1655.] CROMWELL FAVORS NEW ENGLAND.

217

commonwealth was too wary to hazard its rights by merging them in the acts of a government of which the decline seemed approaching.

The Puritans of New England enjoyed the confidence of Cromwell throughout all the period of his success. They esteemed his battles the battles of the Lord; and "the spirits of the brethren were carried forth in faithful and affectionate prayers in his behalf;" but, at: the same time, they charged him to rule his spirit, rather than to storm cities. In return, he declared himself " truly ready to serve the brethren and the churches in America. The declaration was sincere; he left them independence, and favored their trade; he offered them, what they declined, new homes in Ireland and in Jamaica; and though they frequently thwarted his views, they never provoked his displeasure, or forfeited his regard.

Yet the Puritans of New England perceived that other revolutions were ripening; their vigilance was never lulled; their bigotry was cherished as the safeguard and the spirit of independence. The severe laws were sharpened against infidelity on the one hand, and sectarianism on the other; nor can it be denied, nor should it be concealed, that the elders, especially Wilson and Norton, instigated and sustained the government in its worst cruelties, till the inefficiency of bigot laws was made plain by the fearless resistance of a still more stubborn fanaticism.

Saltonstall wrote from Europe, that, but for their intolerance, the people of Massachusetts would have been "the eyes of God's people in England." The consistent Sir Henry Vane urged, that "the oppugners of the Congregational way should not, from its own principles and practice, be taught to root it out." "It were better," he added, "not to censure any persons for matters of a religious concernment." The elder Winthrop had professed himself weary of banishing heretics; the soul of the younger Winthrop was incapable of harboring a thought of intolerant cruelty; but the rugged Dudley

218 LAWS AGAINST IRRELIGION AND SECTARIANISM.

was not mellowed by old age. "God forbid," said he, our love for the truth should be grown so cold, that we should tolerate errors. I die no libertine." "Better tolerate hypocrites and tares than thorns and briers," affirmed Cotton. "Polypiety," echoed Ward, "is the greatest impiety in the world. To say that men ought to have liberty of conscience, is impious ignorance." "Religion," said the melancholic Norton, "admits of no eccentric motions." But the people did not share the passions of the elders, or wholly approve the policy into which the love of unity, so favorable to independence, had betrayed the leading men. The power of the civil magistrate in religious affairs was become the theme of perpetual discussion; and the force of established authority could scarcely sustain the doctrine of persecution. The popular tenets of Anabaptism made it a dangerous rival to the Establishment. The sect was proscribed, and its ministers arrested and fined, or scourged without mercy.

Since a particular form of worship had become a part of the civil establishment, irreligion was now to be punished as a civil offence. The state was a model of Christ's kingdom on earth; treason against the civil government was treason against Christ; and reciprocally, as the gospel had the right paramount, blasphemy, or what a jury should call blasphemy, was the highest offence in the catalogue of crimes. To deny any book of the Old or New Testament to be the written and infallible word of God, was punishable by fine or by stripes, and, in case of obstinacy, by exile or death. Absence from "the ministry of the word" was punished by a fine.

In 1653, the liberty of prophesying was refused, except the approbation of four elders, or of a county court, had been obtained; and at last, in 1658, the general court claimed for itself, for the council, and for any two organic churches, the right of silencing any person who was not as yet ordained. Thus was Laud justified by the men whom he had wronged.

But if the Baptists were feared, as professing doc

1656.] QUAKERS EXCLUDED FROM MASSACHUSETTS. 219

trines tending to disorganize society, how much more reason was there to dread such emissaries of the Quakers as appeared in Massachusetts !

The rise of "the people called Quakers" was one of the most remarkable results of the Protestant revolution. It was a consequence of the aspiration of the human mind after a perfect emancipation from the long reign of bigotry and superstition. It grew up with men who were impatient at the tardy advances of intellectual liberty. In the month of July, 1656, two of its members, Mary Fisher and Anne Austin, arrived in the road before Boston. There was as yet no statute respecting Quakers; but, on the general law against heresy, their trunks were searched, and their books burnt by the hangman; though no token could be found on them but of innocence," their persons were examined for signs of witchcraft; and, after five weeks' close imprisonment, they were thrust out of the jurisdiction. Eight others were, during the year, sent back to England. The rebuke enlarged the ambition of Mary Fisher; she repaired alone to Adrianople, and delivered a message to the grand sultan. The Turks thought her crazed, and she passed through their army "without hurt or scoff."

