light, 138; criticised 
 the ministers ; covenant of works, 138 ; approved by Governor 
 Vane and John Cotton, 139; the Synod; its moderators; its 
 decisions, 139; trial of Mrs. Hutchinson, 139; banishment, 
 140 ; removes to Rhode Island, 140. 
 
 HUTCHINSON QUOTED, 78. 
 
 INDIAN CHILDREN TAUGHT FREE IN THE SCHOOLS, 115. 
 
 INDIAN CONSPIRACY, 31 ; dealing with it, 32. 
 
 INDIAN POLICY AT PLYMOUTH; conciliatory, 16; neighborly, 
 21 ; enterprising, 22; fearless, 27; just, 30; vigilant, 32; 
 honest, 56. 
 
 INDIAN POLICY OF THE PURITANS, 74, 105 ; justice and kindness 
 of the colonists, 106 ; prnishment of those who did them 
 wrong; purchase of land from the Indians, 107; fewness of 
 the Indians, 106 ; care of sick Indians ; hospitality to the 
 chiefs, 1 08. 
 
 INDIANS, DESIRE FOR THEIR CONVERSION, 5. 
 
 INDIANS IN FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH THE WHITES, 207; 
 

 366 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 influence of the English, 208 ; ministers learning their 
 
 language, 208. 
 INTELLIGENCE OF THE PURITANS, 309; readers and thinkers;. 
 
 with a learned ministry, 309 ; their libraries, 310 ; desire for 
 
 education, 311. 
 ISAAC DE RASIERES'S ACCOUNT OF PLYMOUTH, 40. 
 
 JACKSON, EDWARD, 228. 
 
 JAMES THE FIRST, 65 ; claimed autocratic power, 66. 
 
 JAMES THE SECOND PROCLAIMED KING IN BOSTON, 1685, 189. 
 
 JEFFERSON QUOTED, 112. 
 
 JOHNSON, ISAAC, 86; also 89 ; settles in Boston, death of, 92. 
 
 JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, 104. 
 
 KING PHILIP'S WAR FOLLOWED A LONG INTERVAL OF PEACE, 
 179; causes of the war, 180; character of Philip ; cruelties of 
 the savages ; losses of the colonists, 181 ; contributions from" 
 Ireland, 181. 
 
 LAND, OWNERSHIP OF, 75 ; do not adopt English land tenure, 100. 
 
 LANDS OF THE INDIANS, 74. 
 
 LANGUAGE OF THE INDIANS, 220. 
 
 LAUD, BISHOP OF LONDON, 67; Archbishop of England, 120. 
 
 LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS OVER THE INDIAN TOWNS, 243 ; Major 
 
 Gookin, superintendent, 243. 
 
 LAWS OF PLYMOUTH COLONY, 18, 30, 50; revised, 51. 
 LAWS TO ENCOURAGE PREACHING TO INDIANS, 2O7, 2O8. 
 LIBRARIES AT PLYMOUTH, 43, 44. 
 LIQUOR LAW OF PLYMOUTH, 50. 
 LONGFELLOW, 343. 
 
 LONG PARLIAMENT, 144 ; end of emigration to this country, 145. 
 LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, QUOTED, 337. 
 LUCY, SIR THOMAS, 318. 
 
 MAGISTRATES, 104. 
 
 MAINE, EARLY SETTLERS IN, 198 ; under the government of 
 
 Massachusetts, 164, 184. 
 MARKET IN BOSTON, 109. 
 MARRIAGE, THE FIRST, 20. 
 MARSHFIELD, 53. 
 MASSACHUSETTS DECIDES TO DEFEND ITS CHARTER ; erects 
 
 fortifications, 122. 
 
INDEX. 367 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS, NEW TOWNS IN, 197. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS PEOPLE OVERFLOWED INTO PLYMOUTH, 53. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS TRIBE OF INDIANS, 23, 208. 
 
 MASSASOIT AT PLYMOUTH, 17 ; at his home, 21 ; his sickness, 30. 
 
 MASON, CAPT. JOHN, LEADS AN ARMY AGAINST THE PEQUOTS, 142. 
 
 MASTS FOR THE ROYAL NAVY, 186. 
 
 MATHER, COTTON, 77; QUOTED, 218. 
 
 MATHER, INCREASE, ELECTION SERMON, 275. 
 
 MATHER, RICHARD, MODERATOR CAMBRIDGE SYNOD, 159; at 
 Nonantum, 228. 
 
 MAYFLOWER, VOYAGE OF, 8-9, 13 ; carries the Puritans, 73. 
 
 MAYHEW, THOMAS, 208; his work for the Indians, 209; growth 
 of his missions, 253. 
 
 MEETING-HOUSE AT PLYMOUTH, 38. 
 
 MERCHANTS IN BOSTON, 99. 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, INFLUENCE OF, UPON PREACH- 
 ING, 304. 
 
 MIANTONOMO, 154; taken prisoner; put to death by the Indians, 154. 
 
 MILTON, JOHN, his education, 313; his Puritanism, literary leader 
 of the Puritans, 314; blindness, contrast with Shakespeare, 
 331 ; religious spirit, 351. 
 
 MINISTERS AT PLYMOUTH, John Lyford, 46, 69; goes to Vir- 
 ginia, 71; Ralph Smith, 47; lands at Salem, 73; Roger 
 Williams, 47 ; John Norton, 47 ; John Reynor, 47 ; Charles 
 Chauncy, 47. 
 
 MINISTERS, SUPPORT OF, 93; voluntary principle, 116; Boston, 
 117; taxes for their support, 1 1 8 ; asked to advise the General 
 Court, 123; influence of, in 1692, 194; education; publica- 
 tions, 194; their duties, 152; gown and bands, 152. 
 
 MINT ESTABLISHED 1652; pine tree shillings, 165. 
 
 MISSIONARY SPIRIT OF THE PURITANS, 205 ; Bradford's state- 
 ment of the purpose of the Pilgrim Colony, 206; teaching the 
 Indians, 206 ; Seal of the Colony of Massachusetts, 206. 
 
 MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS, 5 ; Roger Williams, 161 ; Thomas 
 Mayhew, 162, 259; John Eliot, 222; visits the Indian wig- 
 wams, 223; his discourse, 224; the ten commandments, 225 ; 
 the Great Salvation, 225 ; effect of his address, 226 ; questions 
 and answers, 227 ; the second meeting ; catechism, 227 ; 
 questions by the Indians, 228; prayer in the Indian tongue; 
 genuine religious work, 229; efforts to civilize the Indians, 231 ; 
 Indian laws, 231; tools provided, 231; Indians before the 
 Cambridge Synod, 233; plea for help, 235; translation of the 
 
368 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bible, 250, 253 ; progress of the missions, 253 ; progress to 
 1675, 256. 
 
 MOHEGANS, 153. 
 
 MORTALITY IN PLYMOUTH THE FIRST WINTER, 15. 
 MUMFORD, HANNAH, WIFE OF THE APOSTLE ELIOT, 215. 
 Music IN SHAKESPEARE, 342. 
 
 NARRAGANSETTS AND MOHEGANS, 153, 254; opposition of the 
 sachems, 254 ; threatening words, Eliot's reply, 254 ; peril of 
 the missionary, 255 ; sends two young preachers, 255. 
 
 NARRATIVE OF SURPRISING CONVERSIONS, published in Great 
 Britain and New England, 294. 
 
 NASHAWAY, 229. 
 
 NASING, 211 ; Puritan families, 212. 
 
 NATICK, SETTLEMENT AT, 237 ; plans for the town, 238 ; title to 
 the lands, 239 ; Eliot's foot-bridge, 339 ; streets ; building-lots, 
 the stockade ; common house, 240 ; school-room ; meeting- 
 house, 240 ; organization of the Indian community, 241 ; ap- 
 pearance of the village, 242. 
 
 NAUMKEAG, 69. 
 
 NEPONSET, PREACHING BY ELIOT, 229. 
 
 NESUTAN, JOB, Interpreter, 220. 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM, 155. 
 