Yet the next year, although a special law now prohibited the introduction of Quakers, Mary Dyar, an Antinomian exile, and Anne Burden, came into the colony; the former was claimed by her husband, and taken to Rhode Island; the latter was sent to England. A woman who had come all the way from London, to warn the magistrates against persecution, was whipped with twenty stripes. Some, who had been banished, came a second time; they were imprisoned, whipped, and once more sent away, under penalty of further punishment, if they returned again. A fine was imposed on such as should entertain "of the accursed sect; " and a any Quaker, after the first conviction, was to lose one ear after the second, another after the third, to have the tongue bored with a red-hot iron. The order for mutilation was soon repealed, and was never printed. But

220

EXECUTION OF QUAKERS.

[1659.

this legislation was fruitful of results. Quakers swarmed where they were feared. They came expressly because they were not welcome; and threats were construed as invitations. In 1653, a penalty of ten shillings was imposed on every person for being present at a Quaker meeting, and of five pounds for speaking at such meeting. In the execution of the laws, the pride of consistency involved the magistrates in acts of extreme cruelty.

Banishment, on pain of death, was a menace familiar to the English statute-book; and precedents in its favor might be found not only in the acts of Elizabeth, but in the judgments of the Long Parliament. It had already been applied, in Massachusetts, against Jesuits. By the advice of the commissioners for the United Colonies; from which the younger Winthrop alone had dissented, the general court, after much resistance, and by a majority of but a single vote, banished Quakers on pain of death. "For the security of the flock," said Norton, "we pen up the wolf; but a door is purposely left open whereby he may depart at his pleasure." Vain legislation! and frivolous apology! The soul, by its freedom and immortality, preserves its convictions or its frenzies even in death.

In September, 1659, of four persons, ordered to depart the jurisdiction on pain of death, Mary Dyar, a firm disciple of Anne Hutchinson, whose exile she had shared, and Nicholas Davis, obeyed. Marmaduke Stephenson and William Robinson had come on purpose to offer their lives; instead of departing, they went from place to place to build up their friends in the faith." In October, Mary Dyar returned. Thus there were three persons arraigned on the sanguinary law. Robinson pleaded in his defence the special message and command of God. "Blessed be God, who calls me to testify against wicked and unjust men." Stephenson refused to speak till sentence had been pronounced; and then he imprecated a curse on his judges. Mary Dyar exclaimed, "The will of the Lord be done!" and returned to the prison "full of joy." From the jail she

1659.]

FIRMNESS OF WENLOCK CHRISTISON.

221

wrote a remonstrance. "Were ever such laws heard of among a people that profess Christ come in the flesh? Have you no other weapons but such laws to fight against spiritual wickedness withal, as you call it? Woe is me for you! Ye are disobedient and deceived." The three were led forth to execution. "I die for Christ," said Robinson. “We suffer not as evil-doers, but for conscience' sake," were the last words of his companion. Mary Dyar was reprieved; yet not till the rope had been fastened round her neck, and she had prepared herself for death. Transported with enthusiasm, she exclaimed, "Let me suffer as my brethren, unless you will annul your wicked law!" She was conveyed out of the colony; but, soon returning, she also was hanged on Boston common, a willing martyr to liberty of conscience. "We desired their lives absent, rather than their deaths present," was the miserable apology for these proceedings.

These cruelties excited great discontent. Yet William Leddra was put upon trial for the same causes. While the trial was proceeding, Wenlock Christison, already banished on pain of death, entered the court, and struck dismay into the judges, who found their severities ineffectual. Leddra was desired to accept his life, on condition of promising to come no more within the jurisdiction. He refused, and was hanged.

Christison addressed his persecutors with undaunted courage. "Can you make laws repugnant to those of England?" "No." "Then you are gone beyond your bounds. Your heart is as rotten towards the king as towards God. I demand to be tried by the laws of England, and there is no law there to hang Quakers." "The English banish Jesuits on pain of death," it was answered, "and with equal justice we may banish Quakers." The jury returned a verdict of guilty. Wenlock replied, “I deny all guilt; my conscience is clear before God." The magistrates were divided in pronouncing sentence; Endicot fretted at their wavering, and on a second vote there appeared a majority for the doom of death.

"What