 NEW ENGLAND ; people of second and third generations, 193 ; 
 " Wonder Working Providence," 193; spirit of the people, 194; 
 condition in 1692 ; population, 191 ; occupations of the people, 
 192. 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE, NEW SETTLEMENTS, 198. 
 
 NEW HAVEN FOUNDED, 135; its leaders; the minister; the first 
 Sabbath, 135, civil compact; General Court, 136; purchase 
 of land from the Indians, 136; the first church and its meeting- 
 house, 136. 
 
 NEWTOWN, SETTLEMENT OF, 108; plan to make it the capital, 
 108; Thomas Hooker with' a party removes to Connecticut, 
 131- 
 
 NEW YEAR AT PLYMOUTH, 18. 
 
 NONANTUM, LOCATION, 223 (note); meaning of the name, 232; 
 the Indian town, testimony of Mr. Shepard, 232. 
 
 NON-CONFORMISTS, THE MASSACHUSETTS PIONEERS, 98. 
 
 NORTH AMERICA WELL KNOWN IN EUROPE BEFORE IT WAS 
 
 SETTLED, 3. 
 
 NORTHAMPTON, 280; number of families, 290. 
 
INDEX. 369 
 
 NORTHEND, W. D., ON THE LOGIC OF MINISTERS, 153. 
 
 NUMBERS WHO CAME FROM ENGLAND, 145 ; cost, 145. 
 
 OLD CALVINISTS, 303. 
 OLD COLONY TERRITORY ; population, 49. 
 ORCHARDS, 50. 
 
 /ORDINATION OF PASTORS, 77, 80; ruling elders, 81* 
 ORGANIZATION OF CHURCHES; Salem, 80; Dorchester in Eng- 
 land, 94 ; Charlestown, 96 ; Watertown, 97 ; Boston, 97. 
 
 PARK, PROF. EDWARDS A., 303. 
 
 PARTRIDGE, RALPH, TO PREPARE MODEL OF CHURCH GOVERN- 
 MENT, 159. 
 
 PASSIVE OBEDIENCE PREACHED IN ENGLAND, 66. 
 
 PATRIOTISM OF SHAKESPEARE, 335. 
 
 PAWTUCKET, 229. 
 
 PEQUOT WAR ; causes of the war ; extension of the settlements, 
 141 ; murder of John Oldham, 142 ; expedition of Endicott ; 
 attacks upon the settlements ; expedition of Captain Mason ; 
 destruction of the Indians, 143. 
 
 PEREGRINE WHITE, 21. 
 
 PETERS, HUGH, statements as to the condition of New England, 
 275. 
 
 PETITION OF RIGHT, 66. 
 
 PHILIP, KING, REFUSES THE INVITATION OF MR. ELIOT, 256; his 
 part in the war, 262. 
 
 PHILIPS, GEORGE, 91 ; salary of, 94. 
 
 PILGRIM REPUBLIC, 29. 
 
 PILGRIMS IN ENGLAND^; in Holland, 4; loyal to England, 5; 
 poverty of, 5 ; mission of, 4 ; only the younger go to America, 
 6 ; republic, 29 ; Pilgrims and Puritans influence each other, 
 54, 58 ; led the way for the Puritans, 63. 
 
 PLAGUE CARRIES OFF THE INDIANS, 18. 
 
 PLYMOUTH ANNEXED TO MASSACHUSETTS, 54. 
 
 PLYMOUTH ROCK, landing on, 13, 14. 
 
 POPULATION OF NEW ENGLAND IN 1643, 147; 1692, 191. 
 
 PORMONT, PHILEMON, TEACHER, 114. 
 
 PRAYERS ANSWERED, 35. 
 
 PREACHERS, INDIAN, 244; their training, 248. 
 
 PRINCE, THOMAS, TESTIMONY AS TO A DECLINE OF PIETY, 274. 
 
 PRIVY COUNCIL PROCEEDS AGAINST THE CHARTER, 124. 
 
 PROFANITY FORBIDDEN, 51. 
 
 24 
 
37 INDEX. 
 
 PROTESTANT MISSIONS, 221. 
 
 PROVINCETOWN, LANDING AT, 12. 
 
 PROVINCIAL CHARTER, 190; its provisions, 191. 
 
 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS, 189. 
 
 PROVISION FOR MINISTERS, 93. 
 
 PROVISIONS FOR THE COLONY, 90. 
 
 PRUDEN, PETER, 135. 
 
 PUBLIC OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE 
 PEOPLE, 104. 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE PILGRIMS, 44. 
 
 PURITANS IN ENGLAND, 63 ; the French Ambassador, 63 ; the 
 House of Commons, 64: advanced Protestants, 64; friends of 
 freedom, 65 ; divided, 67 ; prepare to go to America, 68 ; from 
 the middle classes, 64 ; settled in the old Colony, 53 ; exodus 
 to the West, 199; to New York, 199; Wyoming Valley; Ohio, 
 New Connecticut, 199 ; the Western States, 200 ; Pacific 
 States, colleges, 200. 
 
 PURITANS IN THE TIME OF SHAKESPEARE, 321 ; defenders of the 
 rights of the people ; asked for reform in the Church, 321 ; 
 their services in the cause of freedom, 322. 
 
 PYNCHON, WILLIAM, 86 ; settled in Roxbury, 91 ; removes to 
 Springfield, 132, 309. 
 
 QUAKERS, THEIR HISTORY, 168 ; persecuted in England, 169; 
 Quakers in Plymouth, 52; enter Massachusetts, 169; sent out 
 of the Colony, 170; all the Colonies adopt measures to exclude 
 Quakers; severe measures of the Colonies, 170, 171 ; four were 
 put to death ; reaction against the law, 173 ; foolish actions of 
 the Quakers, 173; repeal of the law, 173. 
 
 RATTLESNAKE SKIN, 27. 
 
 REASONS FOR THE COMPACT IN THE MAYFLOWER, 9. 
 
 REASONS FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF PLYMOUTH, 4. 
 
 RECORDS OF MASSACHUSETTS COMPANY, 72. 
 
 REINFORCEMENTS FOR THE COLONY AT PLYMOUTH, 25, 36. 
 
 REFORMATION, THE PROTESTANT, IGNORED IN THE PLAY OF 
 
 HENRY THE EIGHTH, 332. 
 REFORMING SYNOD; occasion of calling it; its testimony, 274; 
 
 the decline checked for a time, 230. 
 RELIGIOUS SERVICES AT PLYMOUTH, 17. 
 RELIGIOUS SPIRIT IN MASSACHUSETTS, 76. 
 RELIGIOUS TEST FOR VOTERS IN MASSACHUSETTS, 103. 
 
INDEX. 37 l 
 
 RENAISSANCE, THE, 311. 
 
 REPUBLIC AT PLYMOUTH, 29. 
 
 REVOLT AGAINST CHARLES THE FIRST IN ENGLAND, 123. 
 
 RHODE ISLAND FOUNDED BY ROGER WILLIAMS, 128; compact 
 
 of the colony, 129; the settlement on the island, 130; receives 
 
 a royal charter, 167; charter set aside, 189; restored, 190; 
 
 population, 191 ; new towns, 197. 
 ROBINSON, JOHN, LETTER IN REFERENCE TO THE QUALITIES 
 
 OF HIS PEOPLE, 8, 55; blames the killing of the Indians, 32; 
 
 death of, 46. 
 
 ROXBURY SETTLED, 91. 
 
 ROYAL COMMISSIONERS COME TO BOSTON, 182; ships and men ; 
 present the demands of the King, 183; visit to Plymouth, 183; 
 demands agreed to, 184; visit to Rhode Island, 184; Boston; 
 reply to their demands, 184; Court of Appeal, 185 ; forbidden 
 by the General Court, 185 ; visit to New Hampshire, 185; the 
 Commissioners recalled, 186. 
 
 SABBATH, THE, 4, 13, 51, 74. 
 
 SAINT JOHN BAPTIST, CHURCH OF, 211 ; memorial window, 211. 
 
 SALEM SETTLED, 69, 70; numbers in the colony, 73; church in, 
 
 76. 
 SALTONSTALL, SIR RICHARD, 86; character of, 89; settles in. 
 
 Watertown, 91, 116. 
 SAMOSET, 16. 
 SANDWICH SETTLED, 49. 
 SAWMILLS, 34, 151. 
 SAY AND SELE, LORD, 101. 
 SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS, 33, 35, 36.. 
 SCHLEGEL QUOTED, 339. 
 SCHOOLS, VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS, 114; free school in Rox- 
 
 bury and Boston, 115; penalty on towns with no schools, 
 
 115; schools in 1692, 192. 
 SEAL OF MASSACHUSETTS, 206. 
 SEPARATISTS ; PURITANS WERE NOT SEPARATISTS, 64, 78, 82, 
 
 83, 84 (note), 95. 
 SERVANTS, 99. 
 
 SERVICE OF SONG, SINGING OF THE PILGRIMS IN UNISON, 48. 
 SEVEN YEARS, END OF, 41 ; settlement of debts, 41. 
 SHAKESPEARE, JOHN, 316, 317; coat of arms, 320. 
 SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM, his period, 314; his contemporaries, 
 
 314; date of his birth, 315; Stratford on Avon, 315 ; baptism, 
 
37 2 INDEX. 
 
 316; Grammar School, 316; his marriage, 317; his children, 
 318; removal to London, 318; connection with the theatre, 
 319; an actor; writer of plays, 320; purchases the Great 
 House at Stratford, 320; left the theatre, died in Stratford, 
 320. 
 
 His relation to the Puritans, 321 ; Stratford a Puritan town, 
 323 ; his eldest daughter a Puritan, 324 ; he was well acquainted 
 with the Puritans, 324; uses the name, 325; does not revile 
 them, 325 ; his comprehensiveness, 326 ; ignores the common 
 people, 327; does injustice to Jack Cade, 328 ; ignores Magna 
 Charta in King John, 329; his sympathies with the nobility; 
 his associations with them, 330; two Englands in his time, 
 331; contrast with Spenser and Milton, 331; his generous 
 nature, 331; regard for the patrons of the theatre, 332; 
 quotes Fox's Book of Martyrs, 333; edited his poems, 333; 
 lack of moral purpose in his dramas, 337 ; a Puritan con- 
 science, 338; lofty ideals, 339; Shakespeare's lack of sym- 
 pathy with common men, 336 ; with struggles for the rights of 
 the people, 328 ; with the middle classes, 331 ; his patriotism, 
 335; his estimate of his calling, 336; his genius, 337; his 
 theory of the purpose of the drama, 339; lack of religious 
 element, 340; his references to clergymen, 341; music in the 
 plays, 342 ; no sacred music, 343 ; use of the Bible, 343 ; not 
 an Agnostic, 345; reverence for our Saviour, 345; view of 
 immortality, 346; references to suicide, 347; lack of the spir- 
 itual, 348; gloom of his later life, 351 ; reasons for this, 352; 
 disappointments of his life, 352. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS QUOTED: Twelfth Night, 324; Win- 
 ter's Tale, 325 ; Pericles, 325 ; All 's Well that Ends Well, 
 325; Julius Caesar, 327 ; Coriolanus, 328 ; Henry Eighth, 332 ; 
 Richard Second, 335; Sonnet CXI.; Merchant of Venice, 
 342 ; Love's Labor 's Lost, 343 ; Richard Third, 343 ; Antony 
 and Cleopatra, 344; Richard Second, 344, 350; Third Part 
 of Henry Sixth, 344; First Part of Henry Fourth, 345; Ham- 
 let, 338, 346, 349 353 ; As You Like It, 347; Tempest, 347; 
 Macbeth, 348; King Lear, 349; Henry Fifth, 349; Sonnets 
 CXXXVIIL, CXLVI., 349. 
 
 SHEPARD AT NONANTUM, 223 ; again there, 232, 279. 
 
 SHIP FORTUNE, 25. 
 
 SHIPS ANNE AND LITTLE JAMES, 36. 
 
 SHIPS FOR MASSACHUSETTS, 72, 73. 
 
 SICKNESS AT PLYMOUTH, 15; care of the sick, 15. 
 
INDEX. 373 
 
 SIGNATURES TO THE COMPACT, 11. 
 
 SKELTON, SAMUEL, 73, 76; ordained, 80; life of, 77. 
 
 SMITH, HENRY, FROM WATERTOWN, 132. 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN NEW ENG- 
 LAND ; its charter, 236; its income, use of its funds, 237. 
 
 SPENSER, EDMUND, date of birth, 311; his scholarship, 312; his 
 friends, 312; his Shepherd's Calendar; Faery Queen, 312; 
 Protestant and Puritan, 312; contrast with Shakespeare, 331 ; 
 religious tone, 344. 
 
 SPRING IN PLYMOUTH, 17,19. 
 
 STANDISH, CAPT. MYLES; lands on Clark's Island, 13; appointed 
 captain, 17; marches into the Indian country, 22; advises 
 Gov. Bradford, 28 ; at Weymouth, 32 ; his library, 44, 309. 
 
 STODDARD, SOLOMON, 280, 283 ; his teaching, 290. 
 
 STOUGHTON, WILLIAM, ELECTION SERMON, 275. 
 
 STRATFORD ON AVON, 315; Trinity Church, Grammar School, 
 316; stronghold of the Puritans, 323. 
 
 STYLES, PRESIDENT, ON THE REVIVAL, 301. 
 
 SUCCESSORS OF EDWARDS, 303. 
 
 SUFFERING OF THE COLONISTS, 15, 79; mortality at Salem, 90; at 
 Charlestown, 92 ; some return to England, 93. 
 
 SUFFRAGE AT PLYMOUTH, 11,42,43. 
 
 TAUNTON, 49, 53, 280. 
 
 TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION, 105. 
 
 TENNYSON QUOTED, x. 
 
 TERMS MADE WITH THE CAPITALISTS, 6. 
 
 THANKSGIVING, THE FIRST, 24; Indians, 25. 
 
 THATCHED ROOFS, 15, 50. 
 
 THEATRE IN THE TIME OF SHAKESPEARE, 3^0 , his estimate of 
 
 it, 336. 
 
 THEOCRACY WANING IN POWER, 158. 
 THRIFT OF THE PURITANS, 99. 
 TISQUANTUM AT PLYMOUTH, 17; teaches the planters, 19; acts 
 
 as interpreter, 21 ; rescued from captivity, 22. 
 TOLERATION OF THE PILGRIMS, 57; toleration in Rhode Island, 
 
 167. 
 
 TOWNS IN NEW ENGLAND, in; no model in England: bounda- 
 ries, 112; powers of towns, 113; extension in new States; 
 germ of the Republic, 113. 
 
 TOWNS, INDIAN; names, 245 (note). 
 
 TRADE WITH THE INDIANS, 23. 
 
3 74 INDEX. 
 
 TRAININGS ON SATURDAYS, 108. 
 
 TRANSFER OF THE CHARTER^ OF MASSACHUSETTS, 85; a self- 
 governing colony, 86;^ Company agrees to transfer its charter, 
 87 ; reasons why the transfer was valid, 86. 
 
 UNDERBILL, CAPT. JOHN, 143. 
 
 UNDERTAKERS, THE ; method of paying debts, 42. 
 
 UNITARIANISM AND THE OLD ARMINIANISM, 303; opposition to 
 
 the Great Awakening, 304. 
 
 UNITED STATES, POPULATION FROM PURITANS, 145. 
 UNIVERSITY MEN, LARGE NUMBERS OF IN MASSACHUSETTS, 99. 
 
 VANE, HENRY, GOVERNOR, 114; favors Mrs. Hutchinson, 139; 
 sends Endicott against the Pequots, 142. 
 
 VATTEL ON THE JUSTICE OF DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS, 107. 
 
 VERMONT, EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN ; hindered by the Revolu- 
 tionary War, 198; settlers came from Connecticut and Massa- 
 chusetts, 199. 
 
 VIRGINIA, REQUIRED ATTENDANCE UPON PUBLIC WORSHIP, 150. 
 
 WABAN, 224 ; began to pray and teach, 230. 
 
 WALKER, DR. G. L., QUOTED, 277. 
 
 WALLEY, THOMAS, HIS ELECTION SERMON, 275. 
 
 WAMPAS, 230. 
 
 WAR, KING PHILIP'S, 261 ; results of the war, 262 ; towns de- 
 stroyed ; distrust of the Indians, 263 ; reasons for this distrust, 
 263; removal of Indians to Deer Island, 264; sufferings 
 there, 265 ; release at the end of the war, 265 ; the broken 
 spirit of the Indians, 265. 
 
 WARD, NATHANIEL, 149. 
 
 WATERTOWN SETTLED, 91 ; church formed, 97. 
 
 WESTMINSTER CONFESSION, ACCEPTED BY THE CAMBRIDGE 
 SYNOD, 160. 
 
 WESTON, THOMAS, 31. 
 
 WEYMOUTH, 32. 
 
 WHEELWRIGHT, A FOLLOWER OF MRS. HUTCHINSON, 138; 
 settles at Exeter, 140. 
 
 WHITE, REV. JOHN, 68; forms the Dorchester Adventurers, 68, 94. 
 
 WHITE, SUSANNA, MARRIED, 21. 
 
 WHITE, RICHARD GRANT, QUOTED, 328, 334, 337. 
 
 WHITEFIELD IN AMERICA, 298; age at that time, 299; testimony 
 of one who heard him, 299; preaches in Newport, Bristol, 
 
INDEX. 375 
 
 Boston, 299; Northampton, 300 ; results of his preaching; his 
 indiscretions, 300. 
 
 WHITMAN, SAMUEL, ELECTION SERMON, 275. 
 
 WIDFORD, ENGLAND, 210. 
 
 WILDE, THOMAS, 109. 
 
 WILLARD, PRESIDENT, QUOTED, 279. 
 
 WILLIAM AND MARY, 190 ; Provincial charter for Massachusetts, 
 190. 
 
 WILLIAMS, ROGER, ARRIVAL IN BOSTON, 126; his education and 
 early life, 126 ; a rigid Separatist ; opposition to Sunday laws, 
 127; preaches in Salem, in Plymouth, again in Salem, 127; 
 his banishment, 128; plants Providence, 128; his banishment 
 a mistake, 129; refuses to persecute the Quakers, 174. 
 
 WILSON, JOHN, 91; salary of, 94; pastor, 96; returns to the 
 colony, 109 ; at Nonaiitum, 223. 
 
 WINDSOR SETTLED BY THE PILGRIMS, 132; purchased by the 
 Puritan colonists, 132. 
 
 WINSLOW, Gov. EDWARD, MARRIES SUSANNA WHITE, 21 ; gives 
 an account of the colony, 24; visits Massasoit, 30, 31 ; one of 
 the capitalists, 41 ; sent to England by Massachusetts, 121, 
 164; agent of the colonies in England, 235 ; letter from Eliot, 
 238. 
 
 WINSLOW, JOHN, ARRIVES, 26. 
 
 WINTHROP, Gov. JOHN, 86 ; elected Governor, 87 ; history of, 88 ; 
 sails, 89 ; arrives in Salem, sends for provisions, 92 ; re-elected 
 Governor, 103; his library, 309. 
 
 WINTHROP, JOHN, JR., his library, 310. 
 
 WITCHCRAFT A COMMON SUPERSTITION, 176; Sir Matthew Hale, 
 Governor Winthrop, trials for witchcraft in England ; Con- 
 necticut; Massachusetts, 176; Salem witchcraft, 177; epi- 
 demic of folly and cruelty, 177; causes; numbers in jail, 
 178; trial by jury; twenty executed, 178. 
 
 WORD OF GOD TO BE THE LAW IN ABSENCE OF OTHER LAWS 
 IN CONNECTICUT, 134; in Quinnipiac, 136; rules for courts, 
 150. 
 
 WORDSWORTH'S REGARD FOR THE BIBLE, 344. 
 
 WORSHIP, SERVICES OF PUBLIC; PLYMOUTH, 48. Puritan 
 churches, 150. 
 
 YARMOUTH, 49, 53 ; Eliot at, 229. 
 

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